What are your favorite song lyrics?

Go on, post 'em!

"Well, I'm what I am, and what I'm not
I'm sure happy with what I've got
I live to love and laugh a lot
and that's all I need."
-Never Wanted Nothing More, Kenny Chesney

The book of love has music in it
In fact that's where music comes from
Some of it is just transcendental
Some of it is just really dumb

-- The Book of Love, Stephin Merritt

I've always liked this bit from Emily Saliers' "Ghost":


And the Mississippi's mighty
but it starts in Minnesota
at a place that you could walk across
with five steps down

And I guess that's how you started
like a pinprick to my heart
but at this point you rush right through me
and I start to drown


JJ

I've been working up some Bossa Nova tunes and my favorite lyrics right now are from One Note Samba. These are my slight variation. (Original third line: "He will find himself with no show")

Anyone who wants the whole show
Re, mi fa, so, la, ti do
They will find that they have no show
Better play the note you know.

Regards,
Ray

"Like a tale with a happy ending, like a harmony's perfect blending, life is so peaceful here with you"

"I could visit you in moonlight, wouldn't make no difference, in the darkness you shine bright"

"I've watched this country living wing on by. The city lights grew nearer to my garden. As many classic moments ride on high"

and from the same song "When I grow old, I'll reminisce my fortune, and why I left my loved one far behind. I'm gonna lay myself beside those callin waters, as many classic moments ride on by"

"It'll be alright when the morning comes"

"Loneliness can dull the shine of even the bright moonlight. Nightbird, fly, fly on"

"We got to realize. We got to stop these lies. We gotta love this land, and give it a helping hand. I hear music, I hear music, whoah oh oh."

"Let's pretend that we're the only two, don't think about it twice. Cause I think I see lovin in your eyes"

"6 o clock bad news is one every day........the weather report is the best news today"

"It's so nice to see familiar faces out in the crowd"

"I like my fish and poi, Imma big boy, lomi salmon pipikaula, extra large lilikoi. Squid and chicken luau, don't forget the laulau, beef and trip stew just to name a few..."

I like ALL of the lyrics to "Merry Christmas to You" by Henry Kapono

I like these Lyrics by John Mayer, they're very Karma

Fathers, be good to your daughters
Daughters will love like you do
Girls become lovers who turn into mothers
So mothers, be good to your daughters too

pull out all the stops
we are coming home tonight
a pair of old boxing gloves
in a new fight
where every single scar
well it means something to me
as if life wrote down my history

-matt and kim

If the phone doesn't ring, it's me.......Jimmy Buffett

well.. on an emotional note, it would be

"you drive me insane" probably in countless amount of songs. I love hearing it songs.

You can't change the world
But you can change the facts
And when you change the facts
You change points of view
If you change points of view
You may change a vote
And when you change a vote
You may change the world

-Song: New Dress
Artist: Depeche Mode

This chorus and song in general isn't one of their hits, but it always stuck out to me as one of my favorites.

It's kind of cliché, but I dig Dylan's lyrics a whole lot. One of my favorite verses is from "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" because it's got a real sting to it:

Goodbye's too good a word, babe
So I'll just say 'fare thee well'
I ain't sayin' you treated me unkind
You coulda done better, but I don't mind
You just kinda wasted my precious time
But don't think twice, it's all right

Not the most poetic, sure, but I could write a whole dissertation on which Bob Dylan lyrics I love and why (I did an art piece in my senior year of high school using portions from "Desolation Row", for example).

The last stanza in Tom Waits's "Tom Traubert's Blues" is also terrific:

And it's a battered old suitcase to a hotel someplace
And a wound that will never heal
No prima donna, the perfume is on
An old shirt that is stained with blood and whiskey
And goodnight to the street sweepers
The night watchman flame keepers and goodnight to Matilda, too

Aaaand, of course, nearly everything by Vic Chesnutt (may his soul rest). This bit from his song "Isadora Duncan" from his debut album is particularly resplendent, for me:

Once I dreamed I was dancing with Isadora Duncan
In a silver cafe,
It was a cafe that was not at all near here
She was planning to diversify
And she sang I should do the same
So I whistled to her how I loved her the best

But she sang, "I can't believe you own this attitude",
But with some ballet moves,
I removed her shoes
And I painted my lips to hers
And still she sang, "I can't believe you own this attitude"

I like striking imagery.

"But there's booze in the blender and soon it will render that frozen concoction that helps me hang on."
Margaritaville...Jimmy Buffett

Last night I dreamt the whole night long
I woke with a head full of songs
I spent the whole day
I wrote 'em down, but its a shame
Tonight I'll burn the lyrics,
'Cause every chorus was your name

The Avett Brothers "Laundry Room". Those are definitely the best lyrics I've ever heard.

Oh I am a lonely painter
I live in a box of paints
I'm frightened by the devil
And I'm drawn to those ones that ain't afraid
I remember that time that you told me, you said
Love is touching souls
Surely you touched mine
Cause part of you pours out of me
In these lines from time to time

Oh you're in my blood like holy wine
You taste so bitter and so sweet
Oh I could drink a case of you darling
Still I'd be on my feet
I would still be on my feet

- "A Case of You" by Joni Mitchell

I love the song "The Ballad of Love and Hate" by the Avett Brothers. Here it is in its entirety (also, it works well on the uke!):

Love writes a letter and sends it to hate.
My vacations ending. I'm coming home late.
The weather was fine and the ocean was great
and I can't wait to see you again.

Hate reads the letter and throws it away.
"No one here cares if you go or you stay.
I barely even noticed that you were away.
I'll see you or I won't, whatever."

Love sings a song as she sails through the sky.
The water looks bluer through her pretty eyes.
And everyone knows it whenever she flies,
and also when she comes down.

Hate keeps his head up and walks through the street.
Every stranger and drifter he greets.
And shakes hands with every loner he meets
with a serious look on his face.

Love arrives safely with suitcase in tow.
Carrying with her the good things we know.
A reason to live and a reason to grow.
To trust. To hope. To care.

Hate sits alone on the hood of his car.
Without much regard to the moon or the stars.
Lazily killing the last of a jar
of the strongest stuff you can drink.

Love takes a taxi, a young man drives.
As soon as he sees her, hope fills his eyes.
But tears follow after, at the end of the ride,
cause he might never see her again.

Hate gets home lucky to still be alive.
He screams o'er the sidewalk and into the drive.
The clock in the kitchen says 2:55,
And the clock in the kitchen is slow.

Love has been waiting, patient and kind.
Just wanting a phone call or some kind of sign,
That the one that she cares for, who's out of his mind,
Will make it back safe to her arms.

Hate stumbles forward and leans in the door.
Weary head hung, eyes to the floor.
He says "Love, I'm sorry", and she says, "What for?
I'm your and that's it, Whatever.
I should not have been gone for so long.
I'm your's and that's it, forever."

You're mine and that's it, forever.