Lines that really grab you

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Spartacus
Date: 26 Feb 02 - 09:04 AM

This is easy:

"I only got me one good shirt left and it smells of stale perfume"

-bob dylan

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: alanww
Date: 26 Feb 02 - 05:16 AM

And then I heard another song, from deep within my heart
Awaiting just one touch of love before it made a start.
Dave Webber - The Blackbird.

It brings a tingle down my spine ...
Alan

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Teribus
Date: 26 Feb 02 - 03:12 AM

One from "Talking Army Blues"

"Went to the station to catch m' train
Said goodbye to mum 'n' dad 'n' Jane
Jane said she'd wait for me till Hell froze
Sure must have been a cold winter"

Just thought I'd try this again to see if the line break thing worked.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Teribus
Date: 26 Feb 02 - 02:54 AM

One from "Talking Army Blues"

"Went to the station to catch m' train Said goodbye to mum 'n' dad 'n' Jane Jane said she'd wait for me till Hell froze Sure must have been a cold winter"

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Amergin
Date: 26 Feb 02 - 02:31 AM

and the choir kept singing of freedom.....

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST,Bo in KY
Date: 26 Feb 02 - 12:43 AM

trad: "Oh that I was where I would be Then would I be where I am not Here I am where I must be Go where I will I cannot" (from "Katey Cruel")

non-trad: "This world falls on me, I got hopes of immortality, Everywhere I turn all the beauty just keeps shakin' me" (Indigo Girls, "World Falls")

"Well I'm accustomed to a smooth ride Or maybe I'm a dog that lost its bite I don't expect to be treated like a fool no more I don't expect to sleep through the night" (Paul Simon)

"All shall be well, I'm telling you Let the winter come and go All shall be well again I know" (Bok Muir & Trickett "Julian of Norwich")

And just about any of the early songs by Don McLean rip me up every time....

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Benjamin
Date: 25 Feb 02 - 09:38 PM

For out my window, there's a moon From here to Cali and Bandung

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Ian Darby
Date: 25 Feb 02 - 09:28 PM

"She was a third generation Transylvanian"

Richard Thompson.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From:
Date: 25 Feb 02 - 09:05 PM

probably the same ones I came up with before...but...

as when the heart indignant breaks to prove that still she lives..T. Moore, Harp that Once..

you can wear a cinderella snow white alice wonderlanded gown....Violets of Dawn..

oh dear mother I wants a sack..beads and buttons all down the back...Great Big Sea Hove in Long Beach

men must work and women must weep..the sooner it's over the sooner to sleep...Three Fishers..

my all time favorite from Highland Widow's Lament.. for Donald was the bravest man, and Donald he was mine..

mg

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: catspaw49
Date: 25 Feb 02 - 07:53 PM

Enjoyable thread......Lots I knew and lots I didn't! Here's a couple of mine..........

"For standing in your heart
Is where I wanna be
And I long to be,
Ah, but I may as well try and catch the wind"....Donovan, Catch the Wind

and this one..........

"The best sort of answer has no sound"...Peter Himmelman, from the song of the same name

and of course........

"If you look for hidden things, you can find them
You must open up your heart, not bar the door.
Only love can break the fear you bind your heart in
It's happened that way many time before"....Patrick Sky

And this entire song really gets me.....Have a listen if you like.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: kendall
Date: 25 Feb 02 - 07:30 PM

I know what you mean Peter, I also have smart ass daughters.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: DougR
Date: 25 Feb 02 - 07:09 PM

You promised me love, that would never die; that promise you made, was only a lie ...Bob Wills

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Helen
Date: 25 Feb 02 - 04:54 PM

[Busted flat in Baton Rouge, waiting for the train,] Feeling nearly faded as my jeans ..

"Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose. Nothing ain't worth nothing but it's free."

- Kris Kristofferson, Me and Bobby McGee

Helen

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Wesley S
Date: 25 Feb 02 - 04:45 PM

John Haitt wrote something along the lines of -

"She walked up to me like a slow moving cold front"

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Little Hawk
Date: 25 Feb 02 - 04:21 PM

"Beauty walks a razor's edge, someday I'll make it mine"

Bob Dylan

"Happiness is temporary, believe me, I know..."

Joan Baez

"Money doesn't talk, it swears..." Bob Dylan

"Everything passes, everything changes..." Bob Dylan

"They came over the border the hour before dawn..." Al Stewart

- LH

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Midchuck
Date: 25 Feb 02 - 08:14 AM

Kendall, one time when my son was still in high school (which makes it ten years or more ago) we were listening to "The Jeanie C." on a tape in the car, I think. When Stan sang "...John Price is drowned and slipped away...", in the pause at the end of that line, Ian said "...so we can split his sandwich."

The song's never been quite the same for me since.

Peter.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: jup
Date: 25 Feb 02 - 08:01 AM

Justa Picker,

I knew that I knew that.

Thanks for reminding me.

Jup.

So I guess I'll have to do it, while I'm here. by Phil Ochs.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: kendall
Date: 25 Feb 02 - 06:26 AM

"I'll give you back your ring and letters
And the picture I loved so well.
And henceforth we will meet as strangers
But I will never say farewell." Fond affection (trad.)

"My God" I cried as she went down,
That boat was like no other
My father built her when I was nine,
And named her for my mother." The Jeannie C. (Stan Rogers)

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: ard mhacha
Date: 25 Feb 02 - 06:02 AM

"For men may come, and men may go, but I go on for ever" George Burns?, Well, nearly.- The River by Charles Kingsley.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Zipster
Date: 25 Feb 02 - 05:49 AM

The genius of Shel Silverstein, to squeeze so much into his lyrics., (I know this is Dr Hook, but have assumed its SS)

Out of respect to Murray's comment, I've put the, equally superb, context in brackets

(This is the last morning that I'll wear these greasy overalls, punch the clock and do just what I'm told to get along, and face the long evening lying close beside my radio), imagining the kisses of the girl who sings the song

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Teribus
Date: 25 Feb 02 - 03:44 AM

From Glendinings "Scarboro' Settlers Lament"

"Like banished Swiss who view afar their Alps wi' longin' ee'. I gaze upon the morning star that shines on my country."

Or from Eric Bogle's "Safe in the Harbour"

"Or to lie on the decking on a warm summer's evening, Watch the red sun fall burning beneath the Earth's rim."

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST,George C.
Date: 25 Feb 02 - 03:44 AM

from "The Pirate Jenny"

"You never know to who you're talkin'"

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Jon Bartlett
Date: 25 Feb 02 - 02:44 AM

Non-Trad: "There's seven people dead on a South Dakota farm/There's seven people dead on a South Dakota farm/Somewhere in the distance, there's seven new people born." - Ballad of Hollis Brown, Dylan Trad: "... and he's away to his mother's bower door/And sair aghast was he." (Lucy Wan, Child #51: "he" is Georgie, who's just murdered his sister Lucy).

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST,lil' VanBone
Date: 25 Feb 02 - 01:49 AM

Some of my favorites:

"Always take the best from life Not treat it as a curse but embrace it as you would a wife for better or for worse Life at it's best is but a jest like a weary winter's day so while we're here with our friends so dear we'll drive dull cares away" ~Dull Cares

"Then I met a stanger man set a trap with an iron box he baited it with his children and he left it upon the rocks

The very next morn the trap was sprung and the man grabbed the box with glee shouted how he'd caught happiness but that box seemed empty to me yes that box felt empty to me" ~Chasing Happiness by George Rathbone

"For every day you're in this place you're two days nearer death" ~The Chemical Workers song

"This is the end Beautiful friend This is the end My only friend The end

It hurts to set you free But you'll never follow me The end of laughter and soft life The end of nights we tried to die This is the end" ~The End by the Doors (Ok, not traditional, but what can I say, I'm a sucker for the Doors)

"And the next thing I see in the port by the bay is an old man on crutches and he says to me 'I fear for me life I'll be hit by a car woncha help me across to the Celtic Knot bar?' After drinking a sip o' that cider so sweet he threw down his crutches and danced in the street!"

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: CapriUni
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 11:32 PM

Bill D., you wrote: "not exactly in the same class as some of these but..."

I disagree. I think that song by Roger Miller is quite profound (but what's the title? I learned it off one of my mother's LP's, but I never bothered looking at the record cover...).

As someone who has grown up with a physical disability since birth, I took great comfort and pride in the message that happiness is a matter of personal choice -- not external circumstance.

Yeah, sure. I can't walk, never could. So what? I can't go fishin' in a watermelon patch, either. But I can be happy if I put my mind to it, knuckle down, buckle down, and do it, do it, do it! ;-)

My own favorite line from the same song...

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: khandu
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 11:11 PM

Bill D., that was a classic! I appreciate your reminding me of that one! Thanks!

khandu

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 11:07 PM

I was walking through the broken glass last night, and thought of you...

(Claudia Schmidt, "Broken Glass")

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 09:09 PM

Did they beat the drum slowly, did the sound the fife lowly? (Eric Bogle-No man's land).

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Bill D
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 08:39 PM

not exactly in the same class as some of these but...

"you can't roller skate in a buffalo herd,
but you can be happy, if you've a mind to"

Roger Miller

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: MarkS
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 08:34 PM

Joni Mitchell
They'll be new dreams and better dreams and plenty
Before the last revolving year is through.

Too true
mark

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Midchuck
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 08:05 PM

Too late the dawn has come, that Yukon winter's won And he's got his cure for cabin fever now!

- Stan Rogers, Canol Road.

Peter.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: uncle bill
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 08:04 PM

my favorite is a Steve Fromholtz song called "I GAVE HER A RING, SHE GAVE ME THE FINGER".

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: SINSULL
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 07:55 PM

"My father often told me that money would set me free
If ever I murdered that dear little girl whose name was Rose Connelly"

What was Daddy thinking?????

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: John Routledge
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 07:06 PM

"Let's not think of tomorrow lest we disappointed be"

First line of "Trimdon Grange Explosion" from County Durham (UK)

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Bill D
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 06:36 PM

from "I've Rambled This Country, Both Earlye and Late" ...a song of losing one's love to another man...(got it froma Mike Seeger record)

"Since it is no better, I'm glad that it is no worse;
Brandy in my bottle, and money in my purse"

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Rustic Rebel
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 06:09 PM

Part of being free is a state of mind
you just got to learn to leave it all behind
go slow
Shawn Phillips

Rustic

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: khandu
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 05:46 PM

"Nine out of twenty were heading for home, with eleven sad stories to tell."

James Taylor. I think the song is titled "Soldiers".

khandu

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST,PZBrown
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 05:02 PM

Put my little shoes away.>

But I believe in love> I believe in angels> I believe in Mom and Dad> I believe in you>

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Menita
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 05:00 PM

Woops I got my fingers?eyes crossed here- This should have gone to "You can't sing in here" Sorry.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Menita
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 04:56 PM

Yes I've come across it before. Take a look at what Trevor has to say in "News for visitors wanting to play in UK" It's time this law was changed. Does it include Wassailing and carol singing in pubs too?

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: CapriUni
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 04:46 PM

Brief thread creep

Lucy Ann, you wrote: "I love the idea of giving various flowers etc., to lovers-saves a lot of words..."

Indeed. In Victorian times "flower language dictionaries" were very popular. Young men could send complex "letters" to their sweethearts telling them exactly in what way they loved them. In answer, the young women would then wear a sample of the flowers somewhere on their person (in the hair meant: "Your love is unrequited. Back off!" Over the heart meant: "I feel the same."). And since, presumably, no one knew the flowers were sent as a message, except the young man who sent them, it also allowed him to save face.

Willow, it seems to me, is particularly poignant as a symbol of unrequited love, since it is famous for its flexibility and the speed with which a fresh cutting will take root and grow into a new tree -- implying that the giver wishes the rejected lover ease in finding a new life and love somewhere else.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled subject

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: kendall
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 04:44 PM

And Lindy Lou, crying and dying and the ocean pouring through.
from "The Banging of the wheelhouse door" by Sean Gagne
Lindy Lou is a fishing boat that met her end on a ledge.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: CapriUni
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 04:24 PM

You're right, Murry. The opening post did ask for one line.

But what makes that diffecult to stick to is that, so often, what makes the line such a grabber is the context in which that line appears.

I mean, If I wrote that the one traditional line that really grabbed me was: "The willow tree it may twine", my guess would be that most readers would just think "What the -- ?"

But I'll try:

"Drink to me only with thine eyes."

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: DougR
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 04:18 PM

Trouble in Mind, I'm blue, but I won't be blue all day ...

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Morticia
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 01:57 PM

Saying you write to your love, and I'll write to mine from Green Grow the Laurels is, I think, one of the best and most cutting put-downs I ever heard.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 01:54 PM

This thread is getting sadly diluted. How about single attention-grabbing lines as kendall suggested in his original post ?

Murray

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Menita
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 01:45 PM

I love the idea of giving various flowers etc., to lovers-saves a lot of words, loud and sad! That accounts for why Maddy Prior was wearing it "All around her hat"!

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Mervyn
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 01:25 PM

Here are a couple of stanzas that spring to mind:

The men of the forest, they ask it of me How many strawberries grow in the salt sea And I ask it of them, with a tear in my e'e How many fish swim in your forest.

From "The Week Before Easter" Trad. Same melody as Birmingham Sunday.

You've taken what's before me, and and what's behind me You've taken East and West, when you wouldn't have me Sun, moon, and stars from my sky you've taken And God as well, if I'm not mistaken

From Donald Ogh - Trad. (Scots, I think)

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST,kendall
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 01:24 PM

Oh the sorrow, the suffering the glory the shame
The killing the dying were all done in vain And again, and again and again and again.. No Mans Land Eric Bogle.

and Slim Dusty's song about the old drunk whose dog had been impounded and put to sleep... "Then someone found him dead one day 'neath a table in a pub
With a collar and a chain clutched in his hand.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: CapriUni
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 12:52 PM

Non-Trad:

"If I have weaknesses
Don't let them blind me
Or camouflage all I am wary of
I could be sailing in seizures of laughter
Or crawling out from under the heel of love"

Rhythm of the Saints words and music by Paul Simon

Trad:

"And the willow tree it may twist
And the willow tree it may twine
I would I were clasped in my lover's arms fast
For tis he who has stolen my Thyme
"

(Full song in the DT here).

Somewhere, I learned that in flower symbolism, thyme represented virginity and strength, and that if someone fell out of love with their sweetheart, they would let them know by handing them a sprig of willow. So, here, it seems, the singer is lamenting that her lover got what he wanted from her and left. I love these lines because they are an elegant illustration how the mind works and how memories are triggered, especially when we're hurting.