Favourite and not-so-favourite song lyrics

[SidelineKick]

There are some great lyrics to songs that are very poetic then there are lyrics that are pure trash.

One of my favourite lines of a song is from Me and Bobby McGee:

"I'd trade all my tomorrows for a single yesterday"

One of my not-so-favourite lyrics were from the song I believe was called Life:

"I wouldn't like to see a ghost, it's a sight I fear most, I'd rather have a piece of toast, watch the evening news"

That sucks f**king ass.

Are there any lines in particular songs that stand out for you? (For whatever reason)

[SidelineKick]

Ma! Ma! Will you buy me a
Buy me a
Buy me a
Ma! Ma! Will you buy me a
Buy me a ba-nan-a

God its been a while since I've heard anybody sing that!

[Denn Forever]

Not so Favorite

The Lyrics I hate and it has nothing to do with the merits or otherwise of her music is Brittney Spears is "Hit me Baby one more time".  Probably reading to much into it but is this an incitement/acceptance of violence against women?

There is also an All Saints song with similar sentiments that makes my skin crawl.

[full back]

Not so Favorite

The Lyrics I hate and it has nothing to do with the merits or otherwise of her music is Brittney Spears is "Hit me Baby one more time".  Probably reading to much into it but is this an incitement/acceptance of violence against women?

I wouldnt say it is about violence towards women, more about her getting the roide

[Hardy]

Possibly my all-time worst line from a song -  from Horse With No Name by America:

"There were plants and birds and rocks and things ..."

The man who wrote some of the greatest lyrics ever heard, such a A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall also perpetrated some stinkers. This is my worst favourite, so to speak (from The Ballad Of Frankie Lee And Judas Priest):

"For sixteen nights and days he raved,
But on the seventeenth he burst"

(OK - it's followed by "into the arms of Judas Priest"). In fact it's worth reading the lyrics of that whole song - I'm guessing it was writtren by one of his kids when he was about 6. E.g.:

"Oh, yes, he is my friend,"
Said Frankie Lee in fright,
"I do recall him very well,
In fact, he just left my sight."
"Yes, that's the one," said the stranger,
As quiet as a mouse,
"Well, my message is, he's down the road,
Stranded in a house."

[Billys Boots]

On Hardy's theme, Springsteen could write some stinkers along with the great.  On Darkness on the Edge of Town, on the positive side you have 'Adam raised a Cain',:

In the summer that I was baptized, my father held me to his side
As they put me to the water, he said how on that day I cried
We were prisoners of love, a love in chains
He was standin' in the door, I was standin' in the rain
With the same hot blood burning in our veins
Adam raised a Cain

All of the old faces ask you why you're back
They fit you with position and the keys to your daddy's Cadillac
In the darkness of your room your mother calls you by your true name
You remember the faces, the places, the names
You know it's never over, it's relentless as the rain
Adam raised a Cain

In the Bible, mamma, Cain slew Abel and East of Eden, mamma, he was cast
You're born into this life paying for the sins of somebody else's past
Well Daddy worked his whole life for nothing but the pain
Now he walks these empty rooms looking for something to blame
But you inherit the sins, you inherit the flames
Adam raised a Cain

And then you get 'Prove it all night' (ouch):

I've been working real hard, trying to get my hands clean
We'll drive that dusty road from Monroe to Angeline
To buy you a gold ring and a pretty dress of blue
Baby just one kiss will get these things for you
A kiss to seal our fate tonight
A kiss to prove it all night

Prove it all night
Girl there's nothing else that we can do
So prove it all night, prove it all night
And girl I'll prove it all night for you

Everybody's got a hunger, a hunger they can't resist
There's so much that you want, you deserve much more than this
But if dreams came true, oh, wouldn't that be nice
But this ain't no dream we're living out through tonight
Girl, you want it, you take it, you pay the price

Prove it all night, prove it all night
Prove it all night, girl, and call the bluff
prove it all night, prove it all night and girl
I prove it all night for your love

Baby, tie your hair back in a long white bow
Meet me in the fields behind the dynamo
You hear the voices telling you not to go
They made their choices and they'll never know
What it means to steal, to cheat, to lie
What it's like to live and die

To prove it all night, prove it all night
Girl there's nothing else that we can do
So prove it all night, prove it all night
And girl I'll prove it all night for you

[Denn Forever]

Best Lyric from the Bard of Epping, Billy Bragg.

Then she cut her hair and I stopped loving her.[/size]
Put young love so succinctly and accurately.

[downredblack]

Loads of Favorite lyrics ,heres an opener .

Oh must you tell me all your secrets
When it's hard enough to love you knowing nothing

Lloyd Cole - Four Fights up .

[SidelineKick]

Very very relevant in todays current economic climate:

I'm an ordinary man, nothin' special nothin' grand,
I've had to work for everything I own,
Well I never asked for a lot, I was happy with what I got,
Enough to keep my family and my home,
Now they say that times are hard & they've handed me my cards,
They say there's not the work to go around,
When the whistle blows the gates will finally close,
Tonight they're going to shut this factory down,
Then they'll tear it down.

I never missed a day nor went on strike for better pay,
For 20 years I served them best I could,
With a handshake and a cheque it seems so easy to forget,
Loyalty through the bad times and the good,
The owner says he's sad to see that things have got so bad,
But the Captains of industry won't let him loose,
He still drives a car and smokes a cigar,
And still he takes his family on a cruise,
He'll never lose.

Now it seems to me to be such a cruel irony,
He's richer now ever he was before,
Now my cheque is all spent and I can't afford the rent,
There's one law for the rich, one for the poor,
Every day I've tried to salvage some of my pride,
To find some work so's I might pay my way,
But everywhere I go, the answer is always no,
There's no work for anyone here today,
No work today.

And so condemned I stand, just an ordinary man,
Like thousands beside me in the queue,
I watch my darlin' wife tryin' to make the best of life,
God knows what the kids are goin' to do,
Now that we are faced with this human waste,
A generation cast aside,
For as long as I live, I never will forgive,
You've stripped me of my dignity & pride,
You've stripped me bare.

[118cmal]

Two lines from Springsteen's Thunder Road spring to mind:

'You ain't a beauty but hey you're alright' - I think very few people could make such a line seem like a compliment but somehow Bruce does it.

Also 'Like a vision she dances across the porch as the radio plays' - Not amazing lyrics, but it sends a shiver down my spine when I hear that line.  By the way if any of you are unfamiliar with Thunder Road I seriously recommend you download it!

Another classic line IMO comes from James and Sit Down:

'If I hadn't seen such riches I could live with being poor'

[muppet]

The much maligned (in Ireland) Bono wrote:

"Where you live should not decide, whether you live or whether you die" - Crumbs from your table

Given the week that's in it that is my top lyric.

Worst lyric that I can think of:

"Fog on the Tyne 's all mine, all mine" - Trad/Gazza

[Homer]

The Ballad of Ronnie Drew was truly awful and a very unbefitting tribute to the great man.

Here's to you, Ronnie Drew
Here's to you, Ronnie Drew
Ronnie Drew, we love you, yes we do
Here's to you, Ronnie Drew, here's to you

That Bryan McFadden is another stalwart of the Fisher Price lyrics club.

[SidelineKick]

What about good old Ronan Keating and ??:

"You sc**bag you maggot, you're cheap and you're haggard"

That is definitely the worst.

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

Probably the most nonsensical and idiotic line that I've ever had the misfortune to be subjected to, from Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam's Father And Son:

it's not time to make a change
just relax and take it easy
you're still young that's your fault
there's so much you have to know

No it's not his fecking fault, you numpty, what do think he did, put Rohypnol in his mother's vodka and force fed his old man oysters, only 10 years too late?

[Treasurer]

Posted this before I think this is an old song I heard as a child.  A train driver  has a sick, possibly dying, child but cannot get the night off work.  His train passes near his house however so he asks his wife to....

"Just hang a light, I'll pass by tonight
Hang it where it can be seen
If our child is dead, please show me the red
If she lives, then show me the green"