What is your single favourite line of lyrics?

They call her Natasha when she looks like Elsie
I don't want to go to Chelsea.

Chris

"It's better to burn out than it is to rust"

MY MY, HEY HEY (OUT OF THE BLUE), Neil Young

Impossible to choose a single favourite line, but the following spring to mind from two of my favourite lyricists:

"I ride tandem with the random, things don't run the way I planned them, in the humdrum."
Peter Gabriel

and

"Life's a long song, but the tune ends too soon for us all."
Ian Anderson

I crawl like a viper
Through these suburban streets
Make love to these women
Languid and bittersweet
Ill rise when the sun goes down
Cover every game in town
A world of my own
Ill make it my home sweet home


This is the night
Of the expanding the man
I take one last drag
As I approach the stand
I cried when I wrote this song
Sue me if I play too long
This brother is free
Ill be what I want to be

Steam rising from the sidewalks
Of new orleans after an evening rain

Just cos I aint never said, no, nothing worth saying
never ever, never ever, never ever
things ave got read into what I never sad, till me mouth becomes me ead
which aint not all that clever
and its not not saying one thing nor another
neither, either is ist anything I havent said, whatever
and it aint not proving that me mind aint moving
and I answer to the naem of Trever, however

knock me down with a feather
Clever Trevor
widebrows wonder wether Clever Trevors clever
either have they got
nor neither havent not
got no right to make a clot
our of Trevor

Certainly not a single line, but difficult to take out of context from the Bard of Upminster

And they reckon that the last thing she saw in her life was
Sting, singing on the roof of the Barbican


Keith Joseph smiles and a baby dies
In a box on Beasley Street


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 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.”

"He's got a fur lined sheepskin jacket
My Ma said it cost a packet."

One of many:

Blackened is the end
Winter it will send
Throwing all you see
Into obscurity

Metallica - Blackened

Step out the front door like a ghost into the fog
Where no one notices the contrast of white on white
And in between the moon and you the angels get a better view
Of the crumbling difference between wrong and right
I walk in the air between the rain through myself and back again
Where? I dont know
Maria says shes dying through the door I hear her crying
Why? I dont know

Counting Crows - Round here

Life is a minestrone served up with parmesan cheese; death is a cold lasagne suspended in deep freeze

"Compromise
Conformity
Assimilation
Submission
Ignorance
Hypocrisy
Brutality
The Elite
All of which are American dreams..."

RATM - Know Your Enemy

can't think of a single line, other than the Clash:

"When they kick in your front door, how you gonna come?"

Otherwise:

Walk into splintered sunlight
Inch your way through dead dreams
to another land
Maybe you're tired and broken
Your tongue is twisted
with words half spoken
and thoughts unclear
What do you want me to do
to do for you to see you through
A box of rain will ease the pain
and love will see you through

When the sun beats down and I lie on the bench,
I can always hear them talk.
Me, I'm just a lawnmower - you can tell me by the way I walk.

I'm Not A Robot.



Dean..

One my favorite verses --- mostly for the simplicity and overall music/lyrics/delivery impact

Dear Mr. Fantasy
Play us a tune, something to make us all happy
Do anything to take us out of this blue
Sing a song, Play guitar, Make it snappy

But for a SINGLE line - that is tough. I LOVE the first poster contribution from Elvis Costello. Neil Young's "After the Gold Rush" has quite a few lines that stick in my head. Bob Dylan has more than enough memorable lines.

But if I boil it down to ONE line - One of my favorites is from Thank You by LZ

Little drops of rain, whisper of the pain, tears of love lost in the days gone by.

and so on.

I echo the sentiment about Counting Crows/Adam Duritz lyrics. I admit I am biased having grown up with them, but I think his lyrics are some of the best.

...and then ten years have got behind you; no one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun...

quote:

Originally posted by tonym:
...and then ten years have got behind you; no one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun...

ooooohh that is a great one!!!

Her name was Magil and she called herself Lil
But everyone knew her as Nancy

quote:

Originally posted by John M:
[QUOTE]Originally posted by tonym:
...and then ten years have got behind you; no one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun...

On a similar Theme
All our lives we sweat and save
Building for a shallow grave

"All I ask of you, is make my wildest dreams come true"

Rose Darlin' - The Dan

quote:

Originally posted by tonym:
...and then ten years have got behind you; no one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun...

Sorry... I've been struggling not to be pedantic, but I've lost... the lyric is:

"...and then one day you find, ten years have got behind you...."

I kept a ribbon from your hair,
a breath of perfume lingers there.

quote:

Originally posted by zarniwoop:

quote:

Originally posted by tonym:
...and then ten years have got behind you; no one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun...

Sorry... I've been struggling not to be pedantic, but I've lost... the lyric is:

"...and then one day you find, ten years have got behind you...."

Well I guess I've got a different version!

(You're right of course but in my defence my recall abilities were somewhat blunted by wine).