best single lines in songs

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: The_one_and_only_Dai
Date: 04 May 99 - 07:40 AM

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

Some ECW poet - Donne maybe?

And from the Bhagavad Gita, Siva says to Arjun:

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: katlaughing
Date: 04 May 99 - 08:17 AM

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

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

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

katlaughing

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Pete Peterson
Date: 04 May 99 - 10:23 AM

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: LEJ
Date: 04 May 99 - 02:13 PM

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

LEJ

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 04 May 99 - 04:02 PM

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Is that a real poncho or a Sears poncho?

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

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

I'm so Lonesome I could cry. Hank Williams

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

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

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

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

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: annamill
Date: 04 May 99 - 04:59 PM

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

Bryan Adams

Anna

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: LEJ
Date: 04 May 99 - 07:02 PM

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: The Shambles
Date: 04 May 99 - 07:18 PM

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

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

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

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: katlaughing
Date: 05 May 99 - 01:27 AM

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

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

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

kat

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

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

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

Or the whole poem:

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

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

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

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

--seed

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 05 May 99 - 11:50 AM

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

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: The Shambles
Date: 05 May 99 - 02:22 PM

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

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Gordon Dougherty
Date: 05 May 99 - 05:58 PM

Here's one of my favourites:

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

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: John Galt
Date: 05 May 99 - 06:50 PM

Be Here Now..... Ram Das

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Ian
Date: 06 May 99 - 08:01 AM

"Forgotten heroes from a forgotten war"

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

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

from "The Ladies Dance at Whitsun"

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Peter Fisher
Date: 06 May 99 - 10:59 AM

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

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

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

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

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

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Felipa
Date: 06 May 99 - 11:02 AM

"How can I keep from singing?"

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: KingBrilliant
Date: 06 May 99 - 11:46 AM

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

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: danl
Date: 06 May 99 - 12:02 PM

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

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

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

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

love ivy b.

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Håvard
Date: 06 May 99 - 12:19 PM

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

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

Håvard

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

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Rasta
Date: 07 May 99 - 12:54 PM

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Rasta
Date: 07 May 99 - 12:55 PM

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Uncle Steve
Date: 25 Sep 01 - 08:57 PM

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

- Bob Gibson

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: GUEST, I, hurricane
Date: 25 Sep 01 - 11:45 PM

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

John Whittier Burning Driftwood

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Troll
Date: 25 Sep 01 - 11:57 PM

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

Gunga Din by Rudyard Kipling

troll

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Genie
Date: 26 Sep 01 - 01:32 AM

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

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Andrew S
Date: 26 Sep 01 - 11:22 PM

This is from Guy Davis' "Sugarbelle Blue"

A man come up and asked for a date

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Paul from Hull
Date: 27 Sep 01 - 10:42 PM

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

'Screw-Guns' - Kipling

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

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Cluin
Date: 09 Feb 05 - 01:35 AM

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: GUEST,anonanonanon
Date: 09 Feb 05 - 03:02 AM

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Splott Man
Date: 09 Feb 05 - 04:36 AM

John Prine (sung by Iris Dement) -

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


Old Blues (source anyone?) -

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


From Mountains of Mourne -

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Feb 05 - 09:12 AM

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: GUEST,andymac
Date: 09 Feb 05 - 07:43 PM

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

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

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

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

Andy

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: fat B****rd
Date: 10 Feb 05 - 06:40 AM

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: GUEST,Raggytash
Date: 10 Feb 05 - 06:45 AM

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

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: erinmaidin
Date: 10 Feb 05 - 06:59 AM

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Bunnahabhain
Date: 10 Feb 05 - 12:29 PM

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

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Pauline L
Date: 10 Feb 05 - 02:21 PM

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

We never did do much talking anyway.

and

I gave her my heart but she wanted my soul.

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

With smiling bastards lying to you everywhere you go.

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Sir Roger de Beverley
Date: 10 Feb 05 - 03:39 PM

"Though we're apart you bother me still"

Fats Domino - Blueberry Hill


R

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Feb 05 - 04:30 PM

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: CStrong
Date: 10 Feb 05 - 04:31 PM

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 10 Feb 05 - 11:01 PM

Part I

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: GUEST,PUCK
Date: 13 Mar 05 - 04:21 PM

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: paddymac
Date: 13 Mar 05 - 06:46 PM

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

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: RobbieWilson
Date: 13 Mar 05 - 06:51 PM

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: Rain Dog
Date: 14 Mar 05 - 08:53 AM

A couple more from Tom Waits :

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

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

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: GUEST,Bainbo
Date: 14 Mar 05 - 09:12 AM

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

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

Subject: RE: best single lines
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Mar 05 - 09:51 AM

"And see that maiden shining in his eyes"

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

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