Favorite Song Lyrics - Out of Context

[Nokomis]

What are some of your favorite lyrics, even taken out of the context of the song. They're just straight up cool lines. Some of my favorites:

I run on whiskey and risk and ennui and impatience.
I like to sleep with the windows open, and you keep the windows closed, so goodbye.
This really blew my mind; the fact that me, an overfed long-haired leaping gnome, should be the star of a Hollywood movie, but there I was!

 

[Ope3]

Too much living is no way to die.

Loose String/Son Volt-Jay Farrar.

Telling the same old story to everyone that she knows,
She's just sitting in her room reading books about UFOs.

Books About UFOs/Hüsker Dü-Grant Hart.

She walked out to the lobby for a box of Junior Mints.

Eiffel Tower High-Bob Mould.

If he was from Venus would he feed us with a spoon?
If he was from Mars that'd be cool.

Alex Chilton/The Replacements-Paul Westerberg

You were thinking I was distressed about some universal press, I was just depressed about my last... pinball game.

Never Really Been/Soul Asylum-Dave Pirner.

 

[tikited]

What are some of your favorite lyrics, even taken out of the context of the song. They're just straight up cool lines. Some of my favorites:

I run on whiskey and risk and ennui and impatience.
I like to sleep with the windows open, and you keep the windows closed, so goodbye.
This really blew my mind; the fact that me, an overfed long-haired leaping gnome, should be the star of a Hollywood movie, but there I was!

 

[short ornery norwegian]

And with her knees up on the glove compartment
She took out her barrettes and her hair spilled out like root beer - Tom Waits, "Burma Shave"

I don't know how much more of this I can take
She's filing her nails while they're dragging the lake - Elvis Costello "Watching the Detectives"

and almost any Frank Zappa song.

 

[tikited]

She said "there is no reason"
And the truth is plain to see
But I wandered through my playing cards
Would not let her be
One of sixteen vestal virgins
Who were leaving for the coast
And although my eyes were open
They might have just as well've been closed

 

[Spaulding!No!]

Pickin up the pieces of my sweet shattered dream. I wonder how the old folks are tonight.

 

[Nokomis]

I'm Buddy Rich when I fly off the handle.
(I like this line because it introduces a generation of rap fans to the greatest drummer of all time and also knows enough about him to know he would berate his band).

I got mad hits like was Rod Carew.

 

[Ope3]

I have always wondered just how much of this song is autobiographical from Jason Isbell. Regardless, I marvel about working "Fungo bat" into the lyric. From Super 8:

------

Then a big boy busted in
Screaming at his girlfriend
Waving around a Fungo bat
Bass player stepping up
Brandishing a coffee cup
Took it in the baby fat

I don’t want to die in a Super 8 Motel
Just because somebody’s evening didn’t go so well

 

[short ornery norwegian]

forgot to include this: the great Warren Zevon -

Big gorilla at the L.A. Zoo
Snatched the glasses right off my face
Took the keys to my BMW
Left me here to take his place

I wish the ape a lot of success
I'm sorry my apartment's a mess
Most of all I'm sorry if I made you blue
I'm betting the gorilla will, too