What's your favorite lyric from a song?

Peter Tosh “I am That I Am”

I’m not in this world
To live up to your expectations
Neither are you here to live up to mine

I don’t owe no one
No obligation
No one owe me none
So everything is fine

I quoted that to my dad a lot in my young adult years…every time he tried to point me in the direction he thought my life should be heading. It would make him explode lol

I’ll miss him this Sunday.

I miss your broken china voice - how I wish you were still here with me.
Tom Waits - Hold On

In Tiananmen Square, lost my baby there, my yellow rose and her blood stained clothes, She was a short order pastry chef, from a Dim-Sum dive in Yangthzee tideway, she had shiny hair, she was the daughter of an engineer - won't you shed a tear....
The lyrics of this song puts Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters at the top of my list.  Its a well crafted song w Don Henley supporting the vocals.

I was sitting in the Hollywood Hawaiian Hotel.
I was staring in my empty coffee cup.
I was thinking that the gypsy wasn't lyin'.
All the salty margaritas in Los Angeles.
I'm gonna drink 'em up.

And if California slides into the ocean.
Like the mystics and statistics say it will.
I predict this motel will be standing until I pay my bill.

Desperados Under The Eaves by Warren Zevon

Well, the devil made me do it the first time
The second time I done it on my own

Black Rose by Billy Joe Shaver

@dmac67,

Dads always know best - apart from those few times they don’t.

Was he right, or was he wrong?


@danoroo,

They’re sure great lines, full of rare self insight.

Deserve to be better known.

Tin roof, rusted.

King Crimson - Happy Family

Song about the breakup of the Beatles

Judas- Paul McCartney
Jonah- John Lennon
Silas- George Harrison
Rufus- Ringo Starr

Happy family, one hand clap, four went by and none come back.
Brother Judas, ash and sack, swallowed aphrodisiac.
Rufus, Silas, Jonah too sang, "We'll blow our own canoes, "
Poked a finger in the zoo, punctured all the ballyhoo

Whipped the world and beat the clock, wound up with their share of stock.
Silver Rolls from golden rock, shaken by a knock, knock, knock.
Happy family, wave that grin, what goes round must surely spin;
Cheesecake, mousetrap, Grip-Pipe-Thynne cried out, "We're not Rin Tin Tin."

Uncle Rufus grew his nose, threw away his circus clothes
Cousin Silas grew a beard, drew another flask of weird
Nasty Jonah grew a wife, Judas drew his pruning knife.
Happy family one hand clap, four went on but none came back

Happy family, pale applause, each to his revolving doors.
Silas searching, Rufus neat, Jonah caustic, Jude so sweet.
Let their sergeant mirror spin if we lose the barbers win;
Happy family one hand clap, four went on but none came back

comma comma comma comma-chameleon

Can you have two favorites?
The kid will live and learn
As he watches his bridges burn
From the point of no return    : Steely Dan

Red hair and black leather, my favorite color scheme  : Richard Thompson

@simonmoon,

Best song about the Beatles break up?

Contemporary accounts did suggest that McCartney was responsible for the break up - if that actually was Paul McCartney of course.

Of course nowadays we all know it was down to Yoko.

Tequila!

So you decide to make incisions at your home while you're alone, all alone

But you're no tailor, you're no surgeon, none of your cuts go very straight
Every new layer you uncover reveals something else you hate
And then you cracked your head, and broke some bones
And when you glued them back together you found out you did it wrong

N

Culture Club - It’s a Miracle

Dance with the counterfeit
The plastic smiles and micro heat
I’ll meet you there, I’ll meet you there

Run to the edge of town
Where Hollywood lay its footprints down
Monroe was there but do you really care

It’s a miracle
It’s a miracle
It’s a miracle

It’s a miracle
It’s a miracle
It’s a miracle

And dreams are made of emotion

-----

Malcolm McLaren - Soweto

All the men shall Boogie and Bark
Never be afraid of the Dark

I’d rather trust in the heart of a killer

Than believe all the lies in a scholar’s brain

I am strange and I have been reckless

But I’ve never been insane


[Larkin Grimm - Link In Your Chain]

cd318,
+1 for the "Larkin Grimm" reference! 

As of September 2021 is there a more appropriate lyric than this one?


Bob Marley - Natural Mystic

There's a natural mystic blowing through the air
If you listen carefully now you will hear

This could be the first trumpet, might as well be the last
Many more will have to suffer
Many more will have to die
Don't ask me why
Things are not the way they used to be
I won't tell no lie

One and all got to face reality now
Though I've tried to find the answer to all the questions they ask
Though I know it's impossible to go living through the past
Don't tell no lie

There's a natural mystic blowing through the air
Can't keep them down
If you listen carefully now you will hear

Such a natural mystic, blowing through the air.

https://youtu.be/_r8HEJojWBs

Pile - Don’t Touch Anything:

Those eyes
Swam pretty deep
Let my god
Play referee
But he only speaks
In Japanese

-
Pile - Leaning on a Wheel:

Getting in our own way
And blaming traffic
And a shitty plan
And other things that are assumed you understand

Head down
And eyes peeled
I wouldn’t call it driving, more like leaning on a wheel

Not happy
And not in love
But let's have a baby to save the marriage that we made up

It's getting in our own way

Always felt it fell a little too close to home:

"But I'm not crazy, I'm just a little unwell" - Matchbox 20

Beatles Within you and Without youAnd the time will come when you see we're all one, and life flows on within you and without you.

@johnto ,

It used to puzzle me why that song used to get so much flak in the first couple of decades after the release of Pepper.


I guess gradually the world is finally catching up with George:


"We were talking about the space between us all

And the people who hide themselves behind a wall of illusion

Never glimpse the truth, then it’s far too late, when they pass away"

Even in 2021 it’s heavy stuff indeed.

Back in ’67 it was probably a little too much for most listeners.

"She was filing her nails
 while they're dragging the lake..."

Elvis Costello - Watching the Detectives...

Cod ee say oo pay a loto   
My zeta prestige toupay a floored   
Ray indee pako a gammon   
Solar prestige a pako can nord

Are You Lonesome Tonight originally written by Roy Turk and Lou Handman in 1926 became through Presley's rendition a good an illustration of a soul in trouble as anything else we have seen

------

I wonder if you're lonesome tonight
You know someone said that the world's a stage
And each of us must play a part
Fate had me playing in love with you as my sweetheart

Act one was where we met
I loved you at first glance
You read your lines so cleverly and never missed a cue

Then came act two, you seemed to change, you acted strange
And why I've never known

Honey, you lied when you said you loved me
And I had no cause to doubt you
But I'd rather go on hearing your lies
Than to go on living without you

Now the stage is bare and I'm standing there
With emptiness all around

And if you won't come back to me
Then they can bring the curtain down
 

Not the most uplifting but it creates a clear visual, from Aqualung by Jethro Tull:

"Do you still remember
December's foggy freeze
When the ice that clings on to your beard
Was screaming agony
And you snatch your rattling last breaths
With deep-sea diver sounds
And the flowers bloom
Like madness in the spring"

Some life lessons, from It Ain't Whatcha Eat But the Way How You Chew It, by Delbert McClinton:

"My Daddy told me once he said 'Listen, Son'

You gotta learn to be a man, you can't just be one.

Some people cheating, and other people lyin',

Laughing ain't a pleasure til you know 'bout crying."

Delbert has some great lyrics..."I ain't old, but I've been around a long time" is hitting home as I just turned 65.

 

Weir/Barlow: "Ya ain't gonna learn what ya don't wanna know" . . . more apt today than ever, unfortunately. 

I am angry, I am ill and I'm as ugly as sin.

My irritability keeps me alive and kicking...

Magazine

"Ya ain't gonna learn what ya don't wanna know"

This line reminded me of 2 different sets of Dylan lyrics illustrating 2 different kinds of knowledge.

 

"Your sister sees the future

Like your mama and yourself

You've never learned to read or write

There's no books upon your shelf"

(One More Cup of Coffee : Desire - 1976)

 

 

"You can smell the pine wood burnin'

You can hear the school bell ring

Got to get up near the teacher if you can,

If you wanna learn anything"

(Floater : Love and Theft - 2001)

 

 

I guess it might have more meaning put to music...

@dmac67 

In the same vein, from a different angle:

Gotta make your own rules, child
Gotta brake your own chains
The dreams that posses you
Can blossom and bless you
Or run you insane

Richie Havens - The Hawk

Do You Remember Walter? - The Kinks

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=The+Kinks+Walter&&view=detail&mid=D7D9262265B8F9EF6A36D7D9262265B8F9EF6A36&&FORM=VRDGAR&ru=%2Fvideos%2Fsearch%3Fq%3DThe%2BKinks%2BWalter%26Form%3DVDRSCL%26%3D0

@roxy54 
 

Ha!  By a strange YouTube algorithm this appears as I'm searching for Do You Remember Walter!

"I won't take all that they hand me down

Make out a smile, though I wear a frown

And I'm not gonna take it all lying down

Cause once I get started, I go to town"

 

 

cd318,

That's another great Kinks song that I really love. I didn't like the version that accompanied that video though. I don't know who that artist was.

First line, 

"Honey, don't you be yelling at me when I'm cleaning my gun.

I'll wash the blood off the tailgate when deer seasons's done......."

and then later down the song,

"So if monsignor should pull you aside as you're leaving the church

And I'm out on the ice, dropping lines for the walleye and perch

Tell him it's not your job to bring me to the fold

And I'd rather stand outside in the cold".

Another great song from James McMurtry

@roxy54 

I'm surprised you don't like this hard edged version, I prefer it to the 1966 original.

Of course that's the Kinks themselves, live from their 1996 album, To the Bone. Sounds like Ray on vocals although Dave has covered it himself on occasion.

This is the version made famous by its appearance on The Sopranos episode according to Wiki.

"The track, amongst many others, was reworked by the Kinks for their 1996 release To the Bone. This version featured in the Sopranos season five episode "Cold Cuts".

Just goes to show what versality that bands like the Beatles and the Kinks had. When they wanted to rock, they could rock as hard as anyone.

Jeez cd318, I only listened for about 30 seconds a couple of days ago, but I would never have guessed that it was the Kinks performing. The original version has Dave performing the vocal which was pretty unusual.

Political World Bob Dylan

We live in a political world
Where mercy walks the plank
Life is in mirrors
Death disappears
Up the steps into the nearest bank.

 

 

Thankfully music can provide a welcome respite but there's no way of escaping the fact in 2022.

Another year older and what have you done.

 

The most embarrassingly confessional first verse I've heard must be this one. 

The Wedding Present - 'Nobody's Twisting Your Arm'.

 

And when I called your house
I'm sure your sister thought that I was somebody else
I heard a laugh down the phone
And then the answer came that you weren't at home (ohh)

 

 

Comin' back to Me - Jefferson Airplane

A very sad love song.

(49) Jefferson Airplane - Comin' back to me (with lyrics) - YouTube

@roxy54

That’s what you might call a real haunting song of loss.

It reminded me of this one originally written by Nick Cave, but performed here by Shane McGowan.

-----

Lucy

 

Last night I lay trembling
The moon it was low
It was the end of love
Of misery and woe

Then suddenly above me
Her face buried in light
Came a vision of beauty
All covered in white

Now the bell-tower is ringing
And the night has stole past
O Lucy, can you hear me?
Wherever you rest

 

and the further i get from the things that i care about, the less i care about how much further away i get. the cure, fear of ghosts.

"If you look at your reflection at the bottom of the well
What you see is only on the surface
When you try to see the meaning, hidden underneath
The measure of the depth can be deceiving
The bottom has a rocky reputation"

-The Confessor (Joe Walsh)

As the morning turned my way
Sea birds flying through this hazy face
And I came back here to replace your place in my life

And didn’t you know that I’m not the world’s strongest man
When it comes to you and your world I’m lost
Can’t you see the towers of mine they could shine like a dime
Take me back again to your warm design

 

 

wish i didn't know now what I didn't know then...Against the Wind...

Another year older and what have you done?

 

I just did a marathon cruise (or is that slog?) through this thread. Hey, cd318! Hats off for Jimmy Webb's MacArthur Park!

 

How 'bout some David Seville? "Ooo eee, ooh ahh ahh, ting tang walla-walla bing bang. Ooo eee, ooh ahh ahh, ting tang walla walla bing bang."

 

 

Oh yeah edcyn, that's a real winner. Surprised that nobody mentioned it sooner.

I may have already nominated one or more of these, but they're worth repeating:

- "No matter how I struggle and strive, I'll never get out of this world alive". Hank Williams didn't have to wait long; he died at only 29 years of age.

- "How can I miss you when you won't go away". Dan Hicks spoke for everyone who couldn't get rid of a bad spouse (ask me how I know ;-) .

- "God may forgive you, but I won't". Iris Dement is a genius.

I like to hear juice wrld song and wear their merchandise as well such as juice wrld hats beanies.

Is this Lou Reed’s best lyric?