The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies

Subject: RE: The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies
From: Bill D
Date: 27 Dec 20 - 12:37 PM

I knew there were threads on 'best lines'... and a search found 3. I just decided to refresh this one to add a line that went thru my head today.

"With your snake oil and herbs and your liniments, too
You can do anything that a doctor can do
Except find a cure for your own god damned stew"

From Utah Phillips "The Goodnight-Loving Trail"

Subject: RE: The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies
From: GUEST,Nancy Schimmel
Date: 19 Jul 17 - 01:39 PM

There is a ship sails upon the sea
It's loaded deep as deep can be
But not so deep as the love I'm in
I know not if I sink or swim

from "The Water Is Wide"

Subject: RE: The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies
From: GUEST,Don Wise
Date: 19 Sep 11 - 06:57 AM

"And poor priests like to walk in chains
And God likes to forsake them"
                   Robin Williamson, "October Song"


"Baby, I've been here before
I know this room, I've walked this floor
I used to live alone before I knew you....."
                     Leonard Cohen, "Allelujah"

"You will strand on deck and watch them throw the hawser
You will see the men who catch it on the pier.
And you feel a chill as you leave the railing
Down the gangway the town is very near...."
                      Kari Bremnes,"Song for a town"

I thought about quoting various lines from some of my own songs but, since virtually no-body knows them, that would be unfair!

Subject: RE: The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies
From: GUEST,sailor ron
Date: 19 Sep 11 - 06:05 AM

"Blaspheming saints,and splendid drunken heroes" from John Connely's 'Trawlertown requiem' [+ numerous other great lines].

Subject: RE: The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies
From: GUEST,999
Date: 18 Sep 11 - 09:15 PM

"Well, as through the world I've rambled,
I've seen lots of funny men,
Some rob you with a sixgun,
Some with a fountain pen"

From 'Pretty Boy Floyd' by Woody Guthrie

Subject: RE: The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies
From: Midchuck
Date: 18 Sep 11 - 07:51 PM

When I'm too damned old to sit a horse, I'll steal the warden's car;
Break my ass out of this prison, leave my teeth there in a jar.
You don't need no teeth for kissin' girls or smokin' cheap cigars.
I'll sleep with one eye open, 'neath God's celestial stars...

- Tom Russell, Tonight We Ride

(His record of this only came out in '04, so I couldn't very well post it on this thread when it was up before.)

Peter

Subject: RE: The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies
From: East Texas Red
Date: 18 Sep 11 - 06:16 PM

Red went to his knees and he hollered "please!
don't pull that trigger on me,
I never did get my business fixed"
But Red never got his say

A gun wheeled out of an overcoat
And it played the old one-two
And Red lay dead while the other two men
Set down to eat their stew

Woody Guthrie
The Ballad of East Texas Red

Subject: RE: The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies
From: StephenX
Date: 18 Sep 11 - 10:38 AM

So so many!

After my wife 0f 23 years left me, these lines had stinging meaning:

"They say that death is a tragedy
It comes once and it's over
But my only wish is for that deep dark abyss
'Cause what's the use of living with no true lover"


Kate & Anna McGarrigle

Subject: RE: The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies
From: Elmore
Date: 18 Sep 11 - 09:08 AM

I was born like this, I had no choice, I was born with the gift of a golden voice. - Leonard Cohen "tower of song".

Subject: RE: The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies
From: Allen in Oz
Date: 18 Sep 11 - 04:02 AM

" I'd trade all my tommorrows for a single yesterday
To be holding Bobby's body next to mine"


Me and Bobby McGee


AD

Subject: RE: The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 18 Sep 11 - 01:55 AM

You can talk about your Birkenhead girls like Up-In-The-Corner Sally
Way haul away we'll haul away for Rosie
Way haul away we'll haul away for Rosie O
But they can't do that roll-and-go like the girls of Booble Alley ...

Subject: RE: The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 18 Sep 11 - 01:48 AM

If they ever black your eyes, put me wise
If they ever cook your goose, turn me loose
And if they ever put a bullet through your brain, I'll complain

...I you're in a sawmill and cut in half, I won't laugh

... That's Friendship...

&c &c &c

    Cole Porter Friendship

...or any other verse from that or a dozen or more of Porter's witty lyrics

Subject: RE: The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 18 Sep 11 - 01:31 AM

"Now I raise my sons in a small caravan
For the cottage where my roots were put down
Has been sold by the farmer to a rich city man
Where he spends a few weekends from town"

   Peter Bellamy Farewell To The Land

Subject: RE: The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies
From: Cyparissa
Date: 17 Sep 11 - 10:10 PM

Good thread! Though I think I'll only be able to list a few of my favorites...

"Men may strip you to the skin
but the wolves will strip you to the bone." -Death of Young Andrew

"They couldn't do to me no harm
So they slew my baby in my arm
Left me naught to wrap him in
But the bloody sheet that he lay in." -Famous Flower of Serving Men

"No gypsy, slut nor doxy
Shall win my mad Tom from me
I'll weep all night, with stars I'll fight
The fray shall well become me." -Bedlam Boys

"Pretty flowers was made to bloom, love.
Pretty stars was made to shine.
Pretty girls was made for boys to love,
And maybe you was made for mine." -Awake, Awake

"Well, I wished I was a turtle dove
Had wings and could fly
Far away to my lover's lodgings
Tonight I'd draw nigh
And there in her lily-white arms I'd lay there all night
and watch through them little windows
for the dawning of day." -Pretty Saro

Subject: RE: The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies
From: GUEST,dwditty
Date: 17 Sep 11 - 05:09 PM

From Dave Van Ronk's ANother Time and Place

I'd trade my time in heaven for a day with you, my dear.

Subject: RE: The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies
From: GUEST,jannert
Date: 17 Sep 11 - 01:49 PM

It's a long way to the delta from the north Georgia hills
And a tall sack full of ginseng won't pay no travellin' bills
And I'm too old to ride the rails or thumb the road alone
I guess I'll never make it back to home
To my muddy-water-Mississippi-delta home

Norman Blake, from the song: Ginseng Sullivan

Subject: RE: The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies
From: Neighmond
Date: 04 Dec 02 - 07:46 PM

"and when the parson gathers 'round your head
you think of what your dear old mother said
with a pain in your back and heart and head
It'll aggrevate your soul!"

Subject: RE: The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies
From: GUEST,Passin' thru
Date: 04 Dec 02 - 06:54 PM

Flanders & Swan's "Have some Madiera, m'dear." Not just funny - WITTY.

Subject: RE: The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies
From: GUEST,Treewhale- Guest
Date: 04 Dec 02 - 06:27 PM

Oh, here's a few,

THe Handsome Family, Weightless Again
"This is why people OD on pills, And jump from the Golden Gate Bridge, Anything to feel weightless again."

Also, from the song "Up Falling Rock Hill"
"Up falling rock hill, where the leaves swoop like bats, I shot my brother William five times in the back. Have mercy, have mercy dear brother he cried, but the wind has no mercy and neither did I."

"Last night at the pub, I say my cousin Rory, couldn't believe my eyes when I saw he had a babe. The bastard had my wife, that's not the end of the story, the dirty drunken bastard drinks twice as much as me!" -Drunken Lazy Bastard, The Mahones-

"You'll have to excuse me, I'm not at my best, I've been gone for a month, I've been drunk since I left" -Home for a Rest- Spirit of the West-

"And even afloat, she's the hole in the water where his money goes, every dollar goes, and it's driving him crazy. He pounds his fist white on the dock in the night and cries 'I'm gonna win'and licks the blood away, and he's going to raise the dolphin" The man with the Blue Dolphin- Stan Rogers

"When they drain the blood from my body, and the flowers and greiving are all for me, and when I've gone into Hell, or to Heaven, Jenny, Jenny Gray, cry for me." Jenny Gray- Traditional

"We're gonna drink and fight and drink and fight and drink and fight some more. When the drinking's done, grab anyone, and go and fight some more, and grab your friends and neigbours, and punch 'em in the eye, and raise another glass and sing the Dublin Lullaby"-Dublin Lullaby- Captain Tractor-

"Stand your ground, it's too late, the excise men are at the gate, Jesus Christ they're drinking it straight, in the hills of Connemara."
Hills of COnnemara, Traditional

"We've captured Captain Maxwell, Sir, Spare yourself his tears. Says I 'I'll not but send you shot, to buzz about your ears'."
The Nancy- Stan Rogers

Yeah, those should do for now.

Subject: RE: The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies
From:
Date: 04 Dec 02 - 05:12 PM

From: Willie-O
Date: 27 Feb 00 - 05:20 PM
In The Mudcat Shop: Texas Girl

If anyone really wants to know, "Show Us the Length" was written by Bob Bossin and/or Marie-Lynn Hammond (the latter I think) and recorded first by their (Canadian) band Stringband. And it's not their best, or necessarily even funniest, song.

====

To set the record straight, it was Bob's song. It's now available on their 2-CD compilation "The Indespensible Stringband" see www.stringband.net

Cheers,

Richard

Subject: RE: The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies
From: Dunkle
Date: 05 Sep 01 - 02:10 PM

What can you do with each moment of your life, but love 'til you've love it away...? Thanksgiving Eve, by Bob Franke.

Subject: RE: The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies
From: LR Mole
Date: 05 Sep 01 - 01:36 PM

Alone for years you sailed around; at last, your ship come in
Well, charge admission on her deck, or sail her out again. --Arlo
But I'll see you in the sky above;in the tall grass;
In the ones I love,
You're gonna make me lonesome, when you go. --Bob D

Subject: RE: The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies
From: GUEST,Pete Dodenhoff
Date: 05 Sep 01 - 01:09 PM

"Even the President of the United States sometimes must have to stand naked."

-- Bob Dylan (from "It's Alright Ma..."

Just one of many possible submissions on this theme.

Subject: RE: The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies
From: GUEST,Annie
Date: 05 Sep 01 - 11:16 AM

"I wish the Northern Lights were mine, to hem and sew with ease. I'd make a coat for you to wear, to keep you from the breeze."

James Keelaghan, "I Would I Were"

When my husband sings it to me, it makes me cry. What a softie!

Subject: RE: The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies
From: GUEST,Annie
Date: 05 Sep 01 - 11:03 AM

"I wish the Northern Lights were mine, to hem and sew with ease. I'd make a coat for you to wear, to keep you from the breeze."

James Keelaghan, "I Would I Were"

When my husband sings it to me, it makes me cry. What a softie!

Subject: RE: The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies
From: 1979
Date: 05 Sep 01 - 10:10 AM

Your the foxy Devil when you like
you set me mind a tease and then you strike
you set me heart a reelin', you make me shout and sing
My memory flees, I get no ease, till I have a little drink

Subject: RE: The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies
From: GUEST,Guest - MC Fat
Date: 05 Sep 01 - 08:40 AM

All of 'Galway to Graceland' by Richard Thompson. Michael Marra's ' Hermless' and 'Song for the Life' - Rodney Crowell

Subject: RE: The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies
From: richlmo
Date: 04 Sep 01 - 08:47 PM

" There's only two things that money can't buy, and that's true love and home grown tomatoes. " Guy Clarke

Maybe not the best lines ever , but this time of year that really hits home!!

Great thread!!, Hate I missed it the first time around.

Will get back to you.

Subject: RE: The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies
From: GUEST,Doc Rock
Date: 04 Sep 01 - 05:35 PM

I like Nathan Williams and the Zydeco Cha Chas:

"Un cheval doucement et une femme vite ca va casser toi." (A slow horse and a fast woman is going to break you).

I guess it loses a bit in the translation.

Subject: RE: The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies
From: GUEST,Walking Eagle
Date: 04 Sep 01 - 05:12 PM

'If we weren't all crazy, we'd all go insane,' Jimmy Buffett, Changes in Lattitudes.

Subject: RE: The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies
From: GUEST,Willie
Date: 04 Sep 01 - 03:15 PM

"There's no place that I'd rather be than right here, . . With my red neck, and white socks, and Blue Ribbon beer.

Subject: RE: The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies
From: GUEST,genie
Date: 03 Sep 01 - 10:25 PM

How about:

"Will they have Mogen David in Heaven, sweet Jesus?

If they don't, who the hell wants to go?" (From Larry Gatlin's "The Midnight Choir")

or

"The woman piaba and the man piaba and the tun-tun coral buckle lemon grass,

The lily root, gully root, belly root - ooh! -- and the famous granny scratch, scratch" -- (the answer to "the story 'bout the birds and bees" as sung by Harry Belafonte -- "Man Piaba")

Subject: RE: The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies
From: GUEST,kendall
Date: 27 Aug 01 - 06:32 AM

..and the laughing drunken rats who left her to a sorry grave
They wont be laughing in another day...

and

..with smiling bastards lying to you everywhere you go...

Maryellen Carter Stan Rogers

Subject: RE: The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies
From: cetmst
Date: 26 Aug 01 - 06:40 AM

Sounds like it should be "Top 40" or "Hundred Best"

The cares of tomorrow must wait 'til this day is done, from Come By the Hills

Can I find my sweet resting place somewhere near you, Cathy Fink's Midnight Prayer Light

And since it falls unto my lot that I must go and you must not, Come lift to me the parting glass; Good night and God be with you all

I'm sorry my son but you'e too late in asking. Mr. Peabody's coal train has hauled it away, John Prine's Paradise

All the previously mentioned lines from Ballad of Erica Levine

Ditto from Godon Bok's Turning Toward the Morning

Rosemary's sister will be dancing

With Bill Brewer, Jan Strewer, Peter Gurney, Peter Davy, Dan'l Whidden, Harry Hawk, Old Uncle Tom Cobleigh and all

The fox and his wife without any strife cut up the goose with a fork and knife. They never had such a supper in their life and the lottle ones chewed on the bones O

Subject: RE: The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies
From: iamjohnne
Date: 25 Aug 01 - 10:55 PM

I cant imagine why I left this song out:

Harry Chapin's I'm in the dance band on the Titanic Playing Nearer my God to Thee The iceberg's on the starboard bow Won't you dance with me.

Subject: RE: The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies
From: Joe_F
Date: 25 Aug 01 - 06:44 PM

Dig a hole, dig a hole in the meadow

Look on yonder, see that eagle rise.
He was born on land, but he sure enjoys the skies.

Dillan bay, laddie-o, Dillan dau, laddie-ay.

If I done listen to what my mammy said,
I'd be at home in my mammy's bed.

Grind, children, grind, for a clear and wakeful mind

If you don't love me, love whom you please.
Throw your arms round me, give my heart ease.

First flower of their wilderness, star of their night

They'll hug you and kiss you, and tell you more lies
Than the crossties in the railroad or the stars in the skies.

It's love for love that I hae got,
Love for love again,
So turn your high horse heid about,
And we will ride for hame.

Feel the trickle in you clothes,
Blow the dust cake from your nose

Oh, it's knock out your pipes and follow me,
And it's finish up your swipes and follow me,
Oh, hark to the big drum calling --
Follow me, follow me home.

For a' that, and a' that,
Their riband, star, and a' that,
The man o' independent mind,
He looks and laughs at a' that.

Please keep them safe below
Till the rain comes tumbling down.

Venit mors velociter,
Rapit nos atrociter,
Nemini parcetur.

Numquam amans sequi volo
vices temporum
bestiali more.
...
Dum salutat me loquaci
Flora supercilio,
mente satis iam capaci,
gaudio concipio,
glorior labore.

O quam felix est
antidotum soporis,
quot curarum tempestates
sedat et doloris!

Sunt in grege parvulo
Ovis et asella,
Vitula cum vitulo,
Caper et capella.

Subject: RE: The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies
From: iamjohnne
Date: 25 Aug 01 - 09:18 AM

HE borrowed me money for to buy me a ring and he and the jewler went off on a fling but still I love him I'll for give him I'll go with him where ever he goes.

Nail your shoes to the kitchen floor lace em up and bar the door and thank the stars for the roof that's over you.

Don't wait up for the shrimp boats mama cause papa's coming home with crabs.

IN the bar we're gin and scotching while the FBI is watching they are tape recording every other word.

There but for fortune go you or I.....

the rain is Tess the fire's Joe and they call the wind Mariah.

try to remember and follow.

I can go on and on and on but now I will stop and let some others post too

Johnne "goin where the weather suits my clothes"

Subject: RE: The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies
From: GUEST,Andytwodogs
Date: 24 Aug 01 - 07:00 PM

First line:-- When I was drunk and handsome - from the Oysterband

A2D

Subject: RE: The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies
From: CRANKY YANKEE
Date: 24 Aug 01 - 06:04 PM

Last line of "The Spaniard who blighted me life.

I'll raise a bunion on his spanish onion, if I catch him vending tonight.

Subject: RE: The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies
From: Joe_F
Date: 24 Aug 01 - 05:31 PM

Married girl, married girl, rocks the cradle and cries

The sun shines o'er the westlin' hills by the lamplicht o' the moon

And I seem to hear it still -- Oh,
Vive l'amour, vive l'armadillo!

Who from danger and darkness bring power and light.

If I am forsaken, I'll not be forsworn,
And he's surely mistaken if he thinks that I'll mourn.
I'll get myself up in some right high degree
And pass as light by him as he can by me.

When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me.

Too late! but never mind.

We drank in the kitchen, held no competition,

When we've been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we first begun.

I hear the noise of wings.

Alle Menschen werden Brueder
Wo dein sanfter Fluegel weillt.

And she said, "I don't know, but you kiss just fine"

I reckon there's more things told than are true,
And more things true than are told.

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

Schon rief der Posten, "Sie blasen Zapfenstreich --
Es kann drei Tage kosten." "Kam'rad, ich komme gleich."

Just see what the boys in the backroom will have --

Say, don't you remember? I'm your pal.
Brother, can you spare a dime?

Way down yonder in a wooden trough,
An old woman died of the whooping cough.

Chickens crowing on Sourwood Mountain.

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

Walking in his footsteps in the sweet delta dawn.

Signs of scurvy in their eyes and only mermaids on their minds

No clear-cut beginnings, and so far no dead ends.

Freight yards full of old black men
...
Thru the Mississippi darkness rolling down to the sea.

I sent all my kids to school.
Now they think that I'm a fool.
They don't like me 'cause I spit.
Man, this love's a crock of shit.

I have seen a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel:
As ye deal with My contemners, so with you My Grace shall deal.
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel....

Subject: RE: The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies
From: GUEST,Beadie
Date: 24 Aug 01 - 04:43 PM

The lyric appears on the Digitrad under "Show me a pretty little number."

I have never actually heard Mr. Paxton sing it, I got the song off an old (ca. 1967) Chad Mitchell Trio album, "Typical American Boys."

Subject: RE: The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 24 Aug 01 - 02:30 PM

That's a great one Beade! What album is it on?

Subject: RE: The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies
From: GUEST,Beadie
Date: 24 Aug 01 - 02:26 PM

" All over this great big city, can't find a woman who's nice and pretty, they all look like a page in a magazine, Legs are long and they eat like a sparrow, Figure's a stick, its straight and narrow Top and bottom are the same as in between."

Tom Paxton; "The Natural Girl for Me"

Subject: RE: The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies
From: Midchuck
Date: 24 Aug 01 - 10:48 AM

You horsehair-braiding sons of bitches
Stole my claim to earthly riches.
Someone go and dig a ditch,
There may well be a hangin'!

Tom Russell, The Sky Above, the Mud Below

Subject: RE: The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies
From: ard mhacha
Date: 24 Aug 01 - 09:21 AM

And as the famed Poet penned, when referring to Davy Crockett, "What is life though full of care, if you haven`t time to kill a Bear".Slan Ard Mhacha.

Subject: RE: The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies
From: Grab
Date: 24 Aug 01 - 08:48 AM

Everybody knows the boat is sinking, everybody knows the captain lied.
Everybody got that broken feeling like their father or their dog just died.
-- Leonard Cohen

And all the roads jam up with credit, and there's nothing you can do,
And it's all just bits of paper, flying away from you.
-- Chris Rea

Well you can fall for chains of silver, you can fall for chains of gold,
You can fall for pretty strangers and the promises they hold.
I promised you everything, you promised me thick and thin,
Now you just say "Oh Romeo, yeah, you know I used to have a scene with him".
-- Mark Knopfler

You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in.
-- Trad (I think)

Graham.

Subject: RE: The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies
From: The Walrus at work
Date: 24 Aug 01 - 07:39 AM

"More beer and bugger the Band of Hope..."

Walrus

Subject: RE: The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies
From: dougboywonder
Date: 24 Aug 01 - 04:08 AM

My favorites - ahem!...."Warm summer days spent indoors, writing frightening verse to a bucktoothed girl in luxemburg"

or "She said 'I know you and you cannot sing', I said 'thats nothing you should hear me play piano'" (incidentaly 'piano' is rhymed with 'rusty spanner' in that one) both Morrissey

Or Billy Braggs "I look like Robert De Niro, I drive a Mitsubishi zero"....actually, at Sid. last year he changed that to "I look like Terry Wogan, I drive a Mitsubishi Shogun"

Subject: RE: The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 24 Aug 01 - 01:06 AM

This is a fun topic!

There's a hole in daddy's arm where all the money goes! ...Prine

Little old lady got mutilated late last night...Zevon

I won't hang upon no lover's cross for you... Croce Steadily depressin low down mind messin workin at the carwash blues... Croce

Subject: RE: The Best Song Lines EVER--For Us Newbies
From: GUEST,hutzul
Date: 24 Aug 01 - 12:51 AM

Greatest seafaring lyrics: gives me chills

Round Cape Horn one morning And our sails were full of snow Clear your sheets and sway your halyards Swing 'er out and let 'er go.

From "Rolling Home"