What's your favorite lyric from a song?


Just curious what stays with people...
arthursmuck
Some great lines stay in the memory from the Sex Pistols ’The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle’, but the best might be the intro,

"People said we couldn’t play
They called us foul-mouthed yobs
But the only notes that really count
Are the ones that come in wads"

Another example of a great song coming at a bad time for the band.
The outro still kicks hard 40 years later,

"Elvis Presley died in 1959
Chuck Berry you’re a big ugly fucker (?)
Ian Dury Cockney Fraud
Mick Jagger white nigga
Bob Dylan got a parking ticket stuck to his arsehole
David Bowie you are a bloody cunt

Rod Stewart‘s got a luggage label tied to his tonsils
Elton John hair transplant
Sid Vicious Rock and Roll Cliché
Paul Cook bare bones
Johnny Rotten he’s got his knickers knotted (?)
Rock and roll swindle
Swindle
It’s a swindle!"

https://youtu.be/FfFbcbGaTMY
Can't think of the best Scott Walker lyric but this is one I never tire of. Walker did a lot to popularise Brel, rightly so.

"If I became deaf, dumb and blind
Because I pitied all mankind
And broke my heart to make things right
I know that every single night
When my angelic work was through
The angels and the Devil too
Would sing my childhood song to me
About the time they called me "Jacky"

If I could be for only an hour
If I could be for an hour every day
If I could be for just one little hour
Cute in a stupid ass way"

Love Is Strange 

"Love - love is strange
Lot of people take it for a game
Once you get it - you're in an awful fix
After you've had it - you never want to quit

Many people don't understand, no no
They think lovin', yeah yeah - is money in the hand
Your sweet lovin' - is better than a kiss, yeah yeah
When you leave me - sweet kisses I miss"


As for Buddy Holly's (overdub) version here -
https://youtu.be/6Nwr4nh2oOE

- all I want to say is that so, so beautiful this record is.
"Damn the lump in my throat
damn the hole in my coat
damn the rain that just won't quit
damn the sorry waste of it

Damn the truth, damn the lies
Damn the look behind your eyes
Damn the day, damn the night
Goddamn the losing light

  There ain't no boat, there ain't no train
  To take us back, the way we came
   Ain't no shelter from this hard rain
   The cure for the pain is the pain
   The cure for the pain is the pain

It's not like we think it's gonna be
Not like the movies that you see
Ain't no soaring violins
Just machines an medicines

So bless these pills  bless these sheets
Bless the food you can't eat
Bless the damned who walk these halls
And God have mercy on us all

  There ain't no drug, there ain't no cure
  To make it like it was before
  Ain't no shelter from this hard rain
  The cure for the pain is the pain
  The cure for the pain is the pain"

Gretchen Peters  "The Cure for the Pain"
A Hard Rain's a Gonna Fall
Bob Dylan

Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?Oh, where have you been, my darling young one?
I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I've walked and I've crawled on six crooked highways
I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests
I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans
I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard
And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall

Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son?Oh, what did you see, my darling young one?
I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it
I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it
I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin'
I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin'
I saw a white ladder all covered with water
I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken
I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children
And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall

And what did you hear, my blue-eyed son?And what did you hear, my darling young one?
I heard the sound of a thunder, it roared out a warnin'
Heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world
Heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin'
Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter
Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley
And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall

Oh, who did you meet, my blue-eyed son?Who did you meet, my darling young one?
I met a young child beside a dead pony
I met a white man who walked a black dog
I met a young woman whose body was burning
I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow
I met one man who was wounded in love
I met another man who was wounded with hatred
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall
Oh, what'll you do now, my blue-eyed son?Oh, what'll you do now, my darling young one?
I'm a-goin' back out 'fore the rain starts a-fallin'
I'll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest
Where the people are many and their hands are all empty
Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison
Where the executioner's face is always well-hidden
Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten
Where black is the color, where none is the number
And I'll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it
And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it
Then I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin'
But I'll know my song well before I start singin'
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall

"Well, I came upon a child of God
He was walking along the road
And I asked him, "tell me, where are you going?”
This he told me

Said, "I’m going down to Yasgur’s Farm
Gonna join in a rock and roll band
Got to get back to the land
And set my soul free”

We are stardust,
we are golden
And we’ve got to get ourselves
Back to the garden"
Crosby, Stills & Nash - "Woodstock"

Far from my favourite Eagles song but great lyrics nevertheless. Well worth a
another mention. 

Already Gone

Well, I heard some people talkin' just the other day
And they said you were gonna put me on a shelf
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'
Cause I'm already gone
And I'm feelin' strong
I will sing this vict'ry song
Woo hoo hoo, my my, woo hoo hoo

The letter that you wrote me made me stop and wonder why
But I guess you felt like you had to set things right
Just remember this, my girl, when you look up in the sky
You can see the stars and still not see the light (that's right)

And I'm already gone
And I'm feelin' strong
I will sing this vict'ry song
Woo hoo hoo, my my, woo hoo hoo

Well, I know it wasn't you who held me down
Heaven knows it wasn't you who set me free
So often times it happens that we live our lives in chains
And we never even know we have the key

But me, I'm already gone
And I'm feelin' strong
I will sing this vict'ry song
'

Cause I'm already gone
Yes, I'm already gone
And I'm feelin' strong
I will sing this vict'ry song
'Cause I'm already gone 
(repeat)

1994 Live in New York
https://youtu.be/1XfiS3jX-VE
@tostadosunidos, thanks for the reminder of why Dylan is the most revolutionary lyricist in Pop music history. "A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall" was recorded about a year before The Beatles recorded their original boy/girl love songs like "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" and "She Loves You". It took Lennon a couple of years to come to terms with what Bob was doing, and it completely changed his (and many others') songwriting (for better or worse).
Too many masters to mention, Dylan, Waits, Cohen, Taupin Knopfler, Simon, Lennon, Springsteen... Roger Waters here...

DSOTM
And all that is now
And all that is gone
And all that's to come
And everything under

The sun is in tune
But the sun is eclipsed
By the moon”

WISH YOU WERE HERE 
Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail, A smile from a veil, Do you think you can tell. Did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts... “

We’re just two lost souls living in a fish bowl year after year”

By the way which one’s Pink”

THE WALL
Hush now baby, baby, don't you cry.
Mama's gonna make all your nightmares come true.
Mama's gonna put all her fears into you.
Mama's gonna keep you right here under her wing.
She won't let you fly, but she might let you sing.
Mama's gonna keep baby cozy and warm.
Ooh baby, ooh baby, ooh baby,
Of course mama's gonna help build the wall”

I've got wild staring eyes
And I've got a strong urge to fly
But I got nowhere to fly to
Ooh, babe when I pick up the phone
there's still nobody home”

All alone, or in two's
The ones who really love you
Walk up and down outside the wall
Some hand in hand
And some gathered together in bands
The bleeding hearts and the artists
Make their standAnd when they've given you their all
Some stagger and fall, after all it's not easy
Banging your heart against some mad bugger's wall”

THE FINAL CUT 
And as the windshield melts 
My tears evaporate 
Leaving only charcoal to defend. 
Finally I understand the feelings of the few. 
Ashes and diamonds 
Foe and friend 
We were all equal in the end“

AMUSED TO DEATH
Ooh western woman
Ooh western girl
And the children of Melrose
Strut their stuff
Is absolute zero cold enough
And out in the valley warm and clean
The little ones sit by their TV screens
No thoughts to think
No tears to cry
All sucked dry
Down to the very last breath
Bartender what is wrong with me

Why am I so out of breath
The captain said excuse me ma'am
This species has amused itself to death
Amused itself to death

We watched the tragedy unfold
We did as we were told
We bought and sold
It was the greatest show on earth
But then it was over
We ohhed and aahed
We drove our racing cars
We ate our last few jars of caviar
And somewhere out there in the stars
A keen-eyed look-out
Spied a flickering light
Our last hurrah
And when they found our shadows
Grouped around the TV sets
They ran down every lead
They repeated every test
They checked out all the data on their lists
And then the alien anthropologists
Admitted they were still perplexed
But on eliminating every other reason
For our sad demise
They logged the only explanation left
This species has amused itself to death
No tears to cry no feelings left
This species has amused itself to death