Favorite Lyric

[Spot's Meow]

Since we have a thread about favorite movie/TV quotes, I thought I would do the same for music. Sure, there are songs where you enjoy all of the lyrics or the song itself. But sometimes there are very particular lines from a song that really stand out as special, regardless of the meaning of the rest of the lyrics or whether or not you even like the song as a whole.

For me, a particular line stood out from the Coldplay song Paradise the moment that I heard it:

"The sun must set to rise."

When I'm feeling down or negative I'm reminded of this quote and it brings my mood up. It gives me some perspective and hope.

Does anyone else have favorite lines from a song?

 

[3chordboy]

Turin Brakes "Underdog (Save Me)"

"Well I've been dreaming of jet streams and kicking up dust... a thirty-seven thousand foot wanderlust"

 

[JirinPanthosa]

The Boxer - Simon and Garfunkel

"Such are promises, all lies and jest, still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest"

 

[Nerys Myk]

"And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make"

 

[shivkala]

"Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There’s a battle outside and it is ragin’
It’ll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’" --"The Times They Are A-Changin'" Bob Dylan

 

[Admiral2]

From my avatar's hit:

My power flurries through the air and to the ground!
My Soul is spiraling in frozen fractals all around!
And one thought crystallizes like an icy blast:
I'm never going back! The past is in the past!

 

[C.E. Evans]

And I'd join the Movement,
If there was one I could believe in.
Yeah, I'd break bread and wine,
If there was a church I could receive in--
'cause I need it now...

--U2, "Acrobat"

 

[JirinPanthosa]

If we're going to dip into Dylan, about half his catalog qualifies.

How does it feel? How does it feel?
To be on your own? No direction home.
Like a complete unknown. Like a rolling stone.

Speaking of rolling stones,

Watched with glee while your kings and queens fought for ten decades for the God they made
I shouted out 'Who killed the Kennedys', when after all it was you and me
Let me please introduce myself, I'm a man of wealth and taste
I laid traps for the troubadours who got killed before they reached Bombay
Pleased to meet you, hope you guessed my name!

And from Pink Floyd:

So you think you can tell
Heaven from hell
Blue skies from pain
Can you tell a green field
From a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?
You think you can tell?

Did they get you to trade
Your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
And did you exchange
A walk on part in the war
For a lead role in a cage?

 

[Vanyel]

Como la flor
Con tanto amor
Me diste tu,
Se marchito
Me marcho hoy
Yo se perder
Pero, ay, ay, ay, como me duele
Ay, ay, ay, como me duele

 

[cardinal biggles]

It ain't that in their hearts they're bad
They can comfort you, some even try
They nurse you when you're ill of health
They bury you when you go and die
It ain't that in their hearts they're bad
They'd stick by you if they could
Ah, but that's just bullshit, baby
People just ain't no good

 

[shivkala]

Here's another favorite:

"Step out the front door like a ghost
Into the fog where no one notices
The contrast of white on white.
And in between the moon and you
Angels get a better view
Of the crumbling difference between wrong and right.
And I walk in the air between the rain, through myself and back again
Where? I don't know
Well, Maria says she's dying
Through the door I hear her crying
Why? I don't know" --Counting Crows, "'Round Here"

 

[1001001]

Here's another favorite:

"Step out the front door like a ghost
Into the fog where no one notices
The contrast of white on white.
And in between the moon and you
Angels get a better view
Of the crumbling difference between wrong and right.
And I walk in the air between the rain, through myself and back again
Where? I don't know
Well, Maria says she's dying
Through the door I hear her crying
Why? I don't know" --Counting Crows, "'Round Here"

That is definitely one of my favorites. That opening line is so poetic. And it keeps going...

"She know she's more than just a little misunderstood,
She has trouble acting normal when she's nervous..."

I just love that song.


Another offering from U2:

"Every artist is a cannibal,
Every poet is a thief.
They kill their inspiration,
Then sing about the grief."

 

[shivkala]

^
It's the "no one notices the contrast of white on white," part that gets me. I hear those lyrics and I just think it's brilliant.

To me, it's brilliance on the level of Simon and Garfunkle:

"In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone,
'Neath the halo of a street lamp,
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence.

And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more.
People talking without speaking,
People hearing without listening,
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one dared
Disturb the sound of silence."

and

"I am just a poor boy
Though my story's seldom told
I have squandered my resistance
For a pocket full of mumbles such are promises
All lies and jests
Still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest

When I left my home and my family
I was no more than a boy
In the company of strangers
In the quiet of the railway station running scared
Laying low, seeking out the poorer quarters
Where the ragged people go
Looking for the places only they would know"

as well as (and this one I can't just stop, the whole thing is beautiful:

"Let us be lovers,
We'll marry our fortunes together.
I've got some real estate
Here in my bag.

So we bought a pack of cigarettes,
And Mrs. Wagner's pies,
And walked off
To look for America.
"Kathy", I said,
As we boarded a Greyhound in Pittsburgh,
Michigan seems like a dream to me now.

It took me four days
To hitch-hike from Saginaw.
"I've come to look for America."

Laughing on the bus,
Playing games with the faces,
She said the man in the gabardine suit
Was a spy.

I said, "Be careful,
His bow tie is really a camera."
"Toss me a cigarette,
I think there's one in my raincoat."
We smoked the last one
An hour ago.

So I looked at the scenery,
She read her magazine;
And the moon rose over an open field.
"Kathy, I'm lost", I said,
Though I know she was sleeping.
"I'm empty and aching and
I don't know why."

Counting the cars
On the New Jersey Turnpike
They've all come
To look for America,
All come to look for America,
All come to look for America."

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

"When I leave I don't know what I'm hoping to find...
and when I leave I don't know what I'm leaving behind..."

 

[Mistral]

"I wish I didn't know , now, what I didn't know then." - Bob Seeger

"You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one."

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Eagles - 'Get Over It'

I turn on the tube, and what do I see
A whole lot of people cryin' "Don't blame me"
They point their crooked little fingers at everybody else
Spend all their time feelin' sorry for themselves
Victim of this, victim of that
Your momma's too thin and your daddy's too fat

Get over it, get over it
All this whinin', cryin', pitchin' a fit
Get over it, get over it

You say you haven't been the same since you had your little crash
But you might feel better if they gave you some cash
The more I think about it, ol' Billy was right
Let's kill all the lawyers - kill 'em tonight
You don't wanna work, you wanna live like a king
But the big bad world doesn't owe you a thing

Get over it, get over it
You don't wanna play, then you might as well quit
Get over it, get over it

It's like going to confession every time I hear you speak
You're making the most of your losing streak
Some call it sick, but I call it weak

You drag it around like a ball and chain
You wallow in the guilt, you wallow in the pain
You wear it like a flag, you wear it like a crown
Got your mind in the gutter bringin' everybody down
You bitch about the present and blame it on the past
I'd like to find your 'inner child' and kick its little ass!

Get over it, get over it
All this bitchin, moanin', pitchin' a fit
Get over it, get over it
Get over it, get over it
It's gotta stop sometime, so why don't you quit?
Get over it, get over it

 

[Admiral2]

Eagles - Hotel California

"And in the master's chamber, they gathered for the feast.
They stab it with their steely knives but the just can't kill the beast."

 

[the G-man]

"Send lawyers, guns and money..."
--Warren Zevon

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Kenny Loggins, 'Meet Me Half Way'. I cannot stop crying whenever I hear this song.

In a lifetime made of memories
I believe in destiny
Every moment returns again in time
When I've got the future on the mind
Know that you'll be the only one

Meet me half way, across the sky
Up where the world belongs to only you and I
Meet me half way, across the sky
Make this the new beginning of another life

In a lifetime, there is only love
Reaching for the lonely one
We are stronger when we aren't giving up
When we burn emotions on the line
Know that we are the timeless ones

Meet me half way, across the sky
Up where the world belongs to only you and I
Meet me half way, across the sky
Make this the new beginning of another life

 

[Mysterion]

In another time's forgotten space
Your eyes looked from your mother's face

from Franklin's Tower, performed by The Grateful Dead, lyrics by Robert Hunter