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Post Your Favorite Lyric Lines

#181
Ever Since The World Ended - Mose Allison

Ever since the world ended
I don't go out as much
People that I once befriended
Just don't bother to stay in touch
Things that used to seem so splendid
Don't really matter today
It's just as well the world ended
It wasn't working anyway
Every since the world ended
There's no more bible belt
Remember how we all pretended?
Going 'round, lying 'bout the way we felt
Every rule has been amended,
There's no one keeping score
It's just as well the world ended
We couldn't have taken much more
Ever since the world ended
There's no more black or white
Ever since we all got blended
There's no more reason to fuss and fight
Dogmas that we once defended
No longer seem worthwhile
Ever since the world ended
I face the future
With a smile
 
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#185
Every day there's someone asking,
"What is there to do?
Should I love or should I fight?
Is it all the same to you?"
"No," I say, "I have the answer,
Proven to be true.
But if I were to share it with you,
You would stand to gain and I to lose.
" Oh, I couldn't bear it, so I've got nothing to say
Nothing to say nothing to say
Every morning pressure forming all around my eyes.
Ceilings crash the walls collapse broken by the lies
That your misfortune brought upon us
And I won't disguise them.
So don't ask me will I explain
I won't even begin to tell you why.
No, just because I have a name well I've got nothing to say
Nothing to say nothing to say
Climb a tower of freedom paint your own deceiving sign
It's not my part to criticize or to ask you to be blind
To your own pressing problem and the [heat] you must unwind
And ask of me no answer there is none that I could give you wouldn't find
I went your way ten years ago and I've got nothing to say
Nothing to say nothing to say
Nothing, nothing to say Nothing, nothing to say Nothing, nothing to say, nothing to say Nothing, nothing to say, nothing to say Nothing, nothing to say

Nothing to say, Jethro Tull
 
#186
...

Well, the sword swallower, he comes up to you and then he kneels
He crosses himself and then he clicks his high heels
And without further notice, he asks you how it feels
And he says, "Here's your throat back, thanks for the loan"
And you know something is happening but you don't know what it is
Do you, Mr. Jones?

...

Well, you walk into the room like a camel, and then you frown
You put your eyes in your pocket and your nose on the ground
There oughta be a law against you comin' around
You should be made to wear earphones
'Cause something is happening and you don't know what it is
Do you, Mr. Jones?

- from Ballad Of A Thin Man, by Bob Dylan
 
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#187
I heard this old chestnut earlier today, and the opening couplet struck me as one of the most brilliantly powerful hyper-compressed lyrics -- so many thoughts & feelings & images, all squoze into two lines:

"sodomy, fellatio, cunnilingus, pederasty...
Father, why do these words sound so nasty?"

- James Rado and Gerome Ragni, from the tune "Sodomy" (from the 1968 hit Broadway musical Hair)

I thinks it's the simple inclusion of "Father" that makes this such a powerful couplet...is the singer talking to their Dad, or to their priest? And the fact that it's an innocent question; the singer honestly wants to know Why Do People Freak The Heck Out When I Say These Words? Hasn't every kid wondered that about some word ...or four? There's a universality of this query that just seems so precious to me.

Anyway...Mods, I do recognize that these words might be deemed "offensive" or "inappropriate" so if this violates any TB policies I apologize and please feel free to delete this post.
 
#188
At a time when the world seems to be spinnin'
Hopelessly out of control
There's deceivers, and believers, and old in-betweeners
That seem to have no place to go

Well, it's the same old song, it's right and it's wrong
And living is just something that I do
And with no place to hide, I looked in your eyes
And I found myself in you

"Hands on the Wheel" performed by Willie Nelson, written by Billy Callery

Been giving me some comfort in these insane times.
 
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#191
Maybe not favorite, but very impactful. Some uninformed individuals may say that it glorifies the situation, but I say no, it’s journalism, it’s real, it is what is. There’s nothing glamorous in what’s depicted, the last verse is actually sad, because obviously the narrator is delusional. Keep in mind this was written in 1965, so you’ll have to adjust for inflation on that $26...


I'm waiting for my man
Twenty-six dollars in my hand
Up to Lexington, 125
Feel sick and dirty, more dead than alive
I'm waiting for my man
Hey, white boy, what you doin' uptown?
Hey, white boy, you chasin' our women around?
Oh pardon me sir, it's the furthest from my mind
I'm just lookin' for a dear, dear friend of mine
I'm waiting for my man
Here he comes, he's all dressed in black
PR shoes and a big straw hat
He's never early, he's always late
First thing you learn is you always gotta wait
I'm waiting for my man
Up to a Brownstone, up three flights of stairs
Everybody's pinned you, but nobody cares
He's got the works, gives you sweet taste
Ah then you gotta split because you got no time to waste
I'm waiting for my man
Baby don't you holler, darlin' don't you bawl and shout
I'm feeling good, you know I'm gonna work it on out
I'm feeling good, I'm feeling oh so fine
Until tomorrow, but that's just some other time
I'm waiting for my man

After almost 30 years of hearing that song, but it not entirely sinking in, I found myself escorting a musician friend of mine, moderately successful, but having acquired that little problem, down to an area on the outskirts of downtown LA not unlike 125th Street in Harlem. He was on tour, had a TV shot to do, and had to ‘get well’. While I was dissapointed in the situation, and doing this was a very foolish thing, there was no time for moralising. We picked up this worse for wear woman, who I find out sang backing vocals on Carole King’s Tapestry album, and she led us to this block of brownstones; as he disappeared with her to score, it hit me like a ton of bricks...“this is it, this is the song in its entirety, it’s all there”. I went around the block, picked him up without incident, and that was it. He did eventually go to rehab, backslid a couple of times, but has been clean, sober, and productive ever since.
 
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#194
I'm generally not a Bob Dylan fan, but I heard The Byrds' rendition of "The Times They Are A'Changin'" the other night, and this verse really struck me as incredibly potent:

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin'
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'
 
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#195
It goes like this the fourth, the fifth, the minor fall, the major lift. The baffled King composing Hallelujah.

Leonard Cohen

Susanne

And Jesus was a sailor when he walked upon the water
And he spent a long time watching from his lonely wooden tower
And when he knew for certain only drowning men could see him
He said all men will be sailors then until the sea shall free them
But he himself was broken, long before the sky would open
Forsaken, almost human, he sank beneath your wisdom like a stone
And you want to travel with him, and you want to travel blind
And you think you maybe you'll trust him
For he's touched your perfect body with her mind
Now, Suzanne takes your hand and she leads you to the river
She's wearing rags and feathers from Salvation Army counters
And the sun pours down like honey on our lady of the harbor
And she shows you where to look among the garbage and the flowers
There are heroes in the seaweed, there are children in the morning
They are leaning out for love and they wil lean that way forever
While Suzanne holds her mirror



Actually so many of his lyrics are profound. He tended to draw from biblical characters to intertwine with his contemporary perspectives.
 
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#197
Pan american nightmare
Ten thousand feet fun-fair
Convinced that I don't care
It's safe as houses I swear
I was just sitting musing
The virtues of cruising
When altitude dropping
My ears started popping
One more red nightmare

Sweat beginning to pour down
My neck as I turn round
I heard fortune shouting
Get off of this outing
A farewell swan song
See you know how turbulence can be
The stewardess made me
But the captain forbid me
One more red nightmare

Reality stirred me
My angel had heard me
The prayer had been answered
A reprieve has been granted
The dream was now broken
Though rudely awoken
Really safe and sound
Asleep on the greyhound
One more red nightmare
 

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