Best lines in a song


There has been a long-running thread here of 'Best quotes' but maybe it would be interesting to find out folks' favorite lines from songs. To keep it on some sort of track, let's have a few ground rules.

- Attribution is required, who sang it (or wrote it) and where can we hear it?
- Shorter is better, four lines maximum, a verse. These should be words of wisdom that can be summoned for inspiration in social emergencies.
- If you're an opera fan, you're welcome to post in Italian, just don't expect many high fives from the monolingual among us.

I'll throw out a couple for starters:

When you're rockin' and a rollin' you can't hear your momma call.
Little Richard - Good Golly, Miss Molly

All I want in this life of mine is some good clean fun.
All I want in this life and time is some hit and run.
Little Feat - Fat Man in the Bathtub
128x128sfar

Showing 12 responses by sfar

"Accidents speak louder than words"

Annie Lennox - Medusa - Thin Line Between Love and Hate
She came onto him like a slow-moving cold front.
His beer was warmer than the look in her eyes.

"Icy Blue Hear" by John Hiatt
"Was that a raindrop or a tear in your eye,
Were you drying your nails or waving goodbye?"

Tom Waits - 2:19
"My second cousin, his name was Calloway,
He died when he'd barely turned two.
And it was peanut butter and jelly that did it,
The help, she didn't know what to do,
She just stood there and watched him turn blue."

Lyle Lovett - 'Family Reserve'
The mention of B.B. King made me remember these lines by the late Steve Goodman:

My baby came to me this morning
And said I'm kinda confused
She said, "If me and B.B. King was both drownin',
Which one would you choose?"

I said, "Oh, baby,"
I said, "Oh, baby,"
I said, "Oh, baby,
Baby, I ain't never heard you play no blues!"
.
Trcnetmsncom, yep, those are great lines and we should credit the songwriter (and former bunkie of Rickie Lee Jones) Tom Waits.

"Forever's a promise no love can survive."

She said, "You once cried my name," I said, "Well, baby, things change,"

Dwight Yoakam, "Things change"
-
"But listen baby, I’m sticking with you ’til the money runs out."

Tom Waits
Professor Longhair - "Hey Now Baby"

Tell me pretty baby where did you stay last night
Tell me pretty baby where did you stay last night
When you come home this morning honey, your clothes didn't fit your right
"I was born when I met you
Now I'm dying to forget you"

Brandi Carlile - Cannonball
-
Pull into the driveway, toss it in park
Stare out of the windshield, out into the world
It was all for the love of a wayward girl
Who left you with a second-place smile and a broken heart

There’s nothing, really, that you can do
Put your hands in your pockets and try to get through
the distance between the daylight and the dark

Mary Gauthier - Between Daylight and the Dark
-