Lines that really grab you

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 01 Oct 16 - 04:46 AM

"And a half-empty washing-line serves to remind..." Lester Simpson

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: BobL
Date: 01 Oct 16 - 03:46 AM

Not a folk song, but in J. M. Neale's translation of a Latin Easter hymn, the alliteration in the line "Ill doth it seem that thy limbs should linger in lowly dishonour" has always had a special appeal to me.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: mkebenn
Date: 30 Sep 16 - 08:31 AM

Guest, "Coward" is from the same hand that gave us "Coal Tatoo"
" Lake Huron rolls. Superior sings,

in the rooms of her ice water mansions"
Lightfoot: "Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald"

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Sep 16 - 03:42 AM

I've always bristled inwardly when people ask if I know any Country and Western (I don't know many Mongolian chants either)

But a line in the rather corny "Coward of the County" has always inspired me to try to say more with less lyrics;

The torn dress, the shattered look

(It might be the other way round, haven't heard it in years.)

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST,Jim McCullough
Date: 30 Sep 16 - 12:14 AM

" Each one wants a part of him, no one wants it all" from "Hang out your brightest colours" by Brian Moore.A very moving song about Michael Collins, probably one of the more problematic figures in Irish history.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 29 Sep 16 - 03:50 AM

Good and bad rhymes get me:

Kissed her once again at Wapping,
After that there was no stopping. (Ewan McColl, Sweet Thames Flow Softly)

They were in love besotten
With the bonnie belle of Broughton. (Eric Bogle, The Belle of Broughton)

And the voles and the moles ran back into their holes
For some paracetamols ( Robin Laing, Punters)

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Michael
Date: 28 Sep 16 - 08:04 AM

Again from ISB:
"May the longtime sun shine upon you,all love surround you and the pure light within you guide your way on."

Mike

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 28 Sep 16 - 03:37 AM

Description of life in the middle of the ocean, from Van Dieman's Land
"All around us one black water
And above us one blue sky".

Comparing the feeling of being prgnant to the thin layer of flesh that surrounds the stone of a rose-hip - From Gil Morrice
"I once was full of Gil Morrice
As a hip is of a stone."

Description of a haloed moon, from Sir Patrick Spens.
"I saw the auld moon yester-een
With the new moon in its arms".

They don't make them like that any more!!
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: mg
Date: 27 Sep 16 - 09:06 PM

Shall Trelawny live or shall Trelawny die
Here's 20,000 Cornishmen will know the reason why.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 27 Sep 16 - 01:48 PM

"It's true, you are a good woman. Then again, you may be the antichrist."
Doc Holliday (Val Kilmer) Tombstone

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST,Mark Bluemel
Date: 27 Sep 16 - 11:37 AM

"For the Lord's cross might redeem us but our own just waste our time"

Particularly if you can manage June Tabor's tone on "waste"...

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Sep 16 - 10:21 PM

All the lines in Jez Lowe's "The Last of the Widows of the Duck Bill seam", but especially:

"The last of the widows of the Duck Bill's fire
Stood bleak and bewildered as the count climbed higher;
Then she wept for the world across a newsroom wire
When she heard his name called out across the crowd."

This song just devastates me!

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST,Tiger
Date: 26 Sep 16 - 06:26 PM

Bone and blood is the price of coal.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Joe_F
Date: 26 Sep 16 - 06:15 PM

There was a new man's face in hell.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 26 Sep 16 - 10:38 AM

The lines in Penny Evans:

Now every month I get a cheque from some Army beuraucrat,
And every month I tear it up and I mail the damn thing back
Do they think that makes it all right, do they think I'll fall for that?

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST,Sean Mac an Ultaigh
Date: 25 Sep 16 - 08:00 PM

"When you believe in things you don't understand...you suffer...superstition ain't the way"

"Superstition" - Steve Wonder

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST,DTM
Date: 25 Sep 16 - 07:18 PM

"Well, I'm a-standin' on a corner in Winslow, Arizona
Such a fine sight to see
It's a girl, my Lord, in a flat-bed Ford
Slowin' down to take a look at me"

(Take It Easy)

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: meself
Date: 25 Sep 16 - 10:40 AM

Almost any line or even phrase from Leonard Cohen - e.g., " ... the moon is swimming naked" (Closing Time).

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: eftifino
Date: 25 Sep 16 - 08:05 AM

You may think it strange, but 8 words from Barry Manilow gives a perfect image, IMO.
"His name was Rico, he wore a diamond"

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Gda Music
Date: 25 Sep 16 - 07:28 AM

"Diego Martin have plenty plenty plenty
Oh, I have a tree in me yard in Petit Valley.... Bois Bande"

*Bois Bande*   - Mighty Sparrow

GJ

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST,Joseph Scott
Date: 25 Sep 16 - 02:21 AM

"It is always Christmas in a cupboard at the top of the stairs." -- the Mackintosh Man

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 24 Sep 16 - 09:18 PM

Didn't set out to post these together but...

"They tell me all my friends are going to be strangers.
They will come as they have gone."
Danny O'Keefe

"She's filing her nails while they're dragging the lake." Elvis Costello

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 24 Sep 16 - 07:17 PM

Dosen,t mean that much to me
To mean that much to you!

Absolutely scathing".....typical Neil Young

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Joe_F
Date: 24 Sep 16 - 06:07 PM

He said, "We don't know love, it's true,
But we know like, and we like you."

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Joe_F
Date: 24 Sep 16 - 06:00 PM

And overside I heard him call my name.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST,Wireharp
Date: 24 Sep 16 - 01:30 PM

Not a folk song per se, but John Denver's "Annie's Song"
"..let me drown in your laughter, let me die in your arms."
On July 20, my wife died in my arms. I will never hear that song
again without falling to pieces.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST,Janey
Date: 24 Sep 16 - 01:20 PM

All you fair-weather friends where are you when I need you

Bear where you go the words of love, say all that words can say

Like a star on a foggy morning you think he's near but he's far away

There were only two were left that night and we were amongst 'em

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: mkebenn
Date: 24 Sep 16 - 09:42 AM

She's so many women

he can't find the one who was his friend



I want her to be happy, I want her to be free

I want her to be everything she couldn't be with me.


both Zevon

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 24 Sep 16 - 06:55 AM

"I left her as I found her,
right in the nick of time."

(In Northern California, Danny O'Keefe)

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST,Smitty
Date: 23 Sep 16 - 09:35 PM

When they said repent, I wonder what they meant.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 03:26 PM

it's the sand boys the sand boys we've hit the bloody sand boys..from song about shipwreck in Columbia Bar by Brownsmeade Flats. mg

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: RobbieWilson
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 09:45 AM

"You curl around me like a fern in the spring" -John Martyn
"But,Willie McBride it all happened again
and again and again
and again and again"

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Big Ballad Singer
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 07:39 AM

"What have I now?" said the fine old woman.
"What have I now?" this proud old woman did say.
"I have four green fields; one of them's in bondage
In strangers' hands who tried to take it from me.
But my sons have sons as brave as were their fathers;
My fourth green field will bloom once again" said she.

"Four Green Fields" - Tommy Makem

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Feb 11 - 03:39 PM

she dragged herself back to New Zealand
with thoughts of high court and revenge
meanwhile his eye did stray
to the ample bustiay
of a novelty dancer from Penge

:)

don't know about grabbing me , it made me roar with laughter when I first heard it .

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: wordfella
Date: 03 Feb 11 - 11:23 AM

Wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then... Bob Seger

She is fixed in his mind like a picture
He's kept in his wallet for years... Hugh Prestwood

But that's just a lot of water
Underneath a bridge we've burned...   Hugh Prestwood

(The last one resounds from the combined metaphors/cliches.)

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 03 Feb 11 - 10:24 AM

'Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right,
Here I am, stuck in the middle with you' goes through my mind daily, it is apt for many situations.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST,Stew
Date: 02 Feb 11 - 12:15 PM

"You Can Spend All Your Time Making Love, And You Can spend all Your Love Making Time"

Eagles

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST,Jonny Sunshine
Date: 02 Feb 11 - 11:33 AM

"There's got to be one little song left to sing, cos everyone can't have thought of everything" (One Little Song by Gillian Welch)

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: closet-folkie
Date: 02 Feb 11 - 09:30 AM

You make the moon a mirrorball
The streets an empty stage
The city's sirens, violins
Everything has changed

"Mirrorball" by Elbow. (It doesn't hurt that Guy Garvey's vocal is sublime.)

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Allen in Oz
Date: 01 Feb 11 - 06:14 PM

"The faces in the photograph are faded
And I can't believe he looks so much like me"

Diamantina Drover

" The cattle trail goes on and on..the fences roll forever
And I won't be back till the droving's done "

Diamantina Drove

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST,Desi C
Date: 01 Feb 11 - 09:55 AM

My favourite line ever, from the Irish song, Song For Ireland
'drinking all the day, in old pubs where fiddlers love to play' sums up all I love about playing in Ireland. And from my own song, Singiug In Kilkeny
'even lovers down by the River Nore, where the willd Shamrock grow, will be singing in Kilkenny when I go'

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: melodeonboy
Date: 01 Feb 11 - 05:37 AM

"Cruising down carnality canal in my canoe can I canoodle?"

Ian Dury


"White Horse in her hip pocket and bloodhound at her feet."

Richard Thompson

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 01 Feb 11 - 05:28 AM

Is there a better evocation anywhere of an urgent journey in the utmost haste than the widespread ballad floater

And when she came to the riverside
She fell to her breast and she swam
And when she came to the other side
She took to her heels and she ran

?

~Michael~

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST,Peeb
Date: 01 Feb 11 - 03:12 AM

How can I be under you when I'm not over him?

Jenny Talia

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: kendall
Date: 01 Feb 11 - 02:28 AM

If I had a thing to give you, I would tell you one more time
That the world is always turning toward the morning. (Gordon Bok)

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: eddie1
Date: 01 Feb 11 - 02:09 AM

For some reason that I can't quite work out -
"I fumbled in my closet through my clothes to find my cleanest dirty shirt" - Sunday Morning Coming Down, Kris K.
Or pretty well any line from "Suzanne"

Eddie

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Cluin
Date: 01 Feb 11 - 01:58 AM

"...the dust that Pancho bit down south ended up in Lefty's mouth"
             - Townes Van Zandt

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Midchuck
Date: 31 Jan 11 - 09:52 PM

We'll dance on the mountains,
Shout in the Canyons,
Swarm in a loose herd like wild buffalo.
Fillin' our heads full of figures and angles
And tellin' us stuff that we already know.

Billy Joe Shaver, Willy the Wandering Gypsy and Me.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Andy Jackson
Date: 31 Jan 11 - 01:51 PM

I had a quick look back but some lines can cope with being posted again.

"The man with the child in his eyes" Kate Bush

" I can jump puddles can you?" Hugh and Tony Williams.

"I could see my unborn children in his eyes"
And of course
" ....I used to be a young man, now dear Margaret remembers that for me"
Both from "The Dutchman"

And I am proud of a couple of lines of my own that spawned a whole poem.

"How can one heart be so full of love,
But still have room for so much pain."

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Ebbie
Date: 31 Jan 11 - 01:07 PM

As Kendall says, there are so very many. Practically every new song that I love has a line that makes it imperative to learn.

Old memories mean nothing to me. (Hazel Dickens)

Just another boychild he would never see. (That Train Song; Phil Halliday

There's just one lesson I have learned: There ain't no ash will burn. (Don't know who wrote it)

Like the last leaf on the Autumn branch comes a time you must let go. (Changing of the Seasons; Mudcat KT)

1. "...this time I hurt her more than she loves me." Bobert, that is a great line.