69 love songs - the magnetic fields

- a set of three albums.
- total of 69 songs in all.
- by the group "the magnetic fields".
- released in the year 1999.
- frontman stephen merritt.
- one of my all time favorites.
- read pitchfork review here.
- see list of all songs here.



posting select lyrics of some of the songs i like:

Acoustic Guitar,
You can have your own car,
Just bring me back my girl
She always loved the sound of your strum
You made her think, maybe, I wasn't so dumb
She tends to faint at the sound of a drumb
Cuz she's focused and planned, maybe she'll come
So bring me back my girl
You'd better bring me back my girl.

I've seen you laugh at nothing at all
I've seen you sadly weeping
The sweetest thing I ever saw
Was you asleep and dreaming
Well you may not be beautiful
But it's not for me to judge
I don't know if you're beautiful
Because I love you too much
I've seen you laugh at nothing at all
I've seen you sadly weeping
The sweetest thing I ever saw
Was you asleep and dreaming.

A pretty girl is like a minstrel show
It makes you laugh, it makes you cry you go
It just isn't the same on radio
It's all about the makeup and the dancing and the Oh,
A pretty girl is like a violent crime
If you do it wrong you could do time
But if you do it right it is sublime
I'm so in love with you, girl,
It's like I'm on the moon
I can't really breathe, but I feel lighter
A melody is like a pretty girl
Who cares if it's the dumbest in the world
It's all about the way that it unfurls
A pretty girl is like a pretty girl.

All the things I knew I didn't know and didn't want to know
That you told me just to tell me later that you'd told me so
Come flooding back to me now
Come on Come flooding back to me now
All the things you said you'd never say and you said anyway
The things we did and didn't do The things we did and didn't do
Come flooding back to me now

How fucking romantic
All the stars are out
Twinkling twinkling twinkling
And fluttering about
What a tacky sunset
What a vulgar moon
Play another charming
Rogers and hart tune
How fucking romantic
Must we really waltz?
Drag another cliche
Howling from the vaults
Love you obviously
Like you really care
Even though you treat me
Like a dancing bear.

A single rose in your garden dwells
Like any rose it's not itself
It is my love in your garden grows
but let's pretend it's just a rose
Well I'm sorry that I love you
It's a phase that I'm going through
There is nothing that I can do
And I'm sorry that I love you
Do not listen to my song
Don't remember it, don't sing along
Let's pretend it's a work of art
Let's pretend it's not my heart...
The rose will fade when summer's gone
The song will fade and I'll be gone
Because my heart is dying too
And it's all the same to you.

I don't want to get over you
I guess I could take a sleeping pill and sleep at will
And not have to go through what I go through.
I guess I should take Prozac, right,
And just smile all night at somebody new,
Somebody not too bright but sweet and kind
Who would try to get you off my mind.
I could leave this agony behind
Which is just what I'd do if I wanted to,
But I don't want to get over you
Cause I don't want to get over love.

You wanna know if we fell in love too fast
You wanna know if this is well too good to last
You're asking the wrong questions
You're opening the wrong doors
I love you, I can't touch you anymore
I can't touch you anymore, there's so much to hate you for
I love you, I can't touch you anymore...

Don't fall in love with me yet
We only recently met
True I'm in love with you but
You might decide I'm a nut
Give me a week or two to
Go absolutley cuckoo
Then, when you see your error,
Then, you can flee in terror
Like everybody else does
I only tell you this cause
I'm easy to get rid of
But not if you fall in love
Know now that I'm on the make
And if you make a mistake
My heart will certainly break
I'll have to jump in a lake
And all my friends will blame you
There's no telling what they'll do
It's only fair to tell you
I'm absolutely cuckoo.

Bitter tears keep me going
Through the years, freely flowing
What have you done
Only a gun could stop these bitter tears
The endless streets I walk along
You made them seem pretty
But no I dress in country songs
And wake in New York City...
I cry because it looks so good
I cry, why not, it's free
And there's nothing more interesting
Than crying constantly...

Love is like jazz you make it up as you go along
And you act as if you really know the song
But you don't and you never will
So you flaunt your mistakes and
You make them until they were you
Love is like jazz the same song
A million times in different ways
"Strange Fruit" with and without wind chimes
It's divine it's asinine it's depressing
And it's almost entirely window dressing
But it'll do.

The way you say good-night
I dream of all day long
Oh, I could write a song
About the way you say good-night...

They say there's a sun in the sky
But me, I can't imagine why
There might have been one
Before you were gone
But now all I see is the night, so
I don't believe in the sun
How could it shine down on everyone
And never shine on me
How could there be such cruelty.
The only sun I ever knew
Was the beautiful one that was you
Since you went away
It's night time all day
And it's usually raining too...

You are a splendid butterfly
It is your wings that make you beautiful
And I could make you fly away
But I could never make you stay
You said you were in love with me
Both of us know that that's impossible
And I could make you rue the day
But I could never make you stay
Not for all the tea in China
Not if I could sing like a bird
Not for all North Carolina
Not for all my little words
Not if I could write for you
The sweetest song you ever heard
It doesn't matter what I'll do
Not for all my little words
Now that you've made me want to die
You tell me that you're unboyfriendable
And I could make you pay and pay
But I could never make you stay.

Let's pretend we're bunny rabbits
Let's do it all day long
Rapidly becoming rabid
Singing little rabbit songs
I can keep it up all night
I can keep it up all day
Let's pretend we're bunny rabbits
Until we pass away.

Dance with me my old friend once before we go
Let's pretend this song won't end
And we never have to go home
And we'll dance among the chandeliers
And nothing matters when we're dancing
In tat or tatters you're entrancing
Be we in Paris or in Lansing
Nothing matters when we're dancing
You've never been more beautiful
Your eyes like two full moons
Than here in this poor old dancehall
Among the dreadful tunes the awful songs
We don't even hear...

The book of love is long and boring
No one can lift the damn thing
It's full of charts and facts and figures
And instructions for dancing
But I I love it when you read to me
And you you can read me anything
The book of love has music in it
In fact that's where music comes from
Some of it is just transcendental
Some of it is just really dumb but I
I love it when you sing to me
And you you can sing me anything
The book of love is long and boring
And written very long ago
It's full of flowers and heart-shaped boxes
And things we're all too young to know
But I I love it when you give me things and you
You ought to give me wedding rings.

Come back from San Francisco
It can't be all that pretty,
When all of New York City misses you.
Should pretty boys in discos distract you from your novel,
Remember I'm awful in love with you.
You need me like the wind needs the trees to blow in.
Like the moon needs poetry, you need me.
Come back from San Francisco and kiss me; I've quit smoking.
I miss doing the wild thing with you.
Will you stay? I don't think so,
But all I do is worry, pack bags, call cabs, and hurry home to me.
When you betray me, betray me with a kiss.
Damn you. I've never stayed up as late as this.

Before you left your garrison
You'd had a drink, maybe two
You don't remember Paris, hon
But it remembers you
It's true, we flew to Paris, dear
Aboard an Army jet
The night you can't remember
The night I can't forget
You said I was terrific, it
Meant zilch to you, ah, but I
Have our marriage certificate 'n
I'll keep it till I die
You were an Army officer
And I just a Rockette
The night you can't remember
The night I can't forget
No rose conveyed your sentiments
Not even a petunia
But you've got vague presentiments
And I've got little Junior
You said, Nobody loves me
And I said, wanna bet?
The night you can't remember
The night I can't forget.

A pretty girl in her underwear
A pretty girl in her underwear
If there's anything better in this world
Who cares
La mort, c'est la mort
Mais l'amour, c'est l'amour...

Meaningless
You mean it's all been meaningless?
Every whisper and caress?
Yes yes yes it was totally meaningless
Meaningless
Like when two fireflies flouresce
Just like everything I guess
Less less yes, it was utterly meaningless
Even less
A little glimpse of nothingness
Sucking meaning from the
Rest of this mess
Yes yes yes it was thoroughly meaningless
And if some dim bulb should say
We were in love in some way
Kick all his teeth in for me
And if you feel like keeping on kicking,
Feel free.

Andy would bicycle across town in the rain to bring you candy
And John would buy the gown for you to wear to the prom
With Tom the astronomer who'd name a star for you
But I'm the luckiest guy on the lower east side
Cause I've got wheels and you want to go for a ride.

Love can kill people, can't it
Well it still might kill me
Each drop of rain
Is a glass of champagne
It's sweet and it's free
When I drink I don't panic
When I drink I don't die
When I'm far gone
It's all just a song
Just beautiful lies...
But my sentimental melody
Like a long-lost lullabye
Will ring in your ears
Down through the years
Bringing a tear to your eye
Goodbye.

He is my lord, he is my saviour
And he rewards my good behavior
My secret soul, I know he's seen it
He says, come here baby and
Kiss me like you mean it
He calls me baby, says kiss me like you mean it
He is my life and my salvation
He's always right, he's always patient
I pinch myself it's like I'm dreaming it
He is my love, He's always been it...

I will stay if you let me stay and I'll go if you let go but I won't go far away
Because you're my only home I will hide what you want hidden and
I'll roam if you say roam but I'd just as soon you didn't because you're my only home
When you cancel dinner plans when you cross the street and you don't take my hand
When you make impossible demands I wish I didn't understand, but...

There are two kinds of people:
a) my love and I
b) other
Two kinds of people:
1) the gray and
2) me and my love
All people fall into two camps
That ever twain shall be:
Those lost in darkness without lamps,
And then,
My love and me...

The cactus where your heart should be
Has lovely little flowers
So though it's always pricking me
My ardor never sours
The cactus where your heart once was
Has power to rend and flay
I stick because I'm stuck
Because I just can't tear myself away.

Let this be the epitaph for my heart cupid put too much poison in the dart
This is the epitaph for my heart because it's gone, gone gone
And life goes on and on and on and death goes on, world without end
And you're not my friend who will mourn the passing of my heart.