Best Line From a Song Ever...

And baby you got to see it too
That we were meant girl me and you
But lately you been acting like I smell like a zoo

Joey Lawrence, "Nothin' My Love Can't Fix"

from warren zevon

The French Inhaler

"And when the lights came up at two
I caught a glimpse of you
And your face looked like something
Death brought with him in his suitcase"

Detox Mansion

"Well, I'm gone to Detox Mansion
Way down on Last Breath Farm
I've been rakin' leaves with Liza
Me and Liz clean up the yard"

The Indifference of Heaven

"I had a girl
Now she's gone
She left town
Town burned down
Nothing left
But the sound
Of the front door closing forever"

I'll Sleep When I'm Dead

"I've got a .38 special up on the shelf
I'll sleep when I'm dead
If I start acting stupid
I'll shoot myself
I'll sleep when I'm dead"

Joan Jett Of Arc
Clem Snide

"my black heart was heavy
but her mom's Cougar was fast
as little pink houses were whistled
and it was all you can eat at the Sizzler that night
my steak burnin' Joan Jett of Arc"

There's no love song finer,
But how strange the change
from major to minor,
Every time we say goodbye.

beautiful, mr. porter had a way with words

That was a telling song so long ago, dj.

Flag Day
The Housemartins

"Too many Florence Nightingales
Not enough Robin Hoods
Too many halos not enough heroes
Coming up with the goods
So you though youd like to change the world
Decided to stage a jumble sale
For the poor, for the poor"

Oh, Flag Day.

That was my favourite song from that album. Played it way too often.

Take Jesus - Take Marx - Take Hope.


From around the same time, little later:

This is the coastal town they forgot to tear down / Come Armageddon, come Armageddon, come Armageddon come

Or:

I put you on a pedestal / you put me on the pill

Or:

You scumbag you maggot / you cheap lousy f*ggot / merry Christmas my arse / and pray God it's our last

:wink:

There's a train that leaves the station
Headed for your destination
But the price you pay to nowhere has increased a dollar more.

Led Zeppelin, "Celebration Day"

As one who loves progressive rock, I think of Genesis lyrics...such as those from . . .

'The Battle of Epping Forest' from Selling England by the Pound (1973) is a typical Peter Gabriel lyric with its puns and daft characters putting it in the tradition of nonsense poetry or absurd comedy. The song describes certain characters involved in a gang fight and includes lots of witty word-play and neologisms, including the "thumpire", "robbing hood", and "a karmachanic with overall charms".

Pardon my obsession with Stan Rogers lyrics but this is my favorite song line from a "pop folk tune'

Ah but one more time, I will take the Northwest Passage,
and find the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea.
Tracing one warm line through a land so wild and savage,
And find a Northwest Passage to the sea.

Stan sang this a capela with 4 part "throat" harmony in the chorus, which is the line above. A magnificent song by a gifted poet. I think he died in a plane crash in a snowstorm in Canada

Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne"

Suzanne takes you down to her place near the river
You can hear the boats go by
You can spend the night beside her
And you know that she's half crazy
But that's why you want to be there
And she feeds you tea and oranges
That come all the way from China
And just when you mean to tell her
That you have no love to give her
Then she gets you on her wavelength
And she lets the river answer
That you've always been her lover
And you want to travel with her
And you want to travel blind
And you know that she will trust you
For you've touched her perfect body with your mind.

When the moon is in the Seventh House
and Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars

This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius
The age of Aquarius
Aquarius! Aquarius!

Harmony and understanding
Sympathy and trust abounding
No more falsehoods or derisions
Golden living dreams of visions
Mystic crystal revelation
And the mind's true liberation
Aquarius! Aquarius!

When the moon is in the Seventh House
and Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars

This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius
The age of Aquarius
Aquarius! Aquarius!

As our hearts go beating through the night
We dance unto the dawn of day
To be the bearers of the water
Our light will lead the way

We are the spirit of the age of Aquarius
The age of Aquarius
Aquarius! Aquarius!

Harmony and understanding
Sympathy and trust abounding
Angelic illumination
Rising fiery constellation
Travelling our starry courses
Guided by the cosmic forces
Oh, care for us; Aquarius

farmerman

"On June 2, 1983, Rogers was headed home from the Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas. A fire started in the restroom on Air Canada flight 797. It was forced to land in the Greater Cincinatti Airport. Rogers was one of 23 people who died of smoke inhalation. He was 33."

Definitely a tragedy.

Hello darkness, my old friend. I've come to talk to you again.
--Simon and Garfunkle.

At the risk of offering a narrow focus, here's another from Leonard Cohen:

"Hey, that's no way to say goodbye."

"I loved you in the morning, our kisses deep and warm,
your hair upon the pillow like a sleepy golden storm,
yes, many loved before us, I know that we are not new,
in city and in forest they smiled like me and you,
but now it's come to distances and both of us must try,
your eyes are soft with sorrow,
Hey, that's no way to say goodbye."

Some artists have so many great lines, it's hard to choose the best ones. Cohen, for instance; also 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 hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazin',
Heard ten thousand whisperin' and nobody listenin',
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.

so many hearts I find
broke like yours and mine
torn by what we've done and can't undo

-- Song of Bernadette by Leonard Cohen

I've got another confession to make
I'm your fool
Everyone's got their chains to break
Holdin' you
Were you born to resist
or be abused?

Is someone getting the best, the best, the best, the best of you?