What is your favorite line from a song?

[KitchenWitch]

Mine is "it's only life after all" from the Indigo Girls' Closer to Fine

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

1. mine

"A television war between the cynics and the saints, flip the dial and that's whose side you're on"

Goo Goo Dolls' "Flat Top"

[XemaSab]

2. "standing in the tall grass

thinking NOTHING...."

The album "lonesome crowded west" by modest mouse kicks ass, and that's why...

[Hissyspit]

6. "Edit The Sad Parts" is the coolest song

and I think it's only on an EP, of all things.

[XemaSab]

8. It's honestly hard to choose

"Heart Cooks Brain" is my favorite song, and I'd frankly be hard pressed to pick between "Moon and Antarctica," "Lonesome Crowded West," and "Building Nothing Out of Something" for one album to take to ye olde desert island.

But that one part from Cowboy Dan.... that's good livin'

And I gots to say, "Interstate 8," among other songs, reminds me of every good birding road trip I've ever been on.

"100 miles" reminds me of every less-than-good trip.

[jeff30997]

3. The subliminal mindfuck America...

Green Day - American Idiot.

[CanuckAmok]

4. "and I was gripped...by that deadly pahntom..."

It's from a Clash song, and it's so evocative. The song could go anywhere from there.

Also, from Nick Cave's "O'Malley's Bar":

"And with an ashtray as big as a fucking really big brick, I split his skull in half".

It's just so hilariously delivered, and the thought that this ashtray is so big he can't quite describe it without comparing it to a "fucking really big" something else is pretty funny.

[Hissyspit]

5. "He had a woman he loved in Saigon"

I got a picture of her in his arms.
They're still there. He's all gone."

That's not really my favorite, I'm still trying to remember my favorite. But that one always got to me.

[Spider Jerusalem]

7. This one:

"If you're in heaven then you'll forgive me dear, 'cause that's what they do up there...if you're in hell, what can I say? You probably deserved it anyway..." from "Idiot Prayer" by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds.

And this, the whole thing...sort-of spoken-word set to music, really...

"9th & Hennepin" - Tom Waits

Well it's Ninth and Hennepin
All the doughnuts have names that sound like prostitutes
And the moon's teeth marks are on the sky
Like a tarp thrown all over this
And the broken umbrellas like dead birds
And the steam comes out of the grill
Like the whole goddamn town's ready to blow...
And the bricks are all scarred with jailhouse tattoos
And everyone is behaving like dogs
And the horses are coming down Violin Road
And Dutch is dead on his feet
And all the rooms they smell like diesel
And you take on the dreams of the ones who have slept here
And I'm lost in the window, and I hide in the stairway
And I hang in the curtain, and I sleep in your hat...
And no one brings anything small into a bar around here
They all started out with bad directions
And the girl behind the counter has a tattooed tear
"One for every year he's away", she said
Such a crumbling beauty, ah
There's nothing wrong with her that a hundred dollars won't fix
She has that razor sadness that only gets worse
With the clang and the thunder of the Southern Pacific going by
And the clock ticks out like a dripping faucet
'til you're full of rag water and bitters and blue ruin
And you spill out over the side to anyone who will listen...
And I've seen it all, I've seen it all
Through the yellow windows of the evening train...

[WeRQ4U]

9. I have a few of them off the top of my head

"Baby I was doing fine, how do you think that I survived the other twenty five before you?" - Last Waltz, Ben Folds Five

"It's a hard life wherever you go. And if we poison our children with hatred, then the hard life is all that they'll know." - Hard Life, Chris & Johnny

"All that she intends, and what she keeps inside, isn't on the label." - Shimmer, Fuel

[CaliforniaPeggy]

10. I LOVE the song "Summertime" from Porgy and Bess...

Especially this line: "One of these days, you're gonna rise up singin." But the whole song gives me goosebumps!



:woohoo:

[progmom]

17. yeah, Peggy

:hi:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

19. Thank you, progmom! nt

[ugarte]

11. Gotta give it to Alice Cooper, even if he's a Republican

Well we got no class
And we got no principles
And we got no innocence
We can't even think of a word that rhymes

[progmom]

12. there are several lines in this song that resonate with me

well really....the whole song does

HEJIRA

I'm traveling in some vehicle
I'm sitting in some cafe
A defector from the petty wars
That shell shock love away
There's comfort in melancholy
When there's no need to explain
It's just as natural as the weather
In this moody sky today
In our possessive coupling
So much could not be expressed
So now I'm returning to myself
These things that you and I suppressed
I see something of myself in everyone
Just at this moment of the world
As snow gathers like bolts of lace
Waltzing on a ballroom girl

You know it never has been easy
Whether you do or you do not resign
Whether you travel the breadth of extremities
Or stick to some straighter line
Now here's a man and a woman sitting on a rock
They're either going to thaw out or freeze
Listen...
Strains of Benny Goodman
Coming thru' the snow and the pinewood trees
I'm porous with travel fever
But you know I'm so glad to be on my own
Still somehow the slightest touch of a stranger
Can set up trembling in my bones
I know - no one's going to show me everything
We all come and go unknown
Each so deep and superficial
Between the forceps and the stone

Well I looked at the granite markers
Those tribute to finality - to eternity
And then I looked at myself here
Chicken scratching for my immortality
In the church they light the candles
And the wax rolls down like tears
There's the hope and the hopelessness
I've witnessed thirty years
We're only particles of change I know, I know
Orbiting around the sun
But how can I have that point of view
When I'm always bound and tied to someone
White flags of winter chimneys
Waving truce against the moon
In the mirrors of a modern bank
>From the window of a hotel room

I'm traveling in some vehicle
I'm sitting in some cafe
A defector from the petty wars
Until love sucks me back that way

[robertarctor]

13. "By silverfish imperetrix and incorrupted eyes ..."

"... sees through the charms of doctors and their wives."

From Long Island's finest.

[Bossy Monkey]

14. "He reached for her hand and he gave her the keys/ Said 'I've got no

further use for these'"
Not a line but a couplet, but still. Richard Thompson, "1952 Vincent Black Lightning." Just try not to cry.

Anal-retentive edit: Apparently on the lyric sheet, it's "slipped her the keys." On the live version I have (the record with David Byrne), I'm pretty sure it's the way I have it on the subject line, but I may be mistaken.

[Mojambo]

15. Phil Ochs

It's always the old to lead us to the war, it's always the young to fall.
Now look at all we've won with the sabre and the gun, tell me is it worth it all?

Yeah, I know it's actually two lines. But they are so simple and so true.

[WCGreen]

35. It's aa couplet really.....

ANd I am noodling around with that one, adding a verse about the current war to play at the local coffee house,,,

[Whoa_Nelly]

16. From Eagles' "Already Gone"

But let me tell you I got some news for you
And you’ll soon find out it’s true
And then you’ll have to eat your lunch all by yourself

[enigmatic]

18. A few lines..

From "Safety" by Richmond Fontaine:

"There's no safety in being alone
There's no safety behind closed doors
There's no safety with anyone
There's no safety without a deluded belief
In Jesus Christ and Alcohol..."

[mcctatas]

20. "C'mon all you good rats, we'll send you to heaven...

You'll find the pearly gates between the froth and the foam
for in these vats you've made quite a creation
a potion that turns the Guinness to gold"

Good Rats by Dropkick Murphys

[intheflow]

21. india.arie

"Dark future ahead of me, that's what they said.
I'd be starving if I ate all the lies they fed."

[tridim]

22. From Beck's "Cold Brains"

The fields of green
Are bent, obscene
I lay upon the gravel

And from "O'Maria"

The fabric of folly is falling apart at the seams

[flamingyouth]

23. Well, it's longer than a line, but at least it's a (run on) sentence:

"Though no one ever said it'd be easy, still one's left to deny the choice that comes between your willingness to survive, though you're knowing what you stand up against - a world set to deceive - you need a special strength, I've got that second skin, I've got that chance to give, I've got the only way that I know how to live with it..." from "Second Skin" by The Gits

[ChaoticSilly]

24. The Final Cut

Thought I oughta bare my naked feelings,
Thought I oughta tear the curtain down.
I held the blade in trembling hands
Prepared to make it but just then the phone rang
I never had the nerve to make the final cut.

OK, so it's more than 1 line. I love the entire song, but that verse just stands out to me.

[BQueen]

25. "Kickin' your ass in a cold-blooded fashion,

dishin' out more than a good man can bear."

Tom Waits, but the song title escapes me at the moment. and every bit of "Emotional Weather Report" particularly "...a low-pressure ridge, extending from my eyes down to my cheeks..." and "...a low dusty wind in the bedroom..."

on edit: to note that from memory, haven't looked up the lyrics.

[NMMNG]

26. "Am I a part of the cure, or am I part of the disease"

from Clocks by Coldplay

[ET Awful]

27. "Without love in the dream it'll never come true" - the Grateful Dead

from 'Help on the Way'

[In_The_Wind]

28. Landslide

Well I've been afraid of changin'
because I've built my life around you

[cheeseit]

29. "I said 'Losing my penis to a whore with disease'"

Pixies- "I've been tired"

[Champ]

30. Troublesome '96 (line in italics)

either take me in heaven and understand I was g
did the best I could, raised in insanity
or send me to hell, because I ain't beggin for my life
ain't nothin worse then this cursed ass hopeless life

I can't even explain it, it's just like wow

on edit: It's not my favorite line, but one of the best or powerful lines I've heard.

[KeepItReal]

32. Tupac has/had alot of nice verses

One of my favorite 'Pac quotes:

"Somebody gotta explain to me why I don't have sh*t"

[RPM]

45. "My Attitude is Shitty"

my favorite 2Pac line.

[flvegan]

31. "Dogs love me cuz I'm crazy sniffable"

from "The Move" by the Beastie Boys.

[biscodawg]

33. There is a light that never goes out

by the smiths:

And if a double decker bus crashes into us, to die by your side is a such a heavenly way to die


oh morrissey will you ever be happy?

[KeepItReal]

34. "Yo Bush, I ain't your damned Ho..." - Geto Boys

"....the enemy's right here, G!
Them foreigners ain't never done nothin to me..."
F*ck A War

[SKKY]

36. "More from Gore or the son of a drug lord? None of the above...

...fuck it! Cut the cord!"

[Left_Winger]

37. It's a tie....

I'm just a soul whose intentions are good,
Please, oh lord, don't let me be misunderstood.

or...

We gotta get out of this place,
If it's the last thing we ever do.
We gotta get out of this place,
Girl there's a better life for me and you.

by Eric Burdon and the Animals

[gmoney]

38. REM - Rockville

"At night I drink myself to sleep and pretend I don't care that you're not here with me..."

One of their earliest songs with discernable lyrics, written by Mike Mills (I believe)

[cheeseit]

49. ooh good choice.

I really love that line.

[ScreamingMeemie]

39. "Forever young, oh I want to be forever young."

Gosh, I love that song.

[ladeuxiemevoiture]

40. From Pet Shop Boys' "So Hard"

"We've both given up smoking, 'cause it's fatal, so whose matches are those?" Always makes me laugh.

[TOhioLiberal]

41. Mine:

From 'Forever Young' by Rod Stewart.

'But whatever road you choose
I'm right behind you, win or lose'

[JimmyJazz]

42. If Adolph Hitler were here today, they'd send a limousine anyway...

and the one in my sig line, too :D

[malmapus]

43. "I miss me, I miss everything, I'll never be."

Smashing Pumpkins - Rocket

[RedCloud]

44. "You must've learned something in all those years..."

John, sticking it to Paul.

[Gormy Cuss]

46. "A bowl of oatmeal tried to stare me down, and won."

from Illegal Smile by John Prine

[lpbk2713]

47. 'Relax,' said the night man,

We are programmed to receive.
You can checkout any time you like,
but you can never leave!

[peekaloo]

48. "please don't bury me down in the cold ,cold ground, I'd rather have

them cut me up and pass me all around".


I lurve John Prine.

[Hugin]

50. I quote from songs... Almost as often as I quote from movies.

"It's how I am."

[Hosnon]

51. "Some of it's magic, some of it's tragic, but I had a good life all the

way"

- He Went to Paris (Jimmy Buffett)

[noonwitch]

52. "I'm just one too many mornings and a thousand miles behind"

Gotta go with Dylan, and I feel this way at work, sometimes.

[tallahasseedem]

53. This one...

"Everyday things change. But basically we stay the same."

From "Seek Up" by the Dave Matthews Band

[patcox2]

54. "Sometimes people get all emotional and they just don't act rational,

its like they think they're on TV."

Lour Reed, Street Hassle.

[leftofthedial]

55. wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then

Bob Seger--"Against The Wind"