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Post by B.E. on Mar 19, 2020 23:12:04 GMT
I'm not really looking for your favorite passages, but that line or two in a song that has always stood out to you. Maybe you just think it's a great line or maybe it packs an emotional punch. Whatever the reason, these lines often make the song for you. So, what are they?
Lately, I've circled back around to Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska. Great atmosphere, lyrics, and performance. The inspiration for this thread was "State Trooper". You know the song - "mister state trooper, please don't stop me, please don't stop me, please don't stop me..." Well, now that I've set the scene, the line that makes the song for me is - "maybe you got a kid, maybe you got a pretty wife, the only thing that I've got's been bothering me my whole life." I ALWAYS look forward to that line! (Then I look forward to that final scream and perfect fade.)
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Mar 20, 2020 1:19:27 GMT
A couple that I really like:
Bruce Springsteen - Secret Garden - "She'll let you in her heart, if you got a hammer and a vise, but into her secret garden, don't think twice..."
The Doors - The Crystal Ship - "Deliver me from reasons why you'd rather cry, I'd rather fly..."
Bob Dylan - Trying To Get To Heaven - "When you think that you lost everything, you find out you can lose a little more, I'm just going down the road feeling bad, trying to get to heaven before they close the door..."
Dennis Wilson - Thoughts Of You - "Loneliness is a very special place, to forget something that I've never done, silently, silently you touch my face..."
Badfinger - Baby Blue - "Guess that's all I have to say, except the feeling just gets stronger everyday. Just one thing before I go, take good care, baby, let me know, let it grow, the special love you have for me, my Dixie dear..." (Pete Ham wrote this line/song for his girlfriend, Dixie, as he was breaking up with her, which adds more weight to the song).
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Post by jk on Mar 20, 2020 10:31:21 GMT
The Doors - The Crystal Ship - "Deliver me from reasons why you'd rather cry, I'd rather fly..."
That's a great one! I'm not a lyrics man but I'll put my mind to it as best I can.
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Post by jk on Mar 24, 2020 14:54:01 GMT
"Life is just a bowl of All-Bran / You wake up every morning and it's there"
Small Faces, from "HappyDaysToyTown" (Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake)
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 24, 2020 15:13:49 GMT
I can't quite explain why, but I have always just loved a couplet from Bob Dylan's "Spirit on the Water" from Modern Times:
You ever seen a ghost? No.
But you have heard of them.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Mar 24, 2020 15:31:21 GMT
You could do an entire thread just on Dylan lines.
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 24, 2020 15:33:01 GMT
You could do an entire thread just on Dylan lines. And then another one on the places from which he stole them.
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bellbottoms
Pacific Coast Highway
Posts: 727
Likes: 201
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Post by bellbottoms on Mar 24, 2020 20:07:15 GMT
These lyrics aren’t inspirational or beautiful, but my affection for this is all about the clever structuring… this series of lines that leads to a delayed rhyme in My Green Shirt by Bob Kemmis:
Somebody’s gonna get looked over, a four leaf clover Who says that our lucky charms can do no harm Has never chased a leprechaun or talked to a rabbit Okay that line didn’t rhyme, but it didn’t have ta When I’m in my green shirt, you won’t hear a word, It’s my ass your after (after) You don’t know why, but you have got to have it And if somebody’s gonna get hurt, it’s not me in my green shirt
That moment when “have it” completes the rhyme with “rabbit” is so satisfying to me, every time.
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 24, 2020 20:22:10 GMT
Another person like Dylan who could inspire a whole thread's worth of great lines is Tom Waits. There are quite a few I like even just in the song "Hold On," with these in particular tickling my fancy.
"It's so hard to dance that way / when it's cold and there's no music" "Go ahead and call the cops / you don't meet nice girls in coffee shops"
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Post by jk on Mar 24, 2020 21:41:44 GMT
Captain Beefheart has some wonderfully endearing descriptions of lovemaking. And no more endearingly than in "White Jam" from The Spotlight Kid:
"She serves me flowers 'n yams 'N in the night when I'm full She brings me white jam 'N I don't know where I am"
The form is interesting--first a pretty intro, followed by a longish passage based on "white note" chords and then an extended jubilant tag with some great blowing and hilarious falsetto weazling from the Captain (the original Captain) as he explains wide-eyed to his buddies about the great times he's been having!
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 24, 2020 21:46:41 GMT
I know we're here to talk lyrics, but I've always loved the guitar-and-piano melding on this one!
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bellbottoms
Pacific Coast Highway
Posts: 727
Likes: 201
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Post by bellbottoms on Mar 25, 2020 17:48:57 GMT
This entire song is filled with wonderful lyrics, but out of all of them, I really love these lines:
It's here in the smallest bones, the feet and the inner ear It's such an enormous thing, to walk and to listen
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Apr 12, 2020 21:34:51 GMT
- from "Back Home"... "When I get back you won't believe how I've grown."
- from "Cotton Fields"... "You should have seen their faces when they see how I've grown."
I always think of Brian when I hear those lines. Do you think Brian wrote the line in "Back Home" with "Cotton Fields" in mind? There are similarities in the songs, at least thematically.
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Post by jk on Sept 21, 2020 14:49:23 GMT
I could have sworn there was a topic for this already -- maybe I'm thinking of Hoffman. These are very often mine: "So I'm down to this / I'm down to walking on air" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_(song)
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Post by Kapitan on Sept 21, 2020 14:57:44 GMT
It definitely exists/existed at EH and/or PSF. As I'm nearing the home stretch of my Dylan marathon, no doubt I'll have a few to mention (but I have to hop on a work meeting now).
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