Help: lines that jump out at you

Subject: RE: Help: lines that jump out at you
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 28 Mar 01 - 08:10 PM

Oh dear, what can the matter be,
Seven old ladies got locked in a lavatory.

A monkey fart should smell like a banana
English farts should smell like cups o' tea
The farting of a fairy should be very light and airy
When a father farts, I hope you'll think of me

Sheer poetry. Gets me every time.

All the best.

Seamus

Subject: RE: Help: lines that jump out at you
From: GUEST,nancy
Date: 28 Mar 01 - 07:34 PM

This is such a great thread....

I love every single line of Lather, by Grace Slick, but especially

...he produces the finest of sounds With a drum stick on either side of his nose Snorting the best licks in town...

Give yourself to love... and ...the rolling golden hills of California.......Kate Wolff

Lookin' for the heart of Saturday night...Tom Waits (among about a million others)

Subject: RE: Help: lines that jump out at you
From: John Hardly
Date: 28 Mar 01 - 05:51 PM

Sing a song for the wrong
And the wicked and the strong
And the sick as thick as thieves.
For the faceless fear that was never so near
Too clear to mis-believe

Well the sea is jumping salty
And the porpoise has the blues
My recollection's faulty
And I cannot find my shoes
And my wiring is misfiring due
To cigarettes and booze

I'm behind in my dues

I just now got the news

He seems to tell us lies but still we will believe him
And together he will lead us into darkness, my friend.

--James Taylor


…Hello and goodbye..
Divided by a line down the middle of the road

--Pierce Pettis

Subject: RE: Help: lines that jump out at you
From: tiggerdooley
Date: 28 Mar 01 - 05:23 PM

Take me out tonight, where there's music and there's people who are young and alive...
'There Is A Light That never Goes Out' by The Smiths.

OR
I was happy in the haze of a drunken hour
And heaven knows I'm miserable now
I was looking for a job and then I found a job
And heaven knows I'm miserable now...
'Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now' by The Smiths, again. I reckon that counts as the blues!

OR
Got a lot of you records in a separate stack
Some things that I might like to hear
But I guess I'll give them back
'Box Full of Letters' by Wilco. Cool break-up song.

Subject: RE: Help: lines that jump out at you
From: harpmolly
Date: 28 Mar 01 - 05:09 PM

Dammit! One of these days I'll learn to use line breaks. :P

Oh, well. You get the general idea. :P

M

Subject: RE: Help: lines that jump out at you
From: harpmolly
Date: 28 Mar 01 - 05:07 PM

"what can I tell you, my brother, my killer, what can I possibly say? I guess that I miss you, I guess I forgive you, I'm glad you stood in my way... and I see you there with a rose in your teeth, one more thin gypsy thief..."

just about anything from Leonard Cohen is bound to knock me flat, though.

Too many Irish/Scottish/etc. songs to even begin. But how about:

"Oh, where's my love, she's so long in coming, And what detains her so long from me; Or does she think it a shame or scandal To see me die upon the gallow's tree?"

Or, on a lighter note,

"Before I got married I wore a black shawl; But now that I'm married I wear bugger-all!"

Had to learn "Do You Love An Apple," just to sing that. ;)

And, last but not least:

"Must I go bound while you go free, Must I love a man who doesn't love me? Must I be born with so little art As to love a man who'll break my heart?"

That one hits a little too close to home. Sigh.

Okay, enough outta me. But you asked. ;)

Moll

Subject: RE: Help: lines that jump out at you
From: tiggerdooley
Date: 28 Mar 01 - 04:58 PM

Kiss me, please kiss me
Kiss me out of desire, baby, not consolation

Guess who...

Subject: RE: Help: lines that jump out at you
From: pastorpest
Date: 28 Mar 01 - 04:55 PM

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.

"Anthem" by Leonard Cohen

Subject: RE: Help: lines that jump out at you
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Mar 01 - 04:39 PM

Any line from Banana Republics, perhaps this last verse:

Down to the Banana Republics it is not always as warm as it seems.

When none of the natives are buying any second hand American Dreams.

Expatriated American, feeling so a-lone.

Telling themselves the same lies that they told themselves at home.

Subject: RE: Help: lines that jump out at you
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Mar 01 - 04:26 PM

sooooo many...

"come down off the cross, we could use the wood"
& "singin lead soprano in a jug band choir"- Tom Waits- "come on up to the house"
"Why must I holler , Why must I shake 'em on down?"- Bukka White
too many Dylan to even begin ,but here is a personal favorite-
" Was in another lifetime , one of toil and blood . When blackness was a virtue and the road was full of mud, I came in from the wilderness ,a creature void of form. Come in she said I'll give you shelter from the storm."
" I saw Judas Escarot carrying John Wilkes Booth... Down there by the train...."- Johnny Cash
"this time another year , you may be gone , to some lonesome grave yard.Who knows how long?"- old spiritual
I could go on, cool idea.

Subject: RE: Help: lines that jump out at you
From: tiggerdooley
Date: 28 Mar 01 - 04:20 PM

If the kids are united they will never be divided!

Subject: RE: Help: lines that jump out at you
From: Melani
Date: 28 Mar 01 - 04:19 PM


"We were ninety-one days to Montego Bay, pumping like madmen all the way..."

"If it weren't for the alligators, I would sleep out in the wood..."

"I will dress in men's clothing, to his regiment I'll go, and I'll be a true soldier, and I'll fight all his foes..."

"Perhaps in battle I might fall, from a shot from an angry cannon ball, and you so far from your daddy's hall..."

"The captain said, 'Let him be, for he's sober out to sea, and he bakes a better pie than my mother.'"

I could go on and on. Every song has a favorite line or verse.

Subject: RE: Help: lines that jump out at you
From: Hawker
Date: 28 Mar 01 - 04:06 PM

'But when the fish and tin are gone, what are the Cornish Boys to do?'
Cornish Lads by Roger Bryant

'Oh the rain is softly falling and the Oggy man's no more'
The Oggie Man by Cyril Tawney

'And I've woven meself too far in'
The four loom weavers lament

'When my days are over, Haul away to heaven'
Farewell Shanty

'We'll play the game over and over and over again!'
The Game of All Fours

'But all I could answer was Teddy O'Neil'
Teddy O'Neil

'Eee she were a big 'un - wi' emphasis on the Big'
Rawtenstall Annual Fair

Sowing in the morning, sowing seeds of kindness
Bringing in The sheaves

More? HUNDREDS!!! - though I have to say that I am also attracted by the tune and the way the words snuggle inot it, for instance, in 'She Moves Through The Fair' The words 'Like a swan in the evening moves over the lake - I first heard this sung by Josef Locke on an old recording of father in Law's, he sings it like she is mo-o-oving over the lake, it's so descriptive
Lucy

Subject: RE: Help: lines that jump out at you
From: Kim C
Date: 28 Mar 01 - 04:03 PM

ooops....that should read

I wish I was on yonder hill
Tis there I'd sit and cry my fill
That every tear would turn a mill
Oh Johnny is gone for a soldier

Subject: RE: Help: lines that jump out at you
From: Big Mick
Date: 28 Mar 01 - 04:01 PM

Pete, I love that line by the O'Rahilly.

"By trade I was a cooper, lost out to redundancy, like my house that fell to progress, my trades a memory" Pete St. John

"Sometimes she sees, her unborn children, in his eyes" Michael Smith

"Courage, brother, you do not walk alone. We will walk with you and sing your spirit home" Eric Bogle

"As through this world I travel, I've seen lots of funny men, some rob you with a pistol, others with a fountain pen" "as through this world I roam, I've never seen an outlaw, drive a family from their home" Woody Gutherie

All the best,

Mick

Subject: RE: Help: lines that jump out at you
From: tiggerdooley
Date: 28 Mar 01 - 03:58 PM

What about this one:

Don't care if I sit here forever holding nothing but my heart

Subject: RE: Help: lines that jump out at you
From: kendall
Date: 28 Mar 01 - 03:57 PM

I'll give you back your ring and letters, And the picture I love so well, And, henceforth we will meet as strangers, But, I will never say "Farewell".. (Fond affection) recorded by Joan Sprung.

And..."but, our good times are all gone, and I'm bound for moving on, I'll look for you if I'm ever back this way".. Four strong winds.

And, you're wondering what Marian found to do, That's better than coming to see you one last time.. Lonesome Robin by Bob Coltman

Subject: RE: Help: lines that jump out at you
From: Kim C
Date: 28 Mar 01 - 03:48 PM

There were spaces between Donald and whatever he said
Strangers had forced him to live in his head

and

I hate graveyards and old pawn shops
Cause they always bring me tears
I can't forgive the way they rob me
) Of my childhood souvenirs

and

Blow up the TV

and

you're gonna make me lonesome when you go

and

I wish I was on yonder hill That every tear would turn a mill
Oh Johnny is gone for a soldier

and

The three men I admire most
The Father, Son and Holy Ghost
They caught the last train for the coast
The day the music died

and

If you choose not to decide you still have made a choice

and

I don't want the world to see me
Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am

and

With every heartbeat I still think of you
And remember our faded love

and

We loved each other then Lorena
More than we ever dared to tell

and

I'm lord and master of a fool's Taj Mahal
Who says you can't have it all

and

In my life I love you more

Subject: RE: Help: lines that jump out at you
From: tiggerdooley
Date: 28 Mar 01 - 03:37 PM

And for a rainy Sunday!

Subject: RE: Help: lines that jump out at you
From: tiggerdooley
Date: 28 Mar 01 - 03:37 PM

And for a rainy Sunday!

Subject: RE: Help: lines that jump out at you
From: Matt_R
Date: 28 Mar 01 - 03:30 PM

Ah yes...Fairground Attraction...songs for a sunny summer afternoon...

Subject: RE: Help: lines that jump out at you
From: tiggerdooley
Date: 28 Mar 01 - 03:22 PM

More than one line really, but I don't care:

So dry your eyes. no more tears
Hold me once and I'll walk out of here
Who knows one day, we'll meet again
But don't wait for me 'cos the wind knows my name...

Gets me every time. You all know that one, right?

Subject: RE: Help: lines that jump out at you
From: chip a
Date: 28 Mar 01 - 03:09 PM

In silent white mansions of stone, Maggie, have each found a place of rest........or: My face is a well written page Maggie, and time alone was the pen. Short lines which, if said in other words, would take volumes. How 'bout: and then one night in some rented room, where curtains never hung....

Peace, Chip

Subject: RE: Help: lines that jump out at you
From: GUEST,Pete Peterson at work
Date: 28 Mar 01 - 02:47 PM

Yeats' poem about The O'Rahilly, which I don't think has been set to music (unfortunately it has the same meter as Yellow Rose of Texas, the tune to which I sometimes sing Emily Dickinson poems. But I digress)

because I helped to wind the clock
I come to hear it strike

(O'Rahilly explaining to Pearse and Connolly why he was fighting in the Easter Rebellion having argued so strongly in private against a rising)

Subject: RE: Help: lines that jump out at you
From: kendall
Date: 28 Mar 01 - 01:07 PM

When the government wiped out the Metis in Regina Sas. it goes.. The bullets flew and the cannons roared, the Metis' blood flowed like a river,Into the coolies where they ran to hide, it washed their dreams away, and their spirit died.. Bill Gallaher Victoria B.C.

Subject: RE: Help: lines that jump out at you
From: Whistle Stop
Date: 28 Mar 01 - 11:05 AM

"'Have you heard the news?' he said with a grin
'The vice-president's gone mad!'
"Where?''Downtown''When''Last night'
'Hmmm... say, that's too bad!'"

Right, Spaw?

Subject: RE: Help: lines that jump out at you
From: kendall
Date: 28 Mar 01 - 10:04 AM

I thought that line from County Down was ,,Such a winsom elf, I had to shake meself to see I was really there?

Ok good stuff folks. BTW Little River was written by Ruth Moore. Gordon made the tune.

a line from Dave Malletts Old Blue Ox. An old man wandered away from home looking for people who were long dead.."And 50 years just disappeared like minutes in his mind."

..and I saw what it had done, and I wished I was dead, never knew there was worse things than dying.. Eric Bogle.

Today will soon become tomorrow, how I'd like to leave the past behind, for 'though I know it only brings me sorrow, to love again would only be unkind..U.Phillips

for some will lead the crippled, and some will lead the blind, but what of alms for him whose wound is of the mind.. U.Phillips.

.."but Kagen reads it wrong this time" Gordon Bok

When he hits that low note on that giant 12 string guitar, it IS the crack of doom.( It's tuned down to C)

Sorry folks, I'm having one of my "What the hell is the point" days.

Subject: RE: Help: lines that jump out at you
From: GUEST,Fibula Mattock
Date: 28 Mar 01 - 08:56 AM

"Flow river flow, f*ck off to the sea" from Ding Dong Denny O'Reilly's (The Hairy Bowsies) album - a "geographical folk song" (i.e. songs about rivers, mountains etc.) Very moving.

Subject: RE: Help: lines that jump out at you
From: GUEST,Midchuck upstairs when should be in office
Date: 28 Mar 01 - 08:47 AM

Well, this isn't a line, it's a whole verse, but:

"This old Martin guitar
Built in 1946
It's scratched and stained and splintered
With nails and guitar picks.
But it's been my close companion
Since 1962.
Please don't ask me to decide
Between this guitar and you."

- Tom Russell, What Do You Want From Me

Peter.

Subject: RE: Help: lines that jump out at you
From: GUEST,Matt_R
Date: 28 Mar 01 - 08:08 AM

"One light, one mind
Flashing in the dark
Blinded by silence of a thousand broken hearts"

Subject: RE: Help: lines that jump out at you
From: Snuffy
Date: 28 Mar 01 - 07:40 AM

Then she made her way homeward with one star awake

Subject: RE: Help: lines that jump out at you
From: wdyat12
Date: 28 Mar 01 - 05:00 AM

Kendall,

My favorite is a line from Gordon Bok's "Peter Kagan and the Wind" which says it all for me.

" I'm not afraid wind." But, damnit he sould have been!

wdyat12

Subject: RE: Help: lines that jump out at you
From: Joe Offer
Date: 28 Mar 01 - 03:37 AM

I visited my singing buddy Jim in the mountains today. I thought my visit two weeks ago was the last time I'd see him alive, but he surprised us - he's still hanging onto the life he has enjoyed so much. Two weeks ago, I thought he was the sickest man I had ever seen in my life; but he was still able to get out his guitar and sing four songs with me, and he played "I'll Fly Away" on my harmonica. Today, he couldn't speak; and he couldn't sit up unless I held him. I sat by him for two hours, singing to him and reminding him of all the good times we had singing together. I knew his wife before she met Jim, and I told him how intense and sincere and serious she was - and how wonderful it was that he had been able to teach her to laugh.

I've been trying to learn Bob Franke's "Thanksgiving Eve," and I sang it for Jim today. It's not a perfect song, but there are two lines in it that perfectly describe my friend Jim:

But the grace to accept every moment as a gift
Is a gift that is given to some

I told him I thought that gift was something we had in common, the thing that has bound us so close together. Jim couldn't say anything when I finished the song, but he squeezed my hand and smiled his marvelous smile. He's so sick, but I still had a delightful time with my friend Jim today.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Help: lines that jump out at you
From: GUEST,Nancy
Date: 28 Mar 01 - 03:17 AM

Most of the songs I love to sing have at least a line, usually a verse I really love

If it should be that your baby's a girl
Never you mind if her hair doesn't curl
Rings on her fingers, bells on her toes
A bomber above her wherever she goes...

Sleep is a river, goes on forever...
And for your boatman, choose old John o' Dreams

Ye haven't an arm, ye haven't a leg
Ye're a hopeless shell of a man on a peg
And you'll have to be put w' yer bowl ta beg
Johnny I hardly knew ya

So come all ye young sea-farin' men, And listen to me song
When you go off on them long trips, I'd have ye's do no wrong
Take my advice, drink no strong drink, Don't go sleepin' with no whores
But get married lads, and have all night in, and go to sea no more...

Getting out my guitar right now....

Nancy

Subject: RE: Help: lines that jump out at you
From: mousethief
Date: 28 Mar 01 - 02:23 AM

I learned to play "Pacing the Cage" by Bruce Cockburn just because of the first half-stanza, viz.:

Sunset is an angel weeping
Holding out a bloody sword
No matter how I squint, I cannot
Make out what it's pointing toward...

Ye gods and juleps, if I could write poetry that good.

Alex

Subject: RE: Help: lines that jump out at you
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 28 Mar 01 - 12:53 AM

"See them tumblin' down, pledging their love to the ground."

Just about anything by Bob Nolan has great grabber lines. Also Tommy Makem:

"By far-off shores my feet have wandered,
Heard a stranger call me friend
Any time my mind was troubled,
Found a smile around the bend."

"Long ago, I used to be a young man,
And dear Margaret remembers that for me."

from The Dutchman by Michael Smith.

All the best.

Seamus

Subject: RE: Help: lines that jump out at you
From: GUEST,RW
Date: 28 Mar 01 - 12:43 AM

"Good king Wenceslas looked out on the feast of Stephen"

You gotta love a song that starts out with a name like Wenceslas. I also like the version from Walt Kelly's "Pogo":

"Good King Sauerkraut looked out on his feets uneven."

Subject: RE: Help: lines that jump out at you
From: GUEST,Bardford
Date: 28 Mar 01 - 12:31 AM

Sometimes, about all I remember from a song is one or two lines, or fragments. John Prine has some great ones:
"There's a hole in daddy's arm where all the money goes,"
and:"Old people just get lonesome, waitin for someone to say, hello in there, hello."

and: "Sittin' in my bathtub, countin' my toes
when the radiator broke, the water all froze
got stuck in the ice without my clothes
naked as the eyes of a clown."
Craig Moreau, from Calgary, wrote a song called The Final Price of Grain, about a farmer beset by bad times. Every time I hear it, these lines stick to the insides of my ears for a few days:
I was in the Navy, in the Navy I should have stayed
'Cause fighting wars off foreign shores beats farming any day."
Also the Rolling Stones Heartbreaker:
doodoo doo doo doo doo"
Cheers, Bardford

Subject: RE: Help: lines that jump out at you
From: DonMeixner
Date: 28 Mar 01 - 12:12 AM

Almosy every line in MacPherson's Rant scream to be sung.

"It burns my heart, that I must depart, and no avenged be"

Gordon Bok's "Little River" has the same effect.

"Empty sounds from the breakers calling me, back to shore"

Jerry Jeff Walker's My Old Man

"Still in all, I recall I said when I was young, No one else could really sing the songs he sung."

Townes Van Zandt's Caroline

Her ways were free and it seemed to me, Sunlight walked beside her"

Too many to pick just several :-).

Don

Subject: RE: Help: lines that jump out at you
From: Matt_R
Date: 28 Mar 01 - 12:03 AM

"and it's a beautiful rain, beautiful rain, beautiful rain..."

Subject: RE: Help: lines that jump out at you
From: Gypsy
Date: 27 Mar 01 - 11:56 PM

I've sure done it with tunes. Love the b part to The Rose Tree, but the a part....ugh!

Subject: RE: Help: lines that jump out at you
From: Sorcha
Date: 27 Mar 01 - 11:29 PM

"trombone"?? Matt, I think you got a problem there, bud. Trombone? ok,.....bone, slide in, slide out, warm is better than cold.........uh, OK, I'll stop.

Subject: RE: Help: lines that jump out at you
From: Matt_R
Date: 27 Mar 01 - 11:25 PM

"Your love is better than a warm trombone".

Subject: RE: Help: lines that jump out at you
From: Dave Swan
Date: 27 Mar 01 - 11:08 PM

Three Merry Men from Kent gives us this:

"and we shall be merry, merry here, for who can know where we may go to be merry another year..."

from Rathdrum Fair, this image:

"and the old mare will stumble and bite at the wind while you sleep in the saddle with your collar turned in"

Subject: RE: Help: lines that jump out at you
From: catspaw49
Date: 27 Mar 01 - 10:58 PM

Sure. For instance, all of these from the same songwriter.............

"Reality is bad enough, why should I tell the truth."

"I've got roots that need a plantin' and a love that needs a growin'. ... where my pride won't have to bend and my lips can taste the wind"

"In yesterday's 'Times' today I read, how Sgt. Pepper never played"

"But yesterday don't matter when its gone away."

"It's many a mile I have spent on this road. It's many a mile I have gone."

"My fingers they have turned to brass, my eyes have turned to clay."

Spaw

Subject: RE: Help: lines that jump out at you
From: GUEST,Old JoeBoy
Date: 27 Mar 01 - 10:51 PM

This is from "Drifter's Wind" by Chuck Pyle:

"Married life fit like a glove -- kinda tight and kinda thin."

Subject: RE: Help: lines that jump out at you
From:
Date: 27 Mar 01 - 10:50 PM

Kendall--

It's worse than that. The purpose of our evolving from the primordial slime to where we could wrap opposable thumbs around guitar necks is so that the couplet

Feed on your water, shovel in your coal, Stick your head out the window, watch the drivers roll.

could be written and performed. It's all down hill from here.

Seriously, I think if you look at how bits like this migrate from folk song to folk song, it's because those lines speak to people. It isn't just the singers, I found recently. Walking out of a hall where we had just done some old-timey stuff, I was buttonholed by an old man in the audience who just fed me back a half-verse out of 45 minutes of stuff--

That dirty little coward That shot Mister Howard Laid Jesse James in his grave.

I guess we're talking Jung here, or something. Shared subconscious images. To Hell with Jung. It's fun just talking "Kendall & me."

Chicken Charlie

Subject: RE: Help: lines that jump out at you
From: Sorcha
Date: 27 Mar 01 - 10:41 PM

"in the early morning rain, with a dollar in my hand"
"wish I was a single girl again"
"know me if you will by the wind on the hill, for you'll know me by no other name"
"one toke over the line, sweet Jesus"
"I'd give all I own if I could atone, to that silver haired Daddy of mine"

Subject: RE: Help: lines that jump out at you
From: gnu
Date: 27 Mar 01 - 10:28 PM

In White Innocence, IN.... sorry

gnu

Subject: RE: Help: lines that jump out at you
From: MMario
Date: 27 Mar 01 - 10:27 PM

from "The wolfhound" - oh faithful hound, oh trusty hound

from "3 Score and ten" - there was many a heart of sorrow