Lines that really grab you

Subject: Lines that really grab you
From: kendall
Date: 23 Feb 02 - 07:35 PM

I imagine that every one of us likes or learns a song because of one thought or line. Would anyone care to shareThere is a country song that I dont know, or care to know, that goes.."and if you cheat again, he'll have to move the flowers". Does that give you the shivers?

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: khandu
Date: 23 Feb 02 - 07:42 PM

"Ah, if there's an original thought out there, I sure could use one now." Dylan in "Brownsville Girl"

Hey, Kendall, I loved that line you mentioned; it does produce shivers! Whose is it?

khandu

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: gnu
Date: 23 Feb 02 - 07:55 PM

hehehehehe. Thanks for that one, Kendall. Made me belly laugh.

"Of the house I was born in, there's but a stone on a stone."

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: greg stephens
Date: 23 Feb 02 - 07:56 PM

"Please release me" kinda grabs me

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: gnu
Date: 23 Feb 02 - 08:01 PM

"And the cook in the scuppers with the staggers and jags."

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Arbuthnot
Date: 23 Feb 02 - 08:58 PM

One I got from Pete Zorn

I kissed her lips, she crossed her legs and broke my glasses

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: kendall
Date: 23 Feb 02 - 09:20 PM

I dont know who wrote that line, but, a country singer named Smokey Green sings it.I'll ask him.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: The Pooka
Date: 23 Feb 02 - 09:30 PM

"But In This Ever Changing World In Which We Live In Makes You Give In And Cry"
-Paul McCartney, "Live and Let Die". My anthem.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: gnu
Date: 23 Feb 02 - 09:39 PM

"... she smiled and looked at me, with the clearest eyes of forever grey..." Jethro Tull.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Justa Picker
Date: 23 Feb 02 - 10:47 PM

"I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now."
-B.D.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Janice in NJ
Date: 23 Feb 02 - 11:08 PM

First prize grabber:

Rise up, rise up, little Matty Groves,
And dress as fast as you can,
For it never shall be said in old England,
I slew a naked man.


Runner up:

Then up spoke the general:
Such things can never be,
For it's against the laws of England,
That two men should married be.


Honorable mention:

Send for your rubber tired buggy,
Send for your rubber tired hack,
You're taking twelve men to the graveyard,
But you're bringing eleven men back,
He was her man,
But he's doin' her wrong.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: khandu
Date: 23 Feb 02 - 11:11 PM

"I got something called a wobbley whip, I got that elegant movement in my hip" Mississippi John Hurt "Shake That Thing"

khandu

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: greg stephens
Date: 23 Feb 02 - 11:13 PM

Half a pound of flour and marge/ Makes a lovely clagger/ Just enough for you and me/ Gor bugger jagger.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 23 Feb 02 - 11:49 PM

Crazy Baby, get your big leg off of mine, It's so heavy, make a good man change his mind. Mississippi John Hurt

I has the blues, one time so bad, put my face in a permanent frown, now I'm feeling so much better I could cakewalk into town. Taj Mahal

Oh well that's life, or it least it was, It ain't nothin' to me. Johnny Winter

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Les B
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 12:08 AM

"He saw the smoke way up the river
Where the Lincoln gunboats lay
He took his hat and left very sudden
I 'spect he's run away"
Henry Clay Work

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Hrothgar
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 06:02 AM

That line from Johnnie Armstrong

"I have asked for grace at a graceless face
"But there is non for my men and me."

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 06:03 AM

"She had to have something flash every time she smiled"

Bob Dylan, from "The Jack Of Hearts" Blood On The Tracks (typing from memory, Dylan fans, so please don't execute me if I've got the title slightly wrong, but I can't remember the two women's names - Lily and Rosemary?)

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: alanabit
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 06:38 AM

From the same album I always loved, "You're gonna make me give myself a good talking to," from "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go".

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: van lingle
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 06:52 AM

you poor take courage, you rich take care.
the earth was made a common treasury for everyone to share.
all things in common, all people one.
we come in peace, the orders came to cut them down.

from world turned upside down by lew rosselson.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: jup
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 07:07 AM

Justa Picker,

Where did that line come from,put me out of my misery.

My favourite line is "we were ten times less by one"

Jup.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: kendall
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 07:20 AM

the clock in the kitchen says "a quarter past three
as the gates are swung open from hell
But, time here is frozen, the clock ticks no more
Just the ashes and cinders and smell" FIRE by Dave Mallett.

and, The world is always turning toward the morning. (gordon Bok) one more, "For they say that a new age soon will
beset us
Their engines and boilers will soon rule the day
And the time will arrive when time will forget us
Like the sawdust around us we'll all blow away. "We built this old ship" by Jim Stewart.

Ten times less by one is a great line.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 07:26 AM

And the young people ask me, What are they marching for? And I ask myself the same question

Eric Bogle, And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: jup
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 07:41 AM

Yesterday he purred and played in his pussy paradise decapitating tweety birds and masticating{gotta be careful how ya sing that}mice.

"Nobodys Moggy" Eric Bogle I think.

Jup.

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

I met a little gypsy girl
In a fortune tellin' place
She read my mind
And slapped me 'cross my face.

DB.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: allanwill
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 08:14 AM

Incredible String Band

I met a man whose name was time, he said I must be going. But just how long ago that was, I have no way of knowing.

Allan

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Micca
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 08:32 AM

For spinetingles it has to be(among many)
"On Raglan Road,
on an august day
I saw her first and knew
That her Dark hair
would weave a snare
that I might one day rue"

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: van lingle
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 08:46 AM

that one gets me too, micca. always reminds me of my ex-wife.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Willa
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 08:50 AM

"So many young men come learning to die" and "Normandy orchards are waitng to welcome new partners for Death in the mad dance of war" (Keith Marsden Normandy Orchards)
"In the end you deliver thanks to the Giver, and never take more than you need, and the spirit within you is free" (Huw Williams People of the Plains)

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 08:53 AM

Ah yes, the Incredibles. Thanks for reminding me of this, Allan:

When I was born I had no head
My eye was single
And my body was filled with light
And the light that I was
Was the light that I saw by
And the light that I saw by
Was the light that I was

From "Douglas Traherne Harding"

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Morticia
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 09:03 AM

" He didn't leave you very much, not even laughter" Leonard Cohen

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST,Russ
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 09:13 AM

Lulu, oh Lulu, come and open up this door, before I have to open it with my old 44.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Gareth
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 09:29 AM

Then there's the "Cholara Song"

DT Version Here

"Quaff a cup to the dead already,
And one to the next who dies.

Though the version I learn't as a child from my father (presmably Army version)

"Let's drink to the dead already,
And here's to the next man to die. "

But then the Dt version was collected 50 years earlier.

Gareth

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Dave T
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 09:40 AM

From Gillian Welch - "Annabelle"
When I'm dead and buried I'll take a hard life of tears
From every day I've ever known
Anna's in the churchyard, she got no life at all
She only got these words on her stone

John Prine - "Hello In There" So if you're walkin' down the street some day,
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.

One that is not particularly "touching" but very descriptive: from Guy Clark - Rita Balou
She's a rawhide rope and velvet mixture,
Walking, talking Texas texture
High-timing, barroom-flying kind of a girl.

And Kendall...I may be wrong but in MJH's "Shake That Thing" ,I thought it was:
I got something called a wobbley whip, I got that "Elgin" movement in my hips. "Elgin" refers to a make of expensive watch and the "movement" would obviously be of the highest quallity. Robert Johnson used the same phrase in "Walking Blues".

-Dave T

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Dave T
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 09:43 AM

Oops!--that note (in my previous post) about the MJH, "Shake That Thing" lyrics should have been addressed to Khandu not Kendall. Sorry about that
-Dave T

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST,Frogmore
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 09:51 AM

I recently heard something like this on a Five Chinese Brothers song: "I'm too dumb to get things right, but I'm smart enough to try tonight!" And of course about 57 of Mose Allison's lines.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Bobert
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 09:51 AM

1. "...this time I hurt her more than she loves me."

2. "Time is now and will be long ago."

3. "...the counrty grows... a garden and a grave."

4. "St. Peter doncha call me, cause I can't go, I owe my soul to the company stoe."

5. "Why did I ever buy... a thousand dollar car?" (heehee)

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Dave T
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 10:06 AM

I forgot about this one from Cornell Hurd: I bought the shoes that just walked out on me

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Midchuck
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 10:08 AM

Last winter I found a man and wife,
And it was just about daybreak
Lying in a frozen ditch
North of the interstate.

I wrapped 'em in a blanket
Lord, but she'd already died.
We shipped the man back home alone
South of the borderline.

And I don't know where they came from
Or where they hoped to go,
But he carried her body all night long
Through the California snow.

- California Snow, Tom Russell.

Peter.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Kelticgrasshopper
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 10:17 AM

A song that really grabbed me recently is a rendition of "My Bonnie" which is sung by Laura Smith on the CD "Fire in the Kitchen".. The line which grabbed my attention goes something like this..

" Soon there will be no differance between the land and the water, I can walk out on the ice to places I've never seen. When I get as far as I can go, I'll turn and throw my cares over my shoulder, along with your memory, and let them float down the Gulf Stream."

Having spent a winter or two in the Canadian Maritimes, I could picture someone doing just that.

If you haven't heard Laura Smith.. Give that CD a listen. What an amazing voice.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: shankmac
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 10:20 AM

Drinking all the day In old pubs where fiddlers love to play Saw one touch the bow He played a reel which seemed so grand and gay Stood on Dingle Beach and cast In wild foam we found Atlantic bass

and all the rest of Song for Ireland (Phil Colclough)

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Menita
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 10:27 AM

I heard this sung the other night and it grabbed me: How can I bear it? Knowing you're there Whilst I'm here and not there, And I'm nowhere and everywhere Dreaming of you.

Poor Ralph McTell must have been suffering when he wrote that. I know how he felt.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: MAG
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 10:44 AM

There's trouble in (having) a husband,
There's trouble in working the land,
There's trouble in being a lover,
There's trouble in (wanting) a man.

But there ain't no trouble in singing ...

Shep Slazlow

er, that's LEON Rosselson, above.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Justa Picker
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 11:21 AM

Jup,
The line I mentioned is from Dylan's 1964 Album entitled "Another Side of Bob Dylan" and the song is "My Back Pages."

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: DMcG
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 12:09 PM

I've prmoted this line before, but never mind!

From "The Bonny Birdy" (Child ballad )

Then he's darked her window up secure
Wi' muckle sugar stane

(Ray Fisher's Version)

Or a somewhat more recent verse, from Andy Irvine I think:

Yes, reading you letters, conviction did grow
I thought it a chance, and I knew I must go
It's hard to believe I could be so naive
Sabra Girl - flattered but to deceive

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: SINSULL
Date: 24 Feb 02 - 12:20 PM

A shriek of woe; a glittering blade;
A lurch, a flash, a dart.
And like the lightening's stroke the blade
Had reached her trembling heart.
"You've killed his bride, oh god," they cried
He swung the gleaming knife
And pierced his own heart as he gasped
"Nay, not his bride, my wife."

"Those Wedding Bells Must Not Ring Out"

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

Non-Trad:

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

Rhythm of the Saints words and music by Paul Simon

Trad:

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

(Full song in the DT here).

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

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

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

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

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

Here are a couple of stanzas that spring to mind:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Murray

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But I'll try:

"Drink to me only with thine eyes."

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

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

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

Brief thread creep

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

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

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

We now return you to your regularly scheduled subject

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

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

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

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

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

Put my little shoes away.>

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

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

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

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

khandu

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

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

Rustic

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What was Daddy thinking?????

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

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

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

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

- Stan Rogers, Canol Road.

Peter.

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

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

Too true
mark

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

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

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

Roger Miller

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

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

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

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

(Claudia Schmidt, "Broken Glass")

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

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

khandu

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

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

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

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

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

My own favorite line from the same song...

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

Some of my favorites:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

from "The Pirate Jenny"

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

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

From Glendinings "Scarboro' Settlers Lament"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Justa Picker,

I knew that I knew that.

Thanks for reminding me.

Jup.

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

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

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

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

Peter.

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

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

Bob Dylan

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

Joan Baez

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

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

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

- LH

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

John Haitt wrote something along the lines of -

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

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

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

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

- Kris Kristofferson, Me and Bobby McGee

Helen

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

and of course........

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

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

Spaw

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

mg

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

"She was a third generation Transylvanian"

Richard Thompson.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

One from "Talking Army Blues"

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

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

One from "Talking Army Blues"

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

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

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

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

It brings a tingle down my spine ...
Alan

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

This is easy:

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

-bob dylan

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Zipster
Date: 26 Feb 02 - 09:35 AM

I found your hair on my pillow, when you'd left without sayig goodbye...

me actually

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: kendall
Date: 26 Feb 02 - 09:55 AM

..and you're wondering what Marian found to do
that's better than coming to see you
One last time
No more Robin no more, your outlaw days are over. Lonesome Robin by Bob Coltman and ..the waves rolled up like mountain tops
and the wind, like a thing in pain... Patrick Spencer by Bob Coltman

"It's been years since I felt like a kid again
it's been years since I laugheds right out loud
I thought of myself as a serious man
I PROVIDED MY OWN THUNDER CLOUD... Tom Paxton

Come to think of it, I know at least 500 songs by heart, and every one of them has a line that grabs me.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST,jaze
Date: 26 Feb 02 - 10:15 AM

But for the ones who's journey is ended, though they started so much the same in the hearts of those befriended burns a candle with a silver flame "Old Friends"-Mary McCaslin

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: tandrink
Date: 26 Feb 02 - 12:35 PM

"It wasn't but the one thing that made me wanna drink"

--Robert Johnson "Kind Hearted Woman"

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: swirlygirl
Date: 26 Feb 02 - 01:53 PM

Almost anything by Tori Amos including "Girls you've got to know when it's time to turn the page, when you're only wet because of the rain" and "I never left you for a banjo, I only just turned around for a poodle and a corvette".

Almost anything by Tom Waits and there are so many I couldn't name them!

Jim White: again almost anything, even the title "Handcuffed to a fence in Mississippi"...

Kathryn Williams: "I used to follow you round in a casual way, miss good shows on the radio just to see your face" cos I know...I just know!

:)

xxx

Oh loads...I could go on...

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: kendall
Date: 26 Feb 02 - 02:08 PM

... my manhood is cast down in a flood of remembrance
and, I weep, like a child, for the past. Dont remember the name, but, I have it on Ed Tricketts latest tape, "Echo on the evening tide"

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Midchuck
Date: 26 Feb 02 - 03:18 PM

Well, I woke up Sunday morning with no way to hold my head that didn't hurt,
And the beer I had for breakfast wasn't bad, so I had one more for dessert..

- Kris Kristofferson, Sunday Morning Coming Down

I remember that. Thank Gawd those days are behind me.

Peter.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: jup
Date: 26 Feb 02 - 04:05 PM

Sometimes I feel like a motherless child,a long way from home.

THIS IS A GREAT THREAD.

JUP.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: DougR
Date: 26 Feb 02 - 04:15 PM

"Took my heart as a token, when returned it was broken, hide your face, Shame on You!" Spade Cooley (Tex Williams vocal)

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Little Hawk
Date: 26 Feb 02 - 04:15 PM

"Sometimes I recall what others have said
Love is for lovers, in love and full grown
Life's for the living and death's for the dead
And the death of a heart is a fathom unknown."

Buffy Sainte-Marie

And IMO those are the best love song lines ever written anywhere by anyone...

- LH

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 26 Feb 02 - 04:17 PM

"The road goes on forever and the party never ends."

REK

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST,Scott
Date: 26 Feb 02 - 04:19 PM

...and another eye for another eye 'till everyone was blind.

There were roses -Tommy Sands

Scott

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Desdemona
Date: 26 Feb 02 - 05:31 PM

"When I cannot sing my heart, I can only speak my mind"

Lennon & McCartney (well, really just Lennon!)

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST,petr
Date: 26 Feb 02 - 06:46 PM

Little old lady got mutilated late last night. (werewolves of london again) Warren zevon. not the text but I just like the way that rolls off the tongue.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: kendall
Date: 26 Feb 02 - 07:46 PM

For some will lead the crippled
Some will lead the blind
But, what of alms for him whose wound is of the mind? My Wild Irish Rose Utah Phillips.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: kendall
Date: 26 Feb 02 - 07:55 PM

...and the Mitis blood ran like a river
Into the coolies they ran to hide
Their dreams were washed away
and their spirit died.

I'm going to sing that some day; if I can do it without going blind.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Little Hawk
Date: 26 Feb 02 - 08:09 PM

It's a favorite at the Orillia Song Circle, Kendall.

petr - Good for you, mentioning Warren Zevon! His album "Excitable Boy" is downright amazing, from beginning to end.

"Send lawyers, guns, and money...the shit has hit the fan"

- LH

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Bullfrog Jones
Date: 26 Feb 02 - 08:29 PM

How about:

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

"I played The Red River Valley, and he sat in his kitchen and cried" from Guy Clark's 'Desperadoes Waiting For A Train'

and a combination of the singer and the song in the way Gram Parson's voice breaks on the line "I'm your toy, I'm your old boy" from 'Hot Burrito#1'

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: kendall
Date: 26 Feb 02 - 10:16 PM

..in the alley ways full of ragged strays
The doorway wine I tell my troubles to
I remember all these things, but, mostly
I remember loving you. Utah Phillips

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Tweed
Date: 26 Feb 02 - 10:37 PM

"Waalll....He's harmless enough I suppose..

But the way I look at it... he oughta get rid of them Goddam books....

Readin' ain't no good fer an ignorant nigger.."

Dylan's "Ballad of Hezekiah Jones" from the white bootleg album. Chills me everytime.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: rube1
Date: 26 Feb 02 - 11:14 PM

Don't ever let another take a love from me...Temptations

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST,Arkie
Date: 27 Feb 02 - 01:15 AM

"As through this world I've traveled
I've seen many kinds of men
Some will rob you with a six gun
And some with a fountain pen."

from Pretty Boy Floyd

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 27 Feb 02 - 01:33 AM

Most of the time It's well understood, Most of the time I wouldn't change it if I could, I can't make it all match up, I can hold my own, I can deal with the situation right down to the bone, I can survive, I can endure And I don't even think about her Most of the time.

Bob Dylan, Most Of The Time.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Rolfyboy6
Date: 27 Feb 02 - 02:21 AM

"You better c'mon, in my kitchen,
it's going to be raining outside."
Robert Johnson

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Micca
Date: 27 Feb 02 - 05:29 AM

" You are like the Wild Geese, love
you Fly where ere you will
where ever the wild geese take you
my arms will hold you still"
Robert A Heinlein

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Dave T
Date: 27 Feb 02 - 07:17 AM

Don't know the name of the song off hand but it's by Paul Thorn.It might be titled "Viagra" but if not it's close enough:
Lord I feel like such a failure, with my broke-down genitalia

I heard that when he opened for Mark Knopfler last year.

-Dave T

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Crazy Eddie
Date: 27 Feb 02 - 08:09 AM

"(My daughter married young, and went her own way),
My sons are buried by the Burma railway"
Eric Bogle

Not a song, but a poem by Robert Service... "and the greasy smoke, like an inky cloak, went streaking down the sky."

"I've been a wild rover, for many a year..."
"Ouch, who threw that"..."aargh"...crash....boing... "alright, alright, I'm going, I'm going".....

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 27 Feb 02 - 08:16 AM

Dave T.

I saw Paul Thorn a few years ago, he opened for Jeff Beck. I thought he was very good, very funny. I liked Joanie The Jehovah's Witness Stripper and Burn Down The Trailer Park.

Apparently before his music career he was a world ranked boxer, I believe he actually had a title fight against Roberto Duran.

I meant to get his CD and didn't get around to it. Thanks for reminding me.

Sorry for the Thread creep.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Pete Jennings
Date: 27 Feb 02 - 10:45 AM

Your mother stands a-cryin' As to the earth your body's slowly cast Your father stands in silence Caressing every young dream of the past

- Bert Jansch ("Needle of Death")

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Joe_F
Date: 27 Feb 02 - 06:56 PM

Too late, but never mind.

A flower among her flowers, content.

He was born on land, but he sure enjoys the sky.

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

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Little Hawk
Date: 27 Feb 02 - 07:16 PM

From Stan Rogers' song "Lies"...

"Then she shakes off the bitter web she wove
And turns to set the mirror, gently, face down by the stove
She gathers up her apron in her hand
Pours a cup of coffee, drips Carnation from the can
And thinks ahead to Friday, 'cause Friday will be fine!
She'll look up in that weathered face that loves hers, line for line
To see that maiden shining in his eyes
And laugh at how her mirror tells her lies"

What a superb song.

- LH

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Chicken Charlie
Date: 27 Feb 02 - 08:14 PM

...and he carries a reminder/ Of every glove that laid him low ... "The Boxer," Simon & Garfunkel

Feed on your water, shovel in your coal;
Stick your head out the window, watch the drivers roll.
(Any trad. train song and the only thing that gets me to work every day.)

I got a gal and she live cross town;
If I see you with her, I'll be sho' to shoot you down.
"Keep On Truckin', Mama"

...penny a point; ain't no one keepin' score ... (City of New Orleans)

...I'll just go on livin' free and lovin' you a little every day .... "The Way You Got Me Feelin'"

Let me forget about today until tomorrow. "Tambourine Man"

enuff... CC

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: kendall
Date: 27 Feb 02 - 10:26 PM

Old Dogs and children, and watermellon wine. Tom T Hall

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST,PoohBear
Date: 28 Feb 02 - 12:05 AM

She's just a permanent reminder of a temporary feeling. Jimmy Buffett.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: swirlygirl
Date: 28 Feb 02 - 07:54 AM

"The things you can't remember tell the things you can't forget..." Tom Waits (or something like that...)

:)

xxx

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Micca
Date: 28 Feb 02 - 08:05 AM

For anyone who has EVER been to sea as a job..
" I dream of distant waters , tho' my fishing days are gone
and for 30 years I've worked the factory floor
but at night as I lie sleeping, I still hear howling gales
as we hauled our nets and brought our fish on board
Linda Kelly

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Feb 02 - 09:52 AM

"whatever you say, say nothing". Old Mafia proverb?Paddy Joe.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST,Aunt Jerry & Uncle Mary
Date: 28 Feb 02 - 10:17 AM

I'll bid my heart be still,
and check each struggling sigh
For there's none e'er shall know
My soul's cherished woe
When the first tears of sorrow are dry.

Scotts Traditional, I've heard

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Dahlin
Date: 28 Feb 02 - 12:47 PM

There's another train, there always is.You must get on another train. From the singing of Artisan.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Little Hawk
Date: 28 Feb 02 - 12:54 PM

"they asked me for some collateral, and I pulled down my pants..." Bob Dylan

Ha! Great sarcastic line in one of his talkin' blues songs.

- LH

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: bflat
Date: 28 Feb 02 - 01:41 PM

"Are you going away with no word of farewell?" (The Last Thing On My Mind--Tom Paxton) The whole darn chorus actually. So many of his songs hit me in the chest i.e., Anytime; Getting Up Early; You Are Love.

Ellen

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: kendall
Date: 28 Feb 02 - 01:48 PM

If I had a hammer, there wouldn't be any folksingers.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: nosluap57
Date: 28 Feb 02 - 02:01 PM

From "Big Tex's Girl" by the Austin Lounge Lizards:

All her friends in school were non-conformists So she became a non-conformist, too

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: harpgirl
Date: 28 Feb 02 - 02:36 PM

"I need a little sugar in my bowl,I need a little hot dog on my roll."

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST,Midchuck downstairs
Date: 28 Feb 02 - 03:08 PM

The last time the moon was full it showed its darker side.
The mundane had the magic annulled making vinegar out of wine.

Jack Hardy, Eclipse (as sung by Gillette and Mangsen)

(Of course, the song I'm working on at the moment always gets to me most. I guess I'm frivilous.)

Peter.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Anahootz
Date: 28 Feb 02 - 04:41 PM

"...Our ugliness is gone / I'm sure we'll all be friends / I'll try to break your back / and you'll try to make amends..." Afghan Whigs, "Creep".

"...Such dreams, such dreams as these, I know that they mean no good / For I dreamed that my bower was full of red swine and my bride's bed full of blood" Tim O'Brien/Dirk Powell, "Fair Margaret and Sweet William"

"...I see angels and ariels, in leather and chrome / Swooping down from heaven to carry me home" Richard Thompson, "1952 Vincent Black Lightning"

And one of my all-time favorite first lines...

"We were drinkin' like the Irish, but we were drinking scotch..." Patti Griffin, "Mad Mission"

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: JudyR
Date: 28 Feb 02 - 04:51 PM

God, there are so many. This morning what's in my head is:

What has happened down here, is the winds have changed Clouds roll in from the north and it started to rain It rained real hard, and it rained for a real long time Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline

The river rose all day, the river rose all night Some people got lost in the flood, some people got away all right The river had busted through clear down to Placker Mine Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline

Louisiana, Louisiana They're trying to wash us away, they're trying to wash us away Oh Louisiana, Louisiana They're trying to wash us away, they're trying to wash us away

And the heartbreaking simplicity of the McGarrigles':

Sometimes a heart is just like a wheel/when you bend it/it can't be mended But my love for you is like a sinking ship/ And my heart is like that boat out on the ocean.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 28 Feb 02 - 05:55 PM

All that I am, that I would be
Then I would be what I am not
But I am what I must be
What I would be, I can not
Oh little lallie day, oh the little lee oh day
....from Katy Cruel

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Joe_F
Date: 28 Feb 02 - 10:43 PM

When out of blossomed Normandy another pirate came.

I've a neater, sweeter maiden in a cleaner, greener land.

O Thou Who changest not, abide with me!

I hear the noise of wings.

And she said, No I don't, but you kiss just fine.

And if ever you heard a little dog bark,

She makes a small hole in the frost on the window,

Say, don't you remember, I'm you pal.

Walking in his footsteps in the sweet delta dawn.

While Joseph stood around.

Where many a rooster like himself stood waiting for his tea.

And so far, no dead ends.

I'll get myself up in some right high degree.

The sun shines owre the westlin hills by the lamplicht o the mune,

Grind, children, grind for a clear and wakeful mind

First flower of their wilderness, star of their night

Glorior labore.

When friends by shame are undefiled,

And turns to set the mirror, gently, face down by the stove,

Die Liebe dauert, oder dauert nicht

Wenn sich die spaeten Nebel dreh'n

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

Tonight there'll be but three.

The silent stars go by.

Goodnight, and joy be with you all.

Alas, it was to none but me.

Rechka dvizhitsa i ne dvizhitsa,

Your face will shine through all our tears.

And in the fight that followed

Till I want to go out and swear.

A dragon lives forever, but no so, little boys.

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

Married girl, married girl, rocks the cradle and cries.

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

I think of you often, I like you a lot,

Getting older every day, I'm a fair-weather bum.

Chickens crowing on Sourwood Mountain.

Brave bracelets strong, sweet whips ding-dong

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: mkebenn
Date: 01 Mar 02 - 08:23 AM

In my belly's a gravin', got a shakin' in my head. BSM
Patty Hearst heard the burst of Roland's Thompson gun and bought it. Zevon
Mike

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: mkebenn
Date: 01 Mar 02 - 08:33 AM

It's "cravin'" Stupid

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST,jaze
Date: 01 Mar 02 - 10:18 PM

But the sun comes up without her, it doesn't know she's gone. And it remembers nothing that she said. Gram Parsons- "Brass Buttons"

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST,Bill
Date: 01 Mar 02 - 11:22 PM

For various reasons, these are some of my favorite lines...all of which still give me that cold shiver.

All modern stuff.

"I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die." Johnny Cash/Folsom Prison Blues

"You've painted up your lips and combed and curled your tinted hair...." Mel Tillis/Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town

"Wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then." Bob Seger/Against The Wind

"You may drive a pink Cadillac but don'cha be nobody's fool." Elvis Presley/Baby Let's Play House

"Now you wear your skin like iron your breath's as hard as kerosene." Willie/Merle/Pancho and Lefty

"I am he as you are he as you are we and we are all together." The Beatles/I Am the Walrus

"Pulled in to Nazareth was feelin' about a half past dead." The Band/The Weight

"Well I was drunk the day my ma got out of prison..." David Allen Coe/You Never Even Called Me By My Name

And a chorus: "Well it's up against the wall Redneck Mother Mother who has raised a son so well He's 34 and drinkin' in a honky-tonk Just kickin' hippies asses and raisin' hell". Jerry Jeff Walker/Redneck Mother

And one last one (I could go on and on...) "Big Legged Woman you sit there quite as a mouse bet my bottom dollar there ain't a cherry in the house!" Jerry Lee Lewis/Big Legged Woman

Hope you got this far down the thread. Hope you enjoyed mine. Bill

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: MarkS
Date: 02 Mar 02 - 09:15 PM


More

Lovin' her was easier than anything I'll ever do again.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Ian Darby
Date: 02 Mar 02 - 10:20 PM

"A blinded priest was seen to bless both dying and the dead. As he stumbled round the battlefield, his cassock running red.

If uniform were black or white, His eyes could never see.

And death made no distinction, Whatever man, he be."

From 'The Battle' off the first Strawbs album, written by Dave Cousins.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: kendall
Date: 03 Mar 02 - 05:25 AM

...but, in the end, must "pay the tow"
To feelings never shown,
TRAPPED WITHIN THIS ANGELS ROLE
hE FINDS HINSELF ALONE.. The Martin Greigh by Taylor Whiteside.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Mar 02 - 05:52 AM

"Ivey was a little man who left a giant trail

With a pocket full of change

For the kids the world had failed"

Down on Ivey's Wall (Bruce Guthro)

Jim

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: DMcG
Date: 03 Mar 02 - 11:39 AM

As a stick-in-the-mud if-it-aint-200-years-old-it-aint-folk sort of person, its time to vote for

"don't it always seem to go - you don't know what you've got till its gone" - Big Yellow Taxi, Joni Mitchell I believe.

" ... You're quoting Snoopy the Dog, I believe? I'll speak the truth wherever I find it, thank you"

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST,Em
Date: 03 Mar 02 - 03:19 PM

For sheer spine-tingling lyrics that makes you think, you can't beat Shane MacGowan:

"I took the cold bright needle, I used it as a sword. My eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.

I found the thing for which I prayed And came back home to the USA With a heart of stone and now I know That it's the same Wherever you go."

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST,mariner
Date: 03 Mar 02 - 06:05 PM

"I wish my heart was unhinged and could feel its pain alone"-- Pierce Turner.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: rube1
Date: 03 Mar 02 - 06:16 PM

Ain't no need for me to work so hard I got a woman in the rich folks' yard -Woody Guthrie (from traditional)

All things are a flowing Sage Heraclitus says But a tawdry cheapness Shall outlast our days

-Ezra Pound "Hugh Selwyn Mauberly

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Ebbie
Date: 03 Mar 02 - 07:32 PM

"like the wind - where does it come from?
And like the soul of man- where does it go?"

She Walks in Beauty Buddy Tabor

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: kendall
Date: 03 Mar 02 - 08:27 PM

...goodby Michelle it's hard to die
when all the birds are singing in the sky...

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST,Aldus
Date: 04 Mar 02 - 08:47 AM

I Lit a thin Green Candle To make you jealous of me, But the room just filled up with mosquitos, They heard that my body was free. L. Cohen

The Fire Spat and Rang in her yellow Hair..Famous Flower of Serving men.

To live outside the Law you must be Honest..B. Dylan

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Joe_F
Date: 04 Mar 02 - 11:07 AM

But tonight some red-eyed Wiarton girl lies staring at the wall

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Rich_and_Dee
Date: 04 Mar 02 - 02:55 PM

Not traditional, at least not yet:

"I said I'm so happy I could die. She said, 'Drop dead', then left with another guy" - Elvis Costello

"Wherever we go we celebrate the land that made us refugees/From fear of priests with empty plates/From guilt and weeping effigies." - Pogues

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: rube1
Date: 04 Mar 02 - 03:51 PM

This time they won't recycle me This time I'm heading out to the landfill This disposable boy's had enough of swallowing life's bitter pill

-Angry Johnny and the Killbillies "Disposable Boy"

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: JudyR
Date: 04 Mar 02 - 10:33 PM

I love that "If I had a hammer...."

I was just about to say "What? Some person actually still likes that old song..?" ..when I saw the second part!

Can't seem to find just one line, but here's another bit of a song that grabs me:

Never hit seventeen/ When you play against the dealer/ For you know that the odds/ Won't ride with you/ Never leave your woman alone/ When your friends are out to steal her/ Years are gambled and lost/ Like summer wages/

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: richlmo
Date: 04 Mar 02 - 10:59 PM

" I dip my cup of soup back from some gurgling, crackling cauldron in some trainyard.., my beard a roughening coal pile and a dirty hat pulled low across my face... Through cupped hands 'round a tin can I pretend to hold you to my breast...", John Hartford. I still love that song as much as I did 30 years ago. I know its more than 1 line.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST,Em'smom
Date: 05 Mar 02 - 12:50 AM

Just found this site, searching for Puff the Magic Dragon for my first grade daughter, who is growing so fast. I found my lyrics here, & CRIED at this line, as always:

"A dragon lives forever, but not so little boys."

Then, if that didn't kill me yet, there's this:

"One grey nite it happened, Jackie Paper came no more And Puff that mighty dragon, he ceased his fearless roar."

Oh just WAAAAH boohoo! Honestly, I shouldn't even try to sing it for her, plus it makes her cry too. I guess the lines grab us a little TOO much LOL!

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Jeep man
Date: 05 Mar 02 - 10:42 AM

"AN OVERDOSE OF ON THE ROAD" Bill Phillips in his"The L and N don't stop here anymore. Jeep

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Joe_F
Date: 05 Mar 02 - 07:44 PM

Em'smom: That line is a subversive one: it equates growing up with death. So also "his lifelong friend" later on.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Mar 02 - 11:35 PM

All the dreams of the season lie spilled down on the floor (from Summer Wages)
It's such a wondrous feeling when your pickle glows at night (from our Amos)
They lowered him overboard and he drifted with the tide (from Golden Vanity)
A brand new two cylinder threshing machine (from The Threshing Mashine)
I'll come running through the shallow water reaching for your hand (from The Far Side Banks of Jordan)

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: kendall
Date: 04 Apr 02 - 03:09 PM

I finally ran down the author of " If you cheat again, he'll have to move the flowers" Jimmy Skinner.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST,Geraldine Legard
Date: 04 Apr 02 - 03:26 PM

Just been listening to John Spiers and Jon Boden's version of 'The Rambling Sailor'

Apparently, he's

'Got a commission from the King To court all girls who's handsome'

In his dreams!

Best wishes

Geraldine

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: waterdragon
Date: 04 Apr 02 - 04:31 PM

Here's one to share.

Love lives on, so they say, It's the one we cannot afford not to give away.

Bruce Guthro.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST,Keep this thread.
Date: 04 Apr 02 - 06:52 PM

This is wonderful stuff. Don't let it die. It's so long, I want to get back to it

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From:
Date: 04 Apr 02 - 07:17 PM

Three or four verses written in the last 10 years

The night came undone like a party dress It fell at her feet in a beautiful mess the smoke and whiskey came home in her curls and they crept through the dreams of the bar-room girls. -- by Gillian Welsh

Well he reached for her hand and he gave her the keys Said, "I've got no further use for these, "I see angel and ariels in leather and chrome "A'swoopin' down from heaven for to carry me home." -- Richard Thompson

Soon she'll be gone, And gone is a long, long time, Well I went and took my chances Got caught up in the branches She's a bird of the world Let her fly away -- Bill Fox, "Bird of the World"

All the nights that joy has slept Will awake to days of laughter Gone the tears that you have wept you'll dance in freedom ever after. -- Julie Miller, "By Way of Sorrow"

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From:
Date: 05 Apr 02 - 05:32 AM

Barret was smashed like a bowl of eggs and the main truck carried off both my legs...Barrets privateers Stan Rogers

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Bruce
Date: 05 Apr 02 - 05:43 AM

"And though you died back in 1916, in some faithful heart are you ever 19?" ... Eric Bogle, No Mans Land

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Apr 02 - 06:21 AM

Seems that good threads never die, so how about this one:

"I close my eyes for a second and pretend it's me you want Meanwhile I try to act so nonchalant"

from When You Walk In The Room by The Searchers. Must also qualify as one of the most poetic rhymes of all time.

Pete

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Bullfrog Jones
Date: 05 Apr 02 - 06:32 AM

..."And the boys from the NYPD choir were singing Galway Bay..."

BJ

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Murph10566
Date: 05 Apr 02 - 08:41 AM

"I wonder how an Ocean turns as lifeless as a stone...

And I wonder can the Sea revive once more -

And I wonder 'Will They Lie There Evermore'?"

As sung by Con O'Brien (Irish Descendants); John Pippard's "Will They Lie There Evermore ?"

Great thread, M.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: kendall
Date: 01 May 02 - 08:31 AM

Rolling river...take me away upon some journey through the past
For my race is run and my time's been done too fast.
Sweet Bird of youth by Dave Mallett

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST,Midchuck downstairs
Date: 01 May 02 - 10:10 PM

Kendall, that reminded me...

"...There's coffee when the whiskey's gone, but there's whiskey for tonight..."

Excellent situation if you can get it.

Peter.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Stewie
Date: 02 May 02 - 12:44 AM

I won't let them take me away from my daddy
The roses would wither and die
Our home would be lonely, our hearts would be empty
And, daddy, my dollies would cry

From Connie and Babe's [Early bluegrass artists] 'My Dollies Would Cry', a song whose lyrics are so banal and sentimental that they exercise a strange fascination.

I raised my hand against it all
And caught the bride's bouquet
Leonard Cohen.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST,Extra Stout
Date: 02 May 02 - 03:42 AM

" Marie is only six years old, Information please, try to put me through to her in Memphis, Tennesee"

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Deda
Date: 02 May 02 - 02:34 PM

Like Bflat, I'm a big Tom Paxton fan -- From his Leaving London
(Last night "I sang a song she knows quite well")
But it wouldn't take too long
To make up another song
For a lonesome and a last farewell"
It's got a good chorus too.
From "Strawberry Roan" I like the line "He could turn on a nickel and hand you the change."
Fun to read these! It bounces me around through a lot of remembered times and places.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Steve-o
Date: 02 May 02 - 07:17 PM

"Old Sheppie he knowed he was goin' to go, for he reached down and licked at my hand; I stroked the best pal a man ever had, I cried 'til I scarcely could sleep" -Old Shep

"Well, she's not that pretty, and she's the naggin' kind; She's really not that pretty, and she's the naggin' kind; But she's got a special kind of quiver makes a strong man lose his mind"- Chump Man Blues

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: kendall
Date: 02 May 02 - 07:29 PM

One day the boys called, but their pal didn't come,
Oh, where does he hide they did say,
They searched all around, and finally found
His old lifeless form in the hay... Old Rover.

How about we transfer to the other thread that Spaw started. This one is way too long for some of us to open.

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST,Wazza
Date: 30 Jan 11 - 06:28 PM

How about this from Bonnie Raitt

How the hell can a person, go to work in the morning,
and come home in the evening and have nothing to say?

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Joe Offer
Date: 30 Jan 11 - 07:18 PM

Hi, Wazza -
Good line, but it was written by John Prine (even though it's Bonnie Raitt) singing "Angel from Montgomery" on a couple of Prine albums. Lots of John Prine lines grab me, but one I really like is:

The air smelled like snakes, and we'd shoot with our pistols; but empty pop bottles was all we would kill. (Paradise, by John Prine)

Not an inspiring line, but one of the most interestingly descriptive lines I've seen. It made me real nervous as I hiked near the Green River.

Oh....and:

As I lie in my bed in the mornin'
Without you, without you.
Each song in my breast dies a-bornin' Without you, without you.

Tom Paxton, The Last Thing On My Mind

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 30 Jan 11 - 11:03 PM

"It was not so when Bess did reign
And this old hat was new"

♪♪Michael♪♪

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST,Curtis
Date: 30 Jan 11 - 11:26 PM

What about:
"For causes are ashes where children lie slain" from House of Orange by Stan Rogers
or
"Take me home country roads to the place I belong" John Denver

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Taconicus
Date: 31 Jan 11 - 12:13 AM

Dusk is drawn and the Green Man's thorn is wreathed in rings of fog
- The Gartan Mother's Lullaby

Johnnie Fedora met Alice Bluebonnet
In the window of an department store
- Johnnie Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: meself
Date: 31 Jan 11 - 01:06 AM

He's gone where the good doggies go. "Bellman".

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Taconicus
Date: 31 Jan 11 - 01:08 AM

*...of a department store. (This forum needs an "edit after posting" function.)

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: closet-folkie
Date: 31 Jan 11 - 10:20 AM

"The guilty get no sleep,
In the last slow hours of morning
Experience is cheap,
I should have listened to the warning."
by Neil Finn - "Into Temptation"

and this one's always good for a lump in the throat:

"And I wanted to cry
And my eyes ached from tryin'
Oh how will I ever be simple again?"
by Richard Thompson - "How Will I Ever Be Simple Again?"

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: GUEST,Gail
Date: 31 Jan 11 - 10:30 AM

the powers-that-be
that force us to live like we do
bring me to my knees
when I see what they've done to you

Chrissie Hynde (Back on the Chain Gang)

Subject: RE: Lines that really grab you
From: Sailor Ron
Date: 31 Jan 11 - 10:44 AM

John Conelly's "Blaspheming saints and splendit drunken heroes".
What a description of trawler deckhands! From his 'Trawlertown Requium'.

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.

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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,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: 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
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: 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: 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: 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: 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,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: 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,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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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,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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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,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,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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: FreddyHeadey
Date: 01 Oct 16 - 04:46 AM

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