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Favourite Lyric Line?

#121
I posted once (some of Al Stewart's lyrics), but as a lyricist, here are my favorites of mine (shameless self-promotion):

When we first met, right on the spot
We broke every “thou” and “thou shalt not”
And I was baptized into you
I laid my soul, so poor and flawed
At the altar of our desperate god
And made you my religion true. (from "How Art the Mighty Fallen")

======

I've here my box of tiny saints
and a bag of holy breath,
ears ringing like easter bells
gospels written in my flesh
Reach your hand inside of me
rip out the parts that are doubtful
Stack your words on my tongue
Til I gotta star spangled mouthful
eyes following dreams like kites against the skies

I've gotta know what it feels like
When all the brightness fades to black
Like a virgin vicodin angel
in the back of a mile-long Cadillac
Come around back and I'll show you
I can fix the world with glue and gauze
a handful of glitter some vaseline
makes me the wizard of ooohs and ahhs
eyes following dreams like kites against the skies (from "Kites")

======

You can read me poetry
I'll never be your muse
Or try to serenade me
Or offer me your blues
Even if I know the words
I won't sing with you
No, you will never have me
No matter what you do (from "You Will Never Have Me")

======

County fair skies, blue ribbon blue
The grass is soft, tickles my shoes
Appleshine red like a pretty girls lips
In the brightness of an unbearable bliss

May buds tremble as the flowers ring
Church bells herald redemption wrought,
And like fairies all the young girls sing
Forgetmenot forgetmenot forgetmenot (from "forgetmenot")
 
#124
OK, seriously, here's the best lyric line ever. (bolded)

Darkness at the break of noon
Shadows even the silver spoon
The handmade blade, the child's balloon
Eclipses both the sun and moon
To understand you know too soon
There is no sense in trying.
Pointed threats, they bluff with scorn
Suicide remarks are torn
From the fools gold mouthpiece
The hollow horn plays wasted words
Proved to warn
That he not busy being born
Is busy dying.
Temptation's page flies out the door
You follow, find yourself at war
Watch waterfalls of pity roar
You feel to moan but unlike before
You discover
That you'd just be
One more person crying.
So don't fear if you hear
A foreign sound to you ear
It's alright, Ma, I'm only sighing.
As some warn victory, some downfall
Private reasons great or small
Can be seen in the eyes of those that call
To make all that should be killed to crawl
While others say don't hate nothing at all
Except hatred.
Disillusioned words like bullets bark
As human gods aim for their marks
Made everything from toy guns that sparks
To flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark
It's easy to see without looking too far
That not much
Is really sacred.
While preachers preach of evil fates
Teachers teach that knowledge waits
Can lead to hundred-dollar plates
Goodness hides behind its gates
But even the President of the United States
Sometimes must have
To stand naked.
An' though the rules of the road have been lodged
It's only people's games that you got to dodge
And it's alright, Ma, I can make it.
Advertising signs that con you
Into thinking you're the one
That can do what's never been done
That can win what's never been won
Meantime life outside goes on
All around you.
You lose yourself, you reappear
You suddenly find you got nothing to fear
Alone you stand without nobody near
When a trembling distant voice, unclear
Startles your sleeping ears to hear
That somebody thinks
They really found you.
A question in your nerves is lit
Yet you know there is no answer fit to satisfy
Insure you not to quit
To keep it in your mind and not forget
That it is not he or she or them or it
That you belong to.
Although the masters make the rules
For the wise men and the fools
I got nothing, Ma, to live up to.
For them that must obey authority
That they do not respect in any degree
Who despite their jobs, their destinies
Speak jealously of them that are free
Cultivate their flowers to be
Nothing more than something
They invest in.
While some on principles baptized
To strict party platforms ties
Social clubs in drag disguise
Outsiders they can freely criticize
Tell nothing except who to idolize
And then say God Bless him.
While one who sings with his tongue on fire
Gargles in the rat race choir
Bent out of shape from society's pliers
Cares not to come up any higher
But rather get you down in the hole
That he's in.
But I mean no harm nor put fault
On anyone that lives in a vault
But it's alright, Ma, if I can't please him.
Old lady judges, watch people in pairs
Limited in sex, they dare
To push fake morals, insult and stare
While money doesn't talk, it swears
Obscenity, who really cares
Propaganda, all is phony.
While them that defend what they cannot see
With a killer's pride, security
It blows the minds most bitterly
For them that think death's honesty
Won't fall upon them naturally
Life sometimes
Must get lonely.
My eyes collide head-on with stuffed graveyards
False gods, I scuff
At pettiness which plays so rough
Walk upside-down inside handcuffs
Kick my legs to crash it off
Say okay, I have had enough
What else can you show me ?
And if my thought-dreams could been seen
They'd probably put my head in a guillotine
But it's alright, Ma, it's life, and life only.
 
#129
"...G load disaster from the rate of climb
Sometimes I'd faint and be lost to our side
But there's no reward for failure but death
So watch me in mirrors, keep me on the flight path"

ME 262 / Blue Oyster Cult

Not my favorite but it kinda rolls of the tongue.

Riis
 
#133
Simply because it exists:

"I was drunk,
the day my Mama got out of prison
And I went out to pick her up in the rain
But, before I could get to the station in the pick-up truck
She got runned over by a damned ol' train"

You Never Even Called Me by My Name -- Goodman and Prine, but made famous by David Allan Coe
---------

Because it was awesome the first time I heard it, and every time since:

"It is the scent of garlic that lingers on my chocolate fingers."
The Lamia -- Peter Gabriel (Genesis)
---------

Because I wish I could've written this:

I am an American aquarium drinker
I assassin down the avenue
I'm hiding out in the big city blinking
What was I thinking when I let go of you?

Let's forget about the tongue-tied lightning
Let's undress just like cross-eyed strangers
This is not a joke, so please stop smiling
What was I thinking when I said it didn't hurt?

I want to glide through those brown eyes dreaming
Take it from the inside, baby hold on tight
You were so right when you said that I've been drinking
What was I thinking when I said good night?

I want to hold you in the Bible-black predawn
You're quite a quiet domino, bury me now
Take off your Band-Aid because I don't believe in touchdowns
What was I thinking when I said hello?

I'd always thought that if I held you tightly
You'd always love me like you did back then
Then I fell asleep and the city kept blinking
What was I thinking when I let you back in?

I am trying to break your heart
I am trying to break your heart
But still I'd be lying if I said it wasn't easy
I am trying to break your heart

Disposable Dixie-cup drinking
I assassin down the avenue
I'm hiding out in the big city blinking
What was I thinking when I let go of you?

Loves you
I'm the man who loves you

I Am Trying to Break Your Heart -- Jeff Tweedy (Wilco)
-----------------------------------------------------

And because when performed live, this song is truly amazing:

"There's a random painted highway
And a muzzle of bees
My sleeves have come unstitched
From climbing your tree

And dogs laugh, some say they're barking
I don't think they're mean
Some people get so frightened
Of the fences in between

And the sun gets passed from tree to tree
Silently, and back to me
With the breeze blown through
Pushed up against the sea
Finally back to me

I'm assuming you got my message
On your machine
I'm assuming you love me
And you know what that means

Sun gets passed, sea to sea
Silently, and back to me
With the breeze blown through
Pushed up above the leaves

With the breeze blown through
My head upon your knee
Half of it's you, half is me
Half of it's you, half is me"

Muzzle of Bees -- Jeff Tweedy (Wilco)
-------------
 
#139
Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
Fritter and waste the hours in an off-hand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way

Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun

And you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death
 

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