I thought of that one about 10 seconds before I scrolled down and saw you already beat me to it. Anyway,
My name is Bill and I’m a head case - “I’m a Boy”, the Who
When you’re with me you could do with a vacation - “Flaming Pie”, Sir Paul
My love is bigger than a Honda, it’s bigger than a Subaru - “Pink Cadillac”, Bruce Springsteen
I’m gonna have to second arachnid’s choice of song, but a different lyric:
“But my dreams they aren’t as empty
As my conscience seems to be
I have hours, only lonely
My love is vengence that’s never free” -BBE, The Who
Now, on to others…
“So close your eyes
You can close your eyes, it’s all right
I don’t know no love songs
And I can’t sing the blues anymore
But I can sing this song
And you can sing this song
When I’m gone.” - You can close your eyes, James Taylor
“I don’t want to start any blasphemous rumors
But I think that god’s got a sick sense of humor
And when I die, I expect to find him laughing.” - Blasphemous Rumors, Depeche Mode
“I know you’re only protecting yourself
I know you’re thinking of somebody else
Someone who hurt you
But I’m not above
Making up for the love
You’ve been denying you could ever feel
I’m not above doing anything
To restore your faith if I can” - Innocent Man, Billy Joel
“In the middle of the night
I go walking in my sleep
Through the jungle of doubt
To a river so deep
I know I’m searching for something
Something so undefined
That it can only be seen
By the eyes of the blind
In the middle of the night
I’m not sure about a life after this
God knows I’ve never been a spiritual man
Baptized by the fire, I wade into the river
That runs to the promised land” - River of Dreams, Billy Joel
I think that’ll do for now. 
I don’t need you to worry for me cause I’m alright
I don’t want you to tell me it’s time to come home
I don’t care what you say anymore, this is my life
Go ahead with your own life and leave me alone
I never said you had to offer me a second chance
I never said I was a victim of circumstance
I still belong, don’t get me wrong
And you can speak you mind
But not on my time
[Billy Joel - My Life]
(This is my personal theme song)
Ya’ know that old trees just grow stronger,
And old rivers grow wilder ev’ry day.
Old people just grow lonesome
Waiting for someone to say, “Hello in there, hello.”
So if you’re walking down the street sometime
And spot some hollow ancient eyes,
Please don’t just pass 'em by and stare
As if you didn’t care, say, “Hello in there, hello.”
*
Hello in there - John Prine
And they say her flower is faded now
Hard weather and hard booze
But maybe that’s just the price you pay
For the chains you refuse
*
Beeswing - Richard Thompson (IMHO, one of the best set of lyrics ever written)
*
And he could have been a builder
And he could have been the one
To turn his dreams to steel
Catherdrals in the sun
And he could have been a builder
But then he brought a gun
There are forces in the river
That keep him on the run
*
Strange Rivers - as performed by Joan Baez (not sure of the original author)
They, asked me how I knew,
My true love was true,
I of course replied, something here inside,
Can not be denied.
They, said some day you’ll find,
All who love are blind,
When you heart’s on fire, you must realize,
Smoke gets in your eyes.
*
Oh for the non-John Prine fans, in the song above, “Paradise” is the name of a coal mine (if that helps anyone appreciate this song!)
I love seeing all the Billy Joel lyrics. I really like him too!
Do you remember those days hanging out at the Village Green?
Engineer boots, leather jackets and tight blue jeans?
Drop a dime in the box play a song 'bout New Orleans.
Cold beer! Hot lights! My sweet romantic teenage nights.
– Scenes from an Italian Restaurant
“There’s someone in my head, and it’s not me.” - Pink Floyd
“You drag it around like a ball and chain.
You wallow in the guilt; you wallow in the pain.
You wave it like a flag, you wear it like a crown.
Got your mind in the gutter, bringin’ everybody down.
Complain about the present, and blame it on the past.
I’d like to find your inner child and kick its little ass.
Get over it.”
The Eagles
So what is love then
is it dictated or chosen?
Does it sing like the hymns of a thousand years
or is it just pop emotion?
And if it ever was there and it left
does it mean it was never true?
And to exist it must elude
is that why i think these things of you?
She could drag me over the rainbow
I can be cruel darling
I don’t know why
You’re living for nothing now,
I hope you’re keeping some kind of record.
There’s a blaze of light
In every word
It doesn’t matter which you heard
The holy or the broken Hallelujah
I’ve seen this happen in other people’s lives
and now it’s happening in mine
Superdude, you’re a bastard! I wanted to you the Anna Begins thing. That’s the best song they ever did.
“Summer’s going fast, night’s growing colder
Children growing up, old friends growing older”
Rush, Time Stand Still
“Tonight will be great all the promises will be broken”
Springsteen, Thunder Road
“Now don’t go thinking that I’m crazy just because I am
'Cause I wouldn’t act indifferent if I didn’t give a damn”
Mary Prankster, Tempest
“I don’t know what the world may need
But I’m sure as hell that it starts with me
And that’s a wisdom I’ve laughed at.”
Cracker, Teen Angst
“I hope as you sink lower
You’ll watch me climbing higher
I wouldn’t take a piss on you
If I saw you were on fire”
Paul Sanchez, I Can’t Stand You Now (The Hate Song)
“My name is Cain and I am now un-Abel”
Cowboy Mouth, Jenny Says
I am older than I once was
But younger than I’ll be
That’s not unusual
I had a good friend in New York City
He never called me by my name just HillBilly
My GrandPa taught me to live off the land
And his taught him to be a business man
He used to send me pictures of the Broadway Night
And I’d send him some homemade wine
But he was killed by a man with a switch blade knife
For forty three dollars my friend lost his life
I’d love to spit some Beechnut in that dudes eye
And shoot em’ with my ole 45
Cause a country boy can survive
Country folks can survive
I find sometimes it’s easy to be myself
Sometimes I find it’s better to be somebody else
~So Much To Say, Dave Matthews Band
I’d rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints.
The sinners are much more fun.
Only the good die young, Billy Joel
Getting off, getting off, while they are all downstairs.
Singing prayers, sing away. He’s in my pumpkin PJ’s.
Icicle (i think), Tori Amos
Give me my money back, I want my money back you bitch.
And don’t forget to give me back my black T shirt.
Unsure of song title, Ben Folds Five
Oh, it’s a long, long while
From May to December.
But the days grow short
When you reach September.
When the autumn weather
Turns the leaves to flame,
I haven’t got time
For the waiting game.
As the days dwindle down
To a precious few…
September…
November…
And these few precious days,
I’ll spend with you.
[By Kurt Weill. No, Lou Reed didn’t write “September Song.”]
“It’s the damage that we do and never know
It’s the words that we don’t say that scare me so”
Let the sun fall over me
this life’s not living, baby
living ain’t free
and if I can’t find my way back to me
let the sun fall down over me
let the sun fall down
“Sunburn” by Fuel
and. . .
angels lend me your might
forfeit all my lives to get just one right
“Innocent” by Fuel
and lastly. . .
yeah, you don’t hear the sounds I hear
yeah, you feel the fear you fear
the distance that is there
well it’s wearing pretty thin now
and breaking you down is gonna be so easy
“Easy” also, by Fuel
I don’t want the world. I just want your half
They Might Be Giants-AnaNg
You’re right next to me, but I need an airplane
Tori Amos-China
Someone somewhere must know the ending
Racing turtle the grapefruit is winning
Tori Amos-Space Dog
I try to draw the line, but it ends up running down the middle of me most of the time
Ani Difranco-Out of Range
The license said you had to stick around unti I was dead, but if you’re tired of looking at my face I guess I already am.
Liz Phair-Divorce Song
And if you complain once more you’ll meet and army of me
Bjšrk-Army of Me
To her lungs, to her breath, everybody knows cigarettes cause bad breath. To her lungs, to her breath everybody knows that cigarettes cause early death and bad breath, but she’s my Nicotine Queen.
Nicotine Queen-Twang Twang Shock A Boom
Be careful now be careful, don’t take off your shirt, you know I can’t do that, you know I can’t do that. And this is not going to be easy, this is not going to be easy. If you try to pull a fast one I’ll whisper and spit like a prostitute angel laying face down in the sand.
Thanks to Gravity-Isometric Plaything
I’ve walked in every direction but my own, my feet no longer know where I have been
Thanks to Gravity-??
“I want to be there with you
At the place that you go in your eyes
When they fade away”
Doll by Doll (Jackie Leven)- Endgame
“I gotta dinosaur for a representative
It’s got a small brain and refuses to learn”
Graham Parker - Mercury Poisoning
“I could tell you that I like your sensitivity
When you know it’s the way that you walk”
Elvis Costello - Miracle Man
Glad I could post the boys first. Incidentally, they have a great web site run by their lyricist, Robert Hunter at http://www.dead.net
Now for less popular choices that should be left out, but turn a phrase so nicely that they should be noted:
Mirrors on the ceiling, pink champaign on ice, we are all just prisoners here, of our own device. Eagles, Hotel California
Incidentally, I really enjoy all the Billy Joel entries listed above.
Wow DPWhite and TOO I concur: the Scarlet Begonias lyric was my first thought upon seeing the thread title. So I have to come up with an alternate:
River gonna take me
Sing me sweet and sleepy
Sing me sweet and sleepy
all the way back back home
It’s a far gone lullaby
sung many years ago
Mama, Mama, many worlds I’ve come
since I first left home
That tune always makes me cry. I don’t think I could ever perform it live - I would become broke-down myself. Would that Garcia or Lennon were still with us in these dark hours to sing us a song of peace.
BTW while I was looking them up I found that there is an update to The Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics that is topical to the 9/11 tragedy. Some lovely photos of a mournful guitar at Union Square Park. Now I’m sad again.
And I always thought this would be
The land of milk and honey
But I’ve come to find out that it’s
All hate and money
And there’s a canopy of greed holding me down…
Blind Melon* Tones of Home*
American men, you know them, they just gotta be right
When it’s left to me, oftentimes, I’d rather not fight
They make a big deal out of everything, and they’ve got too many guns
And just to make 'em mad, I’m gunna do it for fun !
The Lemonheads* I’ll Do It Anyway*
He was smart, he was wise, he’d profoundly philosophize
Empathy for all humanity
'Til one day by an open window there’s a note that read
“I’ve gone out the window - I’m dead”
He said yes to life for all his life, but then one day he said:
No, I gotta go
Violent Femmes* Out The Window*
People talking without speaking,
People hearing without listening,
People writing songs, that voices never sang,
And no one dared, disturb the Sounds Of Silence
Simon and Garfunkel* Sounds of Silence*
You can check out any time you like,
But you can never leave…
The Eagles* Hotel California*
