Flaming Lips is one of those bands the members of which (Wayne in particular) seem, in addition to being great songwriters, are great, kind, wonderful people (the other notable band of that kind is Yo La Tengo). And yesterday their song "Race for the Prize" made me cry.
How can it be, that i so rarely care about lyrics at all and of all artists Flaming Lips moved me so much? They have a bunch of them -- those beautiful and happy songs about injury, weakness, disappointment and death of course. That endless humanity. And "Race for the Prize" is one of the best: Two scientists are racing for the cure that is the prize ... so determined ... Theirs is to win if it kills them, they're just humans with wives and children. It's a cliché, it's manipulative -- and it works.
Listen to the song on the website (click on Music -> Soft Bulletin -> Race for the Prize). No, really, do it.