best single lines in songs

Subject: best single lines
From: Bert
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 03:00 PM

Northfolk got me going on this one when he quoted

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

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

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

Bert.

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Barbara
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 03:17 PM

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Joe Offer
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 03:17 PM

John Prine's Paradise has a verse that's the most colorful description I can think of:

Well, sometimes we'd travel right down the Green River
To the abandoned old prison down by Adrie Hill
Where the air smelled like snakes and we'd shoot with our pistols
But empty pop bottles was all we would kill.

Well, it's not a single line, but it's a single sentence.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Mudjack
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 03:25 PM

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: John Wood
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 03:26 PM

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Frank of Toledo
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 03:33 PM

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Allan C.
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 03:51 PM

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

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

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

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

:-]

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Alice
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 05:38 PM

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

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

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

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

(You can call me Al.)

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Alice
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 05:41 PM

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Tiger
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 06:07 PM

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

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

....Townes Van Zandt

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Max
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 06:30 PM

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 06:38 PM

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

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

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Jerry and Bev
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 08:16 PM

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: gargoyle
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 08:17 PM

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

Greer County Bachelor

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: katlaughing
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 08:32 PM

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 08:48 PM

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

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

Dear Companion

Sandy

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Matthew B.
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 09:25 PM

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

(From John Kanaka Naka)

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: DonMeixner
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 10:00 PM

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Don

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 10:38 PM

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

Sandy

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: BK
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 11:29 PM

for just a few:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cheers, Bk

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

What's for breakfast?

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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:
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 - 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: 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 - 11:33 AM

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

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: Banjer
Date: 01 May 99 - 12:29 PM

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

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: arkie
Date: 01 May 99 - 04:49 PM

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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-