Leeds Playlist Choice - Poetical Playlist

Poetry Challenge 2013

Here at Leeds Book Club, we're always looking for new poems and poets...well I say we...me mostly. 

This year, we've invited our friends from the blog and tweet sphere to share their favourite poems. 

Hope that you enjoy these!

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Huge thanks to Leeds Playlist for putting together the following for us to enjoy in celebration of it's One Year Anniversary!

Poetic Lyrics Playlist for Leeds Book Club

My submission to Leeds Book Club’s poetry challenge is a playlist of 10 songs whose lyrics read like poetry to me. There are a million I could choose from, but I finally managed to get it down to this shortlist because the words struck me upon my first listen to the songs.

These are all artists who are well known for their own particula style of songwriting. I’ve chosen a real mix, with moments of self acceptance, bitterness, obsession, tragedy, passion and wisdom
gained from life experiences all being explored. Hope you like them too!


Spotify embed code:



1. LCD Soundsystem – I Can Change – 

A desperate yearning for love, even though you know it can hurt

And love is a murderer, love is a murderer / 

But if she calls you tonight / 

Everything is all right/ 

Yeah, we know And love is a curse shoved in a hearse/ 

Love is an open book to a verse of your bad poetry/
And this is coming from me/
But I can change, I can change, I can change, I can change / 

I can change, I can change, I can change/ 

If it helps you fall in love

2. Manic Street Preachers – A Design For Life – 

Nicky Wire’s lyrics about the class divide and the stereotypes associated to the welfare system.

Libraries gave us power/ 

Then work came and made us free/ 

What price now for a shallow piece of dignity
I wish I had a bottle/ 

Right here in my dirty face, to wear the scars/ 

To show from where I came
We don't talk about love we only want to get drunk/ 

And we are not allowed to spend/ 

As we are told that this is the end

3. Corinne Bailey Rae – Like a Star – 

The imperfect reality of love

You've got this look I can't describe / 

You make me feel I'm alive/ 

When everything else is au fait/ 

Without a doubt you're on my side/ 

Heaven has been away too long/ 

Can't find the words to write this song/ 

Oh, you're lovely.

Still I wonder why it is/ 

I don't argue like this/

With anyone but you/ 

You do it all the time/
Blowing out my mind.

4. Amy Winehouse – Wake Up Alone – 

She sings a tragic song excruciatingly well. Love the descriptive language here.

This face in my dreams seizes my guts/ 

He floods me with dread/ 

Soaked in soul/ 

He swims in my eyes by the bed /

Pour myself over him/ 

Moon spilling in/ 

And I wake up alone

5. Of Montreal – The Past Is A Grotesque Animal – 

I don’t know how to explain this song apart from that it is so wonderfully bizarre the 11 minutes fly by because it has so many twists and turns – just go with it.

Somehow you've red-rovered/

The Gestapo circling my heart/

And nothing can defeat you 

No death, no ugly world/ 

You've lived so brightly/ 

You've altered everything

I find myself/ 

Searching for old selves/ 

While speeding forward/ 

Through the plate glass of maturing cells

I played the unraveler/

The parhelion/

But even apocalypse is fleeting/ 

There's no death, no ugly world/ 

Sometimes I wonder if you're mythologizing me/ 

Like I do you/

Mythologizing me
like I do you

6. Alanis Morissette – You Learn – 

I agree with the sentiment of this song entirely. You live,
you learn, and the experience just makes you stronger and wise.

I recommend getting your heart trampled on to anyone/ 

I recommend walking around naked in your living room/ 

Swallow it down (what a jagged little pill)/ 

It feels so good(swimming in your stomach)/ 

Wait until the dust settles

You live you learn/ 

You love you learn/ 

You cry you learn/ 

You lose you learn/ 

You bleed you learn/ 

You scream you learn

7. India.Arie – Video – 

I think this is one of the best opening lines I’ve ever heard.

Sometimes I shave my legs and sometimes I don’t/ 

Sometimes I comb my hair and sometimes I won’t/ 

Depend of how the wind blows I might even paint my toes/ 

It really just depends on whatever feels good in my soul

I’m not the average girl from your video/ 

And I ain’t built like a supermodel/ 

But I learned to love myself unconditionally/ 

Because I am a queen

I’m not the average girl from your video/ 

My worth is not determined by the price of my clothes/ 

No matter what I’m wearing I will always be/ 

The India Arie

8. Pulp – Something Changed – 

Jarvis beautifully describing that life changing moment in an
ordinary day where chemistry strikes and a romance is born.

I wrote the song two hours before we met/ 

I didn't know your name or what you looked like yet/ 

Oh I could have stayed at home and gone to bed/ 

I could have gone to see a film instead/ 

You might have changed your mind and seen your friends/

Life could have been very different then, but something changed.

9. The Smiths – I Know It's Over – 

Morrissey is the king of melancholy lyrics, with a humorous
edge. Comparing breaking up to being buried – brilliantly dark.

And I know it's over/ 

Still I cling/ 

I don't know where else I can go/ 

It's over, it's over, it's over

I know it's over/ 

And it never really began/ 

But in my heart it was so real/ 

And you even spoke to me and said: "If you're so funny/ 

Then why are you on your own tonight?/ 

And if you're so clever/ 

Then why are you on your own tonight?/ 

If you're so very entertaining/
Then why are you on your own tonight?

10. Leonard Cohen – I'm Your Man – 

Obsessive, submissive, creepy and outstanding.

If you want a boxer / 

I will step into the ring for you/ 

And if you want a doctor/ 

I'll examine every inch of you/ 

If you want a driver/ 

Climb inside/ 

Or if you want to take me for a ride/
You know you can/I'm your man

Ah, the moon's too bright/ 

The chain's too tight/ 

The beast won't go to sleep/ 

I've been running through these promises to you/ 

That I made and I could not keep/

Ah but a man never got a woman back /

Not by begging on his knees /

Or I'd crawl to you baby /

And I'd fall at your feet /

And I'd howl at your beauty /

Like a dog in heat /

And I'd claw at your heart /

And I'd tear at your sheet /

I'd say please, please /

I'm your man

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Find our more about Leeds Playlist HERE and say hi on Twitter @LeedsPlaylist.

Leeds Book Club and it's members have contributed a few playlists and I can honestly say that I rarely have more fun than when I'm obsessing over my tunes, wondering what to include in the latest, listening to my fellow Loiners selections!

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If you's like to see your choice posted as part of this series, have a read of THIS then please contact me either at 

leedsbookclub@gmail.com 

or via twitter (@leedsbookclub) 

or via our facebook page. 

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Table of Contents - A Poetry Moment

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Table of Contents - Full

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