# Best single lines in rock lyrics **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [November 20, 2022, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262 "2022-11-20T16:21:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![MikeF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MikeF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeF)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2022, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/201 "2022-12-01T20:42:35Z")
But not “dudette”! 😀 ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2022, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/202 "2022-12-02T01:12:35Z")
Jeez, 200 posts and no mention of Ani DiFranco, for my money the finest lyricist of the last 40 years? Was just listening to “School Night”: _What kind of scale compares the weight of two beauties, the gravity of duties and the groundspeed of joy?_ _What kind of gauge can quantify elation, what kind of equation could I possibly employ?_ Or the prostitute narrator of “Letter To A John”: _I was eleven years old, he was as old as my dad And he took something from me I didn’t even know that I had. So don’t tell me about decency, don’t tell me about pride. Just give me something for my trouble, 'cuz this time it’s not a free ride._ “Arrivals Gate” is about the joys of peoplewatching at the airport: _I am convinced It’s a sure cure for cancer, Watching excitement turn Family dogs into dancers_ > [@RivkahChaya](#): > > I love the Indigo Girls’ “I spent four years prostrate to the higher minds, got my paper, and I was free.” One night in the early 90s, I was hanging out in my dorm room at the University of Georgia, when a friend asked if I wanted to go over to the chapel to hear a couple of singer-songwriters. I thought about it, and said “Nah.” Which is how I came to miss out on seeing the Indigo Girls in a crowd of a couple dozen, for $2.00. 🤦 ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2022, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/203 "2022-12-02T01:30:32Z")
After all it’s not easy, banging your heart against some mad bugger’s wall. The paper holds their folded faces to the floor, and every day the paperboy brings more. You gotta get an album out, you owe it to the people, we’re so happy we can hardly count. **Pink Floyd** ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2022, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/204 "2022-12-02T21:57:14Z")
Ouch! ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2022, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/205 "2022-12-02T22:01:20Z")
Every time I hear John Denver, I think of Moscow. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2022, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/206 "2022-12-03T08:33:19Z")
My obvious Elvis Costello entry is from _Deep Dark Truthful Mirror_, which opens with “one day you’re gonna have to face a deep dark truthful mirror, and it’s going to tell you things that I still love you too much to say.” Ben Folds Five has a song called _Mess_, which features maybe my favorite and most powerful line of all: “I want to be for her what I could never be for you.” ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2022, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/207 "2022-12-03T15:27:17Z")
One that slithered into my mind from nowhere today - I’m not going to say laudable, but definitely striking. The opening line from Kinky Afro by The Happy Mondays: > Son, I’m thirty, I only went with your mother 'cos she’s dirty… j ---
**Author:** ![2\_More\_Bits](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/2_more_bits/32/4148_2.png) [@2\_More\_Bits](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2_More_Bits)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2022, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/208 "2022-12-03T16:00:19Z")
“Timothy Leary’s dead!” ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.winston_oboogie/32/2945_2.png) [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2022, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/209 "2022-12-03T16:58:55Z")
No, he’s outside looking in. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2022, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/210 "2022-12-03T18:57:38Z")
I’m a cement mixer A churning urn of burnin’ funk I’m a demolition derby A hefty hunk of steamin’ junk or They want me to rock on Like my back ain’t got no bone Why don’t you rock me one time, baby Like my backbone was your own ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2022, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/211 "2022-12-03T19:23:39Z")
_You can buy all the friends you want, But I’ll still hate you for free._ She’s Got All the Friends That Money Can Buy - Chumbawamba ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2022, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/212 "2022-12-03T19:28:49Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > I think that’s a clever Dylanesque absurdism, like “It ain’t my cup of meat” I always took “cup of meat” as a fairly obvious sexual reference. Or is that just me who thought so? Some find phallic symbols everywhere. I, on the other hand… let’s just say I’m a Georgia O’Keeffe fan. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2022, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/213 "2022-12-03T19:33:49Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > I always took “cup of meat” as a fairly obvious sexual reference. Or is that just me who thought so? I never had that thought, though usually my mind tends to be in the gutter. But yeah, I like that interpretation. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2022, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/214 "2022-12-04T03:37:49Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > A line so great Jimmy Destri used it in _two_ different Blondie songs: > _Like a millionaire walking on imported air_ A line that sticks out when I think of Blondie is from _Parallel Lines_: “Take it down the highway like a rocket to the ocean.” (from “11:59”) > [@Steven\_Maven](#): > > BTW, “Jim” doesn’t refer to a man named James. It is 1950s slang for a non-specific person, like today we would say, “dude.” Huh. TIL. I can’t seem to recall any films from that period, or any other media (for someone who wasn’t around back then) bandying “Jim” about. Other than McCoy, but that was a decade later. Speaking of Jims - and in spite of my anti-Morrisonism - I always dug: “Indians scattered on dawn’s highway bleeding ghosts crowd the young child’s fragile eggshell mind.” (“Peace Frog”, _Morrison Hotel_) ---
**Author:** ![Peanuthead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peanuthead/32/360_2.png) [@Peanuthead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peanuthead)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2022, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/215 "2022-12-04T04:30:21Z")
Steven-Maven has it right. Jim and also Jack were used as a kind of generic “you” back then. As in “You got that right Jim”. Remember Ray Charles, Hit the Road Jack? There was also a movie with Peter Sellers called “I’m All Right Jack”. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2022, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/216 "2022-12-04T04:45:22Z")
> [@Peanuthead](#): > > Remember Ray Charles, Hit the Road Jack? There was also a movie with Peter Sellers called “I’m All Right Jack”. Sure, I’ve been aware of those ones, along with “I’ve Got Mine, Jack”, but I guess I’ve been lost in a _Star Trek_ bubble as far as “Jim” goes. /pardon derail Also, the title of the song…from Sparks: “I can’t believe that you would fall for all the crap in this song.” (especially the finesse-y way they sing it) ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2022, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/217 "2022-12-04T08:48:39Z")
The Spin Doctors, _Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong_: “Been a whole lot easier since the bitch left town” Bruce Springsteen, _Hungry Heart_: “Got a wife and kids in Baltimore, Jack. I went out for a ride and I never went back.” ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2022, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/218 "2022-12-04T17:42:48Z")
Another from The Residents, this time from The Aging Musician: “If you like to pretend that you’ll never get old, you got what it takes to rock and roll.” ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2022, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/219 "2022-12-04T17:45:28Z")
> [@Biotop](#): > > “If you like to pretend that you’ll never get old, you got what it takes to rock and roll.” I like that line! I want to have it on my tombstone. 😀 ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2022, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/220 "2022-12-04T23:49:50Z")
Several lines from _I Hurt You_ by **The Pretenders** : > If you’d been in the SS in '43, you’d have been kicked out for cruelty. > Happy birthday, darling and thank you for the schooling > Your correction mistress warned me and she wasn’t fooling > Don’t try to paint your masterpiece under artificial light [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262.md?page=12)