Favourite Line or Couplet From a Song

Cafe Society
1

Sometimes I hear a song and there’s a line or couplet and just gasp. Funny or profound, but like nothing else in any other song.

Some examples for me:
Letter From An Occupant by The New Pornographers feat. Neko Case

“The tune you’ll be humming for ever
All the words all replaced and wrong”
Alleluia by Dar Williams (though the lyrics are sublime throughout)

“God says, how could this be, that’s really odd
I guess I’ll have to check my records, silly me, you know, I’m only
God…”
I Will Buy You A New Life by Everclear

“I moved in with the strangest guy
Can you believe he actually thinks that I am really alive”

2

Dar Williams, “After All”:

3

It’s not a couplet, but one of the greatest verses ever describing infatuation is in Just Like Heaven, by The Cure:

Spinning on that dizzy edge
I kissed her face and kissed her head,
And dreamed of all the different ways
I had to make her glow

or, from the same song (girl’s point of view, so to speak)

“Show me how you do that trick
The one that makes me scream” she said
“The one that makes me laugh” she said
And threw her arms around my neck

4

Since you got me started… :slight_smile:

Another lyric I like from a great song, Fake Plastic Trees by Radiohead:

He used to do surgery
On girls in the eighties
But gravity always wins

5

By far the best (non-rhyming) couplet is the opening line of Beck’s “Loser”:

In the time of chimpanzees,
I was a monkey.

It describes how I feel with an uncanny accuracy. It is a kinder & gentler version of the opening soliloquy of “The Way of the Gun”, a world view to which I sometimes which I would subscribe.

6

From “Story of my Life” by Social Distortion:

“Good times come and good times go
I only wish the good times would last a little longer.”

7

The Mr. T Experience always slays me with the lines:

“True I’m gonna miss you
But let’s not skirt the issue
From now on, everything is gonna
Suck.”

8

The line that immediatly came to mind is from “Stairway”-

If there’s a bustle in your hedgerow, don’t be alarmed now
It’s just a Spring clean for the May Queen.

I don’t know, it’s such a homey, English image. It’s always had a kind of Hobbity feel to it.

9

“Thinkin’ of a master plan,
cause ain’t nothin’ but sweat inside my hand.”

Eric B and Rakim “Paid in Full”

10

Oooh… good choice. I love that song.

I’ve got several, all from my favorite band, the Tragically Hip

We’re forced to bed
but we’re free to dream
– Gift Shop

I want my life to please me
Not another small town hometown bringdown
– Small Town Bringdown

no dresss rehersal,
this is our life
– Ahead by a Century
I could go on all night like this, so in the intrest of the server, and bandwidth, I think I’ll stop now.

11

From My Dying Bride’s cheerful ditty “I Am the Bloody Earth”:

I’m overly fond of it for goofy nostalgic reasons.

12

Oh come on! You can’t do that if you don’t post the best lines in the song!

And I can’t help the feeling
I could blow through the ceiling
If I just turn and run

13

I just like
“when rain has hung the leaves with tears,”

Catch the Wind
Donovan.

14

From “Desperadoes Under The Eaves” by Warren Zevon:

And if California slides into the ocean,
Like the mystics and statistics say it will,
I predict this motel will be standing,
Until I pay my bill.

15

Coldplay - The Scientist
‘I was just guessing, numbers and figures…questions of science, science of progress’

Pink Floyd - Wish you were here
‘did you exchange a walk on part in the war
for a lead role in a cage’

Simon and Garfunkel - Mrs Robinson
‘Where have you gone Joe Dimaggio? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you’

Powderfinger - Hindley Street
‘Days keep rolling over, escape to the undercover
soon it all be over, and we can start again’

Bob Dylan - visions of Johanna
‘Inside the museums, infinity goes up on trial’

16

My all-time favorite is from Dust in the Wind by “Kansas”

‘and all your money won’t another minute buy…’

How true

17

One of my favorites is in the song “Round, Round World” from “Stan Freberg Presents the USA”:

I think the rhyme of “spherical” and “miracle” is ingenious.

18

“Efficiency and progress is ours once more/now that we’ve got the neutron bomb/It’s nice and quick and clean and gets things done” - Dead Kennedys, “Kill the Poor”

19

There is a group in Sweden called Gloria, who have in one of their songs:

If noone wants to party then I’ll party by myself,
If noone wants to play I’ll sing alone

It’s maybe not my very favourite, but it is surely up there :slight_smile:
I have always thought of it as a very strong sentiment.

20

From Roger Waters, Amused to Death

*And the children on Melrose strut their stuff,

  • Is absolute zero cold enough?
    Out in the valley, warm and clean,
  • The little ones sit by their TV screens
    No thoughts to think, no tears to cry
  • All sucked dry – down to the very last breath*