What are the cleverest lyrics ever written?

Jerry Overstreet · Post by **Jerry Overstreet** » 9 Jul 2004 5:18 pm

From Hotel California, Eagles...
"Her mind is Tiffany- twisted, she got the Mercedes bends."
"You can check out anytime you please, but you can never leave." [This message was edited by Jerry Overstreet on 09 July 2004 at 09:12 PM.]

Donna Dodd · Post by **Donna Dodd** » 9 Jul 2004 5:31 pm

Jerry, I like that one! I drive a 1981 240-D Mercedes with 300,000 miles. She's still beautiful! Diesel is only $1.48 right now! (I know, it stinks and pollutes) By all accounts, I should make it to 600,000 miles since it has a cast iron engine.
Oops, straying from topic - I must be twisted!

Bart Maloney · Post by **Bart Maloney** » 9 Jul 2004 7:07 pm

O, I wish I was in Dixie!
Hooray! Hooray!
In Dixie Land I'll take my stand
To live and die in Dixie
Away, away,
Away down south in Dixie!

Ken Lang · Post by **Ken Lang** » 9 Jul 2004 8:16 pm

"The drums and the bugles are silent now."
"Many friends and many enemies sleep in shallow graves together."
"The sounds of the battle are forgotten."
"Only the song will be remembered."

Liner notes from Duane Eddys' "Battle Hymn of the Republic."

Bobby Lee · Post by **Bobby Lee** » 9 Jul 2004 8:48 pm

One clever line that sticks in my head:

"I wish somehow I didn't know now
What I didn't know then."

Ricky Littleton · Post by **Ricky Littleton** » 9 Jul 2004 8:49 pm

"Teach Your Children" by CSNY is perhaps the wisest lyrics ever.

On the other hand, I did like Pure Prarie League's "I'll Fix Your Flat Tire Merle".

Then there's Little David Wilkins "Who ever turned you one, forgot to turn you off"

and of course:

Cal Smith (with the remarkable John Hughey) with "The Lord Knows I'm Drinkin'"

of course, thats just me.

Ricky...

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Emmons LeGrande - 8x4
Session 400 Ltd, Peterson VS-II Tuner
Dan-Echo, E-Bow, Ibanez Distortion, Boss Comp./Sustain, Ibanez Auto-Wah, PX4 Pandoras Box

Bart Maloney · Post by **Bart Maloney** » 9 Jul 2004 10:12 pm

this whole song is great.

Jerusalem
(Steve Earle)

I woke up this mornin' and none of the news was good
And death machines were rumblin' 'cross the ground where Jesus stood
And the man on my TV told me that it had always been that way
And there was nothin' anyone could do or say

And I almost listened to him
Yeah, I almost lost my mind
Then I regained my senses again
And looked into my heart to find

That I believe that one fine day all the children of Abraham
Will lay down their swords forever in Jerusalem

Well maybe I'm only dreamin' and maybe I'm just a fool
But I don't remember learnin' how to hate in Sunday school
But somewhere along the way I strayed and I never looked back again
But I still find some comfort now and then

Then the storm comes rumblin' in
And I can't lay me down
And the drums are drummin' again
And I can't stand the sound

But I believe there'll come a day when the lion and the lamb
Will lie down in peace together in Jerusalem

And there'll be no barricades then
There'll be no wire or walls
And we can wash all this blood from our hands
And all this hatred from our souls

And I believe that on that day all the children of Abraham
Will lay down their swords forever in Jerusalem

Tony Prior · Post by **Tony Prior** » 10 Jul 2004 1:34 am

"Take this Job and Shove it"..

t

[This message was edited by Tony Prior on 10 July 2004 at 02:41 AM.]

Donna Dodd · Post by **Donna Dodd** » 10 Jul 2004 3:05 am

No more One-More-Time Joel Sonnier (FANTASTIC song!)[This message was edited by Donna Dodd on 10 July 2004 at 04:06 AM.]

Jack Francis · Post by **Jack Francis** » 10 Jul 2004 4:13 am

Just 'bout anything that was written by Delbert McClinton.

Check out his "Nothing Personal" CD. Every song is GREAT.

Quesney Gibbs · Post by **Quesney Gibbs** » 10 Jul 2004 4:20 am

She Broke My Heart so I Broke Her Jaw

Olli Haavisto · Post by **Olli Haavisto** » 10 Jul 2004 12:54 pm

"What ever happened to me ,
what ever happened to us,
we missed the proverbial boat,
the plane and the train and the bus"

Loudon Wainwright III

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Olli Haavisto
Polar steeler
Finland

[This message was edited by Olli Haavisto on 10 July 2004 at 10:35 PM.]

Lincoln Goertzen · Post by **Lincoln Goertzen** » 11 Jul 2004 3:29 pm

Surely, "She mocked my apartment, so I knocked her flat," must qualify.

Me Neither is probably one of my favorite songs.

Lee- I've looked for that song for YEARS!!!!!!! What are the original lyrics, do you know that, too? (That, to me, is what really makes a parody funny.)

Lincoln

Donna Dodd · Post by **Donna Dodd** » 11 Jul 2004 5:55 pm

"Who's that man . . . running my life?" (can't think of the song or the artist - but something about driving by his old house and seeing his dog in the yard . . .) Somebody help me. Anyway, it's wrenching to hear - very sad.

Eric West · Post by **Eric West** » 11 Jul 2004 6:13 pm

Life goes on Within you, and Without You. -The Beatles-

EJL

Roger Rettig · Post by **Roger Rettig** » 12 Jul 2004 3:22 am

Joe Nichols' 'You ain't Heard Nothing Yet' (sorry, I don't know the writer) - clever.

Too many James Taylor songs to mention, but check out 'Home By Another Way' and 'Junkie's Lament'....

RR

Theresa Galbraith · Post by **Theresa Galbraith** » 12 Jul 2004 3:38 am

Brad & Allison's "Whiskey Lullabye"

He put that bottle to his head and pulled the trigger, trying to erase her memory....[This message was edited by Theresa Galbraith on 12 July 2004 at 04:42 AM.]

C Dixon · Post by **C Dixon** » 12 Jul 2004 9:08 am

Just thought of one great one (IMO).

"I'll never get out of this world alive!"

Bobby Lee · Post by **Bobby Lee** » 12 Jul 2004 9:22 am

"Is it cold in here, or is it just you?"

Ray Minich · Post by **Ray Minich** » 12 Jul 2004 11:54 am

"We grabbed an alligator and we powdered it's behind, And when we touched the powder off, the 'gator lost it's mind."

From a Johnny Horton tune, "The Battle of New Orleans" I think.

Dave Van Allen · Post by **Dave Van Allen** » 12 Jul 2004 12:00 pm

"What a fool I was to think I could get by
with only these few million tears I've cried."
haggard

"you are the angel glow that lights a star
the dearest things I know are what you are"
kern

"when you're lovin' your lover let blue skies be your coverlet"
hart

"I was sittin' with my pen in my hand
Tryin' to write down a song
And I recall thinkin' what's the point
'Cause you can write all you like
But writin' won't right any wrongs

All of this thinkin's got me drunker than drinkin'
And I don't want to think anymore"
mc knight

more to come

Pat Burns · Post by **Pat Burns** » 12 Jul 2004 12:28 pm

..a clever line comes to mind...

"She said we must get together, but I knew it'd never be arranged, so she hands me twenty dollars for a two-fifty fare, and says 'Harry, keep the change'"...

..followed by a better one..

"Well another man might have been angry, and another man might have been hurt, but another man never would have let her go...I stashed the bill in my shirt"....

Harry Chapin, Taxi

...I don't know about clever, but here's one of the best written lines I've ever seen for poignantly describing an indescribable feeling...

"When I was a child, I caught a fleeting glimpse..out of the corner of my eye..I turned to look, but it was gone...I cannot put my finger on it now, the child has grown, the dream is gone"...

Pink Floyd, Comfortably Numb

...and last, a line which is neither clever nor poignant, just a great line from a great song..

"I've smuggled folks and smokes from Mexico, I get baked by the sun, every time I go to Mexico...but I'm willin'..

I've been from Tucson to Tucumcari, Tehachapi to Tonapah...I've driven every kind of rig that's ever been made...I even rode the back roads so I wouldn't get weighed...and if you give me weed, whites, and wine...and you show me a sign, then I'll be willin'...to be movin'.."

Little Feat, Willin'[This message was edited by Pat Burns on 12 July 2004 at 01:39 PM.]

C Dixon · Post by **C Dixon** » 12 Jul 2004 12:50 pm

And another.

"I robbed another man's castle. Now someone just stole her from me"

Ben Slaughter · Post by **Ben Slaughter** » 12 Jul 2004 12:55 pm

Donna, that's Toby Keith, "Who's That Man"

And check out this KILLER link for lyrics!! Just found it in a blind search.
http://lyricisland.topcities.com/

And some more of my fav's:

"B-double E-double Are You In?"
-(Kim Williams/Amanda Williams/Keith Anderson/George Ducas/Kent Blazy), "Beer Run"

"I was first in my class, To the bottom of a glass
But it was killin' me
I used to get loaded, But now I've been voted
Most likely to succeed
-(Michael Peterson/Michael Puryear/Buddy Brook)"I Finally Passed the Bar"

"Well, thank you, could I drink you a buy?
Oh, listen to me, what I mean is can I buy you a drink?
Anything you please."
-(Hank Cochran/Dean Dillion) "The Chair"

"There's two feet of topsoil
A little bit of bedrock, limestone in between
A fossilized dinosaur, A little patch of crude oil
A thousand feet of granite underneath
Then there's me."
-(Brad Paisley/Robert Arthur), "Two Feet of Topsoil"