Re: The best single lyric line ever written?
Date: March 03, 2012 09:41AM
RAMSAY Wrote:
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> This will be familiar to anyone who has heard
> Metallica's cover of this Nick Cave classic on the
> Garage Inc album:
>
> L is for LOVE, baby
> O is for O yes I do
> V is for VIRTUE, so I ain't gonna hurt you
> E is for EVEN if you want me to
> R is for RENDER unto me, baby
> M is for that which is MINE
> A is for ANY old how, darling
> N is for ANY old time
>
> In truth you could get all Cave's lyrics, plaster
> them over a large wall, throw a dart in their
> direction and every time you'll hit a gem. Here's
> another great one from West Country Girl where he
> dissects in bitter detail his split with PJ
> Harvey:
>
> Her widow's peak, her lips I've kissed
> Her glove of bones at her wrist
> That I have held in my hand
> Her Spanish fly and her monkey gland
> Her Godly body and its fourteen stations
> That I have embraced, her palpitations
> Her unborn baby crying, "Mummy"
> Amongst the rubble of her body
>
> And one final, longer one from The Mercy Seat
> about a guilty man waiting to be executed on death
> row without any conscience:
>
> I hear stories from the chamber
> How Christ was born into a manger
> And like some ragged stranger
> Died upon the cross
> And might I say it seems so fitting in its way
> He was a carpenter by trade
> Or at least that's what I'm told
>
> In Heaven His throne is made of gold
> The ark of his Testament is stowed
> A throne from which I'm told
> All history does unfold.
> Down here it's made of wood and wire
> And my body is on fire
> And God is never far away.
>
> Into the mercy seat I climb
> My head is shaved, my head is wired
> And like a moth that tries
> To enter the bright eye
> I go shuffling out of life
> Just to hide in death awhile
> And anyway I never lied.
>
> And the mercy seat is waiting
> And I think my head is burning
> And in a way I'm yearning
> To be done with all this measuring of truth.
> An eye for an eye
> And a tooth for a tooth
> And anyway I told the truth
> And I'm not afraid to die
>
> Okay I've gone way over the top there as they're
> hardly single lyrics, but I think I've just
> reminded myself how much I love Nick Cave's
> storytelling!!
Never thought I'd find another Nick Cave fan on here !
"I wasn't born with enough middle-fingers" - Marilyn Manson...teenage angsty but brilliant !
And not a single line but brilliant lyrics...
"When I first came to London I was only sixteen
With a fiver in my pocket and my ole dancing bag
I went down to the dilly to check out the scene
And I soon ended up on the old main drag
There the he-males and the she-males paraded in style
And the old man with the money would flash you a smile
In the dark of an alley you'd work for a five
For a swift one off the wrist down on the old main drag
In the cold winter nights the old town it was chill
But there were boys in the cafes who'd give you cheap pills
If you didn't have the money you'd cajole or you'd beg
There was always lots of tuinol on the old main drag
One evening as I was lying down by Leicester Square
I was picked up by the coppers and kicked in the balls
Between the metal doors at Vine Street I was beaten and mauled
And they ruined my good looks for the old main drag
In the tube station the old ones who were on the way out
Would dribble and vomit and grovel and shout
And the coppers would come along and push them about
And I wished I could escape from the old main drag
And now I'm lying here I've had too much booze
I've been spat on and shat on and raped and abused
I know that I am dying and I wish I could beg
For some money to take me from the old main drag" - Shane McGowan