Favorite Lines

19 Apr 13 - 10:30 PM (#3506034)
Subject: Favorite Liines
From: Fred Maslan

What are your favorite lines in songs? two of my favorites are.

"You can't jump a jet plane like you can a freight train." from Gordon Lightfoot's "Early Morning Rain"

"And with the wind hold conversation. It always has so much to tell;"
From Graeme Mile's "Where Ravens Feed"

Fred

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20 Apr 13 - 02:51 AM (#3506064)
Subject: RE: Favorite Liines
From: Leadfingers

Robb Johnson's 'Turn Around' - When they're sweeping uo bits of the night that got broken , and washing the moon away .

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20 Apr 13 - 04:08 AM (#3506085)
Subject: RE: Favorite Liines
From: Dave Hanson

From Slim Dusty's ' A Pub With No Beer,'
" there's a far away look on the face of the bum "

genius.

Dave H

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20 Apr 13 - 06:08 AM (#3506105)
Subject: Favorite Liines
From: GUEST,Eddie1

KK - Sunday Morning Coming Down:-

"I fumbled in my closet through my clothes to find my cleanest dirty shirt"!

Eddie

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20 Apr 13 - 06:27 AM (#3506107)
Subject: RE: Favorite Liines
From: Georgiansilver

From 'Both Sides The Tweed' "What's the Spring breathing Jasmine and Rose"   I guess I love all the words of the song really :-

What's the spring-breathing jasmine and rose?.

What's the summer with all its gay train.

Or the splendour of autumn to those
,
Who've bartered their freedom for gain?
Chorus
Let the love of our land's sacred rights,

To the love of our people succeed
.
Let friendship and honour unite,

And flourish on both sides the Tweed.

No sweetness the senses can cheer,

Which corruption and bribery bind.

No brightness that gloom can e'er clear,

For honour's the sum of the mind
Chorus

Let virtue distinguish the brave,

Place riches in lowest degree.

Think them poorest who can be a slave
,
Them richest who dare to be free
Chorus

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20 Apr 13 - 07:36 AM (#3506122)
Subject: RE: Favorite Liines
From: Phil Cooper

Dave Carter's line from Grand Prairie Texas Homesick Blues "For home is in the hearland, but the heartland cannot save you when the heart is gone, and home's moved on."

Or Cindy Mangsen's line from the Familiar, "the man who fears his nature, see's the devil everywhere."

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20 Apr 13 - 08:31 AM (#3506143)
Subject: RE: Favorite Liines
From: Elmore

From Leonard Cohen's "Tower of Song". I was born like this, I had no choice, I was born with the gift of a golden voice.

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20 Apr 13 - 11:03 AM (#3506193)
Subject: RE: Favorite Liines
From: Bert

From Woad.

Hairy coats, were meant for goats,
gorillas, yaks, retriever dogs and llamas.

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20 Apr 13 - 11:48 AM (#3506213)
Subject: RE: Favorite Liines
From: MGM·Lion

I remember my father was much struck by the song "Don't Fence Me In" [lyric Cole Porter & Robert Fletcher] when we heard Roy Rogers sing it in 1944 in 'Hollywood Canteen' (one of those 'composite' films much regarded at the time which really constituted a sort of divertissement of various artistes performing in some particular milieu, framed by somewhat feeble and jejune plots about people visiting the venues).

He [my father] would always say that he thought the lines "I will ride to the ridge where the West commences, Gaze upon the moon until I lose my senses" fit to rank with the most beautiful of poetry.

~Michael~

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20 Apr 13 - 12:30 PM (#3506227)
Subject: RE: Favorite Liines
From: GUEST

'Like a break in the battle, was your part
in the wretched life of a lonely heart'

From the Pretenders' Back on the Chain Gang.

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20 Apr 13 - 12:32 PM (#3506228)
Subject: RE: Favorite Liines
From: GUEST,Lavengro

In the darkest hour of the longest night
If it was in my power I'd step into the light

Steve Earle-Transendental Blues

Constant prayer to anyone who has been under the influence of the black dog.

And...

He's one of those who knows that life
Is just a leap of faith
Spread your arms and hold you breath
Always trust your cape

Guy Clarke-The Cape

Just makes me smile. Of course my favorite lines next week will be different!

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20 Apr 13 - 12:34 PM (#3506229)
Subject: RE: Favorite Liines
From: Commander Crabbe

From Rallph McTell's "The Setting"

Outside the trees they grew starlings like apples
Their bustle and chatter not dampened by the rain

CC

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20 Apr 13 - 07:35 PM (#3506357)
Subject: RE: Favorite Liines
From: GUEST,ollaimh

hey it's gotta be in world turned upside down,

we will not worship, the god they serve, the god of greed who feed the rich while poor men starve.

or

you poor take courage, you rich take care, this world's a common treasury for everyone to share

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21 Apr 13 - 12:58 AM (#3506427)
Subject: RE: Favorite Liines
From: Elmore

Woody Guthrie's Pretty Boy Floyd: Yes, as through this world I've travelled I've seen lots of funny men. Some will rob you with a six gun, Some with a fountain pen.

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21 Apr 13 - 11:09 PM (#3506890)
Subject: RE: Favorite Liines
From: Elmore

I caught the darkness. It was drinking from your cup. I caught the darkness drinking from your cup. I said, is this contagious? You said just drink it up. "The Darkness" by L. Cohen.

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21 Apr 13 - 11:18 PM (#3506897)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Joe Offer

I like this one, from John Prine's Paradise

Well sometimes we'd travel right down the Green River
To the abandoned old prison down by Adrie hill.
Where the air smelled like snakes, and we'd shoot with our pistols
But empty pop bottles was all we would kill.

It inspired me to take a hike along the Green River in Kentucky. The river is truly green, and the air does smell like snakes. I was happy I didn't encounter any snakes.
-Joe-

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22 Apr 13 - 10:06 AM (#3507042)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: GUEST,FloraG

A stranger to the truth was he
Florag

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22 Apr 13 - 10:15 AM (#3507049)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Becca72

From Warren Zevon's The French Inhaler:

"when the lights came up at 2
I caught a glimpse of you
and your face looked like something Death brought with him in his suitcase"

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22 Apr 13 - 10:19 AM (#3507051)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Elmore

From L. Cohen's "I'm your Man". If you want a doctor, I'll examine every inch of you

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22 Apr 13 - 11:14 AM (#3507089)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Midchuck

Almost twelve years ago, in a thread here on the same topic, I gave my choice:

You horsehair-braiding sons of bitches
Stole my claim to earthly riches.
Someone go and dig a ditch,
There may well be a hangin'!

- Tom Russell, The Sky Above, the Mud Below

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22 Apr 13 - 11:30 AM (#3507094)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: GUEST,gillymor

A couple from The Band, humorous takes on some old traditional lines:

"If I thought it would do any good, I'd stand on the rock where Moses stood" -When you awake

"Going on down to the rairoad track, let the 4:19 scratch my back."-Rag Mama Rag

Townes Van Zandt:
"The dust that Pancho bit down south, ended up in Lefty's mouth."

More Cole Porter:
"Mr. Harris bureaucrat,
Wants to give my cheek a pat,
If a Harris pat means a Paris hat, Bebe!"- Always True to You in My Fashion

Richard Thompson:

"If I could just taste all of her wildness now,
If I could hold her in my arms today,
Then I wouldn't want her any other way."- Bee's Wing

"Your flag decal won't get you into heaven anymore,
They're already overcrowded from your dirty little wars." -John Prine

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22 Apr 13 - 11:36 AM (#3507097)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Ebbie

There are so many favo(u)rite lines but one that always comes first to my mind:

"And the moon came up, so quiet in the sky" Bill Staines, Roseville Fair

Is there anything quieter than the moon?

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22 Apr 13 - 01:39 PM (#3507151)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: kendall

Everything I just posted disappeared except one line.

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22 Apr 13 - 03:10 PM (#3507191)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Bert

quieter than the moon??

This comes close to describing that silence, from A Song for a Winter's Night by Gordon Lightfoot.

The lamp is burnin' low upon my table top
The snow is softly falling
The air is still within the silence of my room
I hear your voice softly calling

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22 Apr 13 - 03:32 PM (#3507211)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: fat B****rd

I quoted this in a long ago thread, but what the Hell!

'Told me love was too plebeian
Told me you were through with me and...'


"Cry Me A River" lyric by Arthur Hamilton

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22 Apr 13 - 03:39 PM (#3507218)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Jim McLean

Mr Ben Nevis you're as old as the hills. Bob Halfin

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23 Apr 13 - 09:28 AM (#3507668)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: GUEST,CrazyEddie

I see the old men, all tired stiff & sore
The weary old heroes of a forgotten war
And the young people ask, "What are they marching for?"
And I ask myself the same question.

The Band Played Waltzing Matilda, Eric Bogle

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23 Apr 13 - 09:59 AM (#3507688)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Sugwash

Dance you buggers, dance, or you'll never get to heaven!

Bob Pegg the Last Dance

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23 Apr 13 - 11:36 AM (#3507742)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Sailor Ron

Blaspheming Saints and splendid drunked heroes.... from Trawlertown Requiam by John Connely

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23 Apr 13 - 12:07 PM (#3507754)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Scabby Douglas

".. and all I do is miss you, and the way we used to be
and all I do is keep the beat - and bad company
and all I do is kiss you, through the bars of a rhyme..."

Romeo and Juliet - Mark Knopfler

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23 Apr 13 - 02:45 PM (#3507844)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Elmore

I love to speak with Leonard. He's a sportsman and a shepherd. He's a lazy bastard living in a suit. From "Going Home" by L. Cohen.

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23 Apr 13 - 05:23 PM (#3507930)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: GUEST,JHW

The terrace streets were my Grand Canyons
The dockyard cranes were my redwood trees
The steelworks tips were my mountain ranges
Those brickyard ponds were my Seven Seas

Graeme Miles 'My Eldorado'

RIP Graeme and many thanks for so many songs

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23 Apr 13 - 08:07 PM (#3507992)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Joe_F

Walking in his footsteps in the sweet delta dawn.

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23 Apr 13 - 08:48 PM (#3508009)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Tattie Bogle

From " Sweet Thames flow softly"
Kissed her once again at Wapping,
After that there was no stopping.
(Memories of student days in the East End of London!)

And - how he ever got away with this rhyme: always makes me laugh when I hear it - from Eric Bogle's "Belle of Broughton":
In love they were BESOTTEN
With the bonnie belle of Broughton.

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23 Apr 13 - 09:02 PM (#3508017)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: GUEST,jaze

If love means forever,expecting nothing returned--then I hope I'll be given another whole lifetime to learn.---Joan Baez-"Love Song To A Stranger"

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23 Apr 13 - 09:04 PM (#3508018)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: GUEST,Jaze

Good one, Ebbie

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24 Apr 13 - 03:19 AM (#3508070)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: GUEST,CrazyEddie

Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose...

Kris Kristofferson, Bobby Magee.

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24 Apr 13 - 01:47 PM (#3508278)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: GUEST,gillymor

from The Pogues Lullaby of London (McGowan):

And there is no lonesome corncrake's cry,
Of sorrow and delight.

From PD:

Oh a peanut sat on the railroad track,
It's heart was all aflutter,
Down the line came number nine,
Toot toot peanut butter.

Also PD:

Everybody wants to go to heaven,
But nobody wants to die.

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24 Apr 13 - 02:10 PM (#3508298)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Elmore

But I'm stubborn as those garbage bags that time cannot decay. I'm junk but I'm still holding up this little wild bouquet: Democracy is coming to the USA. From "Democracy" by L. Cohen.

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25 Apr 13 - 02:21 AM (#3508515)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: PHJim

The silence of a falling star
Lights up a purple sky
And as I wonder where you are
I'm so lonesome I could cry

                      Hank Williams

She says she's had enough of cowboy boots and pick-up trucks
Enough of checkered shirts and dark blue eyes
Goin' back to being a rich man's wife
And I'm just dreamin'

                      Fred J. Eaglesmith

They say we are weathered with age Maggie
Like spray by the wild breakers flung,
But to me you're as fair as you were Maggie
When you and I were young.

                      James Johnson (?)

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25 Apr 13 - 05:10 AM (#3508560)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: GUEST,BobL

The (old) English Hymnal had an Easter hymn with the line, referring to Christ in the tomb:

"Ill doth it seem that thy limbs should linger in lowly dishonour"

I just love the alliteration.

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25 Apr 13 - 05:22 AM (#3508567)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Capo da Monty

So many...

"Breasts as smooth as stones washed by the sea.."

"Summer Girls" by Ralph Mctell from the album "Boy with a Note"

Cdm

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25 Apr 13 - 01:19 PM (#3508758)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Elmore

Ring the bells that still can ring. Forget your perfect offering. there is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in. from "Anthem" by L. Cohen.

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25 Apr 13 - 04:58 PM (#3508852)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Bobert

"Some folks see the light, others just feel the heat" (Ray Wylie Hubbard from "Conversation with the Devil")

B~

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25 Apr 13 - 06:18 PM (#3508883)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Bren Ború

There's a bar where the boys have stopped talking,
They've been sentenced to death by the blues.

"Take This Waltz" by Leonard Cohen

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25 Apr 13 - 06:45 PM (#3508893)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: GUEST,mg

you can wear a cinderalla snow white alice wonderlanded gown..Eric Anderson?

fight with your grandsires on Cullodon's field..one of the Corries

I put my head into a cask of brandy trad.

and everyone's favorite in other threads..

if it weren't for the alligators I'd sleep out in the swamp

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25 Apr 13 - 11:43 PM (#3508971)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Fred Maslan

"Long ago, I used to be a young man
And dear Margaret remembers that for me" From 'The Dutchman' by Michael Smith

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26 Apr 13 - 12:22 AM (#3508977)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: GUEST,guest : May Queen

For England is not flag or Empire
It is not money it is not blood
It's limestone gorge and granite fell
It's Weald and clay and Severn mud

It's blackbird singing from the may-tree
Lark ascending through the scales
Robin watching from his spade
And English earth beneath your nails

June Tabor - A Place called England

This is my favourite as of yesterday when I heard it for the first time whilst gardening. There was a blackbird and I did have English earth in my nails :-)

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26 Apr 13 - 12:36 AM (#3508980)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Elmore

AH baby let's get married. We've been alone too long. Let's be alone together. Let's see if we're that strong. From "Waiting For The Miracle" by L. Cohen.

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16 Jul 14 - 11:31 PM (#3642726)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Bert

Her hair is yellow as the morning sun, except where the black shows through.

The Belle of Barking Creek, Paddy Roberts.

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17 Jul 14 - 12:39 AM (#3642732)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: meself

By this pipe in me mouth then replied the old woman
and that's a great oath on me soul for to say


-anon., Daniel O'Connor (Making Babies by Steam)

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17 Jul 14 - 12:40 AM (#3642733)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: PHJim

The Leonard Cohen line suggested by Elmore reminds me of this one by Martin Mull:

I'm tired of rock & rollin'
Let's get married Honey, let's go bowlin'.
Throw away our pot and acid,
Spend the weekend in Lake Placid
'Cause it's hard to live in this town if you're strange.
What say you and I get normal for a change.

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17 Jul 14 - 01:15 AM (#3642737)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Elmore

My old man wasn't really old, It's just that I was young. And anyone over 12 years old was halfway to the tomb. from "My Old Man" by Ewan MacColl.

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17 Jul 14 - 01:38 AM (#3642738)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: GUEST

The best love songs are written with a broken arm.. (The Carpenters)

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17 Jul 14 - 09:59 AM (#3642818)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: GUEST,gillymor

Pharaoh he sits in his tower of steel
The dogs of money all at his heel
Magicians cry "Oh truth! Oh real!"
We're all working for the Pharaoh

-Richard Thompson

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17 Jul 14 - 10:53 AM (#3642833)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Cool Beans

These are great! One of my faves, by Frank Loesser,in "Guys and Dolls":
When you see a gent paying all kinds of rent
For a flat that would flatten the Taj Mahal...

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17 Jul 14 - 12:13 PM (#3642864)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Bill D

... after losing his girl to a stranger and going off to get drunk...

♫"And since it is no better, I'm glad it is no worse,
Brandy in my bottle and money in my purse."♫

From the singing of Mike Seeger, who probably got it from the book Our Singing Country... at least I've found no other source. You can see the complete text at that link.
I heard Mike sing it at the Smithsonian Festival about 1975. He recorded it on "Music from the True Vine.

I have sung this ever since....

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17 Jul 14 - 01:18 PM (#3642894)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: GUEST,DTM

"Well, I'm a standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona
And such a fine sight to see
It's a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed Ford
Slowin' down to take a look at me"

(Jackson Browne/Glenn Frey)

You can't get any better than those first four lines above.
Perfection!

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18 Jul 14 - 06:41 AM (#3643079)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: GUEST,Desi C

From Phil & June Colclough's 'Song For Ireland'
Drinking all the day, in old pubs where Fiddlers love to play' My iea of heaven ;)
And from Brendan Behan's 'The Auld Triangle'
Up in the female prison, there are seventy fine women, and it's among them I wish I did dwell

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18 Jul 14 - 10:51 AM (#3643126)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: GUEST,Dave Hunt

'Across the hills the sun has gone astray, tomorrows cares are many dreams away',,....in fact ALL of John O' Dreams by Bill Caddick....who has written so many memorable lines/songs.

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18 Jul 14 - 01:18 PM (#3643183)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: GUEST,Johnmc

"God didn't make those little green apples
And it don't rain in Indianapolis in the summertime".

" Born at the instant church bells chime
Whole world listening
Born at the right time".    P Simon

Thought if I could submit without checking they must be good.
A bit like The Beatles songwriting - if they couldn't remember it the next day why
should anyone else, so song was ditched.

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18 Jul 14 - 02:46 PM (#3643201)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: MGM·Lion

G. K. Chesterton described that widespread "floater"

Over the hills and far away

as "the finest line in English literature and the silent refrain of all English poems".

(Not quite sure what he meant by the last phrase; but it is certainly a most exquisitely nostalgically expressed concept, isn't it?)

~M~

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18 Jul 14 - 03:25 PM (#3643208)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Mr Red

Keith Hancock - more of a chorus.

When I were a lad eeee time they were bad,
But not as bad as when my dad were a lad.
When my dad were a lad, eeee times they were bad,
but not as bad as when my dad's dad were a lad.

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18 Jul 14 - 07:41 PM (#3643268)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: kendall

If you cheat again, he'll have to move the flowers.

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19 Jul 14 - 04:30 PM (#3643485)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: GUEST,mg

Our pen is the sword and our voice is the cannon ...bold fenian men

I live in montana i wear a bandana

It wasnt his intent he got a.fine head of cement..
Building. Up and tearing england.down

The girls will wear new.sealskin pants when the boys come home from swiling

Slugger otoole who was drunk as a rule

Where seldom is heard a discouraging word

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20 Jul 14 - 07:58 AM (#3643585)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: GUEST,DTM

"Sad as a gypsy serenading the moon" - Skylark

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20 Jul 14 - 08:38 AM (#3643590)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Jim Carroll

Finest description of pregnancy in the ballad Gil Morrice, when the lady, confessing she is the mother of the man her husband has just killed, with that of the thin layer of flesh surrounding the stone of the rose hip berry:
"I ance was full o' Gil Morrice as the hip is of the stone".
Or the description of the moon as an ill omen in Sir Patrick Spens;
"I saw the new moon yestere'en with the auld moon in its arms"
Or the best ever description of a card game in the workplace in The Golden Vanity:
"Some were playing cards, and some were playing dice,
And some were standing round giving good advice".   
They don't make 'em like that any more!
Jim Carroll

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20 Jul 14 - 12:52 PM (#3643652)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: GUEST,mauvepink

From Corole King and the late Gerry Goffey's "Goin' back" and made famous by Dusty Springfield. Four brilliant lines (bolded) below:

I think I'm goin' back
To the things I learned so well in my youth,
I think I'm returning to
The days when I was young enough to know the truth

Now there are no games
To only pass the time
No more coloring books,
No Christmas bells to chime
But thinking young and growing older is no sin
And I can play the game of life to win

I can recall a time,
When I wasn't afraid to reach out to a friend
And now I think I've got
A lot more than a skipping rope to lift

Now there's more to do
Than watch my sailboat glide
Then everyday can be my magic carpet ride
And I can play hide and seek with my fears,
And live my life instead of counting my years

Let everyone debate the true reality,
I'd rather see the world the way it used to be
A little bit of freedom, all we're left
So catch me if you can
I'm goin' back


I am always amazed as I sing this beautiful song at those lines

mp

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20 Jul 14 - 09:10 PM (#3643745)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: GUEST,mg

awesome line from La Marselleise...which I probably misspelled. It does not get much more serious.

Aux armes cityoens...formez vos battalions..

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20 Jul 14 - 11:32 PM (#3643759)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: MGM·Lion

Gets even better when it goes on to the impure blood irrigating our plough-furrows!

Sacré bleu!

~M~

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21 Jul 14 - 12:02 AM (#3643765)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: PHJim

The opening lines to Tom Lehrer's "We'll All Go Together When We Go" are:

When you attend a funeral
It is sad to think that sooner o' L-
-ater those you love will do the same for you.

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21 Jul 14 - 03:09 AM (#3643780)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler

"By the time we got to Woodstock we were half a million strong" always hits me when I hear it.

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21 Jul 14 - 04:23 AM (#3643789)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: GUEST,GUEST: BlueJay

"You know, the law of averages says anything will happen that can,

But the last time the Cubs won a National League pennant was the year we dropped the bomb on Japan".

From Steve Goodman's, The Dying Cub Fan's Last Request

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31 Jul 14 - 02:38 PM (#3647085)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: PHJim

"They say 64 percent of all the world's statistics
are made up right there on the spot
82.4 percent of people believe 'em
whether they're accurate statistics or not."
-Todd Snyder's Statistician's Blues

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31 Jul 14 - 06:14 PM (#3647139)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Joe_F

Her hair shone like gold in the hot morning sun.

He was born on land, but he sure enjoys the sky.

Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with His heel.

And turns to put the mirror, gently, face down by the stove.

And we had to make do with gin.

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31 Jul 14 - 11:13 PM (#3647204)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: GUEST,SqueezeMe

"The feet that were nimble tread carefully now;
As gentle a measure as age will allow..."

(Austin John Marshall - The Ladies Go Dancing at Whitsun)

A favorite not only within the context of the song, but life and aging in general....

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01 Aug 14 - 12:08 AM (#3647206)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: PHJim

When I play my fiddle in Dooney
Folks dance like a wave of the sea.

W.B.Yeats

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01 Aug 14 - 12:09 AM (#3647207)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: PHJim

Lord preserve us and protect us
We've been drinkin' whiskey for breakfast

Mike Cross

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01 Aug 14 - 02:12 AM (#3647219)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: GUEST,Abdul on ipad

"To me, it all goes hand in hand. The music and the land. Who could fail to understand such simplicity". Jumps out from Jim Causleys' "Rewind" but the whole song is great.
Al

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01 Aug 14 - 03:30 AM (#3647235)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Richard Mellish

Someone has quoted "As gentle a measure as age will allow". That line is a definite unfavourite of mine, because it doesn't make sense. The sense should be that the ladies tread as energically as they can manage (which might be not very, given their age) not as gently as they can.

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01 Aug 14 - 03:41 AM (#3647238)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: GUEST,SqueezeMe

I don't agree, Richard, but I have learned a new word, so my post wasn't totally wasted :-)

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01 Aug 14 - 06:22 AM (#3647273)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: David C. Carter

"Come down off the cross,
we could use the wood".


Tom Waits

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01 Aug 14 - 05:23 PM (#3647476)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Doug Chadwick

Only takes one tree to make a thousand matches
Only takes one match to burn a thousand trees

Stereophonics - A Thousand Trees

DC

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01 Aug 14 - 07:28 PM (#3647510)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: NightWing

My favorite line from a song remains the missing line from Tom Lehrer's My Home Town.

That fellow was no fool who taught our Sunday school
And neither was our kindly Parson Brown
[spoken] Shall I? No, better not
[sung] In my home town

The imagination runs wild ... and then boggles. *LOL*

BB,
NightWing

P.S. Tom said that in many different forms, depending on whether he was live, in the studio, recording, or whatever.

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02 Aug 14 - 01:17 PM (#3647709)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Tootler

I'll buy you beavers and fine silken gowns
I'll buy you fine petticoats all flounced to the ground
If you will prove loyal and constant to me
And forsake your own true love and get married to me.

I don't want your beavers or fine silken hose
I was never so poor as to marry for clothes
But if you will prove loyal and constant to me
I'll forsake my own true love and get married to thee.

Who's kidding who?

And

Eleanor Rigby
Put on her face that she kept in a jar by the door (IIRC)

I've always liked that one

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05 Aug 14 - 01:47 AM (#3648410)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: PHJim

I dip my cup of soup back from the gurglin', cracklin' cauldron in some train yard

John Hartford

John's Gentle On My Mind has a pile of really lovely lines from which to choose.

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05 Aug 14 - 02:07 AM (#3648412)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: MGM·Lion

"He'll huddle you, he'll cuddle you
He'll love you for your sake
But keep your legs together
Coming home from the wake"
.,,.

"Caviare's the roe of the virgin sturgeon"
.,,.,.

"Madam, may I tie your garter
Just a little above the knee?
And if my hand should slip a little further
Would you think it rude of me?"
,..,

"Get up, Musgrave, put on your clothes
As quickly as you can
I'll ne'er have it said in this country
That I fought with a naked man"
.,,.

"And he cut off her head from her neckbone
And kicked it against the wall"
.,,.


≈M≈

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05 Aug 14 - 02:10 AM (#3648413)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: MGM·Lion

And that wonderful floater, most poetic exemplar of the journey in great haste:

And when she came to the riverside
She lay on her breast and she swam
And when she came to the other side
She took to her heels and she ran

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05 Aug 14 - 02:17 AM (#3648416)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: MGM·Lion

Cosher Bailey's sister Anna
She could play the grand pianner
She went hammer hammer hammer
Till the neighbours cried God damn 'er
.,,.

"How can I live, how shall I live,
How can I live for thee?
For don't you see my own ❤'s blood
Come trinkling down my knee!"

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05 Aug 14 - 02:25 AM (#3648418)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: MGM·Lion

All round my hat I will wear the green willow
.,,.

All round my hat I wear the tri-coloured ribbon
.,,.

"Whirl your whiskey around like blazes ~~
Thunderin' Jaysus, did you think I was dead!"

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05 Aug 14 - 10:57 AM (#3648518)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: PHJim

I thought this was a neat lyric when I first heard it on a Lonnie Johnson & Elmer Snowdon record.

Lonnie Johnson (and many other early blues singers) sang:



I'm sittin' here wonderin' will a matchbox hold my clothes,

Just sittin' here wonderin' will a matchbox hold my clothes.

Well I ain't got so many, but I sure got a long way to go.



The idea, of course is that he has so few "clothes", not "matches", that they might even fit into a matchbox.

Carl Perkins (and other rockabilly singers) seem to have interpreted it as though the singer has a shortage of matches.

Which makes more sense?



Carl Perkins' Lyrics:



Well I'm sitting here wondering, will a matchbox hold my clothes
Yeah I'm sitting here wondering, will a matchbox hold my clothes
I ain't got no matches, but I got a long way to go


This makes less sense to me, but here's what the Beatles did with the lyrics.



Beatles' Lyrics:

I said I'm sitting here watching, matchbox hole in my clothes
I said I'm sitting here wondering, matchbox hole in my clothes
I ain't got no matches but I sure ot a long way to go


What?

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05 Aug 14 - 11:03 AM (#3648523)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Musket

I must be drinking the same cooking sherry as Michael. One of my favourite lines from a traditional song is from Matty Groves / Little Musgrave whatever..

"It'll never be said in fair England that I slew a naked man."

Christy Moore of course, prefers "this fair land" as he could never be seen to say anything nice about the country where he made most of his money and concert goers always give him a warm welcome.

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06 Aug 14 - 06:06 PM (#3648910)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: MGM·Lion

Entirely different sort of song:-

Cole Porter's

"Miss Otis regrets she's unable to lunch today ~~ Madam"

followed by

"She is sorry to be delayed, but last evening down in Lover's Lane she strayed ~~ Madam"

≈M≈

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06 Aug 14 - 08:05 PM (#3648930)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: GUEST,mg

you who are her maidens open up her gown

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06 Aug 14 - 08:08 PM (#3648934)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: GUEST,gillymor

Every time I gaze behind the screws
Makes me long for St Peter's shoes
I'd walk on down that silver lane
And take my love in my arms again

brings back memories of refurbishing cruise ships and missing my new wife.

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07 Aug 14 - 12:03 AM (#3648968)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Bert

And as for Cosher Bailey, there is this glorious verse

There are lots of honey bees
and they swarm around the trees
The go into Llangollen
and the suck up all the pollen.

So of course you have to pronounce Llangollen correctly and rhyme pollen with it.

For those of you who don't know, ll in Welsh is pronounced like the ch in loch in Scottish or the kh in Arabic. There is no such sound in English, it sounds as though you are about to expectorate.

In Welsh the stress is on the penultimate syllable and in LLangollen the e is close to the English i as in fit.

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07 Aug 14 - 12:39 AM (#3648969)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: PHJim

Cosher Bill, I always thought that the "ll" in Welsh was more "chl", with the "ch" pronounced as you said above. In other words, isn't there an "l" sound after the sound that resembles an expectoration?
I will admit that I have not been in Llangollen since 1969, so my memory might be faulty.

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07 Aug 14 - 06:01 AM (#3649031)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: GUEST,silver

Can't choose between all these gems:

And all I've done for want of wit/ to memory now I can't recall (The Parting Glass, trad.)

By love's light my foot finds the old pathway to thee (Bheir Me O, trad.)

My heart's a boat in tow (Loch Tay Boat Song, trad.)

With heather honey taste upon each name (The Road to the Isles, McLeod/Kennedy-Fraser)

The fallen leaves that jewel the ground/ they know the art of dying,
And leave with joy their glad gold hearts/ in the scarlet shadows lying (R Williamson)

They're all dressed up in feathers with colors outrageous,
they soar from this earthly-bound kingdom of cages
on delicate wings, so small and courageous (Wild Birds, Jan Harmon)

And her own dark hair like clouds over fields in May (Raglan Road, P Kavanaugh)

I never got to Heaven but I stayed out of Hell, and still I'm on my way (Blackbird, J Goodenough)

She's finer than a frog hair split four ways (The Deed and the Dollar)
Sung by Shooter Jennings, but who wrote it? Can anyone tell me? You must agree it's brilliant.

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07 Aug 14 - 06:51 AM (#3649047)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: cetmst

Joe, another line from "Paradise" -
Ï'm sorry my son, you're too late in asking,
Mr. Peabody's coal train has hauled it away.

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07 Aug 14 - 10:57 AM (#3649103)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: PHJim

GUEST,silver,
A review by Billy Dukea describes The Deed And The Dollar as "a heartfelt expression to his longtime lover, Drea de Matteo."

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07 Aug 14 - 09:13 PM (#3649236)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Joe_F

Nor care a damn if it's a ram

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08 Aug 14 - 11:18 AM (#3649398)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: GUEST,silver

Thanks, PHJim! That means Mr. Jennings wrote it himself. Clever guy!

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09 Aug 14 - 02:34 AM (#3649536)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: GUEST,LARRYM

It's surprising that Bob Dylan doesn't have any votes yet:
"There's beauty in that silver, singing river,
There's beauty in that rainbow in the sky;
But none of these, and nothing else, can touch the beauty
That I remember in my true love's eyes"

"When you're lost in the rain in Juarez
And it's Eastertime too
And your gravity fails
And negativity don't pull you through"

Leonard Cohen seems to be the top vote getter. I'd add:
"Oh the sisters of mercy, they are not departed or gone.
They were waiting for me when I thought that I just can't go on.
And they brought me their comfort and later they brought me this song.
Oh I hope you run into them, you who've been travelling so long."

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09 Aug 14 - 05:24 AM (#3649562)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: GUEST,DTM

"He died on a night that was cold as his family"
From the Lonesome Death of Francis Clark by Michael Marra

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09 Aug 14 - 07:04 PM (#3649711)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: GUEST,Stuart Reed

Loving her was easier than anything I'll ever do again
    -Kris Kristofferson

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10 Aug 14 - 05:22 PM (#3649945)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: PHJim

"Thirty years in law enforcement and I'd never been so scared."

From Michael Smith's Panther In Michigan.

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10 Aug 14 - 05:28 PM (#3649947)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: PHJim

There's no doubt in my mind this tie that we're about to bind
Will keep us both together even when the going`s tough
But just in case, just in case,
This morning I swung by my lawyer`s place.
I didn`t think that you would mind,
Here Dumplin` sign this dotted line.
What`s yours is yours and what is mine
Will always be mine.
Just in case.

Todd Snider`s Just In Case

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10 Aug 14 - 07:10 PM (#3649966)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: GUEST,Eldergirl

Here comes Farmer Brown, talk to him and you will find
He's an agriculture vulture, got a real one-tractor mind

Pete Ryder, party at the village institute.

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10 Aug 14 - 07:58 PM (#3649973)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Joe_F

Raise your glass to the pleasures that pass.

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10 Aug 14 - 08:30 PM (#3649977)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Mehitabel

And the sun poured in like butterscotch and stuck to all my senses

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10 Aug 14 - 08:46 PM (#3649984)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: GUEST,mg

he's foremost mun the mony keely lads of coalie tyne

donald was the bravest man and donald he was mine


ich hatte einen komaraden

way up on that royal yard the royal for to stow

a buckwheat cake was in her mouth a tear was in her eye

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11 Aug 14 - 07:37 AM (#3650041)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Robin from Somerset

I wished your bosom were of glass, of glass
So I could view it through and through
Just to view those secrets of your heart

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11 Aug 14 - 12:17 PM (#3650110)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: Cool Beans

Let's take a trip to Niagara. This time we'll look at the falls. (From "Let's Get Away From It All")

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11 Aug 14 - 12:54 PM (#3650127)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: GUEST,jonesnudger

'You make me nervous when I see you, I can't imagine what it's like to be you' - Sandy Denny

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19 Aug 14 - 03:17 PM (#3652157)
Subject: RE: Favorite Lines
From: GUEST,mg

help of the helpless abide with me

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