doc
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Post by doc on Feb 5, 2020 1:31:01 GMT
Cohen; Closing Time “The Johnny Walker wisdom’s running high.”
Ibid “My very close companion gets me fumbling’, gets me laughin’ She’s a hundred but she’s wearing something tight.”
Ibid “The place is dead as heaven on a Saturday night.”
Every line of that song is a precious jewel.
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Post by Onechordtrick on Feb 5, 2020 6:51:11 GMT
Hard to choose a favourite from this one but:
“ And the owner is a mental midget with the i.q. of a fence post”
The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me) ~ Tom Waits
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Post by robmc on Feb 5, 2020 7:28:49 GMT
'There ain't nothin' like a friend who can tell you you're just pissin' in the wind'
Neil Young, Ambulance Blues
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Post by bobcarter on Feb 5, 2020 7:35:05 GMT
"you're the kind of girl who wants to Open up the bottle of pop too early in the journey Our love went flat just like that"
Billy Bragg, A Lover Sings
"I saw two shooting stars last night I wished on them but they were only satellites Is it wrong to wish on space hardware"
Billy Bragg, A New England
"You can't jump a jet plane like you can a freight train"
Gordon Lightfoot, Early Morning Rain
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Post by PistolPete on Feb 5, 2020 7:42:38 GMT
I'm currently enjoying working on Pancho and Lefty by Townes Van Zandt so how about: "He wore his gun outside his pants, for all the honest world to feel" I always thought the best line in Pancho & Lefty was: "The dust that Pancho bit down South Ended up in Lefty's mouth" Mixing metaphors is something songwriting books tell you to avoid, but Townes deploys it there brilliantly and deliberately.
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Post by delb0y on Feb 5, 2020 14:31:12 GMT
The whole song is a masterclass, Pete. I shall be performing it this evening and probably preface it by saying it's my favourite ever song (the truth is, some days it is. Some days others overtake it - but for purposes of a live gig it's right there). There are stories within stories. Little things like "Save a few (prayers) for Lefty, too... Now he's growing old." I just having this vision of this old fellow struggling to live with what he did all those years ago. And "A few grey Federals..." Just dropping in the word "grey" adds so much. Again, he doesn't need to tell us that it all happened a long time ago, and that the Federals - and the poets - still talk about it, or that Pancho really wasn't that good an outlaw. It's all there in between the lines.
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Andy P
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Post by Andy P on Feb 5, 2020 19:21:37 GMT
Loving this thread. We should arrange all these lines into one mega-song!
Probably my all-time favourite singer/songwriter is Bruce Cockburn. Here are a few lines:
"Slid out of my dreams like a baby out of the nurse's hands Onto the hard floor of day I'd been wearing OJ's gloves and I couldn't get them off"
"I've got this thing in my heart I must give you today It only lives when you give it away"
"Don't the hours grow shorter as the days go by, We never get to stop and open our eyes One minute you're waiting for the sky to fall, The next you're dazzled by the beauty of it all"
I'm really spoilt for choice.....
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Post by geddarby on Feb 5, 2020 19:35:27 GMT
A few more to be going on with
Iris Dement- “Easy’s Getting Harder Every Day”
“I had a garden but my flowers died There ain't much living here inside Lately, I don't know what I'm holding on to”
Blaze Foley - “Clay Pigeons”
“I could build me a castle of memories Just to have somewhere to go”
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Post by bellyshere on Feb 5, 2020 20:40:38 GMT
No language, just sound. Transmission by Joy Division
I love that line so much I have it tattooed on my wrist.
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Post by Onechordtrick on Feb 5, 2020 22:51:44 GMT
From his Bobness
“ You say "how are you?", "good luck", but ya don't mean it When you know as well as me, you'd rather see me paralyzed” Positively 4th Street
“ Blame it on a simple twist of fate“ Simple a twist of Fate
“ May your hands always be busy May your feet always be swift May you have a strong foundation when the winds of changes shift” Forever Young
“ We sit here stranded, though we’re all doin’ our best to deny it” Visions of Johana
“I’m one too many mornings and a thousand miles behind” One Too Many Mornings
In fact most of Blonde on Blonde and Blood on the Tracks. I could be here all night!
But I’ll stop now
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ocarolan
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Post by ocarolan on Feb 5, 2020 23:19:15 GMT
Staying with Bob for a moment with one of my very favouritest lines -
"Ah, but I was so much older then. I'm younger than that now." My back pages.
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Post by fatfingerjohn on Feb 6, 2020 17:42:56 GMT
..and of course some of the oldies were some of the best ...
Cole Porter, Every Time We Say Goodbye
'There's no love song finer, but how strange the change from major to minor' (with accompanying chord change, magical)
Hoagy Carmichael, Stardust
'And now the purple dusk of twilight time, steals across the meadows of my heart' (what a line, in fact the whole song).
FFJ
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Post by Onechordtrick on Feb 6, 2020 17:57:13 GMT
And now some Bruce.
“ The screen door slams, Mary’s dress sways Like a vision she dances across the porch, as the radio plays” Thunder Road
“ And the highway is alive tonight Where it's headed everybody knows” Ghost of Tom Joad
“ Is a dream a lie if it don't come true or is it something worse” The River
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Post by martinrowe on Feb 6, 2020 18:33:00 GMT
Here's a couple: In a world of steel-eyed death, and men who are fighting to be warm "Come in", she said, "I'll give ya - shelter from the storm" (Shelter from the Storm - Bob Dylan) and ocarolan will know whether the was Lennon or McCartney 'She was just seventeen, you know what I mean' (I saw her standing there)
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Post by dreadnought28 on Feb 7, 2020 0:59:08 GMT
Here's a couple: In a world of steel-eyed death, and men who are fighting to be warm "Come in", she said, "I'll give ya - shelter from the storm" (Shelter from the Storm - Bob Dylan) and ocarolan will know whether the was Lennon or McCartney 'She was just seventeen, you know what I mean' (I saw her standing there) McCartney
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