Best rock lyric ever?

[guitarhuckster1]

"I'm a street-walking cheetah with a heart full of napalm, I'm a runaway son of the nuclear A-bomb!
- Iggy Pop: Search and Destroy

 

[TrevorR]

There are two verses in Kirsty McColl’s cover of Billy Bragg’s New England I just love...

I saw two shooting stars last night
I wished on them but they were only satellites
Is it wrong to wish on space hardware
I wish, I wish, I wish you'd care

I loved you then as I love you still
I put you on a pedestal,
You put me on the pill
I don't feel bad about letting you go
I just feel sad about letting you know


And the Nick Lowe tune, Battlefield. Always one for a great turn of phrase...


I live on a battlefield
Surrounded by the ruins of the love we built
And then destroyed between us
The smoke has cleared
As I stumble through the rubble
I'm dazed, seeing double
And I'm truly mystified

My new home is a shell hole filled
With tears and muddy water
And bits of broken heart
All around there is desolation
And scenes of devastation
Of a love been torn apart

I live on a battlefield
The one where not one single drop of blood has spilled
Is no less horrifying
Sweet memories, memories
Of a bygone situation
Now shattered lord and battered
Lie scattered all around

 

[Modder]

There are two verses in Kirsty McColl’s cover of Billy Bragg’s New England I just love...

I saw two shooting stars last night
I wished on them but they were only satellites
Is it wrong to wish on space hardware
I wish, I wish, I wish you'd care

I loved you then as I love you still
I put you on a pedestal,
You put me on the pill
I don't feel bad about letting you go
I just feel sad about letting you know


And the Nick Lowe tune, Battlefield. Always one for a great turn of phrase...


I live on a battlefield
Surrounded by the ruins of the love we built
And then destroyed between us
The smoke has cleared
As I stumble through the rubble
I'm dazed, seeing double
And I'm truly mystified

My new home is a shell hole filled
With tears and muddy water
And bits of broken heart
All around there is desolation
And scenes of devastation
Of a love been torn apart

I live on a battlefield
The one where not one single drop of blood has spilled
Is no less horrifying
Sweet memories, memories
Of a bygone situation
Now shattered lord and battered
Lie scattered all around

Anything by Billy Bragg is definitely Up There among the best lyrics ever

 

[twogear]

"This is not how I am..I have become comfortably numb"

 

[bassnut8]

"I wish I didn't know now what didn't know then." -- Bob Seger, Against The Wind

 

[Big Fig]

Words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup, they slither while they pass, they slip away across the universe.

Pools of sorrow, waves of joy are drifting through my open mind, possessing and caressing me.

Images of broken light which dance before me like a million eyes, that call me on and on across the universe.

Thoughts meander like a restless wind inside a letter box; they tumble blindly as they make their way across the universe.

Sounds of laughter, shades of earth are ringing through my open views, inciting and inviting me.

Limitless, undying love which shines around me like a million suns; it calls me on and on across the universe.

~ John Lennon, Across the Universe

 

[crabfunk]

"If I'm not back again this time tomorrow ..."

 

[hippiesandwich]

I've always been torn between:

"She comes out of the sun in a silk dress running like a watercolor in the rain"

and

"There's a light in your eyes that keeps shining, like a star that can't wait for a night".

 

[Bassilikum]

Best lyrics for almost 50 years (Rolling Stones):
"Things are different today"
I hear ev'ry mother say
Cooking fresh food for a husband's just a drag
So she buys an instant cake and she burns her frozen steak
And goes running for the shelter of a mother's little helper
And two help her on her way, get her through her busy day
Doctor please, some more of these
Outside the door, she took four more
What a drag it is getting old

 

[crabfunk]

I am gross and perverted
I'm obsessed and deranged
I've existed for years
But very little has changed
I'm a tool of the government
And industry too
And I am destined to rule and regulate you
I may be vile and pernicious
But you cant look away
I'll make you think I'm delicious
With the stuff that I say
I'm the best you can get
Have you guessed me yet?
I'm the slime oozing out of your TV set (internet)

Frank warned us 40 years ago....

————
Can't 'like' this enough, one my all-time favorites.
To continue the brilliance: "And you will do, as you are told, until the rights to you are sold."

 

[Ozonbass]

God, what a mess
On the ladder of success.
You take one step,
And miss the whole first rung.

I put Westerberg in the same class of wordsmiths with Dylan, Zevon, Zappa...

 

[Mike Z]

Not a poll and I know there is no correct answer. Just wondering what lyric you think is the best ever.

I'm specifically saying lyric as opposed to lyrics. Just one line, not a whole verse or chorus.

I went to see Nine Inch Nails last night and I think Trent Reznor came up with the best rock lyric ever. First line to the chorus of Closer: I want to **** you like an animal.

It's nasty, vulgar, offensive, dangerous, and menacing but it's also sexy, fun, and crazy. It's a song that is rough enough for the boys but still sexy enough for the girls to get into as well. A nice balance. And it was a wonderful experience to be in a room with thousands of women screaming that line at the top of their lungs.

And my time is a piece of wax fallin' on a termite
That's chokin' on the splinters

 

[Guapotims123]

I told you not to wander 'round in the dark.
I told you 'bout the swans, that they live in the park.
Then I told you 'bout our kid, now he's married to Mabel.

Badge (Bridge) Cream

 

[JTE]

"Seems to me, you don't want to talk about it , seems to me, you just turn your pretty head and walk away" Joe Walsh, "Walk Away"

"Under her clothes she carried, proof that she wasn't married!" Pete Brown "Letter Of Thanks"

 

[DB10]

A newer one that I quite like:
“Every song that I’ve ever heard,
Is playing at the same time, it’s absurd.
And it remind me, we’ve got everything now. “

 

[Ritnin77]

Kept it clean but the whole song has me in stitches

Twinkle twinkle little star
Shining down on my blue car
Drivin' down the boulevard
She was soft and I was hard

Cleanest bit I could find , again love the whole song

Proppin' her up on the black and white
Unzipped and slipped "ooh that's tight"
I swatted her like no swat team can
Turned a cherry pie right into jam

 

[Richland123]

I'm just an ordinary average guy
My friends are all boring
And so am I
We're just ordinary average guys
We all live ordinary average lives
With average kids
And average wives
We all go bowling at the bowling lanes
Drink a few beers
Bowl a few frames
We're just ordinary average guys
Ordinary average guys
And every Saturday we work in the yard
Pick up the dog do
Hope that it's hard (whaf whaf)
Take out the garbage and clean out the garage
My friend's got a Chrysler
I've got a Dodge
We're just ordinary average guys
Ordinary average guys

 

[Kevin Teed]

Turn off your mind, relax and float down stream.
JL, though I think he read it somewhere.

 

[Dave_]

“I’ll reach down, in between my legs... and ease the seat back”

One of the only memorable things Dave’s said that doesn’t make him sound like a bellend

 

[TH63]

Tom Waits
Every time it rains the umbrellas complain they always get played for a chump. AND
Tom Waits again. Will you sell me one of those if i shave my head?