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best single lines in songs

30 Apr 99 - 03:00 PM (#74664)
Subject: best single lines
From: Bert

Northfolk got me going on this one when he quoted

"smiling bastards, lying to you, everywhere you go.... "

Some songs have a line that stands out or really makes a point.
What are your favorites.

One of mine is "Who pats my back when no one else could give a damn" from Bestest Friend.

Bert.

30 Apr 99 - 03:17 PM (#74668)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Barbara

"Why should I forgive and forget when I can remember and blame?"

30 Apr 99 - 03:17 PM (#74669)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Joe Offer

John Prine's Paradise has a verse that's the most colorful description I can think of:
Well, sometimes we'd travel right down the Green River
To the abandoned old prison down by Adrie Hill
Where the air smelled like snakes and we'd shoot with our pistols
But empty pop bottles was all we would kill.
Well, it's not a single line, but it's a single sentence.
-Joe Offer-

30 Apr 99 - 03:25 PM (#74671)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Mudjack

John Stewart's "And I have not been known as the saint of San Joaquin" Jack

30 Apr 99 - 03:26 PM (#74673)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: John Wood

``When everyone's talking and no one is listening ,how can we decide ?´´

30 Apr 99 - 03:33 PM (#74675)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Frank of Toledo

"Living's mostly wastin' time, and I waste my share of mine"...From Townes Van Zandt's "To Live Is To Fly".

30 Apr 99 - 03:51 PM (#74678)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Allan C.

"Forsaken, almost human he sank beneath your wisdom like a stone

"...who is to pilot; who is to steer?"

"And over her left kidney was a bird's eye view of Sidney but what we liked best was upon her chest: My little home in Waikiki!"

"Say, don't you remember, you called me 'Al'..."

:-]

30 Apr 99 - 05:38 PM (#74698)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Alice

Say, that's my line.
------

"We may be poor, Robbie and I, but light's the burden love lays on"

"right out of the ale house and into the jail house"

"Let fate do her worst, there are relics of joy, bright dreams of the past, which she cannot destroy"

(You can call me Al.)

30 Apr 99 - 05:41 PM (#74700)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Alice

Allan, some people do call me Al, but I'm sure you've experienced it more.... those lines always makes me smile, even though they are sad ("it was Al all the time").

30 Apr 99 - 06:07 PM (#74704)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Tiger

Townes again, from "No Place to Fall".....Tiger

"Time, she's a fast old train.
She's here, then she's gone,
And she won't come again."

....Townes Van Zandt

30 Apr 99 - 06:30 PM (#74706)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Max

"A woman is like a dresser, some man is always rambling through its drawers." Robert Johnson -- From 4 until late.

30 Apr 99 - 06:38 PM (#74709)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Mark Cohen

"...rowed out to the horizon, and we dropped our anchor there." (Si Kahn, 'Fresh Water Whaling')

"Joy, joy, joy! Joy, joy, joy!" (Alix Herrmann, 'Ring It In')

I'll have to give this some more thought. Great idea!

30 Apr 99 - 08:16 PM (#74726)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Jerry and Bev

"Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to do"
....Kris Kristofferson

30 Apr 99 - 08:17 PM (#74727)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: gargoyle

A centiped boldy, without any fear
Crawls over my pillow and into my ear

Greer County Bachelor

30 Apr 99 - 08:32 PM (#74732)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: katlaughing

C&W tune from the 80's: "If I said you had a beautiful body would you hold it against me?"

30 Apr 99 - 08:48 PM (#74734)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Sandy Paton

O'er his white banes, when they are bare,
The wind shall blaw forever mair.
Twa Corbies

Last night you were sweetly sleeping,
Dreaming in your sweet repose,
Whilst I, a poor boy (girl) broken hearted,
Listened to the wind that blows.

Dear Companion

Sandy

30 Apr 99 - 09:25 PM (#74743)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Matthew B.

The bosun said before I'm through You'll curse your mother for having you

(From John Kanaka Naka)

30 Apr 99 - 10:00 PM (#74753)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: DonMeixner

"..Wooley's from Missouri tho' he farms in Ioway Drinks a case a night because he drives a Case all day.."

"..And at night, the wonderous glory in the everlasting stars.." A.B. Paterson

"...Why weren't you born twins? You could be twice as stupid..." Richard Arlen in China Clipper

"..Things we learned, we'll just be satisfied in knowin' and we'll tell em to our kids as a fairy tale.." Tom Paxton, Outward Bound

"... there is neither East nor West, Nor border, breed nor birth, when two strong men stand face to face tho' they come from the ends of the earth.." Kipling, The Ballad of East and West.

"... I am......Ten Bears..." Will Sampson from The Outlaw Josie Wales.

"..If you're not gonna be rich, better learn to be polite." Louise Maxon, My Grandmother.

Don

30 Apr 99 - 10:38 PM (#74766)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Sandy Paton

"If I had a thing to give you, I would tell you one more time:
The world is always turning toward the morning."
Gordon Bok: "Turning Toward the Morning"

Sandy

30 Apr 99 - 11:29 PM (#74779)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: BK

for just a few:

"as the great unyielding concrete makes a city of my town" - from "Dublin In The Rare Old Times"

"it's snowin' in the city 'n the streets are brown 'n gritty" - Lightfoot's "Alberta Bound" (I think of this every time I drive through dirty winter slush!)

"love can't give you everything, but it gives you what you need" - Kate Wolf

"but bastards like Custer had it coming I hope he's burning still in hell" - "Sleeping Buffalo"

"and this morn as I crept to the barn, around 'bout half past three, there stood nursing on still trembling legs, one more small victory" - "Small Victory"

the last two by Garnet Rogers (Stan's "little" brother)

Cheers, Bk

30 Apr 99 - 11:35 PM (#74780)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Sheye

What's for breakfast?

30 Apr 99 - 11:37 PM (#74781)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: rich r

"How often at night when the heavens are bright
With the light of the glittering stars
Have I stood there amazed, and asked as I gazed,
If their glory exceeds that of ours."

"When the first amphibians crawled out of the slime..." - T Paxton

rich r

30 Apr 99 - 11:43 PM (#74783)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Big Mick

Sometimes she sees
Her unborn children
In his eyes

The Dutchman

All the best,

Mick

30 Apr 99 - 11:53 PM (#74786)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Tucker

you folks got a lot of good single first lines but the best has got to be: the words of the prophets are writen on the subway walls. tenement halls, the sounds of silence. I may have misconstrued what was meant here, as best lines to a song. Certainly Prines "Paradise"is one of my favorites.

30 Apr 99 - 11:54 PM (#74788)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Frank of Toledo

For he's the best o' the barley, cream o' the crop. Easy on the water, I'll tell you when to stop. Brian McNeill "the Back o' the North Wind"

01 May 99 - 12:00 AM (#74790)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: katlaughing

My words are my voice. Without written expression, I would only exist in a limited capacity. My words are my power; an expression of self-love, self-worth, globalism, liberalism; of all that I hold to be true, open, profound, ;loving, humourous, raw, and cosmic." K. LaFrance

"Melancholy is the blue side of the fire of love burning within you." Kat's first "ex", S.E.E.

"The music crept by me upon the waters, Allaying both their fury, and my passion, with its sweet air." Will Shakespeare

"From quiet homes and first beginning, Out to the undiscovered ends, There's nothing worth the wear of winning, But laughter and the love of friends." Belloc

"We are the music makers, We are the dreamers of dreams,Wandering by the lone sea-breakers, And sitting by desolate streams; -- World losers and world forsakers, On whom the pale moon gleams; We are the movers and shakers, Of the world for ever, it seems..... For each age is a dream that is dying, Or one that is coming to birth." Arthur O'Shaughnessy

01 May 99 - 12:12 AM (#74793)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Tucker

Kat, that last verse you wrote. is it a song? Gotta hear it. Tommy

01 May 99 - 12:14 AM (#74794)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Frank of Toledo

""Never said I love you, til' I cursed you in vain." Tom Waits.......1973

01 May 99 - 12:15 AM (#74795)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Lonesome EJ

"You were a sweet girl when you were a cheerleader-but I like you much better now"- Lowell George

"We'll meet neath that giant Exxon sign that brings this fair city light"- Springsteen

" I might be movin to Montana soon- to raise me up a crop of dental floss- raisin it up- waxin it down- in a little white box- that I could sell up town"- Zappa

"When you ain't got nothin, you got nothin to lose"- Dylan

" There's a song that they sing of their home in the sky- maybe you can believe it if it helps you to sleep- singin it's just fine with me"-JT

" She's the song that the trees sing, when the winds blow"- Randy Newman

01 May 99 - 12:43 AM (#74799)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: katlaughing

Tucker, it's something I had marked in my Oxford Dictionary of Quotes. The author, Arthur O'Shaughnessy lived from 1844-1881. Up to the last line it gives the credit to his "Ode". The last line does not make reference to what it is from; I would assume it is from the same piece. I would asusme, also, that is where we got the expression about the movers and shakers of the world. If it's not in a tune, or even if it is, write yer own, eh?

Thanks,

kat

01 May 99 - 08:02 AM (#74857)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From:

In the 'Club-A-Gogo' in Newcastle in the 60's there was a poster on the wall which said.. IF MY THOUGHT DREAMS COULD BE SEEN THEY'D PUT MY HEAD IN A GUILLOTINE......it was ages before I knew what it meant and even longer to realise that it was a Bob Dylan song. Ha, there's plenty more where that came from.

Ritchie.

01 May 99 - 08:12 AM (#74860)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: katlaughing

Good one, Ritchie! here's a couple more:

"Never engage in a battle of wits with a person who is unarmed."

"Roses are red, Violets are blue, It's okay to be 50, When you feel 22!"

"All of my sleep is dreams, All of my dreams are thought, All of my thoughts create wisdom." Erda from Wagner's Siegfried

01 May 99 - 10:07 AM (#74871)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Max

I thought it was "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose." ???

Sounds good both ways.

01 May 99 - 11:33 AM (#74885)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: katlaughing

Yea, Max, isn't that what Janis sang?

01 May 99 - 11:39 AM (#74887)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: JOField

"There's a girl up the country

That I really love."

A.P. Carter, "Hello, Stranger"

01 May 99 - 12:29 PM (#74896)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Banjer

The times they are a'changin'....

01 May 99 - 12:38 PM (#74899)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: The Shambles

You poor take courage You rich take care The earth was made a common treasury For everyone to share

From 'The world turned upside down', by Leon Rosselson.

01 May 99 - 12:58 PM (#74905)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Llanfair

Life is what happens to you whilst you're busy makin' other plans. John Lennon, Beautiful Boy.

And the cares of tomorrow must wait till this day is done. Come by the hill.

Hwyl.

01 May 99 - 02:17 PM (#74929)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Frank of Toledo

"That makes me keep my sleepin' bag rolled-up and stashed behind your couch. John Hartford 1966

01 May 99 - 03:01 PM (#74935)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Bob Schwarer

Most anything from Kipling's Road to Mandalay. (which I can't find)

Bob S.

01 May 99 - 03:06 PM (#74939)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Mudjack

All the alley ways and the doorway wino's I tell my troubles to, .........I remember loving you.Utah Phillips

01 May 99 - 04:22 PM (#74954)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Peter T.

"I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end, but I always thought I'd see you again," and the whole rest of Fire and Rain (already mentioned). It has line after line that open up like terrible flowers.

The best single line of music and words together I know is utterly ordinary: "She Loves You, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah" (the last time around, the sheer open thrill of that last old Glenn Millerish chord, when you can hear the boys suddenly realizing for the first time that the world is theirs, and vice versa). Of course the last page of Tristan and Isolde is pretty good too.

Yours, Peter T.

01 May 99 - 04:49 PM (#74961)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: arkie

01 May 99 - 05:23 PM (#74965)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Graham Pirt

"Warming cold tomorrow by the fires of yesterday"

by Keith Marsden

01 May 99 - 06:17 PM (#74979)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: LEJ

"Full fathom five thy father lies

Of coral are his bones, of shell his eyes

and nothing of him is, that doth not go a change

into something rich and strange"- Shakespeare The Tempest

LEJ

01 May 99 - 06:38 PM (#74982)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Alice

'When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom, Let it Be.'

"All the lonely people, where do they all come from.."

01 May 99 - 06:45 PM (#74983)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Alice

oh, and I forgot... "as my guitar gently weeps"

(no, I'm not depressed, just contemplative.)

01 May 99 - 06:59 PM (#74985)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: bseed(charleskratz)

That corpse you planted last year in your garden
--has it begun to sprout?
Will it bloom this year, or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed?
Oh, keep the dog far hence that's friend to men,
or with his nails he'll dig it up again.

t. s. eliot, the wasteland

"Freedom's just another word for nuthin' left to lose" is from Kristoferson's "Me and Bobbie McGee," recorded by Janis Joplin--who has her narrator holding hands with Bobby while playing blues harmonica. Kristoferson sings it

I pulled my old harpoon out from my dirty red bandanna,
I was blowin' sad while Bobby sang the blues.
With the windshield wipers slappin' time
and Bobby clappin' hands, we fin'ly
Sang up every song that driver knew.

Janis did a good job on the song, but how can you play blues harp with one hand? --seed

01 May 99 - 08:28 PM (#75000)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)

...And I thought this was going to be a thread about singles lines- like, great pick-up lines among those lonely 'catters we're learning so much about! There must be some good ones out there- most I've heard are pretty lame.
Allison

01 May 99 - 08:30 PM (#75001)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)

OK, Joe, how do I un-italic???

This way, Allison: </i>

Cancel HTML tags with a slash, and the command repeated.

-Joe Offer-

01 May 99 - 08:43 PM (#75005)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Tucker

hi Kat Dancing. everyone is on top of me here. So many opening lines, so many good ones. How can you have a favorite? I remember the Weavers on Radio singing "Goodnight Irene Goodnight, when I was a wee one.

01 May 99 - 08:54 PM (#75008)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: katlaughing

Mmmmmm, this one's been running through my head all day:

"Honey, won't you be my salty dog?" and another favourite:

"Up against the wall you redneck mothers!"

katlaughing and dancing!

01 May 99 - 11:41 PM (#75029)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: dwditty

-Walking along one day, feeling out of place, just like I was wearing somebody else's face - Eric Von Scmidt - Wet Birds

Sometimes I wonder just for a little while, will you ever remember me - Tim Buckley - Once I Was

Demons ring steeple bells, angel wings fan the fires of hell - George Gritzbach - Black Crow

When I look at my face, I see in its place, my Dad's physiognamy - 5 Chinese Brothers - My Dad's Face

If we all woke up in the hell we created it would look like where we are right now - Fred Koller - The Hell They Created

She spent so much time in the mirror, boys, she could not tell left from right - Bill Morrissey - Grizzly Bear

I'd trade a year in heaven for a day with you my dear - Dave Van Ronk - Another Time & Place

God Bless the Child that's got his own - Billy Holiday - God Bless The Child

02 May 99 - 12:01 AM (#75032)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Susan A-R

As through this world I rambled, I've seen some funny men Some will rob you with a six gun, and some with a fountain pen -- Woodie Guthrie Pretty Boy Floyd

As for pick up lines, my favorite has always been the one in The Lakes of The Ponchertrain If not for the aligators I would sleep out in the wood.

02 May 99 - 12:43 AM (#75037)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Arkie

I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now. Dylan, from My Back Pages.

...in Chicago, a city noted for its fame

whoever's running your foot up my leg, I love you. Tom Paxton

It's lonely at the bottom too. Mike Dowling, from It's Lonely at the Bottom Too.

02 May 99 - 01:11 AM (#75041)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Sandy Paton

Ain't you got a right to the Tree of Life?
from Guy Carawan's adaptation of a Georgia Sea Island hymn

You do another "<" and put a "/" before the "i", then finish off with another ">", Animaterra, but they sure are easy to forget! Sure was nice to see you at NEFFA. Saw Evan Carawan there, too, Guy's hammered dulcimer playing son. And another generation takes up the torch! There's hope for the future, after all.

Sandy

02 May 99 - 01:58 AM (#75051)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: bseed(charleskratz)

Many a peer of England brews
Livelier liquor than the muse,
And malt does more than Milton can
To justify God's ways to man.

A. E. Houseman

--seed

02 May 99 - 06:17 AM (#75070)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: The Shambles

Susan A-R

I laughed when I read your 'pick-up' line about the alligators. Ever since my mate Kevin had some trouble with fitting in the words to that line, the song has been known ever since as the 'aligators song'.

BTW I liked very much your song that you posted in the other thread.

It's not just what you're born with, it's what you do with what you got............ Si Kahn.

02 May 99 - 06:32 AM (#75073)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Herge

'We were wild then'

Michelle Shocked

02 May 99 - 11:45 AM (#75104)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Matthew B.

Oh Alice, somehow I knew you'd be a lover of the Beatles' poetry....

02 May 99 - 12:32 PM (#75107)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: tjmcshane@aol.com

I asked my grandma on day: " Why don't you get your yard fertilized?" and her reply "Those companys just want your money!" BABE Ada Marry Buttler Johnson

And This one: " I've counted the cross ties, dry bones of the railroad, they stretch from the sun rise to the close of the day. And I've counted the miles between me and my true love, the miles and hightways that carry me away"

from the song KEWANAW LIGHT

Tom Johnson

02 May 99 - 06:38 PM (#75133)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Tucker

Hey Animaterra, that was my first impression too. On that note How's about.....Hummmmm.It's such nice weather,Oh your name is Heather,how about dinner and a drink or two?

02 May 99 - 07:56 PM (#75151)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Mo

"To lie on the decking, on a warm summer's evening,

Watch the red sun fall burning, beneath the earth's rim"

Safe Harbour - Eric Bogle

02 May 99 - 08:08 PM (#75155)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Frank of Toledo

"Stuff that works, stuff that holds up......The kind of stuff you don' hang on the wall.....Stuff that's real, stuff you feel......The kind of stuff you reach ofor when you fall" Guy Clark......1982.........

02 May 99 - 08:58 PM (#75170)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: emily rain

once i had everything, and gave it up for the shoulder of your driveway and the words i'd never felt -- dar williams, iowa

but tell me whatcha plan to do with your foolish pride when you're all by yourself, alone? -- james taylor, shower the people

and the carpet needs a haircut... -- tom waits, the piano has been drinking

the sunlight about her did sparkle and play sayin' it will not be long, love, till our wedding day -- she mov'd through the faire

if i can't find a man then i'll surely find a carrot -- maid in the garret

and she says and i QUOTE: more power to me! -- tom herring, more power to me

four lean hounds crouched low and smiling -- e e cummings, all in green went my love riding

02 May 99 - 09:00 PM (#75171)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Susan A-R

Emily, are you sure it wasn't parrot?? Definitely gives it the ring of Zucchinis are better than . . .

02 May 99 - 09:13 PM (#75174)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Sandy Paton

Lizzie Higgins, when she first sang the song for me, ended it with "If I cannae get a man, I'll surely get a parrot." But then, with the final chorus:
br> Of dear me, what will I dae,
If I dee an auld maid in a garret,
Wi' a parrot!"

Then she and Jeannie both laughed and admitted that it was supposed to be "wi' a carrot." So, you're both right!

Sandy

02 May 99 - 09:18 PM (#75175)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: emily rain

yes, we are. :)

i've seen it in songbooks as "parrot", but i suspect they're just trying to slip it past the squeamish publishers... when i recorded this song, i had to make it suitable for my baptist grandparents' delicate sensibilities, so i rewrote that last verse, but honestly: i LOVE the carrot!

02 May 99 - 09:21 PM (#75177)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Les B

"Her heart was like a purser's shower, ran hot to cold in a quarter of an hour"

"Cradle wood or coffin wood it's all the same to me"

02 May 99 - 10:10 PM (#75185)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Uncle Frank the Singing Insurance Guy

Saw the topic, read the entries before blurting out my own and sure enough it was there already, the Woody Guthrie line furnished by Susan A-R. Way to go Susan.

02 May 99 - 11:47 PM (#75207)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Charlie Baum

This compact philosophy of life:

"Give me water when I'm thirsty
Give me whiskey when I'm dry
Give me Alberta when I need her
And sweet heaven when I die."

--from a version of Stagolee collected by Alan Lomax at Parchman Prison Farm, Mississippi, in the 40s (or 50s?).

--Charlie Baum

03 May 99 - 01:30 AM (#75226)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Frank of Toledo

'HOW THE HELL CAN A PERSON GO TO WORK IN THE MORNING.....AND COME HOME IN THE EVENING AND HAVE NOTHING TO SAY"......JOHN PRINE 1971....

03 May 99 - 09:19 AM (#75278)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: puzzled

imagine all the people living life in peace.

03 May 99 - 09:26 AM (#75281)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: The Shambles

Ditto the last one.

Remember, wherever you go, there you are. (From a MAD MAX film)

03 May 99 - 10:58 AM (#75292)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Pete peterson

I would rather ride a wagon and go to heaven than to hell in an automobile (Uncle Dave Macon) I may be crazy and all like that, but I got good sense you see (Charlie Poole) Because I helped to wind the clock, I came to hear it strike (Michael O'Rahilly as quoted by Wm. Butler yeats)

03 May 99 - 11:37 AM (#75297)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: mountain tyme

From the U. S. Civil War song "Eartha" by H.L. & J.P. Webster, Better known from the Columbia #150 recording version of "Lorina" by the Blue Ridge Mountain Singers.....The saga of a prisoner writing a letter home......."One hundred months have passed Lorina, since last I held your hand in mine, and felt your pulse beat fast Lorina, while mine beat faster far than thine".

03 May 99 - 01:03 PM (#75313)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: dan

from Shakespeare's Sonnet 116:

"Love's not Time's fool, though rosy cheeks and lips within his circling sickle's compass come."

and from a lesser know sonnet by Murray Bennett:

"I loved two eyes set deep and wide apart, but most of all a stone that was a heart."

03 May 99 - 01:19 PM (#75314)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Tony Burns

Bseed: You asked:

Janis did a good job on the song, but how can you play blues harp with one hand?

If you ever get a chance to see Chris Whiteley play he will show you how it can be done with no hands and without one of those 'round your neck harp holders either. (He's famous for it. Just pops the whole thing in his mouth and plays.)

03 May 99 - 02:35 PM (#75328)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Cara

Anything from Raglan Road;

"the less I seek my source for some definitive, the closer I am to fine" (Indigo Girls)

...like holy wine, so bitter and so sweet, oh I could drink a case of you, and I would still be on my feet"

"I stopped into a bar at 3a.m., to seek solace in a bottle, or possibly a friend, I woke up with a headache like my head against the wall, twice as cloudy as I'd been the night before, and I'd went there seeking clarity" (Indigo Girls)

"But late at night when the cold wind moans, in a long black veil she cries over my bones"

"Think where man's glory most begins and ends, and say my glory was I had such friends" (Yeats)

I do not know what it is about you that closes and opens, only something in me understand; the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses; nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands. (ee cummings)

" the leader of the band is tired and his eyes are growing old, but his blood runs through my instrument and his song is in my soul"

03 May 99 - 03:25 PM (#75337)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Jaxon

"Say goodbye to the landlord for me, sons of bitches always bore me.
Guy Clark

Jack Murray

03 May 99 - 03:27 PM (#75339)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Songbob

One of the relies here asked:

Tucker, it's something I had marked in my Oxford Dictionary of Quotes. The author, Arthur O'Shaughnessy lived from 1844-1881. Up to the last line it gives the credit to his "Ode". The last line does not make reference to what it is from; I would assume it is from the same piece. I would asusme, also, that is where we got the expression about the movers and shakers of the world. If it's not in a tune, or even if it is, write yer own, eh?

Well, it has been done, you know. In fact, it's been done by a lot of folks, including the following, some of whom are folkies:

Jake Walton (Brit.) Lorraine Lee Hammond Bob Zentz Bob Clayton Edward Elgar

The original poem was 35 stanzas or so long, but Shaunessy had an editor who urged him to cut it down. The Elgar setting (1912) has more "verses" than I learned (it has six or seven), but I've never tried to compare my setting to his.

We did have a Folkslore Society of Greater Washington (FSGW) Getaway (camping weekend) where two invited guests were Lorraine Lee Hammond and Bob Zentz, so we cooked up a workshop called "from poem to song" to compare the three versions. Lorraine did only the first verse, and in 3/4 time; Bob Zentz had the three verses I do, but used the middle verse as a sort of bridge. I use the opening verse as a chorus and have the other two as "verses."

It's a nice set of lyrics, although the longer version gets a bit much in the "flowery" department for contemporary ears. I'll look to see if it's in Digitrad, but I can't do that till I post this. If it's not there, I'll post the lyrics for adding.

Bob Clayton

03 May 99 - 03:35 PM (#75342)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Shack

"They've never seen spring hit the Great Divide; and they've never heard old Camp Cookie sing." Night Rider's Lament

03 May 99 - 03:42 PM (#75343)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Twilight

for the hopes of all the hopeless and the prayers of all the poor
will be running by his side to keep him straight

ab paterson (father o'reilly's horse)

03 May 99 - 03:44 PM (#75345)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Shack

"They've never seen spring hit the Great Divide; and they've never heard old Camp Cookie sing." Night Rider's Lament

03 May 99 - 03:47 PM (#75346)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: LEJ

" And what rough beast, his hour come round at last,

Shuffles toward Bethlehem to be born" WB Yeats/Sailing to Byzantium

" With rue my heart is laden, for many a friend I had.

For many a rose-lipped maiden, and many a light-foot lad

By brooks too broad for leaping, the lightfoot lads are laid

The rose-lipped maidens sleeping in fields where roses fade" AE Housman

03 May 99 - 04:22 PM (#75349)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Allan C.

Every day I wake up with a new list of favorites.

There are so very many from Paul Simon, for instance, that I hardly know where to start. Some speak words that I have felt in my own heart. Others simply conjure up images which capture my imagination:
"Like a rat in a maze, the path before me lies…" - Patterns
"He holds his crayon rosary tighter in his hand." - Poem On An Underground Wall
"And I watch as her breasts gently rise, gently fall" - Wednesday Morning 3AM
"There but for the grace of you go I." - Kathy's Song

"And we sit and drink our coffee
Couched in our indifference…" - The Dangling Conversation

"And when I awoke and felt you warm and near,
I kissed your honey hair with my grateful tears.
Oh I love you, girl. Oh, I love you." - For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her

"I'd rather be a hammer than a nail." - El Condor Pasa

"Seeking out the poorer quarters where the ragged people go,
Looking for the places only they would know." - The Boxer

"Ask me and I will play all the love that I hold inside" - Song For the Asking

"The thought that life could be better is woven indelibly
Into our hearts and our brains" - The Train In the Distance

"'Kathy, I'm lost'" and "…I'm empty and aching and I don't know why." - America
"When I look back on all the crap I learned in high school, it's a wonder I can think at all." - Kodachrome

"… I dreamed that my soul rose unexpectedly
And looking back down at me, smiled reassuringly" - American Tune

There are hundreds of other favorites from as many sources. Even a short list of my dearest favorites would be too long to post. Virtually all of the songs I choose to sing have some outstanding lyrics somewhere within them that made them appealing to me in the first place. Each, in turn, becomes a favorite depending solely upon my mood. Like right now my thoughts are held by the words, "I'm going back to California - place where I was partly raised…". This is probably because tomorrow I will put my daughter on a plane that will take her to her new home and new job in Santa Cruz. California is where I was born and partly raised, so, in a way I feel like I am sending her home. But while I am extremely proud of Kelly for landing this great opportunity, it is hard to say goodbye…besides, I wish I could go too!

03 May 99 - 07:53 PM (#75394)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Driscoll

"Twenty years of schooling and they put you on the day shift", Bob Dylan, "Subterranean Homesick Blues".

"But to work til you're dead for a room and a bed is not the reason I left Mullingar", P. Cooksey, "The Reason I Left Mullingar".

"I could have been someone, well so could have anyone", Shane McGowan, "Fairytale of New York".

"On a quiet street where old ghosts meet, I see her walking now...", P. Kavanagh, "Raglan Road".

"And the drunk on the bus told me how to get rich, I was glad we weren't going too far", L. Reilly, "Summer in Dublin".

03 May 99 - 07:54 PM (#75395)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: bigJ

My favourite line from a shanty is - "the beef was as salt as Lot's wife's ass"

03 May 99 - 09:02 PM (#75414)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: katlaughing

Good breeding consists in concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person. -Mark Twain

There is so much good in the worst of us; and so much bad in the best of us, that it hardly behooves any of us to talk about the rest of us. - I've had this on my chalkboard for years and the author's name has worn away. Sorry.

The trouble with our times is that the future is not what it used to be. - Paul Valery

03 May 99 - 11:09 PM (#75437)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Ronn

Tomorrow lies in the cradle, Tomorrow has eyes that shine, Tomorrow lies in the cradle, with eyes a little like mine. --Fred Hellerman, TOMORROW LIES IN THE CRADLE

When your grandma dies cussing a wrestler, it's a secret that you've just got to keep. --Rev Billy C Wirtz, GRANDMA VS THE CRUSHER

There's a thin line between Saturday night and Sunday morning. --Jimmy Buffett, FRUITCAKES

You're only as old as the women you feel. In that case, I'm 85. --Groucho Marx, one of his autobiographies

I'll let you be in my dream if I can be in yours --Bob Dylan

03 May 99 - 11:17 PM (#75439)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: alison

The young wear their freedom like cheap perfume.

(Carrie.. recorded by Cliff Richard, written I think by B.A.Robertson)

Slainte

alison

03 May 99 - 11:25 PM (#75441)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Alice

Midnight at the oasis, send your camel to bed

03 May 99 - 11:40 PM (#75443)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: katlaughing

How old would you be, if you didn't know how old you were? -Ruth Gordon-

Discourse on virtue and they pass by in drove. Whistle and dance the shimmy and you've got an audience. - Diogenes, 4th century BC -

It's no disgrace to be poor. The only disgrace is in not doing something about it. - Flora E. Youmans - my grandma

There I was - doing 55mph on I95 in Connecticut, speeding bullet-like cars streaming past me on both sides, partng like the waters for Moses, because gawd forbid....I was doin' the speed limit! - kat -

All that matters is to be one with the living God. To be a creature in the house of the God of Life. Like a cat asleep on a chair. At peace, in peace, Master of the house, with the Mistress at home. - D.H. Lawrence - from the Last Poems of D.H. Lawrence

Television hangs on the questionable theory that whatever happens anywhere should be sensed everywhere. If everyone is going to be able to see everything, in the long run all sights may lose whatever rarity value they once possessed, and it may well turn out that people, being able to see and hear practically everything, will be specially interested in almost nothing. - E.B. White -

04 May 99 - 02:29 AM (#75475)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Frank in the swamps

Love, it is a killin' thing,

have you ever felt the pain?

Or... as some old cattle boss was reputed to say when he and his bunch of cowboys confronted a gang of new farmers on the Kansas plains..........

"Bend 'em west boys, ain't nuthin here but sunflowers and sonsabitches anyway".

Frank i.t.s.

04 May 99 - 02:43 AM (#75476)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: bseed(charleskratz)

Leej: Almost right line; wrong poem. "The Second Coming," all of which is one of my favorite lines:


THE SECOND COMING
By William Butler Yeats

Turning and turning in its widening gyre,
The falcon cannot hear the falconer.
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold.
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world;
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed,
And everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned.
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.

The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of spiritus mundi troubles my sight.
Somewhere in sands of the desert
A creature with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun
Is moving its slow thighs while all about
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again, but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony silence
Have been stirred to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?

That's from memory: I may have a few errors in line division, maybe a word or two off, and certainly some punctuation errors.

--seed

04 May 99 - 03:12 AM (#75479)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Håvard

"whar we'll meet up wi' oor kinsfolk, fae a' the country roon
and the gang-aboot folk tak' tae the road when yellow's on the broom"

"We gave all we had, now our homes they've pulled down
and I cry out REPUBLIC!, and allegiance to no crown"
Håvard

04 May 99 - 04:40 AM (#75490)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: bassen

Like others who've posted here, I have many favorites. A major motivation for singing for me is to be able to sing those lines where music and words seem to resonate together into something greater, where you really look forward to getting to that part of a song. As a historian, I can disuss the pro's and con's of the Easter rebellion, the strategic necessity, the tactical absurdities, etc. and never bat an eyelash. But the image of armed men marching not to pipes or drums but "the angelus bells o'er the Liffy swells" gets me every time, my eyes are brimming even now...

There's a line from one song I never sing though, that sticks with me and that only gets truer and truer:

Money doesn't talk, it swears - Bob Dylan

bassen

04 May 99 - 05:34 AM (#75496)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Håvard

and another Dylan on money:
"Let me ask you one question: is your money that good?
Will it buy you forgiveness? Do you think that it could?"

Håvard

04 May 99 - 06:48 AM (#75502)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Banjer

Money, you can't take it with you
But try going anywhere without it!

04 May 99 - 07:00 AM (#75507)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Barbara

"Money has its own way and money has to grow
It feeds on human blood and bone, as any child should know
It's metal stuff and paper stuff with no life of its own,
And so we have to nurture it on human blood and bone,
Blood and bone."
---- The Money Crop Malvina Reynolds.

04 May 99 - 07:40 AM (#75511)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: The_one_and_only_Dai

Faith fails against these fortresses:
Garlands of love,
Victor's laurels,
Wreaths for the dead.

Some ECW poet - Donne maybe?

And from the Bhagavad Gita, Siva says to Arjun:

The wise grieve not for those who live. And grieve not for those who die, for life and death shall pass away.

04 May 99 - 08:17 AM (#75514)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: katlaughing

`Thou shalt not' is half the law of Ireland, and `Thou must' is the other half - P.H. Pearse -

...the wise have pitted the fool that hath striven ot give a life
In the world of time and space maong the bulks of actual things,
To a dream thatw as dreamed in the heart, and that only the heart could hold.
Oh wise men, riddle me this: what if the dream come true? - Pearse -

And this was delivered in a grand way on a BBC drama by an undercover cop; it really was classic, a subordinate female cop is trying to pick her up, when she says to her: "I don't mind being thought a dyke; but what bothers me is ya thinkin' I am a stupid dyke!" Go gyrl!!!

katlaughing

04 May 99 - 10:23 AM (#75535)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Pete Peterson

remarkable how many of us have quoted something from the Easter Rebellion; I agree with Bassen about the Foggy Dew but the line that gets me is "Britannia's sons with their long range guns." Lenin had the cruiser Aurora and won, Pearse and Connolly had nothing and lost the battle, till their ghosts won the war just a few years later. katlaughing, where can I get a book on Pearse's poetry? I have come to the Easter rebellion backward from friends who got me interested in James Joyce & then told me I had to understand Irish history to start to understand the Wake. . . should we start a separate thread here? PETE

04 May 99 - 02:13 PM (#75577)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: LEJ

bSeed... thanks for the correction, and for printing the poem in it's entirety. That is one powerful piece of work, and perhaps more powerful in our times than when Yeats wrote it. "the blood-dimmed tide is loosed and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned" indeed.

LEJ

04 May 99 - 04:02 PM (#75595)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Steve Latimer

God said Abraham kill me a son, Abe said man you must be puttin' me on, God said no, Abe said what? God said you can do what you want Abe, but, Next time you see me comin, you'd better run. Abe said where ya want this killin' done, God said out on Highway 61. Bob Dylan

In the shade of an oak, down by the river, sat an old man and a boy, settin' sails, spinnin' tales, and fishin' for whales, with a lady that they both enjoy. Willie Nelson

Hey there brother, who you jivin' whith that Kozmic Debris? Frank Zappa

For you can't hang a man for killin' a woman, who's trying to steal your horse. Willie Nelson

My Head Hurts, my feet stink and I don't love Jesus, One of them mornings, musta been one of them nights. Jimmy Buffet

I've Gotta leave this town running, 'cause, Walkin's way too slow. Big Bill Broonzy

And yes, there's something you can send back to me, Spanish boots of Spanish leather. Bob Dylan

I'm sick of love, That I'm in the thick of it, This kind of love, I'm so sick of it Bob Dylan

Yeah I'll pay your cab fare home, you can even use my best cologne, Just don't be here in the morning when I wake up. The Faces

The women I've known I wouldn't let tie my shoes, They wouldn't give you the time of day. Unsure of author, performed by Rod Stewart. I was down there paintin' on the old wood shed when a can of black paint did fell on my head, I went down to rub and scrub, but I had to sit in back of the tub, cost a quarter, half price.

My telephone rang, it would not stop, It was President Kennedy callin' me up, he said my friend Bob whatta we need to make the country grow, I said my friend John, Bridgit Bardot, Anita Ekberg, Sophia Loren, the country'll grow. Bob Dylan

Now the rainman gave me two cures, Then he said, "Jump right in." The one was Texas medicine, The other was just railroad gin. An' like a fool I mixed them An' it strangled up my mind, An' now people just get uglier An' I have no sense of time. Oh, Mama, can this really be the end, To be stuck inside of Mobile With the Memphis blues again. Bob Dylan

Jazz is not dead...it just smells funny.

Is that a real poncho or a Sears poncho?

Most people wouldn't know good music if it came up and bit them in the ass. Frank Zappa

How's your new love I hope he's doing fine Heard you told him That you'd love him 'til the end of time Now that's the same thing, that you told me Seems like just the other day Gee, ain't it funny, how time slips away? Willie Nelson

I'm so Lonesome I could cry. Hank Williams

There's a lot of doctors that tell me That I'd better start to slowin' it down But there's more old drunks Than there are old doctors So I guess we'd better have another round Willie Nelson

The sun is filled with ice And gives no warmth at all The sky was never blue The stars are raindrops Searching for a place to fall And I never cared for you. More Willie

Just pretend I never happened And erase me from your mind You will not want to remember Any love as cold as mine. Yet more Willie Nelson

Look out man, I got the Madman blues. John Lee Hooker

I'd better stop now as I keep reminding myself of more.

04 May 99 - 04:59 PM (#75600)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: annamill

The only thing that looks good on me.....is you!

Bryan Adams

Anna

04 May 99 - 07:02 PM (#75627)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: LEJ

I think the lines quoted from the Rod Stewart "Reason to Believe" are by Tim Hardin.

04 May 99 - 07:18 PM (#75633)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: The Shambles

Kindred Spirits are hard to find, you can wait a lifetime.

From Kindred Spirits by Kevin Stenlake(of The Shambles).

04 May 99 - 10:55 PM (#75671)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: bseed(charleskratz)

Leej: Right you are (and wrong I was: "Twenty centuries of stony silence/have been vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle...). Yeats was a mystic who believed that history happened in two-millenia cycles, and that we were nearing the end of the Christian cycle. He was also a fascist sympathizer who believed that the "rough beast," fascism, was a good thing, because Christianity (or that aspect of it represented by "a rocking cradle") was too gentle to save civilization. Fascism/totalitarianism is certainly a rough beast, but fortunately not so indomitable as he believed. But there are certainly other rough beasts out there: nuclear and chemical and biological weapons, corporate power, virulent ethnic nationalism, uncontrolled "development" of natural resources, you name it; we got it. --seed

05 May 99 - 01:27 AM (#75700)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: katlaughing

Hi, Pete. If you go here there are several books about him and some collections of his writings. What a brilliant mind and writer! I didn;t do that through the Mudcat link, so you mihgt want to actually go there that way, if you plan on buying anything; that way teh Mudcat will get a share of the proceeds and credit for sending someone their way.

A really good novel which is, I think, on the best seller lists is "1916" by Morgan Llwywelyn. She does a good job of blending the fiction with actual quoted material of teh real historical figures which are all cited. It's very well done.

Thanks for asking. I believe humankind comes up with soem of their best stuff in times such as that. No wonder we've all quoted from it a lot.

kat

05 May 99 - 03:39 AM (#75719)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: bseed(charleskratz)

We must love one another or die. W. H. Auden

listen! there's a helluva good universe next door. let's go! --e.e.cummings

Or the whole poem:

pity this busy monster manunkind
not. progress is a comfortable disease:
your victim, death and life safely beyond,
plays with the bigness of his littleness.
electrons deify one razor blade
into a mountainrange; lenses extend
unwish through curving wherewhen
'til unwish returns on its unself. a world of made
is not a world of born. pity poor flesh
and trees, poor stars and stone, but never this
fine specimen of hypermagical
ultraomnipotence. we doctors know
a hopeless case if...listen!there's a
helluva good universe next door. let's go.

again from memory--likely errors in line breaks and punctuation

like the second coming, many great lines: I particularly like "progress is a comfortable disease"

luddites of the world arise! the 18th century can be regained.

--seed

05 May 99 - 11:50 AM (#75788)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Steve Latimer

I forgot "I saw a Werewolf drinking a Pina Colada at Trader Vics, his hair was perfect" by Warren Zevon.

The Rod Stewart song I referred to was in fact "Every Picture Tells a Story" not "Reason to Believe", I'm still not sure who wrote it.

05 May 99 - 02:22 PM (#75819)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: The Shambles

The clergy dazzle us with heaven, or they damn us in to hell.

Leon Rosselson: 'The World Turned Upside Down'. Again..... I do like this song a lot.

05 May 99 - 05:58 PM (#75881)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Gordon Dougherty

Here's one of my favourites:

"Well, the girls up in Cripple Creek are 'bout half grown,

jump on a boy like a dog on a bone..."

05 May 99 - 06:50 PM (#75889)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: John Galt

Be Here Now..... Ram Das

06 May 99 - 08:01 AM (#76052)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Ian

"Forgotten heroes from a forgotten war"

from Eric Bogle's "The Band played Waltzing Matilda"

"Gone where the forests of oak trees have gone, gone to be wasted in battle"

from "The Ladies Dance at Whitsun"

06 May 99 - 10:59 AM (#76094)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Peter Fisher

"So if you're walking down the street sometime
And spot some hollow ancient eyes
Please don't just pass 'em by and stare
As if you didn't care, Say 'Hello in there, hello.'
John Prine.

"To dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free, silhouetted by the sea." Dylan

"And the sun will bite your body
As the dust will dry you thirsty
While your muscles beg for mercy, bracero
In the shade of your sombrero
Drop your sweat upon the soil
Like the fruit, your youth will spoil, bracero."
Phil Ochs

"No straight lines make up my life, all my roads have bends
No clearcut beginnings, so far no dead ends."
Harry Chapin

"Your tears will be trembling now we're somewhere else
One last cup of wine I will pour
I'll kiss you one more time, and leave you on the rolling rive shore, of changes."
Phil Ochs

"Look out kid, it's something you did
God knows when but you're doin' it again."
Dylan

06 May 99 - 11:02 AM (#76097)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Felipa

"How can I keep from singing?"

06 May 99 - 11:46 AM (#76112)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: KingBrilliant

Tom Robinson (war baby): Only the very young and very beautiful could be so aloof, Hanging out with the boys, all swagger and poise.

Kris (& also just about everything else he ever wrote...)

06 May 99 - 12:02 PM (#76120)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: danl

'getting high on the beer and the atmosphere of a good time' 'cigerette smoke and bad jokes hang in the air' 'all the songs we hate, but we sing them anyway.' all from 'Ginnie' by Fairport Convention. a song that means a lot to me as it so perfectly describes the best possible times and reminds me of sitting listening to my brother playing/singing it....

'she'd feel alone in a crowded room. cry when ever she heard a happy tune' - 'Julie' by the Levellers, another great song. and perhaps the greatest of all the Levellers songs -

'theres only one way of life, and thats your own.'

oh yes, and for the cynic in you... 'every silver lining has a cloud.' ! - 'smile' by the Supernaturals, that one line redeems what would otherwise be a rather naff band!

love ivy b.

06 May 99 - 12:19 PM (#76124)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Håvard

Since the election is on in Scotland today, I'll post this description of the last Scottish parliament:

"But pith an pooer, till my last hour
I'll mak this declaration -
We're bocht an sold for English gold
Sic a parcel o rogues in a nation!

Håvard

06 May 99 - 01:38 PM (#76141)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: The Shambles

There is a new one for this Best Single Lines PART TWO as this is getting a bit long to load.

07 May 99 - 12:54 PM (#76406)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Rasta

a line I always remember so well from the beginning of a pete seeger tune --Here we are knee deep in garbage, --firing rockets to the Moon-- Last train to Nuremburg Last train to Nuremburg, all on board

07 May 99 - 12:55 PM (#76407)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Rasta

a line I always remember so well from the beginning of a pete seeger tune --Here we are knee deep in garbage, --firing rockets to the Moon-- Last train to Nuremburg Last train to Nuremburg, all on board Rastaaaaaaaaaa

25 Sep 01 - 08:57 PM (#558799)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Uncle Steve

I left her standing in her doorway, why, I'll never know... but I was younger then.

- Bob Gibson

25 Sep 01 - 11:45 PM (#558909)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: GUEST, I, hurricane

Whatever perished with my ships, I only know the best remains; A song of praise is on my lips For losses which are now my gains.

John Whittier Burning Driftwood

25 Sep 01 - 11:57 PM (#558923)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Troll

"But when it comes to slaughter
You will do your work on water
And you'll lick the bloomin' boots of 'im that's got it."

Gunga Din by Rudyard Kipling

troll

26 Sep 01 - 01:32 AM (#558986)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Genie

"I need to see you naked in your body and your mind..." (Leonard Cohen)

"You can't shoot a male in the tail like a quail, Oh, you can't get a man with a gun1" (Irving Berlin)

26 Sep 01 - 11:22 PM (#559609)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Andrew S

This is from Guy Davis' "Sugarbelle Blue"

A man come up and asked for a date

[He]look like a two dollar chicken on a three dollar plate

27 Sep 01 - 10:42 PM (#560421)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Paul from Hull

"Just send out your Chief an' surrender, it's worse if you fights or you runs, You may hide in the caves, they'll be only your graves, but you can't get away from the guns"

'Screw-Guns' - Kipling

(I sent this to a good friend of mine in the Gulf War. He was a 'Fire-Controller' for the Royal Artillery. Apparently Lt.Gen De La Billiere saw it, & knew it, Gen. Schwartzkopf either didnt see it, or didnt comment)

I dunno whether it really feels appropriate or not at this present time...but...

09 Feb 05 - 01:35 AM (#1403395)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Cluin

Lies ain't no harder than telling the truth and truth is the perfect disguise
    ~Kris Kristofferson, "Shandy"

09 Feb 05 - 03:02 AM (#1403436)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: GUEST,anonanonanon

Nobody mentioned Al Stewart yet???
Too many great lines to list, imho.

09 Feb 05 - 04:36 AM (#1403501)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Splott Man

John Prine (sung by Iris Dement) -

He ain't got laid in a month of Sundays,
Caught him once, he was sniffing my undies.


Old Blues (source anyone?) -

Been down so long, it looks like "up" to me.


From Mountains of Mourne -

He stopped all the cars with a wave of his hand.

09 Feb 05 - 09:12 AM (#1403571)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: GUEST

Pre internal-combustion, Ned. I usually sing "stopped the whole street with one wave of his hand"

09 Feb 05 - 07:43 PM (#1403892)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: GUEST,andymac

"Like waves the sheep rolled in..." (The Dark Loch: Alastair Hulett)

"Said how long you gonna hang around?
Said a week, maybe two just until my skin turns brown,
Then I'm going home..." (California: Joni Mitchell)

"When we fa' we aye get up again,
And sae will we yet" (Sae Will We Yet: author forgotten - sorry)

And so many others that just don't spring to mind right now but will seconds after posting this...

Andy

10 Feb 05 - 06:40 AM (#1404326)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: fat B****rd

"have to go so far just to get my hambone boiled"

10 Feb 05 - 06:45 AM (#1404329)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: GUEST,Raggytash

From the chorus of Anthony John Clarke's "Irish Eyes"

"This ain't no precious song about Ireland, so don't you dare mistake it for the one's you whistle when you're going home"

10 Feb 05 - 06:59 AM (#1404337)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: erinmaidin

One phrase that has stuck in my mind all of these years is Kenny Roger's "you're a hell of a singer and a powerful man but you surround yourself with people who demand so little of you" from "Sweet Music Man". I think it is because it has always summed up what I see in a lot of musicians...do I sound jaded?!

10 Feb 05 - 12:29 PM (#1404740)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Bunnahabhain

"And the band played Waltzing Matilda, as we marched off to Gallipoli"
Eric bogle, And the band played Waltzing Matilda.

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil: for thou art with me."
Psalm 23.4

10 Feb 05 - 02:21 PM (#1404878)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Pauline L

Two of my favorite lines come from the same song, "Don't Think Twice."

We never did do much talking anyway.

and

I gave her my heart but she wanted my soul.

However, it's hard to beat the line quoted in the very first post on this thread:

With smiling bastards lying to you everywhere you go.

10 Feb 05 - 03:39 PM (#1404972)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Sir Roger de Beverley

"Though we're apart you bother me still"

Fats Domino - Blueberry Hill


R

10 Feb 05 - 04:30 PM (#1405043)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: GUEST

If some day you should be
on a new daddy's knee,
don't forget about me
Little Pal.

10 Feb 05 - 04:31 PM (#1405045)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: CStrong

"You're part of me still," I think. It's good your way, though.

10 Feb 05 - 11:01 PM (#1405384)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: The Fooles Troupe

Part I

13 Mar 05 - 04:21 PM (#1433817)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: GUEST,PUCK

I like the line by the Rev'd John Ball from the time of the Peasants Revolt [ 1381 ] ...
                   " When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman?"    Malc

13 Mar 05 - 06:46 PM (#1433900)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: paddymac

Note quite a single line, but a verse from Paul Kaplan's "Call Me The Whale" (c) 1984. Vivid image, to be sure.

Now you hunt me down in your factory ships
And you never even touch me with your hands
In the morning I am playing with my babies in the waves,
In the afternoon I'm packed into your cans, brave boys,
In the afternoon I'm packed into your cans.

13 Mar 05 - 06:51 PM (#1433902)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: RobbieWilson

I like a good bum on a woman it makes my day---Jake Thackery

14 Mar 05 - 08:53 AM (#1434319)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Rain Dog

A couple more from Tom Waits :

And you're east of East St Louis, and the wind is making speeches
And the rain sounds like a round of applause ( From 'Time')

She's a diamond who wants to stay coal ( From ' Blackmarket Baby' )

You haven't looked at me that way in years
But I'm still here    ( From 'I's still here')

14 Mar 05 - 09:12 AM (#1434337)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: GUEST,Bainbo

"I see angels on Ariels in leather and chrome
Swooping down fron Heaven to carry me home"

From Richard Thompson's 1952 Vincent Black Lightning, about a motorcycle bad-boy dying after a shoot-out. Weird, but no matter how many times I play it, it gives me little tingle from my stomach up to the back of my neck. And I've got it again just typing the line out!

14 Mar 05 - 09:51 AM (#1434379)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: GUEST

"And see that maiden shining in his eyes"

Some folks may need the rest of the verse for context:
"She'll look up in that weathered face
That loves hers, line for line
And see that maiden shining in his eyes
And laugh at how her mirror tells her lies"

But for me, that third line is what gives me a shiver and chokes me up.

14 Mar 05 - 10:44 AM (#1434394)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: GUEST

14 Mar 05 - 10:46 AM (#1434395)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: GUEST,Splott Man who clicked too soon before

"Sometimes she sees her unborn children in his eyes"

from Mike Smith's Dutchman

14 Mar 05 - 01:38 PM (#1434494)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: YorkshireYankee

Oops... that "And see that maiden shining in his eyes" post is from me (didn't realize I'd lost my cookie.)

14 Mar 05 - 02:32 PM (#1434558)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: GUEST

"Did they get ya ta trade, yer heroes for ghosts, hot ashes for trees, hot air for a cool breeze?" -"Wish You Were Here," Pink Floyd

14 Mar 05 - 02:48 PM (#1434581)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: GUEST,Bex McK

"Freedom, oh freedom, that's just some people talking...." The Eagles, Desperado

"I hope when I die and the ages do roll, my body will blacken and turn into coal. Then I'll look from the door of my heavenly home, and pity the miner that's diggin my bones" Merle Travis, Dark as a Dungeon


Too many good ones, but those are two of my favs.

Oh yeah, and I really like "Walkin due south, out of Roanoke, I caught a trucker out of Philly, had a nice long toke"-- from Wagon Wheel by the Old Crow Medicine Show.

13 Jul 06 - 05:22 PM (#1782918)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: katlaughing

refresh...this is one of the good old ones, imo

13 Jul 06 - 05:24 PM (#1782921)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Peace

"Honey I don't care, I ain't in love with your hair."

13 Jul 06 - 10:16 PM (#1783105)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: freightdawg

"He was born in the summer of his 27th year,
Coming home to a place he'd never been before" John Denver, Rocky Mountain High

"The wind is the whisper of our mother the earth" JD, Windsong

"In a place of enchantment, where the wild things are known,
Will the future remember, when the lovers are gone?" JD, A Song For All Lovers

"And you wonder where we're going, where's the rhyme, where's the reason" JD, Ryhmes and Reasons

Oh love to some is like a cloud
to some as strong as steel,
For some a way of living,
For some a way to feel,
And some say love is holding on
And some say love is letting go,
And some say love is everything,
And some say they don't know..." JD, Perhaps Love

Freightdawg, in a real Colorado frame of mind.

14 Jul 06 - 12:36 AM (#1783155)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: GUEST,Joe_F

Too late, but never mind.

I hear the noise of wings.

If ever you heard a little dog bark

Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with His heel

She makes a small hole in the frost on the window

Walking in his footsteps in the sweet delta dawn.

And Mary gathered cherries while Joseph stood around.

And pass as light by him as he can by me

First flower of their wilderness, star of their night

Her hair shone like gold in the hot morning sun.

Till the rain comes tumbling down.

Follow me, follow me home.

I'll pass the time like some machine

There'll be no policemen there

And painted rooms are bonny

And now I have lived, I know not how long

Tie my bones to his back, turn our faces to the west

Amid these dark satanic mills

If I were a woman as I am a man

It will all come right by tomorrow night

Die Liebe dauert oder dauert nicht

And turns to set the mirror gently face down on the stove

Unsre beiden Schatten sahn wie einer aus.

And some of them will marry, and one will marry me.

Give motherlove and lumpytums.

With smiling bastards lying to you everywhere you go

Seduced a maid who hanged herself one Monday in her garters.

Just need you, baby, when the summer come.

I'm tired of living and scared of dying

The silent stars go by.

Alas! It was to none but me.

Trudno vyskazat' i ne vyskazat'

Your face will shine through all our tears

And in the fight that followed

But not so little boys

Cool Colorado rain

This world is a world of lies.

When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall

Rozhenkes mit mandeln

Put my boots on tall, read the writing on the wall

Rocks the cradle and cries

We weren't lovers like that, and besides, it would still be all right.

Greasy rails, red clay trails

I'd say snow's what we've got.

Chickens crowing on Sourwood Mountain

Sweated in the sun that was hot at dawn

Sweet whips ding dong

Let the 2:19 ease my troubled mind

She said she'd meet me when I come

Oh, when will we ever learn?

--- Joe Fineman    joe_f@verizon.net

||: Reason will conflict with faith so long as respect for evidence conflicts with contempt for evidence. :||

14 Jul 06 - 05:43 PM (#1783745)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Bill D

re: unrequited love.

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

from: I've Rambled this Country, Both Earlye and Late

14 Jul 06 - 05:53 PM (#1783750)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Snuffy

Then she made her way homewards, with one star awake

14 Jul 06 - 06:12 PM (#1783768)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Big Mick

Will Rogers never met Howard Cosell

14 Jul 06 - 07:11 PM (#1783823)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: GUEST

"I thought that I'd find
A place or a time
When someone or something
Would last..."

I Walk Alone

At the moment I don't remember the author's name.

14 Jul 06 - 07:26 PM (#1783836)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: David C. Carter

I've made shoes for everyone,but I still go barefeet.Dylan

You can see clear down to the bottom,deeper.
Depending on where you stand,how you look, and what you wanna see.
Rodney Crowell.

14 Jul 06 - 07:54 PM (#1783853)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: frogprince

Man, where does a guy really start? So many of the ones already given have been stuck under my skin for years, too.

Someone beat me to "I gave her my heart, but she wanted my soul"

"He's a pilgrim, and a preacher, and a problem when he's stoned"
                Kris, "The Pilgrim, Chapter 33.

"I have seen the David; I've seen the Mona Lisa, too; and I have heard Doc Watson play Columbus Stockade Blues"
                Guy Clark, "Dublin Blues".

"You come home straight, and you come home curly; sometimes you don't come home at all"
               John Prine, "The Speed of the Sound of Loneliness"

"Yesterday's dead, and tomorrow is blind, and I live one day at a time"         
               Willy Nelson, "One Day at a Time".

14 Jul 06 - 07:59 PM (#1783863)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: David C. Carter

"But the lady beside me is the one I have chosen,
To walk through my life
Like a coat from the cold"
Guy Clark

14 Jul 06 - 08:12 PM (#1783875)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Dave Earl

May the sun always shine wherever you are,
But you'll still need the darkness to show you the stars

Rest for a while - Colum Sands

14 Jul 06 - 11:54 PM (#1783994)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: freightdawg

"When people say that life is rough,
I wonder, 'compared to what?'" Charley Pride, I'm Just Me

Freightdawg

15 Jul 06 - 12:05 AM (#1784000)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: katlaughing

freighdawg, I love JD's stuff, too, but when he said this one: "The wind is the whisper of our mother the earth" , I don't think he'd ever been to Wyoming! Hardly a whisper there!:-)

Great posts, folks! Thanks!

15 Jul 06 - 03:58 AM (#1784061)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Abuwood

" You'll never miss what's given to a friend"
Reap and Sew Barry Temple

15 Jul 06 - 05:38 AM (#1784091)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: GUEST,old git

"The priest was sprinkling prayers and holy water in the rain"

The man in the hat ----Colum Sands

15 Jul 06 - 05:47 AM (#1784097)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: GUEST,old git

"Yes to dance beneath a diamond sky with one hand waving free
Silhouetted by the sea.........
Let me forget about today until tomorrow"


Mr Tambourine man ----Bob Dylan



not exactly a single line...but still....

15 Jul 06 - 05:49 AM (#1784098)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: clairerise

sugar, aw honey honey

15 Jul 06 - 07:02 AM (#1784119)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: The Sandman

Heres a few;While beating off Magellan straits,it blew exceeding hard
Two Jolly Tars we did lose,. blown from the topsall yards.
By angry seas the ropes we threw, from their poor grasps was torn
We had to leave them to the Sharks,that prowl around Cape Horn from The gallant frigate amphitrite.
       From sailortown. C Fox Smith, Dick Miles
Off a broad brimming water, where the summer sun has died .
Like a wounded whale a sounding, in the sunset tide.
       Bantry Bay song, Dick Miles
across the heathery moor came the curlews call.
While Dragonflys danced their farewell ball.
       DickMiles

15 Jul 06 - 07:21 AM (#1784126)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: GUEST,old git

my favourite put down

I said to her," me darling and how are you this morning?"
She said,"None the better for the seeing of you!"

from the shanty "Wild goose"( Ranzo)

15 Jul 06 - 09:02 AM (#1784161)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: GUEST

15 Jul 06 - 08:54 PM (#1784556)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: freightdawg

Kat, I'm sure JD had been to Wyoming, its just that you all live so far apart up there that the mother earth has to whisper just a little bit louder to be heard. (snicker)

And I should have mentioned that I don't think Charley Pride wrote "I'm Just Me" but he sang the song. The line I quoted starts off the second verse and, whoever wrote it, I think it is one of the best lines in all songdom.

Freightdawg

15 Jul 06 - 11:52 PM (#1784643)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Bert

Nice selection GUEST Joe F.

I'm gonna cheat and quote one of my own. (I think ALL my lyrics are great HEE HEE)

"Don't make her choose between her pride and you"

17 Nov 21 - 06:01 PM (#4126539)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Joe_F

I've a neater, sweeter maiden in a cleaner, greener land.
-- Kipling, "Mandalay"

17 Nov 21 - 06:19 PM (#4126541)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Steve Shaw

"In the misty crystal glitter of that wild and windward spray"


...Woody describing the Columbia River in his song Grand Coulee Dam. How's that then!

18 Nov 21 - 04:05 AM (#4126575)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: GerryM

We are riding on a railroad, singing someone else's song. James Taylor

18 Nov 21 - 05:46 AM (#4126588)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: David C. Carter

"Even the President of the United States must sometimes have to stand naked".

18 Nov 21 - 05:48 AM (#4126589)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: David C. Carter

Shoulda said that line was from Dylan.

Sorry.

18 Nov 21 - 09:06 AM (#4126600)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: PHJim

"They're tearing down buildings that I watched them build." -Shel Siverstein

"To me you're as fair as you were Maggie, when you and I were young."
-George W. Johnson

"My face is a well written page Maggie, and time alone was the pen." -George W. Johnson

"64 percent of all the world's statistics are made up right there on the spot and 82.4 percent of people believe 'em whether they're accurate statistics or not" - Todd Snider

"Is that the sun goin' down over there in the west or just a headlight glow, C&O Express?" -Utah Philips

"The silence of a falling star lights up a purple sky
And as I wonder where you are I'm so lonesome, I could cry" -Hank Williams

18 Nov 21 - 09:51 AM (#4126608)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Sol

"...And when they're on a roll she pulls a razor from her boot
And a thousand pigeons fall around her feet.
So put a candle in the window and a kiss upon his lips
As the dish outside the window fills with rain......"

Time - Tom Waites
-----------------

"...And in your lonely flight
Haven't you heard the music in the night?
Wonderful music
Faint as a will o' the wisp
Crazy as a loon
Sad as a gypsy serenading the moon."

Skylark - Hogey Carmichael/Johnny Mercer

18 Nov 21 - 06:09 PM (#4126652)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Joe_F

And overside I heard him call my name.
-- Stan Rogers

18 Nov 21 - 06:32 PM (#4126656)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: GUEST,Martin Ryan

“These words were composéd by Spencer the Rover …”

To me, that’’s one of the great opening lines of the tradition but … it’s all downhill after that!

Regards

19 Nov 21 - 03:18 AM (#4126677)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Jim McLean

“Mr Ben Nevis you’re as old as the hills” Bob Halfin.

19 Nov 21 - 06:41 AM (#4126688)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: GerryM

Blow the dustcake from your nose – Stan Rogers

19 Nov 21 - 06:43 AM (#4126689)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: GerryM

There is a crack, a crack in everything; that's how the light gets in. – Leonard Cohen

19 Nov 21 - 06:45 AM (#4126690)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: GerryM

If dirt was a kingdom, then you'd be the king. – Utah Phillips

19 Nov 21 - 12:24 PM (#4126718)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: RTim

"The cork is in the bottle..but the Whisky is in me..."

Tim Radford

19 Nov 21 - 01:18 PM (#4126725)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: PHJim

So you'd better go romance her before she hauls off and flies to France, sir
Or up and dies of cancer And it's no longer your choice to make
-Vance Gilbert

19 Nov 21 - 01:20 PM (#4126726)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: PHJim

Goodbye Pluto, Being number nine was nice till you
Lost your planetary status. Now you're simply rock and ice
-Vance Gilbert

19 Nov 21 - 05:18 PM (#4126738)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: GUEST

Dixie Chicks : "he was a missing person no one missed at all".

19 Nov 21 - 05:18 PM (#4126739)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: GUEST

pS   - also the saddest.

19 Nov 21 - 06:43 PM (#4126747)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Steve Shaw

Following on from Tim:

"There's a thousand years of history drowned in that whisky glass..."

(Elvis Costello, via Christy)

20 Nov 21 - 10:42 PM (#4126833)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: GUEST

She spoke of astrology while muttering apologies
For coffee that tasted of hot dogs
I said 'That's OK, mine was cold anyway, and just grand'
Then she lay on the bed while the radio fed us
With records and adverts for cat food....

Al Stewart - In Brooklyn

(Mr S certainly had a knack imho for making poetry from the mundane)

20 Nov 21 - 11:03 PM (#4126835)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: GUEST

All the world seems in tune on a spring afternoon when we're poisoning pigeons in the park....

Tom Lehrer

21 Nov 21 - 12:44 AM (#4126848)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: PHJim

"First it's D and then it's G, then A, then back to D, G a little more and then back to A"
John Hartford (My Rag)

21 Nov 21 - 05:59 AM (#4126860)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: GUEST

"When we fell, we aye got up again, and sae will we yet"
- from "Sae Will We Yet" , as sung by Tony Cuffe.

21 Nov 21 - 06:53 AM (#4126864)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Steve Shaw

Sorry, slightly more than a single line, but inspirational in way that this atheist can't quite put his finger on:

They cut me down and I leapt up high;
I am the life that'll never, never die;
I'll live in you if you'll live in me -
I am the Lord of the dance, said he.

21 Nov 21 - 07:45 AM (#4126866)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: GUEST,peter

"What will you take to remember me by,,I've no money to buy you a smile".....(Dave Cousins)

"when we did spy a bold man-of-war sailin' three feet to our two"....(trad)

21 Nov 21 - 07:56 AM (#4126867)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: GUEST,Roderick A Warner

William S. Burroughs, when asked what the American flag meant to him: ‘Soak it in heroin, doc, and I’ll suck it.’ Applies to all flags imo…

21 Nov 21 - 03:15 PM (#4126901)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: PHJim

"I stepped outside and I didn't get shot; it's a pretty good day so far."
Loudon Wainwright III

21 Nov 21 - 05:08 PM (#4126906)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: GUEST

also Loudon Wainwright III - from "Your Mother And I" :
"your parents are people and that's all we can be".

21 Nov 21 - 05:30 PM (#4126911)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: GUEST,henryp

The preacher asked her, and she said, I do
The preacher asked me, she said, Yes, he does too

The preacher said, I pronounce you 99 to life
Son, she's no lady, she's your wife

Lyle Lovett

21 Nov 21 - 08:31 PM (#4126939)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Stewie

Naked as the eyes of a clown (John Prine - That's the way the world goes round)

Now I shoot the darkness down, I puncture what is swollen (Mark Germino - Black angel cure)

--Stewie.

23 Nov 21 - 11:18 AM (#4127083)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: The Og

Edgar Allen Poe....as sung by the Modern Folk Quartet:

"Keeping time, time, time, with a sort of runic rhyme
From the tintinnabulation, that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells
From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells"

23 Nov 21 - 12:58 PM (#4127095)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: GUEST,lochee

"assholes get elected, cause assholes get to vote" - "Assholes on Parade" by Timbuk3
https://youtu.be/2nTcDU73gLs

24 Nov 21 - 11:12 AM (#4127167)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: GUEST

"By rights she should be taken out an hung
For the cold-blooded murder of the English tongue"

Pedant alert: The past tense of "hang", when referring to execution, is "hanged". Your coat was hung on a hook. The criminal was hanged. The quote from My Fair Lady above is almost tragically ironic.

24 Nov 21 - 11:14 AM (#4127168)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: John P

Sorry, that last quote was from cookieless me.

John

24 Nov 21 - 12:59 PM (#4127173)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: GUEST,henryp

Everybody by John Prine

While out sailing on the ocean, While out sailing on the sea
I bumped into the Savior, And He said pardon me
I said "Jesus you look tired", He said "Jesus so do you,
Sit down son, 'Cause I got some fat to chew"

24 Nov 21 - 01:12 PM (#4127174)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: GUEST,Jon Dudley

I don't think this line has been mentioned yet, the last from 'The Banks of The Sweet Primroses'

"For it's many's a dark and a cloudy morning, turns out to be most sunshiny day"

24 Nov 21 - 01:20 PM (#4127175)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: gillymor

I said my pretty Creole Girl,
My money here's no good,
And if not for the alligators,
I'd sleep out in the woods.-Lakes of Ponchartrain

The dust Pancho bit down south,
Ended up in Lefty's mouth.- Townes Van Zandt

If I thought it would do any good,
I'd stand on the rock where Moses stood.- The Band

Goin' on down to the railroad track,
Let the 4:19 scratch my back.- The Band

There's no love song finer,
But how strange the change,
From major to minor,
Every time we say goodbye.- Cole Porter

24 Nov 21 - 05:08 PM (#4127192)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: GUEST,The Mouth O' The Tay

Michael Marra - Baps And Paste :

Baps and paste and corned dog,
Peace on Earth and earth on piece,
Butcher's hough an' tinkies' gochles,
Wha' could tell the difference ?

06 Dec 21 - 11:58 AM (#4128203)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: GUEST

"A fig for those by law protected,
Liberty's a glorious feast.
Courts for cowards were erected,
Churches built to please the priest"
Robert Burns.

06 Dec 21 - 04:55 PM (#4128231)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: GUEST,Roger

Bob Dylan: Its hard to stumble when you've got no place to fall.

18 Dec 21 - 11:37 PM (#4129356)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: GUEST,Bo in OH

Just a few of many from Chris Smither:

Don't try to find your place in line 'cause it's everywhere

I'm not a passenger, I am the ride.

It ain't what it is that's such a sin, it's what it might have been

And not a single line, but still:
I don't pick no cotton, and I never pick my nose
Couldn't pick a pocket in a pile of dirty clothes
But I pick'em, and I choose'em,
I pick the locks they use to keep me in
I pick'em up I put'em down, that's how I get around
But it's wearin' thin.

Just genius.
Bo

19 Dec 21 - 12:37 AM (#4129358)
Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Neil D

Thanks for the trouble you took, from her eyes
I thought it was there for good, so I never tried
    Leonard Cohen

Albert Einstein was a ladies' man
While he was working on his universal plan
He was making out like Charlie Sheen
He was a genius
    Warren Zevon

How do the angels get to sleep
When the Devil leaves his porch light on?
    Tom Waites