"Thank you" by Dido (Dido Armstrong) - note the slightly sardonic touch; which was amplified in its use as the closing credits song in the film Sliding Doors [the title apart from the obvious tube train doors alludes to the title of Sartre's play Huis Clos [which literally means closed doors thjough the play is better known in english as 'no exit']:

My tea's gone cold, I'm wondering why I got out of bed at all
the morning rain clouds up my window and I can't see at all
And even if I could it'd all be grey, but your picture on my wall
it reminds me that it's not so bad
it's not so bad

I drank too much last night, got bills to pay
my head just feels in pain
I missed the bus and there'll be hell today
I'm late for work again
and even if I'm there, they'll all imply that I might not last the day
and then you call me and it's not so bad
it's not so bad and

I want to thank you for giving me the best day of my life
Oh just to be with you is having the best day of my life

Push the door, I'm home at last and I'm soaking through and through
then you handed me a towel and all I see is you
and even if my house falls down now, I wouldn't have a clue
because you're near me and

I want to thank you for giving me the best day of my life
Oh just to be with you is having the best day of my life

as long as one doesn't mistake vapidity for ambiguity ...

Oh I wasn't getting at anything specific, just playing around with words.

I like ambiguity - it is one of the hallmarks of human language, in my opinion, and one of the things I look for in poetry and songwriting.

mind games of many kinds - not quite clear what you are getting at ...

e.g. sniffing glue?

TM-ing [Trancendental Meditation - from the Late Maharishi aka 'Sexy Sadie' in the beatles song] with your own secret personalised mantra - which just happens to be the same for everybody - 'Ayeem' ] ?

games of the mind

there are many kinds

ok i suppose you mean like chess etc., NOT playing with people's minds :) [except one's own perhaps]

I was thinking more along the lines of mind games ... and you can take that any way you want.

not those games - Syd was extremely unworldly/otherwordly - or outer-spaced? - his promiscuity etc does not contradict with that fact.

I happen to know people who know his family - Syd was different.

I mean, grams of acid [the size of his LSD trips]? I could handle only 400 micrograms at a time - and that is supposed to a big dose!

I think Syd must have liked to play a lot of games ;)

requoting Alan Parsons & co in response:

Games people play, you take it or you leave it
Things that they say, just don't make it right
If i promise you the moon and the stars, would you believe it? Games people play ...

My favorite line from Syd:

You're the kind of girl that fits in with my world.
I'll give you anything, everything if you want things

from Suzanne by Leonard Cohen:

Suzanne takes your hand
and she leads you to the river.
She is wearing rags and feathers
from Salvation Army counters.
And the sun pours down like honey
On Our Lady of the Harbour;
and she shows you where to look
among the garbage and the flowers.
There are heroes in the seaweed;
there are children in the morning.
They are leaning out for love,
and they will lean that way forever
while Suzanne holds the mirror.

And you want to travel with her,
and you want to travel blind,
and you know that you can trust her
for she's touched your perfect body
with her mind.

more Barrett:

Sunlight bright upon my pillow
Lighter than an eiderdown
Will she let the weeping willow
Wind his branches round
Julia dream, dreamboat queen, queen of all my dreams
Every night I turn the light out

Waiting for the velvet bride
Will the scaly armadillo
Find me where I'm hiding
Julia dream, dreamboat queen, queen of all my dreams
Will the misty master break me
Will the key unlock my mind
Will the following footsteps catch me
Am I really dying
Julia dream, dreamboat queen, queen of all my dreams ...

that calls for something from the crazy diamond in question (Syd Barrett):

Soon after dark Emily cries
Gazing through trees in sorrow hardly a sound till tomorrow
There is no other day
Let's try it another way
You'll lose your mind and play
Free games for May
See Emily play
Put on a gown that touches the ground,
Float on a river forever and ever, Emily
There is no other day
Let's try it another way
You'll lose your mind and play
Free games for May ....

Ah... I can comment here again! (thx)

Roger Waters is an often-overlooked lyricist:

Remember when you were young, you shone like the sun.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Now there's a look in your eyes, like black holes in the sky.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
You were caught on the crossfire of childhood and stardom, blown on the steel breeze.
Come on you target for faraway laughter, come on you stranger, you legend, you martyr,
and shine!

You reached for the secret too soon, you cried for the moon.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Threatened by shadows at night, and exposed in the light.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Well you wore out your welcome with random precision, rode on the steel breeze.
Come on you raver, you seer of visions, come on you painter, you piper, you prisoner,
and shine!

Nobody knows where you are, how near or how far.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Pile on many more layers and I'll be joining you there.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
And we'll bask in the shadow of yesterday's triumph, and sail on the steel breeze.
Come on you boy child, you winner and loser, come on you miner for truth and delusion,
and shine!

Some excerpts from The Alan Parsons Project songs:

Tell you 'bout a dream that i have every night
It ain't kodachrome and it isn't black and white
Take me for a fool if you feel that's right
Well i'm never on my own but there's nobody in sight

I don't know if i'm scared of the lightning
Trying to reach me
I can't turn to the left or the right
I'm too scared to run and i'm too weak to fight
But i don't care it's all psychobabble rap to me

...

You're lighting a scene that's faded to black
I threw it away cause i don't want it back
But i don't care it's all psychbabble rap

...

Where do we go from here
now that all of the children have grown up
and how do we spend our time
knowing nobody gives us a damn

I don't wanna live here no more, i don't wanna stay
Ain't gonna spend the rest of my life, quietly fading away

Games people play, you take it or you leave it
Things that they say, just don't make it right

...

If i promise you the moon and the stars, would you believe it
Games people play in the middle of the night
.....

As far as my eyes can see
There are shadows approaching me
And to those i left behind
I wanted you to know
You've always shared my deepest thoughts
You follow where i go

And oh when i'm old and wise
Bitter words mean little to me
Autumn winds will blow right through me
And someday
in the mist of time
When they asked me if i knew you
I'd smile and say you were a friend of mine
And the sadness would be lifted from my eyes
Oh when i'm old and wise

Bjork, Susanne Vega, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, ...

Dylan - until sometime before 'farewell angelina' [read farewell Joan [Baez], farewell activism ... ] was wonderful. [See John Lennon's song I DON’T WANNA FACE IT lampooning Dylan] --

Lennon post-beatles. Working class hero, God, ...

Yoko Ono's: [sung by Lennon] 'Woman is the n****r of the world'. [Censorhip mine, because there are too many stupid people on this site - as on every other site almost - who will start accusing me of racism... see the novel or the film 'the human stain' for an example ... and i've encounter this supidity on several websites and on the usenet]

Joni Mitchell, anytime!

Joan Baez did not write too many songs; but she brought a lot of great songs into the limelight ...

I'm not sure why certain words move me and often it's only on the third or tenth listening that they actually do grab my heart. But some songwriters like Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Emily Saliers do it to me right out of the gate:

from Ghost by Saliers:

The Mississippi's mighty
and it starts in Minnesota
at a place where you could walk across
with five steps down.

I guess that's how you started,
like a pin-prick to my heart.
and now you rush right through me
and I start to drown.

from Tangled Up in Blue by Dylan:

She lit a burner on a stove and offered me a pipe.
"I never thought you'd say 'Hello,'" she said,
"you looked like the silent type."
She opened up a book of poems and handed it to me,
written by an Italian poet of the 13th century.
Every one of his words rang true
and glowed like burning coals,
pouring off of every page
like it was written in my soul
from me to you,
Tangled up in blue

Even Joni Mitchell's over-played Both Sides Now still gets to me with:

Tears and fears and feeling proud,
to say I love you right out loud.
Dreams and schemes and circus crowds...
I've looked at life that way

But now old friends are acting strange,
they shake their heads, they say I've changed.
Well,  something's lost, but something's gained
In living every day.

I've looked at life from both sides now -
from win and lose, and still somehow
It's life's illusions I recall.
I really dont know life at all

I just love a world filled with up lifting  sounds..