best single lines in songs

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Uncle Frank the Singing Insurance Guy
Date: 02 May 99 - 10:10 PM

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Les B
Date: 02 May 99 - 09:21 PM

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

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: emily rain
Date: 02 May 99 - 09:18 PM

yes, we are. :)

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 02 May 99 - 09:13 PM

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

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

Sandy

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Susan A-R
Date: 02 May 99 - 09:00 PM

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: emily rain
Date: 02 May 99 - 08:58 PM

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Frank of Toledo
Date: 02 May 99 - 08:08 PM

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Mo
Date: 02 May 99 - 07:56 PM

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

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

Safe Harbour - Eric Bogle

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Tucker
Date: 02 May 99 - 06:38 PM

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From:
Date: 02 May 99 - 12:32 PM

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

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

from the song KEWANAW LIGHT

Tom Johnson

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Matthew B.
Date: 02 May 99 - 11:45 AM

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Herge
Date: 02 May 99 - 06:32 AM

'We were wild then'

Michelle Shocked

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: The Shambles
Date: 02 May 99 - 06:17 AM

Susan A-R

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

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

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

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

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

A. E. Houseman

--seed

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 02 May 99 - 01:11 AM

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

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

Sandy

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Arkie
Date: 02 May 99 - 12:43 AM

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

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

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

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Susan A-R
Date: 02 May 99 - 12:01 AM

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

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: dwditty
Date: 01 May 99 - 11:41 PM

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: katlaughing
Date: 01 May 99 - 08:54 PM

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

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

"Up against the wall you redneck mothers!"

katlaughing and dancing!

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Tucker
Date: 01 May 99 - 08:43 PM

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

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

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

This way, Allison: </i>

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

-Joe Offer-

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

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

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

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

t. s. eliot, the wasteland

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

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

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Alice
Date: 01 May 99 - 06:45 PM

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

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Alice
Date: 01 May 99 - 06:38 PM

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

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: LEJ
Date: 01 May 99 - 06:17 PM

"Full fathom five thy father lies

Of coral are his bones, of shell his eyes

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

into something rich and strange"- Shakespeare The Tempest

LEJ

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Graham Pirt
Date: 01 May 99 - 05:23 PM

"Warming cold tomorrow by the fires of yesterday"

by Keith Marsden

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: arkie
Date: 01 May 99 - 04:49 PM

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Peter T.
Date: 01 May 99 - 04:22 PM

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

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

Yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Mudjack
Date: 01 May 99 - 03:06 PM

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Bob Schwarer
Date: 01 May 99 - 03:01 PM

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

Bob S.

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Frank of Toledo
Date: 01 May 99 - 02:17 PM

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Llanfair
Date: 01 May 99 - 12:58 PM

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

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

Hwyl.

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: The Shambles
Date: 01 May 99 - 12:38 PM

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

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Banjer
Date: 01 May 99 - 12:29 PM

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: JOField
Date: 01 May 99 - 11:39 AM

"There's a girl up the country

That I really love."

A.P. Carter, "Hello, Stranger"

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: katlaughing
Date: 01 May 99 - 11:33 AM

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Max
Date: 01 May 99 - 10:07 AM

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

Sounds good both ways.

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: katlaughing
Date: 01 May 99 - 08:12 AM

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

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

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

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From:
Date: 01 May 99 - 08:02 AM

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

Ritchie.

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: katlaughing
Date: 01 May 99 - 12:43 AM

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

Thanks,

kat

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 01 May 99 - 12:15 AM

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

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

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

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

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

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Frank of Toledo
Date: 01 May 99 - 12:14 AM

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Tucker
Date: 01 May 99 - 12:12 AM

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: katlaughing
Date: 01 May 99 - 12:00 AM

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

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

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

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

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Frank of Toledo
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 11:54 PM

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Tucker
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 11:53 PM

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Big Mick
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 11:43 PM

Sometimes she sees
Her unborn children
In his eyes

The Dutchman

All the best,

Mick

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: rich r
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 11:37 PM

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

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

rich r

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Sheye
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 11:35 PM

What's for breakfast?