Best lines in a song


There has been a long-running thread here of 'Best quotes' but maybe it would be interesting to find out folks' favorite lines from songs. To keep it on some sort of track, let's have a few ground rules.

- Attribution is required, who sang it (or wrote it) and where can we hear it?
- Shorter is better, four lines maximum, a verse. These should be words of wisdom that can be summoned for inspiration in social emergencies.
- If you're an opera fan, you're welcome to post in Italian, just don't expect many high fives from the monolingual among us.

I'll throw out a couple for starters:

When you're rockin' and a rollin' you can't hear your momma call.
Little Richard - Good Golly, Miss Molly

All I want in this life of mine is some good clean fun.
All I want in this life and time is some hit and run.
Little Feat - Fat Man in the Bathtub
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"Does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours? Gordon Lightfoot, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

And I second the Springsteen lone "You ain't a beauty but hey you're alright". I'm just not sure if I want to be the one who's saying that or who's told that!
"What time is it?" said the judge to Joey when they met.
"Five to ten," said Joey.
Judge said, "that's exactly what you get" Bob Dylan/Desire

The price of meat has just gone up and your old lady has just gone down...look here brutha, who you jivin wit that cosmic debris... Zappa/Apostrophe
A little odd ditty that somehow I've not forgotten. And please excuse the R rated theme; no intention to insult anyone.

"My dick is a harley
You kick it to start
The moment it speaks
The heavens will part"
Frank Zappa, the Mothers from their Live @ the Fillmore LP.

Incidently, I saw them play this live at a gig in Vermont. Frank mentioned that he was so happy to be in VT with normal people. As they just got busted on a porn charge while performing this in Miami. Times were pretty different then.
But the thing that moved him most
And made him swear he'd never fail
If he made it to the White House
Think of all the chicks he'd nail

So he went into the Politics Game
Yes, he went into the politics game
Warren Beatty told him "looky"
You can get a lot of nookie
If you get into the politics game

-"The Ballad of Gary Hart"
A star moves north, a star moves south, a star is born a star burns out, the only thing that stays the same is everything changes, everything changes.
"you cross a lawyer with a godfather baby and he'll make you an offer you can't understand"
Don Henley
"Was that a raindrop or a tear in your eye,
Were you drying your nails or waving goodbye?"

Tom Waits - 2:19
"Don't waste your money on a new set of speakers"
You get more mileage from a cheap pair of sneakers."
Billy Joel: It's Still Rock 'n Roll to Me
The perfect ironic lyric for 'goners!

Still I wish there was somethin' you would do or say
To try and make me change my mind and stay
We never did too much talkin' anyway
So don't think twice, it's all right

Bob Dylan
"And they drink to a friend they call lonlieness, and its better then drinking alone" (Billy Joel - Piano Man)
Hike up your skirt a little more and show your world to me. Dave Matthews Band

Running in to you like this without warning, is like, catching a sniff of tequilla in the morning. Crash Test Dummies

I'm only hanging on, to watch you go down, my love. U2
How about:
wang dang sweet poontang
The Nuge

but seriously my favorite

So you think you can tell
heaven from hell
blue skies and pain
can you tell a green field
from a cold steel rail
a smile from a vail
do you think you can tell

Pink Floyd, Wish you were here
The Houston sky was changeless
We galloped through bluebonnets
I was wrestling with an angel
You were working on a sonnet
You said, 'I believe the seraphim
Will gather up my pinto
And carry us away, Jim
Across the San Jacinto
My ride's here...'

Warren Zevon
Yes...Crash. It's a great cd. Dave Matthews has so many great lines, but that one always sticks in my head.
"Her skirt it swayed as the guitar played / her mouth was watery and wet" - Bob Dylan I DON'T BELIEVE YOU (SHE ACTS LIKE WE NEVER HAVE MET)
"I Shot my mouth off and he showed me waht that hole was for"

The Prenders "Tattooed Love Boys":

I ran twenty doors
Around the house, black and blue
Between love boys
Tore my knees up getting tattooed
Cause I needed, to find out what the thing was for
Been reading, a man time came to explore.

I went apewire
Cause I thought, like I like it
Little tease, but I didn't mean it
But you mess with the goods doll, you gotta pay.

A good time was guaranteed for one and all
With tattoos, target practice in the hall
While waiting for their number to get called
While I, I, I found what the wait was about.

I was a good time
Yeah, I got pretty good
Changing tires, upstairs bro.
I shot my mouth off and he showed me what that hole was for.

Now I see you, all impressed and half-undressed,
You got paint stick, all over the scars, lumps and bumps
Tattooed love boys got you where I used to lay
But ha ha, too bad
You know what they say.

Stop sniffling
You're gonna make some plastic surgeon a rich man
Oh, but the prestige and the glory
Another human interest story
You are that.
"Seen a shootin star tonight, and I thought of you." (by the greatest songwriter ever)
Each man has his price Bob And yours was pretty low

AND

You've got to be trusted by people that you lie to
so when they turn their backs on you,
you'll get the chance to put the knife in.

Roger Waters
"It was a hot summer night and the beach was burnng
There was fog crawling over the sand
When I listen to your heart I hear the whole world turning
I see the shooting stars falling thru your trembling hands"

Artist: Meat Loaf
CD: "Bat out of hell"

From the same cd, try this one next time your in deep with your sweety:

"I could laugh Oh, but you could cry,
And I never knew just how high I was flying
Oh, with you right above me"
"My second cousin, his name was Calloway,
He died when he'd barely turned two.
And it was peanut butter and jelly that did it,
The help, she didn't know what to do,
She just stood there and watched him turn blue."

Lyle Lovett - 'Family Reserve'
Tori Amos - Precious Things.
"So you can make me cum, that doesn't make you Jesus"
In these intolerant times, Dar Williams "The Christians and the Pagans" has special resonance for me. While I find the entire lyric quite moving, there is one line I particularly like. About mid-song, Williams describes a kitchen crisis during the holiday time reunion dinner between the Christian and Pagan branches of the same family.

"The magic's in the learning,
'cause now when Christians dine with Pagans,
only pumpkin pies are burning."

Would that it were.
I suppose there's a bunch out of John Hiatt to share, including:

"I've seen my own ass in a double whiskey glass"

"Still you argue for your options and you angle for your case,
You wouldn't know a burning bush if it blew up in your face"

"One thing's true, you're gonna die for sure,
You can learn to live with love or without it,
But there ain't no cure,
There's just a slow turning - from the inside out".
Newwwlllleee we-ed-ed-eds, 2 years ago, and they're still checking each other out...Family Affair, by Sly.
"Your mind is on vacation and your mouth is working overtime", Mose Allison
"Nobody loves me but my momma, and she might be jiving too" B.B. King
"My father sold chicken medicine that farmers would buy" Nashville soundtrack
"But everybody else is overwhelmed by indifference and the promise of an early bed"

Elvis Costello - "Radio Radio"
But you tease, and you flirt
And you shine all the buttons on your green shirt
You can please yourself but somebodys gonna get it
Elvis Costello, "Green Shirt.
Waits at the window, wearing the face
that she keeps in a jar by the door

(Paul and John)

-----------

I'm bad. I'm bad. You know it.

(Michael Jackson, and we didn't know it then but we do now)

-----------

And the men who hold high places
Must be the ones who start
To mould a new reality
Closer to the Heart

(Rush, Neil Peart)

-----------

You know that we are living in a material world
And I am a material girl

(yeah we guessed as much, Madonna)

-----------

I wana..I wana..ziga zig ahhh...

(yeah don't we all wish we could bend it like Beckham)

-----------

We don't need no education
We don't need no thought control...

(Pink Floyd)

-----------

Her mind is Tiffany twisted
She's got the Mercedes bends
She's got a lot of pretty, pretty boys
That she calls friends

(Eagles)
"You're breakin' my heart,
You're tearin' it apart,
So f**k you."

Harry Nilsson, "Son of Schmilsson"
"Welcome to a new generation, all across this alien nation". Green Day.

"All the love you've been giving has all been meant for you". Moody Blues.

"This is what you want...This is what you get"

Songs : Bad Life / The Order of Death
Album/CD : This is what you want...This is what you get
Artist : P.I.L.
_______________________________________________________

"Disappointed
Promises
Promises
Old tired
Worn out second hand sentences
One thing
With you is certain
You’re a really sad person
So sad

Disappointed a few people
When friendship reared its ugly head
Disappointed a few people
Well, isn't that what friends are for"

Song : Disappointed
Album/CD : 9
Artist : P.I.L.
_______________________________________________________

"Is there a flame in the dark?
is there a bright heart star?
These creatures look the same now
We freeze wherever we are
We wake alone in the blackness
We sleep whenever we fall
One dream all around us
This big hush infects us all"

Song : This Big Hush
Album/CD : Oil and Gold
Artist : Shriekback
She had the face of an angel,
smiling with sin,
the body of Venus, with arms

AC/DC - Touch too Much
"Please ignore, that you found me on the floor, trying on your camisole"
Barenaked Ladies

"I pity all you working stiffs, living wondering what if, what if someday I were free"
Barenaked Ladies

"I'm only hanging on, to watch you go down...my love"
U2

"You can swallow or you can spit, you can throw it up or choke on it"
U2
...dropping a barbell he points to the sky, the sun's not yellow it's chicken. Dylan
"You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes you might get what you need"

Rolling Stones - Let it bleed album
Just found this thread and I can't believe no one has posted this one yet.

Ah, but I was so much older then,
I'm younger than that now.

Bob Dylan
"My Back Pages"
"Her name was McGill and she called herself Lil but everyone knew her as Nancy"

Great stuff.
"Come Together, right now, over me!" Lennon
Presidential contender group asked Lennon to write a slogan/song for their presidential campaign. For some reason, it was never used???
'smoking guns, hot to the touch
would cool down if we didn't use them so much'

hall and oates..
"no one loves me but my momma & she could be jiving me too"

Buddy Guy..can't remember if it's someone else's tune.