Great lines in a song

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ageing hammer
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Great lines in a song

Post by ageing hammer »

There have been countless classic songs written over time, sometimes you listen to a song and a few lines stand out and you say to yourself
" wow that is brilliant " tell us some of your favourite lines from some songs that made you feel like that, the song doesn't need to be an all time classic to have a couple of great lines in them. :)

I will start with a few and if the thread keeps going like hearing a joke you think of another so it might expand a bit hopefully.

American pie by Don McClean:

" and the three people I admire most, the father son and the holy ghost, they caught the last bus for the coast, the day the music died. "

The hungry years by Neil Sedaka:

" How could I be so blind not to see the door, closing on the world I now hunger for, looking through my tears, I miss the hungry years "
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Re: Great lines in a song

Post by chalks »

The world is your oyster but your futures a clam

When Your Young. The Jam
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Re: Great lines in a song

Post by Chicken Run Supreme »


It wasn't me either, I'm just his mate
He told me to stand here and watch the gate
I've got a wife and three kids you know
They'll tell you I'm straight, at least I think so
I'm as honest as the day is long,
The longer the daylight, the less I do wrong


Shut Up - Madness
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Re: Great lines in a song

Post by prophet:marginal »

You would rather have a Lexus or justice?
A dream or some substance?
A Bimmer, a necklace or freedom?
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Re: Great lines in a song

Post by simonpaulthomas »

“You can pin and mount me like a butterfly”

Morrissey - Reel Around the Fountain
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Re: Great lines in a song

Post by prophet:marginal »

simonpaulthomas wrote: Wed Jul 29, 2020 9:33 pm “You can pin and mount me like a butterfly”

Morrissey - Reel Around the Fountain
Others conquered larvae

I ran.
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Re: Great lines in a song

Post by vietnammer »

I'm hot just like an ovin
I need some lovin
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Re: Great lines in a song

Post by last.caress »

"Clean my teeth and comb my hair, and
Look for something new to wear, and
Start the night life over again and kid myself I'm having fun."
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Re: Great lines in a song

Post by monkeyhanger »

So many Morrissey lyrics but my favourites are :

‘Spending warm summer days indoors.
Writing frightening verse to a buck tooth girl in Luxembourg.’

‘I tried to surprise you, I crept up behind you
With a homeless chihuahua you coo-ed for an hour
You handed him back and said, "You'll never guess I'm bored now"
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Re: Great lines in a song

Post by Rio »

Well I don’t know about Jesus
But I’d still walk the waters between us
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Re: Great lines in a song

Post by WCpete »

In a land there's a town, and in that town there's a house
And in that house there's a woman
And in that woman there's a heart I love
I'm gonna take it with me when I go
Tom Waits (basically any lyric of Tom's will do)

Well, tonight I'll throw a party and I know who I'll invite
There's a strange and lonely person with whom I'll spend this night
There'll be no old sad memories to haunt me till I die
In that room there'll be a bottle
And me, myself and I
John Prine
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Re: Great lines in a song

Post by Chicken Run Supreme »

She took me to the cleaners
And other misdemeanours
But I got right up between her
Rum and her Ribena
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Re: Great lines in a song

Post by OFT »

And so castles made of sand
Slips into the sea, eventually


JMH
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Re: Great lines in a song

Post by The Old Man of Storr »

In the time of my confession, in the hour of my deepest need
When the pool of tears beneath my feet floods every newborn seed
There's a dying voice within me reaching out somewhere
Toiling in the danger and the morals of despair

Don't have the inclination to look back on any mistake
Like Cain, I now behold this chain of events that I must break
In the fury of the moment I can see the master's hand
In every leaf that trembles, in every grain of sand

Oh, the flowers of indulgence and the weeds of yesteryear
Like criminals, they have choked the breath of conscience and good cheer
The sun beams down upon the steps of time to light the way
To ease the pain of idleness and the memory of decay

I gaze into the doorway of temptation's angry flame
And every time I pass that way I'll always hear my name
Then onward in my journey I come to understand
That every hair is numbered like every grain of sand

I have gone from rags to riches in the sorrow of the night
In the violence of a summer's dream, in the chill of a wintry light
In the bitter dance of loneliness fading into space
In the broken mirror of innocence on each forgotten face

I hear the ancient footsteps like the motion of the sea
Sometimes I turn, there's someone there, other times it's only me
I am hanging in the balance of the reality of man
Like every sparrow falling, like every grain of sand


I started off by choosing a couple of lines here and there then realised I'd have to include the whole song -

Every Grain Of Sand - Bob Dylan - from Shot Of Love 1981



Up until 1979 I had most of Bob Dylan's works in my collection but after listening to ' Slow Train Coming ' I gave up buying his albums thinking his best days were behind him - I didn't buy or listen to much Bob after that if I'm being honest - then around 15 years later I bought Emmylou Harris' ' Wrecking Ball ' and thought it brilliant - on that album she sang this Dylan song which I think compares with some of his best ever work , it still has that Biblical quality about it but unlike Slow Train he doesn't try to ram Christianity / Religion down your throat or influence you in any way [ though obviously it has ] . :)

I'd put ' Every Grain Of Sand ' in The Top 10 Bob Dylan Songs Ever Written list .
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Re: Great lines in a song

Post by Moxy »

Youths a mask but it don’t last, live it long and live it fast. The killing of Georgie-Rod Stewart.
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Re: Great lines in a song

Post by ageing hammer »

Bryan Ferry Roxy music Dance away:

It's funny how, I could never cry
Until tonight, when you pass by
Hand in hand with another guy
You're dressed to kill and guess who's dying
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Re: Great lines in a song

Post by ageing hammer »

WCpete wrote: Wed Jul 29, 2020 10:16 pm In a land there's a town, and in that town there's a house
And in that house there's a woman
And in that woman there's a heart I love
I'm gonna take it with me when I go
Tom Waits (basically any lyric of Tom's will do)

Well, tonight I'll throw a party and I know who I'll invite
There's a strange and lonely person with whom I'll spend this night
There'll be no old sad memories to haunt me till I die
In that room there'll be a bottle
And me, myself and I
John Prine

Like those a lot WCpete :thup:
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Re: Great lines in a song

Post by prophet:marginal »

WCpete wrote: Wed Jul 29, 2020 10:16 pm Tom Waits (basically any lyric of Tom's will do)
Those from Christmas Card... included, especially when you remember that he has written it from a woman's point of view.
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Re: Great lines in a song

Post by Stevey »

I could a plethora of Nick Cave lyrics but the opening verse to Into My Arms just does me;

I don't believe in an interventionist God
But I know, darling, that you do
But if I did, I would kneel down and ask Him
Not to intervene when it came to you
Oh, not to touch a hair on your head
Leave you as you are
If he felt he had to direct you
Then direct you into my arms
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Re: Great lines in a song

Post by The Old Man of Storr »

It's not the long, flowing dress that you're in
Or the light coming off of your skin
The fragile heart you protected for so long
Or the mercy in your sense of right and wrong
It's not your hands searching slow in the dark
Or your nails leaving love's watermark
It's not the way you talk me off the roof
Your questions like directions to the truth

It's knowing that this can't go on forever
Likely one of us will have to spend some days alone
Maybe we'll get forty years together
But one day I'll be gone
Or one day you'll be gone


From ' If We Were Vampires ' - Jason Isbell ,
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