Just wondered what some people thought were the best individual (or maybe a couple together) lines in a song. I'm not thinking about the overall lyrics to songs, just individual lines that seem to pack their own punch when you hear them. There's a line in a Michael McDermott song I've always liked: "I smiled for a second, and for a second, I felt fine". For some reason, that hits me every time I hear it.

"I'm still confusing love with need" - Gary Numan, "Metal"

I used to be disgusted,
Now I try to be amused.

"You think they're selling you truth, truth is they're selling you out" - Thrice "Hoods on Peregrine"

What? It was the first one that came to mind.

I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die.

Free your mind and your ass will follow.

Love between the uglies is the most beautiful love of all

Ill keep the Thrice lyrics going, "A severed head, as sedative. To be at peace would be a sin, its surely Un-American."

"the switch broke........'cause it's old." - Elvis Costello

Your sister's gone out, she's on a date
And you just sit home and masturbate

Captain Jack, Billy Joel

I said - lady - step inside my hyundai

Puts on Sinatra and starts to cry

"My Name Is Sue! How Do You Do? Now You Gonna Die!"

And in the end the love you take
Is equal to the love you make.

"I wasn't born so much as I fell out"

That's one I love everytime I hear it.

I also like "I read her like a book of matches" from a Buck 65 song.

Sometimes I could sell my soul just to sit and watch you smoke.

First thing that popped in my head

Paul Westerberg has a few doozies...

"God, what a mess on the ladder of success, where you take one step and miss the whole first rung." --Bastards of Young

"Well you wish upon a star that turns into a plane..." --Valentine

Geez, pick ANY Replacements song!

And I've always loved this little bit from Squeeze's "Tempted"...

I fumble for the clock.
Alarmed by
the seduction...

And when the lights came up at two
I caught a glimpse of you
And your face looked like something
Death brought with him in his suitcase

The French Inhaler - Warren Zevon

"You say I choose sadness
that it never once has chosen me.
Maybe you're right..."

The Good That Won't Come Out of Us - Rilo Kiley

"Now that I've met you
Would you object to
Never seeing
Each other
again"

Aimee Mann, "Deathly"

basically ANY song from The Mountain Goats is crammed with great lyric segments, but here's one I'm particularly attached to these days:

"and then Cathy showed up and we hung out
trading swigs from a bottle, all bitter and clean
locking eyes
holding hands
twin high maintenance machines"

song: This Year
band: The Mountain Goats
cd: The Sunset Tree

"Rock and Roll means well, but it can’t help tellin’ young boys lies." Drive By Truckers - Marry Me

A couple favorites from what I've been listening to lately.

"And I go to some barroom to drink with my friends, where the women can't follow to see what I spend." Moonshiner - Uncle Tupelo

"They say a watched pot won't ever boil, well I closed my eyes and nothin' changed, just some water getting hotter in the flames." Neighborhood #4 (7 Kettles) - Arcade Fire

"If children don't grow up, our bodies get bigger, but our hearts get torn up. We're just a million little gods causin' rain storms, turnin' every good thing to rust." Wake Up - Arcade Fire

"20 years of sleep and then we sleep forever." Set Yourself On Fire - Stars