My favorite Dylan passage:
People starving and thirsting, grain elevators are bursting
Oh, you know it costs more to store the food than it do to give it
They say lose your inhibitions, follow your own ambitions
They talk about a life of brotherly love, show me someone who knows how to live it?
There’s a slow, slow train comin’ up around the bend
ok - not a single line. Sue me.
This tune has nothing bright about it
This tune ain’t bad or good and come ever what may
My expert tells me it’s okay
“This Song” - George Harrison
I still like the title track and its the portrait of a guy devolving into paranoia. Favorite line:
Don’t even feel like crossing the street,
and my car ain’t actin’ right.
For me it’s:
As we wind on down the road,
our shadows taller than our souls.
I always liked Natalie Merchant’s ‘Carnival’
And I’ve walked these streets in the madhouse asylum they can be
Where a wild-eyed misfit prophet on a traffic island stopped and he raved of saving me
She doesn’t have anything you want to steal
Well, nothing you can touch
“Pretty in Pink”, The Psychedelic Furs
How about a line before a song?
Bob Weir’s album Ace is full of great songs, many of which became part of the Dead’s repertoire. “Walk In The Sunshine” is full of uplifting ditties, including the title, but before Weir started the song he rasped:
Look out, now, 'cause here comes some free advice…!
“This is a public service announcement—with guitar!!”
“Know Your Rights” the Clash
“Bite the bag.”
– Flash Cadillac
“Do you like boobs a lot?”
“Yes, we like boobs a lot.”
– The Fugs
“If there’s a Rock N Roll Heaven, you know they got a Hell of a band.”
– O’Day, Stevenson, Righteous Brothers
“Hello, it’s me.”
– Todd Rundgren
“Sometimes I wonder what I’m a-gonna do,
But there ain’t no cure for the Summertime Blues.”
– Eddie Cochran
Yet another line from Dylan: They asked me for collateral and I pulled down my pants.
Rob the grave to snow the cradle
Then burn the evidence down
Soapbox house of cards and glass so
Don’t go tossin’ your stones around
“The Pot” - Tool
This line from Pink Floyd’s “Time” has been in my head lately:
And you run, and you run to catch up with the sun but it’s sinking
The repetition of the first few words is what’s caught my attention. He starts singing the line between beats 3 and 4, and it’s all in time by the end. There must be similar examples in pop and rock but I can’t think of any.
I always thought (until just now) the words were “When your eyes, when your eyes…”
yeah, I didn’t include that, def heard it tho!, like a verbal hic or something. Cool!
Just browsed and did a quick search and two lines that stand out to me weren’t included.
“I done told you once you Son of a Bitch, I’m the best that’s ever been”
-Charley Daniels Band, 'The Devil Went Down to Georgia"
(now, one can argue that it is country rather than rock, but when I heard it, it was on rock stations and I consider it one of the ‘crossovers’, so you can take it or leave it.)
“There must be some kind of way outta here, Said the joker to the thief.”
–The Watchtower, performed by Jimmy Hendrix, lyrics by Bob Dylan.
All of XTC’s Dear Madam Barnum is great, comparing a bad relationship to a circus, summed up with
Not exactly rock and roll —
Because the law don’t change another’s mind
When all it sees at the hiring time
Is the line on the color bar, no
Once in a while, you get shown the light
In the strangest of places if you look at it right.
–Scarlet Begonias
Grateful Dead
(searching my brain for some less-cited examples)
Water down the ketchup, easier to pour on
Pictures on the register in case you’re a moron
-Richard Thompson, “Fast Food”
Well, I sat there at the table
And I acted real naive
For I knew that topless lady
Had something up her sleeve
-John Prine, “Spanish Pipedream”
I can feel the bones beneath my skin
And they’re tremblin’ with rage
I’ll make your wife a widow
You’ll never see old age
-Bob Dylan, “Crossing the Rubicon”
I’m happy to see my thread has brought two new Dopers into the community — Welcome, Scott1120 and inyournamepoemsbegin!
It took me many years to realize that the two riders approaching in the last verse were the Joker and the Thief.