gosh so many mentioned here reminding me how many there are out there...John Gorka, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, et al...
Steve, I first heard that Halifax pier song sung by the woman who played Jeannie in the original Broadway production of "Hair"--no lie! She is pagan and can often be found at gatherings holding court with her guitar and her wonderful gravelly voice...
some of my own picks:
"Do I lie like a lounge room lizard, or do I sing like a bird released?"
"These things I should keep to myself, but I feel somehow strangely compelled/The closest I get to contentment is when all of the barriers come down."
(both by Neil Finn of Crowded House)
"Not vernal showers to budding flowers, nor autumn to a farmer/so dear can be as thou to me/my fair, my lovely charmer" (Robbie Burns)
and pretty much anything by Ian Anderson, Kate Bush, and Brendan Perry of Dead Can Dance...
Oh, okay...
"I'll buy you six bay mares to put in your stable
six golden apples bought with my pay
I am the first piper who calls the sweet tune
but I must be gone on the seventh day."
(Ian Anderson)
"Out on the wily windy moors we'd roll and fall in green
you had a temper like my jealousy, too hard too greedy
How could you leave me when I needed to possess you
I hated you, I loved you, too..."
(Kate Bush)
"You heard of honest Socrates
The man who never lied:
They weren't so grateful as you'd think
Instead the rulers fixed to have him tried
And handed him the poisoned drink.
How honest was the people's noble son.
The world however did not wait
But soon observed what followed on.
It's honesty that brought him to that state.
How fortunate the man with none.

(Brendan Perry)

peg