The best *one line* from song lyrics?

[Herbie]

Yeah, another one of those threads...

The stress on the 'one line' being 'cos we've had lots of threads on 'great lyrics', but people end up (myself included) cut 'n pasting whole songs, which I suspect no-one else ever reads. Basically, no cut 'n pasting...if it's too long to type, it's too long.

Two of my favourites, to kick off...

First, for all the Beatles-haters among us:

"Eleanor Rigby, wearing a face that she keeps in a jar by the door"

...the simplicity yet strikingness of the image, the monsyllabicity (shutup) and unshowiness of the words, and the overall understated rhythm of the phrase perfectly conveying the song's quiet melancholy.

And, perhaps my favourite:

"We're so happy we can hardly count."

"Oh and by the way, which one's pink?" is generally quoted as the standout from 'Have a cigar boy', but I just love the brash, vulgar humour of my preferred line. Again, it's the ethos of the song (if not the entire album) summed up in one pithy phrase.

If God was one of us?..Just a slob like us...On a bus like one of us...just trying to make his way home


Joan Osbourne

 

[Speicher]

You have no right to ask me how I am, you have no right to speak to me so kind.

Phil Collins - Separate Lives.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

Johnny Cash Long Black Veil

The Judge said "son what is your alibi?
If you were somewhere else you wont have to die"
I spoke not a word though it meant my life
I'd been in the arms of my best friends wife.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

The Doors Stoned Immaculate

Everything was simpler and more confused

 

[Deleted member 1258]

Queen 39

For the day I take your hand In the land that our grandchildren knew

 

[stevede]

You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.

Eagles - Hotel Califonia

 

[junglegusset]

'You're so vain you probably think this song is about you'

 

[Paulus]

From Pink Floyd----I turned to look, but it had gone, the child had grown.

 

[TVC]

Now it's too late to lose the weight you used to need to throw around.

That would be Pink Floyd again, and a whole painting in one line:

I've a strange hobby, collecting clothes, moonshine, washing line.

 

[swee'pea99]

Breaking my own rule, two lines - one of God knows how many exquisitely-crafted couplets from the master of such, Noel Coward, from his 'Bronxville Darby & Joan':

With our deep subconscious minds we seldom dabble
But something must impel the words we spell when we're playing scrabble