Best and worst lines.......lyrics
 

I thought this would be a fun thread. I will start with Stevie because she truly is a poet and writes some amazing stuff. What are your favorite lines? What are your least favorite lines or corny lines or just plain bad lines.

One of my all time favorite lines are from Edge of 17:

"The clouds never expect it
When it rains
But the sea changes colors
But the sea
Does not change
And so with the slow graceful flow
Of age
I went forth with an age old
Desire to please
On the edge of seventeen"

When I hear those lines....they blow me away every time


One of my least favorite lines from Welcome To The Room Sara:

"Its not home
and its not Tara
In fact do I know you?
Have I been here before?
This is a dream, right?
Deja Vu
Did I come here on my own?"


Another good one that I remember one time someone reviewing Stevie's TOSOTM album made fun of but it is true poetry to me IMHO. It makes sense to me LOL.

Rooms on Fire:

"Somewhere out in the back of your mind
Comes your real life and the life that you know
It seems like to be one of those same old things
It seemed to be the only thing left out in the light"

I also love

"There is magic all around you
if I do say so myself
I have known this much longer than I've know you"


Most romantic line in a Stevie song:
If Anyone Falls:

"I have never known the words
and I have tried to be true
But I have never known what to say
how to say
seen anything today
but I have never seen........
Anything......LIKE YOU

Best: lyrics to 'Moonlight' and to 'Planets of the Universe' - :thumbsup:

Worst: "You'll go down... to the laundromat" :laugh: (I know she didn't write this herself - thank goodness - it's cringe-worthy just to hear)!

Best: And the lady's feeling
Like the moon that she loved
Don't you know that the stars are
A part of us

Actually I could go on and transcribe all the song except...

Worst: You can ride high atop your pony
I know you won't fall...
'cause the whole thing's phoney.

Another onorable mention for the Best is:
Love is a word that some entertain
If you find it
You have won the game

Worst:

You're a front-liner, you put it all on the line
You're consistent, hey and that's good!

Well you're a victim...
Phantom of the opera

What a horrid song.

Wow you guys have come up with some of my favorites too
Bella Donna is full of amazing lyrics. I also love:

No speed limit
This is the fast late
Its just the way that it is here

The ending to Outside the Rain is amazing that someone already mentioned

Also from Beauty and the Beast:
My darling lives in a world of false pleasure and pain
we come...from different worlds
but we are the same

Off the top of my head...

BEST

"It's only me who wants to wrap around your dreams
and have you any dreams you'd like to sell?"

"You say it will be harder in the morning...
I wait for you to say, "Just go."
(^^ that one kills me each time)

"Take on the situation but not the torment..."

"Beautiful...insecure...she has nothing.
She moves from situation to situation like a ghost..."

"Just how deep do you hold that dream in your hands each night...this time?"

"I didn't win or lose...I just threw the cards..."

"You can consume all the beauty in the room..."

"If I were the one who watched over your sleeping
you would never have been frightened at all."

"This is no ticket to dreamland...
a garden for fevers (or feelings) to grow in..."

...I'm sure there are many more I love but can't think of at the moment...

WORST

"She stares at the stairs...there are many things to stare at these days..."

"Everything was the same except that everything was different..."

Those two songs that involve going down to the Laundromat with her forgotten chimpanzee.

"Don't buy that doll!!!"
(^^ even though I really like this song as a whole.)

"I guess she EVEN felt guilty about EVEN dying..."

"And then here was the kiss right out there in the universe
How did that happen? No, it could not have been worse..
You forgot yourself...it could not have been worse..."

Hmmm.

"Never ever been a blue calm sea, I have always been a storm."

"Like a candle burns bright once it burns faster. But maybe then, at least, she really feels."

"Love is the touch of your fingertips. Love is watching you go."

"She is like a cat in the dark and then she is your darkness. She rules a life like a fine sky lark when the sky is starless."

Off the top of my head.

Worst? I don't know. Watch Chain annoys me.

Best:

I know a lot of people don't like this song, but I love the ending lines.

That don't mend the sorrow
Or reinvent the pleasure
Reinvent the pleasure.

~Maria

No, I don't particularly like the song as a tune, but the lyrics make me think of things from real life, the suddenness you feel when relationships shift. It does leave you kind of stumbling around and stunned (like the aftermath of a car accident). I mean, when you look an old picture and realize, "that was taken just a year ago and now we don't even talk". I think Love Changes captures that experience rather nicely.

When love changes in the flash of an eye,
It leaves people burnin' by the side of the road
You stand there you got nothing to hold


Michele

Time cast a spell on you but you wont forget me
I know I could have loved you but you would not let me
I'll follow you down till the sound of my voice will haunt you
You will never get away from the sound of the woman that loves you

Best:

"For me it's the only life that I've ever known and love is only one fine star away...even though the living is sometimes laced with lies it's alright.....the feeling remains even after the glitter fades."

"Rock on gold dust woman take your silver spoon and dig your grave."

"My mind won't rest and I don't sleep not even in my dreams."

Worst:

"You prefer to be just a little bit in and out of love with me."

"She turns around on her second story, "I'll get down!" She says..."

GOOD

She is like a cat in the dark
and then she is the darkness

Dreams unwind
Love's a state of mind

Never have I been a blue calm sea
I have always been a storm

Love is a word that some entertain
If you find it, you have won the game

That is how songs are written,
stories are told, rumors are started

Take your silver spoon
and dig your grave

Hold on, the night is coming
and the starling flew for days

I thought we already did that
Have fun, tell the world

Another lady, another time
Another heartbroken state of mind

Come in, out of the darkness
you are in love with

Let the crises become a bridge
and cross that bridge tomorrow

In my distress, I wanted someone to blame me
In my devastation, I wanted so to change
In my wake, disaster was the only thing I could depend on

Something in my heart died last night
One more chip off an already broken heart

So I close my eyes softly til I become
that part the wind that we all long for some time

You don't give into yourself
You give in to your friends

Faith is a hard thing to hold on to
Sometime I feel that I don't have to

There were candles, crystals
I was anyone's fantasy

The sun is here today
But I requested a storm

She moves from situation to situation
like a ghost

I hear the islands calling, I hear angry words
Flying across the ocean like a sea bird

I've also always liked
"maybe your attention was more than you could do"

It just sounds cool ;)

best ,

Leaving your touch On the edge of my heart & Don't know what my destiny will bring , Just spend eternity with me

Best:
Now, I can't define love
like it should be
That's alright.
That's alright

The stiletto cuts quick
Like a whip through the air

Worst: as ,mentioned above
She stares at the stairs, there are many things to stare at these days (:sorry:Stevie)

Well I talked to my famous friend last night
My third day up... well, his second night-er

Even though I like Thousand Days, for some reason that "But I like some kind of Time/Life edition, tradition, competition" line gets on my nerves. I wish she could have picked something a little different to smooth out the redundancy of Mabel Normand's "even felt guilty, about even dying". Perhaps "she had to feel guilty, about even dying", or "must have felt guilty" might have worked? Then there is the much-maligned "Whatsamattababy" thing. I think that one probably annoys people as much for the way the vocal sounds there as for the words.

Love this

The loneliness of a one night stand is hard to take
We all chase something and maybe this is a dream
The timeless face of a rock and roll woman while her heart breaks
Oh you know the dream keeps coming
Even when you forget to feel

so many of you have hit on the best of her best I won't repeat here.

Worst:

And the dream says I want you
And the dream is gone
So she stays up nights on end
Well at least there is a dream left...

(just how many dreams are there going on here, and is the dream gone, or is it remaining??)



would you change your mind
at the very last moment
would you say stop
for a second
I'll bet you could think
for a minute

(too many minutes, moments, seconds.... even she got them all mixed up singing it live)



and from the same dang song:

you must have had a dream
and you remember it
til the dream follows through
to the end of the dream
and the dream came true

(isn't it against the law to make a song with just the same word over and over? :eek: unless of course you're Bob Dylan):nod:


all of the dam chimpanzee song.

even Mabel Normand for even using the word even too even much.



they may tell you that you hold the world in your hands
but they always give it back

(Wait, if you hold it in YOUR hands, how can THEY give it back? Think she means they TAKE it back.... You can't GIVE back something you don't HAVE. But you can take it back)

And then there are those lyrics that fall through the "in between love and hate" catagory, such as...

"Some carry a stiletto in their garter along with everything else...that they carry..."

We can all think of lines that stroke and touch our heart,
because that is what she does.
She writes from her own heart and is a true poet.
She is a romantic troubadour ...
Some of her lyrics make me cry....
My own favourite is;

-----and many of those dreams pass us by ..keep passing me by---

When it comes to When I See You Again.... I like the interpretation that the line is 'and she stares at the stares, there are many things to stare at these days' about being in rehab. It makes a cringey line better imo

too many loves..
 

"..If I were the one, who watched over your sleeping, you would never have been frightened at all.."

the ending of Beautiful Child (Boston love)... 'I do love you.. I still need you.. I wish, I wish that you were mine.."

".. well, have you come to see that my face is not seen, outside my frost covered windows.. and just how deep do you hold that dream, in your hands each night.. this time..."

"..my soul has soared I have reached great heights.. but the ground is further than I thought.."

"..I used to love you, see the light inside you.. I used to dream that you were an angel.."

Worst? anything with the word "laundromat" in it....

I hate to be overly critical of Stevie's lyrics, especially since her songs mean so much to me, but the chorus of Rooms on Fire has always bugged me. Maybe I'm just thinking that the ROOMs are all on fire every time that you walk in the ROOM. Something about the word room being used twice has always irked me.

I think my absolute favorite line is: All I ever wanted was to know that you were dreaming

It just gives me chills every time I hear it.

It bugs me too! I just don't really care for the repetition (although that's one of Stevie's specialties :laugh: ) It's far from being one of her worst lyrics though.

Someone's gotta wash those clothes, papa.

The entire chorus is clunky, if I do say so myself. The semi-alliteration (rooms/rooms) is awkward and lazy. However, the verses are good.
A better constructed chorus would have employed the actual title instead of "rooms are all on fire."
I reserve myself from further nitpicking and suggestion for the sake of emotional safety.

Best and Worst Lyrics - Unreleased Demos
 

Best

"My soul has soared. I have reached great heights, but the ground is further than I thought."

"In the painting on the wall, she says, 'There it is if you look hard enough!' Nothing more than I could really say or give...nothing but to say, 'I love you so much.'"

"You ask of me...ask of me, nothing...on your terms we're no longer friends..."

"I flew with the stars I was within...within, with him, only meant alone..."

Worst

"You still make me laugh in the laughter we were lost in." (hate this line but LOVE the demo)

"Tell me what have I got to sell...a pink satin dress, a silver tray and an abalone shell..."

"The passenger takes a train. He cannot get off. And the train keeps on for days. Well it isn't enough."

"Well, you can’t say no in the middle of the night. You can’t stay home and give up the fight...well I care about it...Saturday night."

And as always, just my opinion. :D