Throw Me a Line

I was listening to my iPod earlier today and John Hiatt's song "Thirty Years of Tears" came on. The line "These are tears from a long time ago" hit me like a ton of bricks. (Longtime Verbatim readers know that I'm a big fan of John Hiatt's songwriting; check out the lyrics to "Seven Little Indians" or "Where Did We Go Wrong" or "Real Fine Love" and you'll know what I mean.) It got me thinking about song lyrics and, in particular, single lines that speak volumes. What are some of your favorite one-line wonders?

Comments

[Mark]

"You know I'm tied to you like the buttons on your blouse" - Warren Zevon "Keep Me in Your Heart"

[Michelle]

You're going to laugh and think I'm insane, but when Duran Duran came out with a new album after 10 years back in 1996 or so they had a song my husband loved (it was only okay but he loved it). It had a line that said, "You peel me like an onion skin then wonder at the shape I'm in" and now EVERY TIME I chop onions that line flashes through my mind. First time it was odd, second time a strange coicidence, but the third time I was irked and it's as if a brain pattern was established that I can't break out of. And now it's not as if I can say, "Oh, don't think about that line." My dendritic wiring has been forever altered by Duran Duran! Curse them! See I told you I was odd.

[TwoBusy]

So many to choose from. Today, I'll go with:

"Your love, Kathleen, is for someone that I
swear I could have been."
-American Music Club 'Kathleen'

[Maribel]

"It's our limitations that make us what we are" Catch a Collapsing Star = The Mendoza Line

[Dave]

A John Hiatt back atcha! "There are only two things in life, but I forget what they are." (Buffalo River Home)

[Janeen]

Tom Petty, from "American Girl": Well, she was an American girl, raised on promises.

Dave Edmunds/Elvis, "Girls Talk": There are some things you can't cover up with lipstick and powder.

[Janeen]

I forgot one. Paul Simon, "Cool, Cool River": Sometimes even music cannot substitute for tears.