Favorite Lines

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 24 May 06 - 04:40 PM

Hey, Dan: Thanks for remembering Margaret.

(I thought I was exceptionally gracious not to take the 100th post..)

Jerry

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Scoville
Date: 24 May 06 - 05:07 PM

Creedence Clearwater Revival, from "Lodi":

"If I only had a dollar for every song I'd sung,
Every time I had to play while people sat there drunk . . . "

Haven't had to do that very much myself but I've been to enough shows by decent bands where the audience just didn't give a damn.




And all of "Faded Coat of Blue". Normally I'm immune to Victorian schmaltz but that sucker gets me every time.

And almost anything by Hazel Dickens.

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Bill D
Date: 24 May 06 - 05:29 PM

the last two lines in "I've Rambled This Country, Both Earlye and Late" (recorded by Mike Seeger)
(a song of maudlin reflection by a fellow who realizes his "true love" has just taken up with someone else)

"And since it is no better, I'm glad that it is no worse-
Brandy in my bottle, and money in my purse."

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Dan Schatz
Date: 25 May 06 - 11:34 AM

I'm glad to remember Margaret, Jerry - it is always good to remember those who have done truly wonderful things.

Here's another line from the same song, "Them Stars."

It's the description of Coyote as

"That yap throated critical vamint who never
Is pleased with what other folks do...."

(And wasn't that brilliantly put to music?)

Dan Schatz

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Steve-o
Date: 25 May 06 - 12:37 PM

Now the years have left me bitter, the drink has dimmed my brain; for Dublin keeps on changin', and nothin' seems the same; the Metropole and the pillar are gone, the Royale long since torn down; as the grey unyielding concrete makes a city of my town.
These evocative lines are burned into my memory, perhaps somewhat incorrectly, from "Dublin in the Rare Auld Times".

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Rapparee
Date: 25 May 06 - 02:49 PM

More lines that have a special meaning for me and, I suspect, to many veterans:

...And when the ship pulled into Circular Quay
I looked at the place where my legs used to be
And thanked Christ there was no one there waiting for me
To grieve, and to mourn, and to pity.

And the band played Waltzing Matilda
As they carried us down the gangway
But nobody cheered
They just stood there and stared
Then they turned all their faces away.

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: GUEST,Hutzul
Date: 25 May 06 - 10:36 PM

"Screamed like a panther in the middle of the night"
    Willie

I may be a wage slave on a Monday
But I'll be a free man on Sunday

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: number 6
Date: 25 May 06 - 11:27 PM

"He has no friends
But he gets a lot of mail
I'll bet he spent a little
Time in jail...
I heard he was up on the
Roof last night
Signaling with a flashlight
And what's that tune he's
Always whistling...
What's he building in there?
What's he building in there?

We have a right to know..."

What's He Building? ... by Tom Waits

sIx

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Alba
Date: 25 May 06 - 11:45 PM

Just give me a long,slow moving Freight Train.
Don't want no fast, high flying Airplane.
Just sing me a slow, lonesome old love song, before too long....
I'll be long gone.

Slow Moving Freight Train by Hugh Moffat
( I love Hugh Moffat singing his song but I also love Seldom Scene's version too)

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: C. Ham
Date: 26 May 06 - 08:42 AM

Come gather round me children, a story I will tell
I've been around since Jesus met the woman at the well
I've walked these roads ten thousand years, I'm a ragtime millionaire
I am the rake and the ramblin' saint, the man from God knows where

(and every other line from every song on Tom Russell's The Man From God Knows Where)

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: kendall
Date: 24 Sep 08 - 04:59 PM

..the waves rolled up like mountain tops and the wind like a thing in pain. (Bob Coltman)

Our conversation was quite short,
Five minutes at the most
But he stood before me like a child and conjured up the ghosts
Of friends and kinfolks from an older and a slower time
And fify years just disappeared like minutes in his mind.. (Old Blue Ox, Dave Mallett)

And you're wondering what Marian found to do
That's better than coming to see you one last time
No more Robin, no more, your outlaw days are over . (Bob Coltman)

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Cool Beans
Date: 24 Sep 08 - 06:12 PM

As through this world I ramble
I've seen lots of funny men:
Some rob you with a six-gun,
Some with a fountain pen.
   Woody Guthrie, "Pretty Boy Floyd" and forever current.

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: alanabit
Date: 25 Sep 08 - 09:02 AM

"I met a man whose name was time
He said,"I must be going".
But just how long ago that was, I have no way of knowing
Sometimes I want to murder time
When my poor heart is aching
But mostly I just walk along the path that he is taking."

Robin Williamson from "October Song".

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: GUEST,Abdul the Bul Bul on his laptop
Date: 25 Sep 08 - 01:46 PM

Just to dance beneath the diamond skies with one hand waving free

You come right inside of me, close as you can be, you kiss my blood and my blood kiss me.

Al

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: chazkratz
Date: 25 Sep 08 - 06:05 PM

I love the last verse of John Hartford's "Gentle on My Mind":

I pull my cup of soup back from a gurgling, crackling cauldron in some train yard
My beard a dusty coal-pile and my dirty hat pulled low across my eyes
Through cupped hands round a tin can I pretend to hold you in my arms and find
That you're moving on the backroads by the rivers of my memories
Ever smiling, ever gentle on my mind

And from Flanders and Swann:

Have some Madeira, m'dear, you really have nothing to fear
I'm not trying to tempt you, that wouldn't be right
You shouldn't take spirits at this time of night
But have some Madeira, m'dear

and of course, the last lines of the song:

"Have some Madeira, m'dear,"
The sound seemed to ring in her ear
Until the next morning she woke in her bed
With a smile on her lips and an ache in her head
And a beard at her earlobe* which tickled and said
"Have some Madeira, m'dear"

*"lug hole" in the original--which is funnier, but most of us Yanks wouldn't understand it.

And a bunch of lines by Kris Kristofferson

Charles

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 25 Sep 08 - 06:46 PM

For no particular reason, the many verses of "Thais," a comic take on the operatic heroine and her erstwhile saviour, Athanael, have been stuck in my head for over fifty years. The last two verses pretty well sum up the poor man's dilemma:

      So forth from Alexandria,
      From wicked Alexandria,
      Across the desert sands they go
      Beneath the blazing sun;
      Till Thais, parched and sweltering,
      Finds refuge in the sheltering
      Seclusion of the convent,
      In the habit of a nun!

      And now, the monk is terrified,
      To find his fears are verified;
      His holy vows of chastity
      Have cracked beneath the strain,
      Like one who has a jag on,
      He cries out in grief and agony:
      "I'd sell my soul to see her do the shimmy once again!"

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Sorcha
Date: 25 Sep 08 - 07:39 PM

Do lines from films count? If so....


From The Long Riders...
'I hope you are all havin' a reeelll goood time, cuz I am'
Belle Starr just before the knife fight


'Vil sum kind soul please show dis poor asshole de vay out of town?'
'Rabbi' Gene Wilder in Frisco Kid

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: meself
Date: 25 Sep 08 - 07:51 PM

There were scuffles in the crowd,
And the night got rather loud,
From a-joltin' one another to and fro;
While old men with foreheads bare,
Threw their dusters in the air,
Wanting someone for to fight them at Gros Haut.

It may raise the price of shirts,
But there's no one badly hurt,
And I hope there's no ill feelings to bestow;
There's been picnics here before,
A little nearer to the shore,
But they might be called twin brothers at Gros Haut!


Okay, those last few lines might require some explanation, but anyway, that's a bit of The Picnic at Gros Haut (or The Tea at Gros Haut?), a Prince Edward Island folksong I assume was collected by Sandy Ives ...

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: GUEST,guesta
Date: 08 Sep 10 - 05:17 PM

all in all, you're just a brick in the wall. (Pink Floyd)

the storm is breaking or so it seems, we're too young to reason, too grown up for dreams. (Bryan Ferry)

oh mama dear we're not the fortunate ones, but girls just wanna have fun.

I took her to a supermarket, i had to start it somewhere, so i started there...I said pretend you've got no money / she said oh you're so funny i said yeah? i don't see anyone else laughing here.

Oh Deborah your house was very small with woodchip on the wall.

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Joe_F
Date: 08 Sep 10 - 05:40 PM

Married girl, married girl, rocks the cradle and cries.

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 08 Sep 10 - 06:13 PM

And nobody mentions the classics.....
"A man ain't nothin' but a man"
"Death, cold death, came hasting along"
"A haint can't haint a haint, my good old man"

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Dave MacKenzie
Date: 08 Sep 10 - 06:19 PM

"But when you fell asleep with blood on your teeth" - The Handsome Family, 'So Much Wine'

"I was born a lonely singer and I'm bound to die the same
But I've got to beat the hunger in my soul,
And if I never have a nickel I won't ever die of shame
'Cause I don't believe that no one wants to know."

Kris Kristofferson, 'To Beat the Devil"

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Bernard
Date: 08 Sep 10 - 06:27 PM

For me it has to be the opening line to Jake Thackray's 'On Again, On Again'...

'I love a good bum on a woman it makes my day!'...!!

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: RTim
Date: 08 Sep 10 - 06:35 PM

I have a line in a version of Bold Manning I will be attempting to learn some time this year.
It goes like this:

"Now some they slew and some they slay, and some they killed outright,"

Some might say - Over Kill!!

Tim Radford

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Joe_F
Date: 09 Sep 10 - 06:19 PM

Too late, but never mind.

Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 09 Sep 10 - 06:40 PM

"If you don't like my peaches, don't shake my tree"