Lyrically speaking

[slipjig3]

While driving from point A to point B, I was trying to decide what my five favorite lyrics of all time are. Not the entire lyric, mind you, but just the line or verse that makes me go, "Ooo! Now why can't I write stuff like that?" Here's what I came up with, in no particular order:

"I swear you look like you're in jail
Then all at once you're halfway out the door
One foot dancing,
One foot nailed to the floor."
-- "Trouble," Shawn Colvin

"Now I've always been puzzled by the yin and the yang
That comes out in the wash, but it always leaves a stain"
-- "2:19," Tom Waits (same song has "Are you drying your nails or waving goodbye?")

"Well, you wish, but don't wish for me
As if the wish could cheat the fall
Just believe, and leave it be
There's beauty in what's brief
There's beauty in what's small
That's all"
-- "That's All, Amen, Close the Door," Richard Thompson

"They squeezed and the edged and they glared
Half of the clearly impaired
By rage or exhaustion
The rest were just touchy as hell."
-- "Transit," Richard Shindell

"You fondle my trigger, then you blame my gun"
-- "Limp," Fiona Apple

Honorable mention, because it's too new to include:
"I had a brain that felt like pancake batter."
-- "The Hardest Button to Button," The White Stripes

So, what are yours?

Comments

[prolixfootle.livejournal.com]

(But) No one beats him at his game
For very long but just the same
Who cares, there's no place safe to hide
Nowhere to run--no time to cry
So celebrate while you still can
'Cause any second it may end.
And when it's all been said and done . . .
Better that you had some fun!

Oingo Boingo - No One Lives Forever

[catamorphism.livejournal.com]

"And I kept standing 6'1" instead of 5'2"
And I loved my life, and I hated you."
-- "6'1"", Liz Phair

"If it wasn't for disappointments, I wouldn't have any appointments."
-- "Snowball in Hell", They Might Be Giants

"I hope that you won't rest in peace, 'cause that would bore you right to tears..."
-- "Broken White Line", Kris Delmhorst

"There's a strong dark current that runs deep beneath the ocean
Canyons beneath the wind-swept streets
In silent conversation I make believe your answers
It's a wonder that we never disagree... are you thinking about me?"
-- "Thinking About You", Trout Fishing in America

"I may die a poor and restless girl
I may not leave a mark on this world
But I could reconcile mortality
If you would stay up all night with me."
-- "Stay Up All Night", Catie Curtis

These probably aren't the top 5, but they're the first ones that come to mind.

[odheirre.livejournal.com]

Again, not top 5, but good ones nonetheless:

Well I got off the train somewhere in Arkansas
And I worked up the guts to call my mother-in-law
She said I'll tell you where she is if you act right
She's workin' 4 to 12 at Trucker's World tonight.
Mean Eyed Cat - Johnny Cash

Well, the rain falls down without my help, I'm afraid
And my lawn gets wet though I've withheld my consent
It's Not My Birthday - TMBG

They sing the Spanish Wreck of the Fitzgerald
Tommy the Canexican - Eddie From Ohio

How long till my soul gets it right?
Can any human being ever reach the highest light?
Except for Galileo, God rest his soul
King of night vision, king of insight.
Galileo - Indigo Girls

Nicholas Ridicolous and Michael Motorcycle went out to play
Nicholas Ridicolous threw the ball and Michael Motorcycle ran away
When Mr. Ridicolous stood in the door, he said, "Who is that child?
With a name like Motorcycle he must be a little more than wild"
Superhero Soup - Nields

The mystery masked man was smart
He got himself a Tonto
'Cause Tonto did the dirty work for free
But Tonto he was smarter
And one day said kemo sabe
Kiss my ass I bought a boat
I'm going out to sea
If I Had a Boat - Lyle Lovett

OK, 6.

[rafaela.livejournal.com]

"Come on sunshine, what can you show me
Where can you take me to make me understand
The wind can shake me, brothers forsake me
The rain can touch me, but can I touch the rain"
--"Wherefore and Why," Gordon Lightfoot

"Across the evening sky, all the birds are leaving
But how can they know it's time for them to go?
Before the winter fire, I will still be dreaming
I have no thought of time"
--"Who Knows Where The Time Goes?" Sandy Denny

"I don't want to dance
I just want to jump from the prison of circumstance"
--"Labour of Love," Frente!

"I could just pretend that you love me
The night would lose all sense of fear
But why do I need you to love me
When you can't hold what I hold dear"
--"Leather," Tori Amos

"I've become the beggar now
and you've become the saint somehow"
--"Hand Me Downs," Indigo Girls