# 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:** 5
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2022, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/81 "2022-11-21T06:29:51Z")
**Bob Seger** , _Roll Me Away_ — And as the sunset faded, I spoke To the faintest first starlight And I said next time, Next time We’ll get it right ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2022, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/82 "2022-11-21T06:38:12Z")
Or better yet, “Pretty women out walkin’ with gorillas down my street.” From R.E.M.'s “Departure”, “A hailstone brought you back to me.” ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2022, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/83 "2022-11-21T08:27:29Z")
When John Mellencamp was the less musically well regarded Johnny Cougar he had a hit with _I Need A Lover_. It prompted me to buy his album _A Biography_. Although no great shakes, the first track _Born Reckless_ contains a couple of lines that made me laugh out loud as they are the distilled essence of every lovelorn vocal: > Well what I really want to say is > I guess I don’t know, what it is I really wanna say It was enough to keep me interested until he came good. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2022, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/84 "2022-11-21T09:08:52Z")
> [@Jack\_Burden](#): > > For my obligatory Springsteen lyric, I’d like to submit all of **The River** but will distill it down to this: > “Is a dream a lie if it don’t come true, or is it something worse?” My pick for the same song would be “Then I got Mary pregnant, and mister that was all she wrote, and for my nineteenth birthday I got a union card and a wedding coat”. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2022, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/85 "2022-11-21T10:40:21Z")
_They say love conquers all_ _You can’t start it like a car_ _You can’t stop it with a gun_ Warren Zevon - Searching For a Heart ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2022, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/86 "2022-11-21T11:15:13Z")
Elvis Costello and the Attractions’ _Watching the detectives_ already quoted upstream but its so good it gives us TWO! best single lines. Mine is ‘They call her Natasha when she looks like Elsie’ ---
**Author:** ![RunSilent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e0b2c6/32.png) [@RunSilent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RunSilent)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2022, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/87 "2022-11-21T11:51:32Z")
Actually, it’s “scuse me while I kiss the sky.” ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2022, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/88 "2022-11-21T11:55:22Z")
> [@don\_t\_ask](#): > > Johnny Cougar Jack and Diane has been played to death but there’s actually a really great line when you start to think about what it says, especially as you get older _Life goes on, long after the thrill of living is gone_ I’m gonna cheat and post two consecutive lines by Springsteen. Either stands well on its own for the purpose of this thread, but together they transcend almost everything he’s ever written: _She sits on the porch of her daddy’s house, but all her pretty dreams are torn_ _She stares off alone into the night, with the eyes of one who hates for just being born_ ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2022, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/89 "2022-11-21T11:59:44Z")
> [@Charlie\_Tan](#): > > Jack and Diane has been played to death but there’s actually a really great line when you start to think about what it says, especially as you get older > > _Life goes on, long after the thrill of living is gone_ I’ll see you that and raise you _Hold onto sixteen as long as you can_ _Changes come around real soon, make us women and men_ ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2022, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/90 "2022-11-21T13:16:37Z")
From “I am the Walrus” the Beatles. “Corporation T-shirt, stupid bloody Tuesday” AND “Crabalocker fishwife, pornographic priestess Boy, you’ve been a naughty girl, you let your knickers down” AND “Elementary penguin singing Hare Krishna Man, you should have seen them kicking Edgar Allen Poe” ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2022, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/91 "2022-11-21T13:26:07Z")
> [@Jack\_Burden](#): > > I’ll posit there’s no more fertile ground than **Blood on the Tracks**. ” “We always did feel the same, we just saw it from a different point of view…” I will also add (Kris Kristofferson via Janis Joplin): “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.” I also am one of the few with a soft spot for: “Number 9, Number 9, Number 9…” ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2022, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/92 "2022-11-21T13:35:08Z")
I’m pretty sure I’ve posted this in a similar thread, but this is my favorite, evocative Springsteen line: _Fat man sittn’ on a little stool_ _Takes the money from my hand while his eyes take a walk all over you_ It’s like being magically transported to a crappy little amusement park in Jersey. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2022, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/93 "2022-11-21T13:35:24Z")
“Liberty, she pirouette, when I think that I am free” Peter Gabriel, Solsbury Hill ---
**Author:** ![teelabrown](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/teelabrown/32/8412_2.png) [@teelabrown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teelabrown)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2022, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/94 "2022-11-21T13:40:16Z")
Pink Floyd are really hard to beat as wordsmiths: **With** **Without** **And who’ll deny it’s what the fighting’s all about?** ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2022, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/95 "2022-11-21T13:55:18Z")
Is Hank Williams rock? I’ve always been struck by the simple but evocative line: The silence of a falling star Lights up a purple sky. Followed by: And as I wonder where you are I’m so lonesome I could cry. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2022, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/96 "2022-11-21T13:58:47Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > Is Hank Williams rock? No! Not in the least. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2022, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/97 "2022-11-21T14:00:42Z")
> **Off-Topic** > > > [@commasense](#): > > > > Is Hank Williams rock? > > If he counts, then I nominate a lyric by Jesse Ahern, a Boston folk singer I saw open for Dropkick Murphys earlier this month; > > _I’m out of luck_ > _I still drive a truck_ > _Back and forth on 93_ > _I just turned 35_ > _I gotta drive, drive, drive_ > _Just to feed my family_ ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2022, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/98 "2022-11-21T14:02:28Z")
One line and Rock Lyrics I believe is the simple requirement. Using a post that ignored a simple instruction to ignore 2 simple instructions is a weird move. I’ll hide your post for this reason. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2022, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/99 "2022-11-21T14:07:39Z")
You know, I’ve seen a lot of people walkin’ 'round With tombstones in their eyes _The Pusher_, performed by Steppenwolf, written by Hoyt Axton (!) This line always strikes me as hauntingly true. ---
**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:** [November 21, 2022, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262/100 "2022-11-21T14:12:33Z")
_Somewhere there’s a smile with my name on it._ -The Replacements [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-in-rock-lyrics/975262.md?page=6)