Favourite song 'line.'

[Stuart W]

I'm aware that I probably run the risk of starting yet another dreaded 'list,' but...

I got to thinking the other day how certain lines from certain songs stand out as being extremely profound. I know that, at the end of the day, it's only 'entertainment,' but one that sticks in my mind as something that 'transcends' being a song lyric and is almost a maxim to live by:-

"We're all building walls; they should be bridges."
Mickey Newbury (From 'Heaven Help The Child')

[tuco]

Obvious choice (and possibly the best line of all time):

When I was just a baby my mama told me 'Son,
always be a good boy, don't ever play with guns.'
But I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die

[andy]

That ain't a line its a verse!

Mine is my signature

[Dangerbird]

Two of my favourite lyricists are Paul Dempsey (Something for Kate) and Ben Gibbard (Death Cab for Cutie) for their unique ways of describing common emotions and everyday happenings.

"I rationed my breaths as I said to myself that I'd already taken too much today" - Death Cab for Cutie, 'What Sarah Said'

"But she keeps looking for patterns, and the world just happens" - Something for Kate, 'Deja Vu'

...and for the cryptic, i enjoy Jason Molina's somewhat obscure outlook.

"Mama here comes midnight with a dead moon in it's jaw" - Magnolia Electric Co, 'Farewell Transmission'

However, one of the more profound moments in my listening career has come from Robert Smith:

"The world is neither just nor unjust , it's just us trying to feel that there's some sense in it" - The Cure, 'Where the Birds Always Sing'

[martin]

'Like a snake with five eggs stuck in my stomach, I needed some relief'

S.Malkmus from Real Emotional Trash

and

'not long now before lollipop men are called Darren'

HMHB

[Country Jim]

Look into my eyes- I'm no criminal
But I'd kill my mother just to be with you be with you be with you be with you

[NickG]

"never did like that dog"
"like a hog on ice" from tom Waits

and
C'mon let's go out and really drunk tonight
You can be Miss Bottomless pit of 1983
And I can be Mr. Out Like a Light

from american music clubs "somwewhere"

there's millions and tbh I haven't got a favourite theyre the first to come to mind

[loose tom]

"there's a hole in Daddy's arm where all the money goes"
Sam Stone by John Prine

[saint carl]

The most immediate ones all come from Mr Tom Waits:

"well go ahead and call the cops, you don't meet nice girls in coffee shops"
"colder than a well-digger's ass"
"I'm so goddamn horny the crack of dawn better watch itself around me."
"Coleen's belly was shakin' like jelly And I'm gettin' harder than Chinese algebra."
"Uncle Verlin, Uncle Verlin, independent as a hog on ice."
"Come down off the cross, we can use the wood."
"Some men are searching for the Holy Grail, but there ain't nothing sweeter than riding the rail. "
"Pregnant women and Vietnam vets, beggin on the freeway, bout as hard as it gets. "

[Palace]

although noble in intent, I'm sure, this is daft. it's not really possible, because as soon as you post one, another springs to mind. I like great songs with bad lyrics, and I like woeful songs with great lyrics. it's like trying to remember your best shag, or the best joke you ever heard, or your best night out. soon as you come up with one, like varicose veins, they lead on to another, then another, then another.

personally speaking, Will Oldham has written nearly all my favourite lines. lines I wished I'd written, which is the criteria I use for my favourite anything (song, book, essay, sonnet. (yeah, fair one. sonnet.)) Then, of course, there's Elliott Smith. pah, not now.

I love "all around the left buttock, and all around the right, and all around your every curve I hope to go tonight" from Nomadic Revery, which in words means nowt, but the urgency and sheer desperation he sings it with, well....

oh, oh and also, from Another Day Full Of Dread "dread and fear should not be confused, by dread I'm inspired, by fear I'm amused" which may well be my favourite ever line.

for sheer filling up-ness, "I'm trying to find my way home.....I'm sorry . . .and I miss you....." from Good Morning, Captain by Slint. it's how it's sung, culminating in the most heart wrenching "I MISS YOU"s ever roared. I think.

I like my signature too. (New Pornographer "Use It")

[jeaterhoops]

We've got one last chance to make it real
By trading these wings for some wheels

OR

It's a town full of losers and I'm pulling out here to win


Both Thunder Road by Springsteen

[The Jacket]

"most Novembers I break down and cry"

Steve Earle - Goodbye

[The Jacket]

or, no make that "and" rather than "or"

"and the hardest part is knowing I'll survive"

Boulder To Birmingham - Emmylou Harris

[simon2307]

Tricky one, but some of mine.........

no sweeping exits or offstage lines could make me feel bitter or treat you unkind

in the end there is one dance you’ll do alone

we are the Sherlock Holmes English speaking vernacular

when routine bites hard and ambitions are low

don't let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy

Roy Orbison singing for the lonely hey that's me and I want you only

freedom's just another word for nothing else to lose

but at least you thought you wanted it, that's so much more than I can say for me

[jon]

i'd rather be in a barrel of kosher salt and pickle brine,with a thousand paper cuts.

john hiatt, from let's give this love a try.