# 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:** 15
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2022, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/281 "2022-12-15T22:32:07Z")
Juliet, when we made love you used to cry Said I love you like the stars above, love you till I die. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2022, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/282 "2022-12-16T02:17:06Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > > [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > > > Do you smile to tempt a lover, Mona Lisa… > > And Mona Lisa must’ve had the highway blues… _ **The Mona Lisa’s sister doesn’t smile.** _ _ **She tried to pose but only for a while…** _ _Leonardo sent her home._ _Since then she has lived alone_ _With her few belongings, and a copy…_ _of a painting of herself unhappy._ _She is going to burn it when she’s ready._ . [(Graham Parker, in all his '80s-ness)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUb_1rFWZag) ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2022, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/283 "2022-12-16T02:26:28Z")
(I like these lyrics but they may be too Canadian for the crowd… and they probably aren’t the best) The girls are out to bingo and the boys are getting stinko and we’ll think no more of Inco on a Sudbury Saturday night The legend lives on from the Chippewa down of the big lake that they call Gitchi Gumee And that’s awful close but that’s not why I’m so hard done by I’ve had to give way and dance with the doctors and merchants and lawyers, their manners are fine, but their feet are of clay for there’s none with the style of my log driver You with the jaundiced eyes, drunk on your own reflection propped up with desks and flags ---
**Author:** ![MikeF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MikeF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeF)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2022, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/284 "2022-12-16T19:18:07Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > Then they send me away to teach me how to be sensible, logical, oh responsible, practical From the same sing and apropo for the times. “I said, now, watch what you say, they’ll be calling you a radical A liberal, oh, fanatical, criminal” ---
**Author:** ![Steven\_Maven](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steven_maven/32/3272_2.png) [@Steven\_Maven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steven_Maven)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2022, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/285 "2022-12-16T22:04:54Z")
> [@Dropo](#): > > “…everybody funny, now you funny, too.” > —George Thorogood & The Destroyers, “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer” NITPICK: George recorded that song in 1977. It was also recorded by several other artists including John Lee Hooker in 1966. The original recording was by Amos Milburn in 1953, and it was written by Rudy Toombs. ---
**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 16, 2022, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/286 "2022-12-16T22:39:29Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > _And Mona Lisa must’ve had the highway blues, you can tell by the way she smiles._ > > My second or third quote from “Visions Of Johanna” in this thread. It’s my namesake song and I’m loving this. Said “I got no money.” He said “It ain’t necessary.” ---
**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 16, 2022, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/287 "2022-12-16T22:45:56Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > Said “I got no money.” He said “It ain’t necessary.” _I married Isis on the fifth day of May_ _But I could not hold on to her very long_ I love this song. Somebody should make a movie out of it. John Ford could’ve done it. ---
**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 17, 2022, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/288 "2022-12-17T03:03:48Z")
_Old memories won’t pay my liquor bill_. Herman Brood and his Wild Romance ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2022, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/289 "2022-12-17T05:20:42Z")
I was sitting in a coffee bar with my headphones on, reading a comic and drawing, ignoring everyone around, when this line hit me: _ **I’ll stick with HELL NOs and Headphones.** _ The song is about a girl at a party who’s blocking out all her immature “friends” with her headphones. (Whoa, like I used to do in my 20s…) _But I’ll be here in this stranger’s room_ _Just for now… yeah,_ _I’ll stick with HELL NOs and headphones._ . (Hailee Steinfeld, [lyrics here](https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/haileesteinfeld/hellnosandheadphones.html), but it sounds better than just reading it: [original](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gnuC2Q1feY) and [acoustic versions](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Olo-7hwAInI)) ---
**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 17, 2022, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/290 "2022-12-17T13:14:09Z")
_"Our ideas held no water_ _But we used them like a dam"_ Isaac Brock ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2022, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/291 "2022-12-17T15:38:14Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > _I married Isis on the fifth day of May_ > _But I could not hold on to her very long_ I especially love the live version on Biograph; Bob starts it by saying “this is for Leonard, if he’s still here.” ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2022, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/292 "2022-12-17T20:13:17Z")
> [@Steven\_Maven](#): > > NITPICK: > George recorded that song in 1977. It was also recorded by several other artists including John Lee Hooker in 1966. The original recording was by Amos Milburn in 1953, and it was written by Rudy Toombs. Nitpick of the nitpick: As far as I know, the line I quoted is only spoken in the George Thorogood versions of that song. “Do do do, bop bop a do-oh…” ----Led Zeppelin, “What Is and What Should Never Be” ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2022, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/293 "2022-12-17T21:49:45Z")
Busted flat in Baton Rouge, waiting for the train, and was feeling as nearly faded as my jeans And feeling good was good enough for me All 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 You can say that I’ve grown bitter but of this you may be sure, the rich have got their channels in the bedrooms of the poor Hank Williams hasn’t answered yet , but I hear him coughing all night long Hear that lonesome whippoorwill He sounds too blue to fly That’s an easy thing to say, but if your hopes should pass away then sinply pretend that you can build them again Let me hold you tight like rain and sunshine on a rainy day; let me hold you tight and arms, tight and arms you lost your chance, come so close that I might see the crash of light come down on me Telling my whole life with his words, killing me softly with his song Step out the front door like a ghost into the fog where no one notices the contrast of white on white She parks her car outside of my house and takes her clothes off, says she’s close to understanding Jesus Love is a temple, love the higher law, you ask me to enter but then you make me crawl, and I can’t be holding on ---
**Author:** ![nicky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f0a364/32.png) [@nicky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nicky)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2022, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/294 "2022-12-18T20:46:15Z")
I said “do-you-speaka-ma-language?” He just smiled and gave me a vegemite sandwich ---
**Author:** ![its\_the\_daddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bb73d2/32.png) [@its\_the\_daddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/its_the_daddy)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2022, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/295 "2022-12-18T21:06:28Z")
Pulled into Nazareth, I was feelin’ 'bout half-past dead… ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2022, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/296 "2022-12-19T03:54:28Z")
“Something about the way you taste Makes me want to clear my throat.” -Devo ---
**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 19, 2022, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/297 "2022-12-19T23:03:41Z")
“John, John was a little crippled midget lesbian boy, but stood ten foot tall with a knife!” – Butthole Surfers “And curse Sir Walter Raleigh, he was such a stupid git.” “The doctor came in, stinking of gin, and proceeded to lie on the table.” (my mom’s favourite) – Beatles ---
**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 20, 2022, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/298 "2022-12-20T02:47:22Z")
I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now. Dylan But, please, you must forgive me, I am old but still a child. Queen ---
**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 20, 2022, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/299 "2022-12-20T05:26:49Z")
You should never hold a candle if you don’t know where it’s been. Ian Dury and The Blockheads ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2022, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/300 "2022-12-20T15:05:41Z")
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