Running With Quills, Blogsite for Jayne Ann Krentz, Elizabeth Lowell, Stella Cameron, and Suzanne Simmons
Susan Andersen
Suzanne Simmons



Stella Cameron
Stella Cameron




Lori Foster
Suzanne Simmons



Jayne Ann Krentz
Jayne Ann Krentz




Elizabeth Lowell
Elizabeth Lowell




Suzanne Simmons
Suzanne Simmons






Welcome to Running With Quills, your online newsletter designed to keep you up to date with what your favorite authors (that would be us) are doing throughout the year. Here you will find the release dates of our new books and get information about our backlists. We'll preview our cover art here long before the books hit the stores and we'll keep you informed about works-in-progress and special projects. You'll also receive advance notice of signings and appearances. From time to time we'll give you a peek at our worlds, tell you what we're reading, and introduce you to some new authors.

Sunday, May 06, 2007

"I LOVE YOU LIKE A FAT KID LOVES CAKE"


That line got my attention. In fact, I read it and fell over my dog.

What followed was a piece on memorable titles of, or phrases and verses from songs. Now I can’t stop noticing the dumb things people sing:


"There were plants
And birds
And rocks
And things."


Really?


"Time is like a clock in my heart."

Isn’t that sweet?



I get lines stuck in my head. "I like my women on the sleazy side," has never left me. The words were belted out from a bar in Nashville and I was gob-stopped (translations always available on request). If I’d had a dog with me, I’d have fallen over her. . . or him.


Don’t get on my case about the next one. There are no obscene four-letter words. Honestly there aren’t:

"I ain’t never seen
An ass like that
The way you move it
You make my pee-pee go
‘Doing-doing-doing.’"


No further comment, although it does lead nicely into:


"Your butt is mine"


However:


"I don’t like cities
But I like New York
Other places
Make me feel like a dork."


Rat-a-tat-tat.


And there’s some bleepin’ comin’ up:


"Young, black and famous
With money hangin’
Out the a- -s"


That one rhymes–sort of.


I can’t stop, I can’t, I can’t...


"There’s an insect
In your ear
If your scratch
It won’t disappear
"


Someone stop me--please:

"Lucky that my breasts
Are small and humble
So you don’t confuse
Them with mountains"



Cissy added:


"I love you
Like rats love rice"


Followed by her very own title:

A SLICE OF CAKE, A SLEAZY WOMAN AND A RAT SHOULD DO IT.


That’s it. "I love you like a fat kid loves cake," seems quite appealing now. I’ll close with:

"Coast to coast
L.A. to Chicago"


Stella


Please don’t hold back. Share your musical gems with us. All comments and suggestions are welcome:)


47 Comments:

Blogger susan andersen said...

Hey, do rahn, rahn, rahn,
hey do rahn, rahn

or

Marezydoats and doezydoats and little AMZydivey. (Mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy)

Just my 2 cents. *G*

11:10 PM  
Blogger Lori Foster said...

Hey Stella, too funny!
You know, my full name is Loretta, although only my husband calls me that. Well, waaaay back in high school, I was the only female in a screenprinting class, and the guys used to bring in their "boom boxes" (do we all remember those?) and play this hillbilly song. I remember very little except:
"Hey Loretta, I love ya more than my Irish Setter.
Hey Loretta, don't leave me alooone."
:-)

I love lyrics, even when they don't make sense.

Lori

5:16 AM  
Blogger Lynn said...

Thanks for the early morning chuckle. I love song lyrics, especially because someone, somewhere, thought "yes! that's exactly right!"

Here's a bit more of Trashy Women from Confederate Railroad:

"I like my women just a little on the trashy side,
When they wear their clothes too tight and their hair is dyed.
Too much lipstick and too much rouge,
Gets me excited, leaves me feeling confused.
(oh) I like my women just a little on the trashy side."


Guess it's okay my slacks are a bit snug this morning (tee-hee).

5:49 AM  
Anonymous AgTigress said...

No, no, Susan, you mustn't make fun of the Crystals! :-)

Anyway, da do ron ron (or, in some lines, actually, 'da doora oora oora oora oo da do ron ron') form a refrain or chorus, rather than part of the actual lyric: this sort of thing has an ancient and respectable history in English poetry: what about 'hey nonny nonny'?

Stella, the rich and chaotic swirl of improbable lines surging around in your fertile brain must take a lot of handling! No wonder you trip over the dog.

:-)

5:51 AM  
Anonymous Garnigal said...

As soon as I saw "I like my women a little on the sleazy side" I knew it had to be country music. The lyrics, especially for the funny songs, are what attract me to the genre. For example, Hold my Beer (while I kiss your girlfriend).

I also like musical comediens, such as The Arrogant Worms (they're Canadian). Their songs include "Carrot Juice is Murder", "I am Cow", and "Mounted Animal Nature Trail" which requires that audience to provide the sounds of the animals. :)

8:16 AM  
Blogger Elizabeth Guest said...

This no doubt explains why I prefer to listen to music without lyrics. :-) Once those ditties get into your head, it's tough to expunge them.

~A smiling EG

8:29 AM  
Blogger elizabeth said...

SHA NAH NAH

'nuff said.

9:31 AM  
Blogger Chelle said...

I usually lurk, but couldn't pass this one up:

I'd like to see you out in the moonlight.
I'd like to kiss you way back in the sticks
I'd like to walk you through a field of wild flowers.

...And I'd like to check you for ticks.

--Brad Paisley "Ticks"

Cracks me up everytime.

Chelle

9:36 AM  
Anonymous trish said...

Could I drink you a buy
Oh listen to me
What I mean is can I buy you a drink

The Chair-George Strait

LOL I love that song

2:00 PM  
Blogger DFender said...

Stella, whatta riot!

Does anyone else's husband... or even friends... make up dirty/naughty words to existing songs and sing 'em at the top of their lungs? LOL. The HHP and his best friend do that. They're very mature.

Two of my favorite lyrics, both relatively current tunes.

Another Friday night,
this place is so pathetic.
These pretty boys are more made up than me.
They got color in their hair.
Nobody's drinkin' beer,
'cause they're too concerned about 100 calories.

Cowboys, Sarah Buxton

'Cause we all just wanna be big rockstars and
Live in hilltop houses driving fifteen cars
The girls come easy and the drugs come cheap
We'll all stay skinny 'cause we just won't eat
we'll hang out in the coolest bars
in the VIP with the movie stars
Every good gold digger's
Gonna wind up here
Every Playboy bunny
With her bleach blonde hair


Rockstar, Nickelback

Thanks for the giggles! ;-)

Deb

3:05 PM  
Anonymous trish said...

yep Deb, but most of the time it is so hilarious it becomes less offensive

5:18 PM  
Blogger Stella said...

Susan:

Marezydoats and doezydoats and little AMZydivey. (Mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy)

You're kidding! I remember that little ditty but never knew about mares and does and lambs. Cute.

Stella

5:51 PM  
Blogger Stella said...

I love you better than an Irish Setter.

Lori: At least you have absolutely no resemblance to an Irish Setter:) I do get a kick out of Country lyrics it's just that one or two tend to roll around my brain a bit too long.

Stella

5:52 PM  
Blogger Stella said...

Hey Lynn! Thanks so much for the expanded song. I'm still sure what I heard was sleazy, but who cares? It's a great song and I think the lady who illustrates the type is perfect.

Stella

5:54 PM  
Blogger Brandy said...

Not music titles but have you ever read the titles (and the books were good too): I still miss my man, but my aim is getting better, Since You're leaving anyway take out the trash, and I gave you my heart, but you sold it online.

As for music titles I still remember a song my parents would sing to me when I was little when we were joking around: One-eyed, one (something) flying purple people eater. AND the one about "does your chewing gum lose it's flavor on the bedpost overnight?"
I'm starting to think my parents were weird! *g*

6:25 PM  
Blogger Brandy said...

OH! And when I was little I LOVED Sha Na Na!

6:25 PM  
Blogger Stella said...

Brandy: You bet I remember the Purple People Eater. And as a kid I knew all the words to "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor On the Bedpost Overnight?" If your mother says don't chew it? Do you swallow it in fright? Do you catch it on your tonsils? And heave it left and right, Does your chewingum...

Which makes me think of:

I'm a pink tooth brush
You're a blue tooth brush
Won't you marry me in haste?
I'll be true, tooth brush
True to you, tooth brush
And we'll both use the same toothpaste
That 'orrible green stuff.

Stella

6:53 PM  
Blogger Stella said...

Tigress: The moment I read "hey nonny, nonny," I hear Emma Thompson reading the words.

You have no idea how long it took me to translate the words Jean Redpath was singing in "Lassie wi' the yallew coatie."

Cheers, Stella

6:56 PM  
Anonymous Ranurgis said...

For once, I'm almost commentless.

I knew there was a reason I prefer classical orchestral music.

7:29 PM  
Blogger Stella said...

Garnigal: Hold My Beer (while I kiss your girlfriend) is a worthy addition. I'm loving all these great lines. Stella

8:45 PM  
Blogger Stella said...

Why did you have to mention Sha Nah Nah, EL, now the thing has taken hold. I may need to scotch tape my mouth shut. Yes, indeedy, many might consider that an excellent idea.

Stella

8:46 PM  
Blogger Stella said...

Chelle: Thank you for coming forward! Ticks, now that's really nice. Stella

8:47 PM  
Blogger karende said...

I'm not much for remembering lyrics, but sometimes bits of them or certain groups stick in what passes for my mind.

The Pointer Sisters: I need a man with a slow hand, one who doesn't come and go in a rush...

Sweet Honey in the Rock: More than a Paycheck [lists all the assorted diseases coal miners can get]

Neil Diamond's Coming to America [actually, anything by Neil Diamond]

Johnny Cash's verson of I've Been Everywhere

Gogi Grant's The Wayward Wind

The Sons of the Pioneers

Lots of stuff by Midnight Oil, Seldom Scene, The Oakridge Boys, I'ts a Beautiful Day [especially The Girl With No Eyes]

A country song called Five Feet High and Rising

Rocky Top

Ritchie Havens' version of Here Comes the Sun

And a country song by I don't know by who or what the title was to the effect that Momma got hit by a train while driving my truck with my dog in back while I was on the road with my 18 wheeler...

Music has come a long way from Love and Marriage go together like a horse and carriage.

karibear

10:52 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Stella,

I love the topic.

My parents and granparents were seriously into music. I was once a really shy little kid that never came out from the corner or out from a behind a book... however I could sing...this eventually brought me out of the corner... in my family it's almost complusory to be musical. Dad would play the sax and Mum the piano, and we'd play songs 'like roll out the barrel' and Dad would always sing when Irish eyes are smiling.we'd groan because it was seriously uncool.

Oh and my parents were in G&S productions so way too much ta ran ta ra-ing went on, randomly in our house... that is sooo rampaging through my head right now... Also my granparents had a band that played in country towns in the WW2 and I found the music sheets and lyrics to this song that I thought was really cool in my Nan's collection. I'd pour over the music for songs that appealed to me, because I'd be sick of harmonising with my sister on the Black Hills of Dakota
(apparently if we sang, we couldn't fight...)I really wanted to cut down the sugar quota.

As I'm an Aussie you never really heard my favourite quirky lyric song much.I just discovered that Ella Fitzgerald sang it, when looking up song lyrics... lol.The things you find out on the net.

Anyway I'd sing solo if they let me sing Hard hearted Hannah and Barbara Allen. Both heartbreakers, not at all sugary. Lol..must of been wanting to feed my carefully hidden, 12 year old femme fatale self on some level too.

This was the verse I'd really get into...

They call her Hard Hearted Hannah,
The vamp of Savannah,
The meanest gal in town;
Leather is tough, but Hannah's heart is tougher,
She's a gal who loves to see men suffer!
To tease 'em, and thrill 'em, to torture and kill 'em,
Is her delight, they say,
I saw her at the seashore with a great big pan,
There was Hannah pouring water on a drownding man!
She's Hard Hearted Hannah, the vamp of Savannah, GA!

For Barbara Allen,

"O mother, mother, make my bed!
O make it saft and narrow:
My love has died for me today,
I'll die for him to-morrow."

"Farewell", she said, "ye virgins all,
And shun the fault I fell in:
Henceforward take warning by the fall
Of cruel Barbara Allen."

Cheers,
Catherine

3:52 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Rats that seems so much longer now its up there.... sorry 'bout that

Catherine

3:53 AM  
Blogger DFender said...

Never to be forgotten...
The entire song lyric from the Dixie Chick's Goodbye Earl.
LOLOLOL.

7:28 AM  
Blogger Elizabeth Guest said...

Okay, so this morning I needed to write a very emotional scene and, as I often do, I listened to a song sung by the late, great Roy Orbison. His voice was so dramatic and so emotional. Of course, now I can't get the words "Cryi-i-i-ing over you," out of my head. :-)

Great blog, Stella!
~EG

8:34 AM  
Anonymous Ranurgis said...

Those lines about:

"There’s an insect
In your ear
If your scratch
It won’t disappear"

do bring back a very vivid memory.

One morning when I was a teen, my mother was feeling kind of dizzy. We wondered why and this is the story she and my father told us.

It turned out that my mother woke up during the night to a very odd feeling of being unbalanced somehow. She felt something moving in her right ear but couldn't figure out what it was. So she awakened my father and asked him to look into her ear to see what he could see. Well he couldn't see anything. So she asked him to get some tweezers and gently poke around in her ear--after all she wanted to retain her eardrum if possible.

My father could feel something but not get hold of anything and he sort of started to doubt her. This had been going on for 15-20 minutes already and was driving my mother crazy. So she finally grabbed the tweezers and tried to get the thing out of her ear herself. It took a few minutes but finally she thought she had caught something and pulling it out of her ear, presented it to my father who backed up in surprise. It was a black moth about an inch long. It had crawled into my mother's ear but couldn't turn around or back up I guess. It was just trapped.

We were just going through a real infestation of what the university called "miller's moths" from the description we gave them: black, about an inch long and 3/4 wide and very proliferant.

For me, this had consequences for my whole life. Even in summer, I prefer to sleep with a sheet over my head otherwise I don't feel comfortable. And I won't let any insect near me, or at least not my head. I can literally feel the horror my mother went through. Needless to say, I no longer joined the hunt for these creatures though we had 100s if not 1000s in our new house.

I'm just glad that I don't bother trying to make out so-called lyrics in songs anymore. On the other hand, I could pick up some real gems, "Oh, Freunde, nicht diese Toene, lasst uns angenehmere anstimmen..."

5:47 PM  
Blogger Stella said...

Brandy: Are the titles you mention from books?

Stella

6:59 PM  
Blogger Stella said...

Deb: Wonderful lyrics. I've been missing too much--in future I'm going to take more notice...

Stella

7:01 PM  
Blogger Stella said...

Elizabeth G and Ranurgis: What a team:) You can hold up the standards around here... In fact, I also listen to classical music but if I hadn't seen that line the other evening, look what I would have missed.

Dancing as good for you, good exercise and emits positive vibes. Try dancing to The Ride of the Valkyres (?sp)

Cheers, Stella

7:06 PM  
Blogger Stella said...

Karibear: The Girl with No Eyes? How could I have missed that one?

Stella

7:07 PM  
Blogger Stella said...

Catherine: I wish I'd grown up in your home. Isn't Barbara Allen a Scottish song? I think Jean Redpath sings that, too.

Stella

7:14 PM  
Blogger Stella said...

Elizabeth G: I wonder if I'll pick out the scene you wrote to Roy Orbison.

Stella:)

7:15 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Stella,

My parents are quite mad but nice with it. So it was unusual but not dull, growing up with them.I grew up in a coastal town that predominately supported sports mad people. Coming from a musical family was like saying you came from mutants. It was easy to feel a little out of step with your peers when in my spare time I was prancing around a stage in the Whitehorse Inn as a goatherdess, serenading my best friend's boyfriend, while leading a baby goat (directors innovation)and fluttering my eyelashes.Although the time the goat resisted and I had to pick it up, keep singing and maintain some poise has helped me not whimper too much at things as an adult. If you can manage that at 15 I figure I shouldn't baulk at much now.

Oh and Mum and Dad thought they were being very liberal when my first record for a birthday was an Abba album.Funniest memory associated though was putting it on the record player, starting it and finding that someone had swapped it for Black Sabbath.... and having Mum and Dad look at each other bewildered and saying, 'that doesn't sound quite right does it?'

One example of my mad parents was when they once did the hornpipe on the front verandah as they said goodbye for the first time,to my soon to be fiance....lol. He didn't scare easily thank goodness or I'd be down two daughters after that little stunt.

In regards to classic music Mum always ironed to loud Gershwin, and I still get revved up when I hear Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody.She played that to me as a baby, and I was supposed to react as though I had my own mosh pit apparently.

In regards to Barbara Allen,I knew it was old and think it was in a book of folk songs of the British Isles in our home. According to a bit of quick net research, Barbara Allen does seem to be Scottish in origin, but seemed popular in England too.Some think it political and others just brooding about love.Not sure on Jean Redpath.

Catherine

3:05 AM  
Anonymous Ranurgis said...

Stella,

Since you mention the Valkyries, my real name is one of them. And I just found that out less than a month ago. I knew it was Scandinavian but had no idea that one of the Valkyries was named that. It also means something slightly different than I had always thought but pretty close anyway.

P.S. I think there are definitely different spellings for "Valkyries". The German word begins with a W because its sound is like an English V.

As for the classics, blame my German ancestry and my own inclinations. After all the wonderful Germanic (including Austrian) composers, what else can we listen too? Well, I guess Russians, Italians, French, British, Norwegian, Finnish, Hungarian. Can't think of a Swedish or Danish one.

6:17 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Cathrine,
You are cracking me up. My family isn't musical (pity for me) but they are loud and crazy. My dad would sing fold songs at the top of his voice. I accused him of making up "Momma Come See Boo-boo Day" Harry Belefonte made it popular. I heard it in my teens and almost wet myself.

With nutty parents you definately aquire a live and let live attitude.

Zeus

5:21 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I love country songs because 1* I can actually hear and understand the lyrics and 2* they make me laugh.

But I think it started with Jimmy Buffett, he of "The weather is here, I wish you were beautiful"
and "I just shot six holes in my freezer, I think I have cabin fever, I gotta go where it's warm!"

He can also be sweet, he has a song called "Bama Breeze" about a little pub blown to pieces in Katrina on his recent album.

Chelle, I gotta get the new Paisley album, he got my vote as soon as I heard the whole lyrics on "Ticks"!

I was listening to his second album "PartII" which has "I'm Gonna Miss Her" about a guy who is warned if he doesn't get home instead going fishing she is out of there and ...well here are the lyrics for the chorus:

"Well I'm gonna miss her
When I get home
But right now I'm on the lake shore
And I'm sittin' in the sun
I'm sure it'll hit me
When I walk through that door tonight
That I'm gonna miss her
Oh, lookie there, I've got a bite."

Giggling here.....
SusanB

6:22 AM  
Blogger Yasmine Galenorn said...

ROFL...what was in your coffee this morning, Stella? LOL...love it. I think one of the most notable titles of songs (and it's a catchy tune, btw), is Ween's, "I'm Waving My Dick In The Wind"...can't get much happier than that, huh?


As far as lyrics, there are so many that stick in my head...just a few of my favorites:

"I got wild imagination
Talkin' transubstantiation
Any version will do
I got mass communication
I'm the human corporation
I ate a rock from the moon" (Talking Heads)

"Oh I love to be among the girls and the boys
I am just a holy instrument of joy."
(Shriekback)

"You see, without the Truth of the Eyes, the Happyfolk were blind."
Gorillaz

"It's a little too much to ask of faith
A little too late to wait for fate"
Beck

There are so many more...

Yasmine (an audiophile with 25 gigs of music on her computer)

11:44 AM  
Blogger Stella said...

Yazmine: You just made my afternoon. What a hoot--I can't even repeat the line you quote but most things hanging in the wind feel pretty good!

Cheers, Stella

2:31 PM  
Blogger Stella said...

Susan B:

Ah, yes, the male logic. Live for the minute, I'll think about the rest later on:)

Stella

2:33 PM  
Blogger Stella said...

okay, Ranurgis--So what are the Valkyries names? :)

Stella

2:34 PM  
Blogger Stella said...

Zeus and Catherine: We have things in common:crazy parents although let's not compare them too closely.

My mother played the piano and we all sang, and we danced. Mummy taught us the Charleston which we became brilliant at and I still like to do it on occasion. My older sister had the big, operatic voice which we would raise to full effect. I still remember her standing on the stairs where the high ceilings above echoed the noise and singing, "Oh, willow, willow, willow...Ooooh, willow, willow, willow, willow."

I've never felt the same about willows since then.

That thing was something they used in her voice classes.

Stella

2:39 PM  
Blogger Craig said...

"Fingers and toes,
Fingers and toes are forty things we share,
Forty-one if you include, the fact that we don't care" -- Tragically Hip

"Mister Pister Missed his sister" -- YTV Comercial (not really a song, but kind of catchy anyway)

"At night I wake up with the sheets soaking wet and and a freight train running through the middle of my head." -- Bruce Springsteen


Craig

7:14 PM  
Blogger Stella said...

Good stuff, Crag. A look at Madonna's work might turn up some goodies, I'll have to do that--one day.

One of my favorite titles in for a song Diana Krahl sings: Popsicle Toes.

Stella

6:12 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I tried this the other day and the computer froze on me.

Let's see. I think I was explaining that my name is too easy to google and that's why I go by a pseudonym most of the time. My cousin wrote from Germany and asked "Did you comment on the Word Wenches site some time ago?" Yes, I did but put in my full real name by accident. Actually I always enter any contests you ladies have. But I guess all you ever look at there is the winner's name and address.

Actually my name means "rune of victory"; that's what was in the latest list of Valkyries again though there seem to be some variations. And it is imbedded in the name I use here. The two most famous Valkyries are Brunhilde and Sieglinde made famous by Richard Wagner in his operatic cycle of Ring of the Niebelungen, though Freya, she for whom Friday is named is the mother-goddess or something like that. I guess I should study Nordic mythology a little more. I just know bits and pieces of what Wagner wrote about or how the days are named. It's odd really that Wednesday should be named for Odin. It isn't in German where it's just called Mittwoch meaning "middle of the week". But don't ask me about the Scandinavian names. I really don't know their days of the week.

10:00 PM  
Anonymous Mandy said...

I've always loved those immortal words from America: Well, I tried to make it Sunday, but I got so damned depressed that I set my sights on Monday and I got myself undressed. My husband doesn't seem to understand what they mean, though.

Steve Allen used to read pop music as poetry, and I still remember him reciting, perfectly seriously and with a completely straight face, the lyrics from Donna Summer's "Hot Stuff". It was priceless!

9:02 PM  

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