Best lines in a song


There has been a long-running thread here of 'Best quotes' but maybe it would be interesting to find out folks' favorite lines from songs. To keep it on some sort of track, let's have a few ground rules.

- Attribution is required, who sang it (or wrote it) and where can we hear it?
- Shorter is better, four lines maximum, a verse. These should be words of wisdom that can be summoned for inspiration in social emergencies.
- If you're an opera fan, you're welcome to post in Italian, just don't expect many high fives from the monolingual among us.

I'll throw out a couple for starters:

When you're rockin' and a rollin' you can't hear your momma call.
Little Richard - Good Golly, Miss Molly

All I want in this life of mine is some good clean fun.
All I want in this life and time is some hit and run.
Little Feat - Fat Man in the Bathtub
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She came onto him like a slow-moving cold front.
His beer was warmer than the look in her eyes.

"Icy Blue Hear" by John Hiatt
"Don't you try the Queen of Diamonds boy, she beat you if she's able; you know the Queen of Hearts is always your best bet"
She had a chassis like an XJS
Skull necklace like a high priestess
I thought maybe just one caress
She said You dream too much
(Richard Thompson------You Dream Too Much)

Mary says she's worried about herself and the kids
She's never known anybody had a gun
and her daddy never did
but I think it should be up to me
'cause when it's all said and done
somebodys got to walk into the night
well I'm going to be that one
(Fred Eaglesmith ----------Time to get a Gun).
Here are some of my favorites. (I’ll probably think of more later!)

Fed up:
“Stop this world; let me off.
There’s just too many pigs – in the same trough.
There’s too many buzzards – sittin’ on the fence.
Stop this world; it’s not makin’ sense.”

Diana Kroll from “The Girl in the Other Room”
Lyrics to “Stop this World” by Mose Allison

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Philosophical:
“I want to know what promises to keep.
I want to know how guilty people sleep…
I want to know why the Devil’s not run dry
I want to know why politicians lie.”

Lyrics to “I Want to Know” by Raul Malo
The Mavericks, from “The Mavericks” (2003)

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As for remembering the first time I heard a particular lyric, and exactly where I was and what I was doing at the time; I’ll never forget the first time I heard the end of Jim Steinman’s wonderfully developed story:

“So now I’m praying for the end of time
To hurry up and arrive
‘Cause if I gotta spend another minute with you
I don’t think that I can really survive…”

Meat Loaf, from “Bat out of Hell”
Lyrics to “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” by Jim Steinman

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Humor (black?):
Favorite song title: "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner"
My favorite line from the song:
“Patty Hurst heard the burst from Roland’s Thompson gun – and bought it.”

Lyrics by Warren Zevon from the album “Warren Zevon”

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My all time favorite couplet (OK, I love Kathy Valentine’s work with the Go-Go’s (with whom she plays bass) and, better yet, The Delphines (she is a killer guitarist):

“Mary ate her little lamb,
And punk rock isn’t dead.”

Lyrics to “The Whole World’s Lost it’s Head by K. Valentine and J. Wiedlin
The Go-Go’s, from “Return to the Valley of the Go-Go’s”
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"pick up the dog doo, hope that it's hard.......I'm just an ordinary, average guy" - Joe Walsh

How close this hits home, since the acquisition of a couple of pups!