Ever need a fact or quotation relating to songs and lyrics? Designed for speechwriters, journalists, writers, researchers, students, professors, teachers, historians, academics, scrapbookers, trivia buffs and word lovers, this book represents the largest compilation of anything relating to “songs and lyrics,” with a linguistic emphasis on non-conventional usage and alternative meanings which capture ambiguities. The entries cover all parts of speech (noun, verb, adverb or adjective usage) as well as use in modern slang, pop culture, social sciences (linguistics, history, geography, economics, sociology, political science), business, computer science, literature, law, medicine, psychology, mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology and other physical sciences. This “data dump” results in many unexpected examples for songs and lyrics, since the editorial decision to include or exclude terms is purely a linguistic process. The resulting entries are used under license or with permission, used under “fair use” conditions, used in agreement with the original authors, or are in the public domain. Proceeds from this book are used to expand the content and coverage of Webster’s Online Dictionary (www.websters-online-dictionary.org).

Familiar Quotations

Songs

Define irony. A bunch of guys dancing around on a plane to a song made famous by a band who died in a plane crash.–Con Air

My life has been one great big joke, a dance that's walked a song that's spoke, I laugh so hard I almost choke when I think about myself.–Maya Angelou

A brook would lose its song if God removed the rocks.–Anonymous

I can still hear the song of your laughter.–Anonymous

It seems to me that those songs that have been any good, I have nothing much to do with the writing of them. The words have just crawled down my sleeve and come out on the page.–Joan Baez

What is the price of experience? Do men buy it for a song? Or wisdom for a dance in the street? No, it is bought with the price of all the man hath, his house, his wife, his children.–William Blake

A well composed song or ballad strikes the mind, and softens the feelings, and produces a greater effect than a moral work, which convinces our reason but does not warm our feelings or effect the slightest alteration of our habits.–Napoleon Bonaparte

It's a marvelous feeling when someone says ''I want to do this song of yours'' because they've connected to it. That's what I'm after.–Mary Chapin Carpenter

History repeats itself, but the special call of an art which has passed away is never reproduced. It is as utterly gone out of the world as the song of a destroyed wild bird.–Joseph Conrad

A man in a really nice camper wants to put our song on the radio. Give me the pen, I'm sighning, you're sighning, we're all sighning.–That Thing You Do!

• Preface ix
• Familiar Quotations 1
• Songs 1
• Songs – "Air" 3
• Songs – "Laying" 3
• Songs – "Love" 4
• Songs – "Sing" 4
• Songs – "Singing" 5
• Songs – "Strains" 5
• Lyrics 5
• Use in Literature 6
• Songs 6
• Songs – "Above" 22
• Songs – "Approached" 22
• Songs – "Beauty" 23
• Songs – "Beginning" 24
• Songs – "Being" 25
• Songs – "Birds" 25
• Songs – "Burden" 30
• Songs – "Bursts" 30
• Songs – "Bush" 31
• Songs – "Camp" 32
• Songs – "Carrying" 32
• Songs – "Children" 33
• Songs – "Chorus" 33
• Songs – "Closed" 34
• Songs – "Came" 34
• Songs – "Country" 37
• Songs – "Dances" 38
• Songs – "Day" 40
• Songs – "Different" 41
• Songs – "Distance" 42
• Songs – "Done" 42
• Songs – "Drinking" 43
• Songs – "Died" 44
• Songs – "Early" 44
• Songs – "Echoing" 45
• Songs – "Effects" 45
• Songs – "End" 46
• Songs – "Evening" 47
• Songs – "Eyes" 48
• Songs – "Falling" 49
• Songs – "Far" 49
• Songs – "Father" 50
• Songs – "Favorable" 51
• Songs – "Feet" 51
• Songs – "Felt" 52
• Songs – "Few" 52
• Songs – "Finished" 53
• Songs – "Fires" 54
• Songs – "Flowers" 54
• Songs – "Followed" 55
• Songs – "Found" 56
• Songs – "Full" 56
• Songs – "Gay" 58
• Songs – "God" 58
• Songs – "Going" 58
• Songs – "Gone" 59
• Songs – "Great" 60
• Songs – "Hand" 61
• Songs – "Happiness" 62
• Songs – "Having" 63
• Songs – "Heard" 63
• Songs – "Heart" 67
• Songs – "Humming" 69
• Songs – "Jest" 70
• Songs – "Joy" 70
• Songs – "Kept" 71
• Songs – "Kind" 71
• Songs – "Large" 71
• Songs – "Lark" 72
• Songs – "Laughter" 72
• Songs – "Learned" 73
• Songs – "Leaves" 74
• Songs – "Life" 75
• Songs – "Line" 76
• Songs – "Listen" 77
• Songs – "Little" 78
• Songs – "Looked" 81
• Songs – "Loud" 82
• Songs – "Loved" 83
• Songs – "Made" 83
• Songs – "Men" 86
• Songs – "Master" 89
• Songs – "Minstrel" 89
• Songs – "Moment" 89
• Songs – "Morning" 90
• Songs – "Mother" 91
• Songs – "Music" 92
• Songs – "Name" 94
• Songs – "Near" 94
• Songs – "Night" 95
• Songs – "Nightingale" 96
• Songs – "Nothing" 96
• Songs – "Old" 97
• Songs – "Once" 99
• Songs – "Open" 101
• Songs – "Others" 101
• Songs – "Pass" 102
• Songs – "People" 102
• Songs – "Perfectly" 103
• Songs – "Placed" 103
• Songs – "Play" 104
• Songs – "Pleasant" 105
• Songs – "Pray" 105
• Songs – "Real" 106
• Songs – "Return" 106
• Songs – "River" 107
• Songs – "Rose" 108
• Songs – "Running" 108
• Songs – "Sad" 109
• Songs – "Scene" 110
• Songs – "Season" 110
• Songs – "Second" 110
• Songs – "Served" 111
• Songs – "Shall" 111
• Songs – "Shouts" 112
• Songs – "Silent" 112
• Songs – "Simple" 113
• Songs – "Snatches" 114
• Songs – "Soft" 115
• Songs – "Soon" 115
• Songs – "Soul" 116
• Songs – "Sound" 117
• Songs – "Spoke" 119
• Songs – "Spirit" 120
• Songs – "Spring" 120
• Songs – "Stepping" 121
• Songs – "Strange" 122
• Songs – "Street" 123
• Songs – "Strong" 124
• Songs – "Sweeter" 124
• Songs – "Taught" 125
• Songs – "Thing" 126
• Songs – "Think" 127
• Songs – "Thus" 128
• Songs – "Times" 129
• Songs – "Tired" 130
• Songs – "Touched" 130
• Songs – "True" 131
• Songs – "Voice" 132
• Songs – "Walking" 136
• Songs – "Warm" 136
• Songs – "Water" 136
• Songs – "Waved" 137
• Songs – "Whistling" 138
• Songs – "Wild" 138
• Songs – "Wind" 139
• Songs – "Women" 140
• Songs – "Wonders" 140
• Songs – "Woods" 141
• Songs – "Words" 141
• Songs – "Work" 143
• Songs – "World" 144
• Songs – "Wrote" 145
• Songs – "Years" 145
• Songs – "Young" 146
• Lyrics 147
• Lyrics – "Century" 151
• Lyrics – "Character" 152
• Lyrics – "Dramatic" 152
• Lyrics – "Emotion" 153
• Lyrics – "Epic" 153
• Lyrics – "Forms" 154
• Lyrics – "Lady" 154
• Lyrics – "Musical" 155
• Lyrics – "Personal" 156
• Lyrics – "Poet" 156
• Lyrics – "Poetry" 157
• Nonfiction Usage 159
• Lyrical Usage 159
• Script Usage 159
• Tongue-Twister Usage 160
• Spoken Usage 160
• Song Title Usage 161
• Bible Usage 161
• Journalism Usage 162
• Encyclopedic Usage 377
• Lexicographic Usage 491
• Index 613