Favorite LINE in a Country song, not necessarily the hook

Glenn Suchan · Post by **Glenn Suchan** » 13 Feb 2002 11:36 am

Since Jim Smith already posted my favorite country lyric, Hank Thompson's line from the song "Mark of a Heel", I'll share a few others (not necessarily country).

"I'm gonna sit on the front porch till the lightnin' bugs show up
And it really gets dark and there's dogs in the trash
It's the first time and the last time all rolled into this time
You make me feel like I just took a bath
You got to laugh and let laugh"
(Shade of all Greens - Guy Clark)

"This guitar is for sale.
I'll let her go cheap,
Tho' she's pretty to look at,
She don't earn her keep.
She can roar like the west wind,
She can weep. She can wail.
But the tunes that she plays
ain't sellin' today,
This guitar is for sale."
(This Guitar is for Sale - Shel Silverstein)

"Your eyes are like a road map
They're looking two different ways
You got your teeth in one hand
And your wig in the other
And you haven't looked this good in days"
(traditional blues lyric)

"Woke up this mornin'
And both cars were gone
Woke up this mornin'
And both cars were gone
Got so low-down dirty
I threw my drink across the lawn"
(a suburban "white-collar" blues lyric - Martin Mull)

"I found a number in the note she wrote,
Deep in the pocket of a real old coat,
It just got by me some way,
I musta had a real bad day.
That's one of the problems
Of life out here on the road,
Li'l notes like this ain't got no area code.
I don't know what to say… I'm havina REAL bad day!"
(Real Bad Day - Taj Mahal)

b0b: Thanks for lettin' me indulge....

Keep on pickin'!
Glenn

Ally · Post by **Ally** » 13 Feb 2002 12:32 pm

"If we sit here, and drink some more beer,
We'll be two inflatable dolls in a hooker's bad dream'

Mark Eitzel, American Music Club

"It's just sometimes I get so lonesome,
I could die"
Matt Johnson

The whole of Wille Eason's (SP?) Roosevelt track on the Sacred Steel CD

All time musical/lyrical high point: when the Magic Band kick into a mutant version of Last Train to Clarksville, while the Captain rages "Gimmie that old time religion" during Moonlight on Vermont

Ken Williams · Post by **Ken Williams** » 13 Feb 2002 12:51 pm

"Why don't we just get out, while we still can climb the wall?" by Curtis Potter

"Copenhagen, drive 'em purty girls wild"
by The Geezinslaws
Ken

Eddie Lange · Post by **Eddie Lange** » 13 Feb 2002 6:56 pm

"Now I Don't Think I'd Believe You If You Told Me White was White." Old Faron Young tune.

------------------
The Young Steelkid

Robby Thomas · Post by **Robby Thomas** » 13 Feb 2002 9:30 pm

How can I get over you, when your lying under him.

randy · Post by **randy** » 15 Feb 2002 12:28 pm

I'm the one you want not what you settled for...

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 15 Feb 2002 6:12 pm

Earnest Tubb did a cute Blues song back about 1940...But My Baby Still Loves Me, at least I think that's the title.

I bought her a brand new diamond ring
for all the world to see.
Then I passed the pawnshop window,
and it was starin' back at me.

I bought her a big apartment
on the fancy side of town.
Then I come home one night
and she had burned the darn thing down.

I bought her a great big shiny car
for everyone to see.
Then I come home one night
and she had drove it up a tree.

But my baby still loves me, in her own peculiar way.
I said my baby still loves me in her own
peculiar way.

Man...that's the Blues.

Earl Foote · Post by **Earl Foote** » 15 Feb 2002 7:26 pm

The beer I had for breakfast wasn't bad
so I had one more for desert.

Tom Olson · Post by **Tom Olson** » 15 Feb 2002 8:09 pm

I'm a good 'ol boy,
I know my Mama loves me,
but she don't understand,
why they keep showin' my hands,
and not my face on TV.[This message was edited by Tom Olson on 15 February 2002 at 08:12 PM.]

David Weaver · Post by **David Weaver** » 15 Feb 2002 9:38 pm

Not country but...

"I made enough money to buy Miami, but I pissed it away so fast...never meant to last...never meant to last."

Jimmy Buffett

Any line at all from McArthur Park.

"I recall the yellow cotton dress, flowing like a wave on the ground around her knees. Birds like tender babies in her hands, and the old men playing checkers by the trees..."

Jimmy Webb wrote it, Richard Harris had the popular version, but I swear that Waylon sang it too, but I can't find it anywhere an any Waylon albums.

Pat Burns · Post by **Pat Burns** » 16 Feb 2002 8:19 am

...He found the ring on the pillow, he found the clothes on the floor, and he called her to say he was sorry, but he couldn't remember what for...

...Don't do it, Darlin', don't you dare look in there..you said you didn't want to see me, but you've been lookin' for me everywhere...and you know that you're gonna find me if you keep on drinkin' fast...'cause Honey, I'm right there waitin' for you at the bottom of your glass...

BDBassett · Post by **BDBassett** » 16 Feb 2002 2:06 pm

Woke up Sunday mornin' with a knot behind my ear, on the floorboards of my pick-up with a half-a-case of beer.
There's lipstick on my undershirt and both my knees are sore thanks to Happy Harry's Honky Tonk and Package Liquor Store.

Del Reeves (I think) Please correct me if I'm wrong.
BD

ebb · Post by **ebb** » 16 Feb 2002 4:56 pm

merle on geometry

"where even squares can have a ball"

or the one i wrote

it's beer and aspirin for breakfast
to make it over easy on the sunny side
[This message was edited by ebb on 16 February 2002 at 05:00 PM.]

Dave Van Allen · Post by **Dave Van Allen** » 25 Feb 2002 11:43 am

I almost forgot:

"Not long ago you held our baby's bottle
but the one you're holdin' now's a different kind
as you sit and wait to be somebody's baby
and it all depends on Who Will Buy The Wine"

Manny Shuffles · Post by **Manny Shuffles** » 25 Feb 2002 5:43 pm

"One thing in this world, it aint hard for me to do....as soon as i kiss the lips of another woman....I'll forget all about you."

------------------
swing it til' the wheels fall off!

bill mitchell · Post by **bill mitchell** » 25 Feb 2002 6:19 pm

"Gasping for air I come up from your lips,
Awed by the beauty at my fingertips.."

My favorite "Love" song lyric....and it wasn't even directed at a human.
Forgot who wrote "Bottle, Bottle" by Jim Ed Brown.

Tom Olson · Post by **Tom Olson** » 25 Feb 2002 9:58 pm

Here's another one:

"have you ever been experienced?
not necessarily stoned, but, ah . . .
beautiful."

Dave Van Allen · Post by **Dave Van Allen** » 26 Feb 2002 9:22 pm

oh yeah...now that's country!!!

"each night I make the rounds of every spot in town , a lonely man with lonely time to kill"
"a jukebox playin' loud...a face among the crowd, so much like hers it makes my heart stand still"
=================================
"Anger, he smiles, towering in shiny metallic purple armour
Queen Jealousy Envy waits behind him, her fiery green gown sneers at the grassy ground"[This message was edited by Dave Van Allen on 01 March 2002 at 09:55 AM.]

Carter York · Post by **Carter York** » 27 Feb 2002 7:00 am

I sure like the lyrics the ladies in Freakwater write...

'desperately hoping for a love you would die for, you play one more quarter, to hear a song you could cry for...'

'i know every line on your face could tell a story, but i've heard them all before and now they bore me...'

not to mention they sing 'selfishness in man' which is one of my favs......

and i like the lyrics to 'pick me up on your way down'

'you were mine for just a while, but now yer puttin on the style, and you've never once looked back, to that home accross the track...'

Carter

Joel Glassman · Post by **Joel Glassman** » 28 Feb 2002 8:15 am

So turn off your TVs
dim down the lights
I don't need no visions
of 20/20 tonight.
I can live with my version of the world spinnin' past,
'cause the hard times we've had,
well they don't look so bad
thru the bottom of a glass.

...I've found a new girlfriend
You may think she's trash
She ain't much to see
but she looks good to me
thru the bottom of a glass.

"Thru the Bottom of a Glass" Paul Craft

RickRichtmyer · Post by **RickRichtmyer** » 28 Feb 2002 11:37 am

From a very early Jimmy Buffett song called "Ringling, Ringling" about a small, dying railroad town, somewhere in Florida:

"And across from the bar, there's a pile of beer cans, been there 47 years,
Imagine all the heartaches and tears in 47 years of beer."

------------------
Rick Richtmyer
Good News

Bob Tuttle · Post by **Bob Tuttle** » 28 Feb 2002 8:48 pm

"Nobody loves me but my mother......and she could be jivin' too"
B.B. King.

Lem Smith · Post by **Lem Smith** » 3 Mar 2002 4:04 am

I guess my all-time favorite line is from the Billy "Crash" Craddock hit, "Broken down in tiny pieces".

Broken down, in tiny pieces, love's not really worth the time. Just a nickel that I borrowed, for a dream that cost a dime.

That line is sheer genious, IMHO.

Gene Jones · Post by **Gene Jones** » 3 Mar 2002 6:31 am

.....I don't know if it's my favorite or not, but that line "wearing my cleanest dirty shirt" always reminds me of the brief time I spent living on a band bus!..... www.genejones.com

Tom Olson · Post by **Tom Olson** » 3 Mar 2002 10:28 am

Oooops!

Regarding my previous post -- I forgot the line was supposed to be from a COUNTRY song