# 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:** 27
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2026, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/521 "2026-05-08T12:01:51Z")
“Only football gives us thrills, rock n’ roll just pays the bills.” Roger Taylor ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2026, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/522 "2026-05-08T13:03:06Z")
“It’s a one time thing, it just happens a lot” –Susanne Vega ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2026, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/523 "2026-05-08T13:05:25Z")
So I found that life is just a game But you know there’s never been a winner Try your hardest, you’ll still be a loser The world will still be turning when you’re gone Wheels of Confusion by Black Sabbath ---
**Author:** ![stopnonstop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5f9b8f/32.png) [@stopnonstop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stopnonstop)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2026, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/524 "2026-05-08T14:37:48Z")
I like opening lines that draw you into a song. Here are a trio of examples: _Well my daddy worked in the coalmine_ _Till the company shut it down_ _Then he sat around and drank hisself blind_ _Till we put him back underground_ Steve Earle - Oxycontin Blues _One summer evening drunk to hell_ _I stood there nearly lifeless_ The Pogues - A Pair of Brown Eyes _Everybody knows that the dice are loaded_ _Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed_ Leonard Cohen - Everybody Knows ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2026, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/525 "2026-05-08T16:00:28Z")
_Two things, two things that don’t get old_ _Love and rock and roll_ - Greg Kihn / Love and Rock And Roll ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2026, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/526 "2026-05-09T01:50:32Z")
_There’s a heaven and a hell and there’s an ‘Oh, well’_ X - “White Girl” ---
**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:** [May 10, 2026, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/527 "2026-05-10T17:38:32Z")
> [@stopnonstop](#): > > I like opening lines that draw you into a song. Not really a rock lyric, but… _We were standing on a mountain top,_ _where the cactus flowers grow._ _I was wishing that the world would stop,_ _when you said ‘we’d better go.’_ Robert earl Keen ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2026, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/528 "2026-05-10T18:19:07Z")
_The sun in your eyes made some of the lies worth believing_ - “Eye in the Sky”, Alan Parsons Project ---
**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:** [May 11, 2026, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/529 "2026-05-11T04:46:25Z")
I forgot the name of the song and the singer but the line is: _Just because they so pretty that don’t mean that they so nice._ ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2026, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/530 "2026-05-11T14:02:04Z")
I love the intentional spoonerism in American Pie: I was a lonely teenage broncin’ buck With a pink carnation and a pickup truck ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/531 "2026-06-25T04:29:46Z")
Early in the morning I’ma giving you the warning “Don’t you step on my blue suede shoes”. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/532 "2026-06-25T12:53:44Z")
I was catching up on my Neil Young tunes the other day when I revisited **The needle and the damage done**. That one gives me a real gut punch, given my personal and professional history. “Every junkie’s like a setting sun”. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/533 "2026-06-25T13:10:56Z")
“Can we forget about the things I said when I was drunk?/I didn’t mean to call you that.” --Lit, “My Own Worst Enemy.” ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/534 "2026-06-25T18:01:34Z")
The two that come to mind for me (being a little fast and loose with “single line,” but I’m clearly not the first!) are: “We are young, wandering the face of the earth Wondering what our dreams might be worth Learning that we’re only immortal for a limited time.” –Rush, “Dreamline” and “Remember those who win the game Lose the love they sought to gain In debentures of quality, and dubious integrity Their small-town eyes will gape at you in dull surprise When payment due exceeds accounts received At seventeen” –Janis Ian, “At Seventeen” ---
**Author:** ![SteviaPlumFaery](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steviaplumfaery/32/21443_2.png) [@SteviaPlumFaery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteviaPlumFaery)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2026, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/535 "2026-06-29T21:01:56Z")
Soy un pedador, I’m a loser baby, so why don’t you kill me ---
**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:** [June 29, 2026, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/536 "2026-06-29T21:20:15Z")
How in the world can that line be considered good, let alone best? ---
**Author:** ![Baal\_Houtham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baal_houtham/32/13604_2.png) [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2026, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/537 "2026-06-30T02:03:49Z")
Umm, snot my favorite, but it hooked a song that made the artist’s reputation and appealed to mucho many people. Almost everyone feels despair and depression sometimes. The singer expresses that, then takes it into hyperbole (“why don’t you kill me”) so you know he’s still in control and a little amused by his own despair, ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2026, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/538 "2026-06-30T02:10:19Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > How in the world can that line be considered good, let alone best? Think about the song you adore, and the very best lyric you’ve ever heard…and remind yourself that there are people out there who think that that song is absolutely terrible. Conversely, think about the song you detest, the stupidest, most vapid lyrics you’ve ever heard…and remind yourself that that’s someone’s all-time favorite song, which speaks to them deeply. Different strokes. ---
**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:** [June 30, 2026, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/539 "2026-06-30T03:45:05Z")
(SO tempted to post the lyrics to _Mmmm-Bop…)_ ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2026, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/540 "2026-07-02T03:45:08Z")
Not **No Small Children** ’s hardest rocker, but “_You’re more than anything that anyone says about you_” sneaks up on me every time and slaps me in the feels. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262.md?page=26) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262.md?page=28)