Best Song Lyric NOT about Love.

[Yetmorebeanstocount]

Just that - most songs are about love, so what is the best line you know which is about something else?

Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way

Pink Floyd - 'Time'. The whole song is brilliant, so it is hard to pick the best lines.

The Mississippi delta was shining like a national guitar - Paul Simon

Such a sad song

These mist covered mountains
Are a home now for me
But my home is the lowlands
And always will be

Some day you'll return to
Your valleys and your farms
And you'll no longer burn
To be brothers in arms

Through these fields of destruction
Baptisms of fire
I've witnessed your suffering
As the battle raged high

And though they did hurt me so bad
In the fear and alarm
You did not desert me
My brothers in arms

Dire Straits

This song was on the radio a lot when my dog died. I can't listen to it even now without sobbing:

Wiz Khalifa

It's been a long day without you, my friend
And I'll tell you all about it when I see you again
We've come a long way from where we began
Oh, I'll tell you all about it when I see you again
When I see you again
Damn, who knew?
All the planes we flew, good things we been through
That I'd be standing right here talking to you
'Bout another path, I know we loved to hit the road and laugh
But something told me that it wouldn't last
Had to switch up, look at things different, see the bigger picture
Those were the days, hard work forever pays
Now I see you in a better place (see you in a better place)
Uh
How can we not talk about family when family's all that we got?
Everything I went through, you were standing there by my side
And now you gon' be with me for the last ride
It's been a long day without you, my friend
And I'll tell you all about it when I see you again (I'll see you again)
We've come a long way (yeah, we came a long way)
From where we began (you know we started)
Oh, I'll tell you all about it when I see you again (I'll tell you)
When I see you again
First, you both go out your way and the vibe is feeling strong
And what's small turned to a friendship, a friendship turned to a bond
And that bond will never be broken, the love will never get lost
(The love will never get lost)
And when brotherhood come first, then the line will never be crossed
Established it on our own when that line had to be drawn
And that line is what we reached, so remember me when I'm gone
(Remember me when I'm gone)
How can we not talk about family when family's all that we got?
Everything I went through you were standing there by my side
And now you gon' be with me for the last ride
So let the light guide your way, yeah
Hold every memory as you go
And every road you take
Will always lead you home, home
It's been a long day without you, my friend
And I'll tell you all about it when I see you again
We've come a long way from where we began
Oh, I'll tell you all about it when I see you again
When I see you again
When I see you again (yeah, uh)
See you again (yeah, yeah, yeah)
When I see you again

And momma she'd notice but she's always fighting. Something in her mind. And it sounds like breaking glass

Rumer - Aretha

Savage Garden - Two beds and a coffee machine

“Another bruise to try and hide
Another alibi to write
Another lonely highway in the black of night
But there is hope in the darkness
You know you're gonna make it
Another ditch in the road
You keep moving
Another stop sign
You keep moving on
And the years go by so fast
Silent fortress built to last
Wonder how I ever made it”

Shania Twain - Black Eyes, Blue Tears

“I’d rather die standing, than live on my knees”

Bon Jovi - Living on a prayer

”You live for the fight when it’s all that you’ve got”

I loved Pink Floyd in my youth but don't ever listen to them. The stuff without Roger Waters makes me feel sick.
I also loved Dire Straits and still do. Took me a while to figure out that it's the bass guitar is my favourite bit.
The Knopfler bit is the icing on the cake.

Walk on the Wild Side, Heroin and other Lou Reed songs
Tons of folk and protest songs - eg Christy Moore's line "The local Christian said to me/ You'll lower the price of property on Go Move Shift
"It's eight fifteen
And that's the time that it's always been
We got your message on the radio
Conditions normal and you're coming home" -Enola Gay, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
All the lyrics to Gerry Cinnamon's "Canter"
All of Sinead O'Connor's "Take Me To Church" near the start of which is the line:
What have I been writing love songs for? I don't wanna write them any more
(Then she sings about what she does want to write about and it's a banger)
Lots of Sterophonics songs - eg A Thousand Trees
"It started with a school girl
Who was running
Running home to her Mam and Dad
Told them she was playing, in the change room of the local football side
They said, "Tell us again," she told them again. "Tell us the truth," they find it hard to believe
Cause he taught our boy Steve, he even trained me, taught our John who's a father of three"
Cerys Matthews can write a lyric:
Storm the palace
Storm the palace
Turn it into a bar
Let them work in Spar

Or
I put horses heads
In people's beds
Cos I
am the Mob

That whole album, but especially Hand Me Down probably saved my life.

Well tonight thank God it’s them instead of you!

The whole of American Pie by Don McLean!

Whenever I hear it, I can just picture the whole song playing out as an acting performance in my head!

One of my favourite songs ever

‘The Boy in the Bubble’ is one of my favourite Paul Simon songs. It’s starts with darkness but is ultimately a very hopeful song. The first verse for brevity:

It was a slow day
And the sun was beating
On the soldiers by the side of the road
There was a bright light
A shattering of shop windows
The bomb in the baby carriage
Was wired to the radio

The Beatles already had a few mentions but my personal favourite that works best with a Liverpudlian accent

Get a dose of her in jackboots and kilt
She's killer-diller when she's dressed to the hilt
She's the kind of a girl that makes the "News of the World"
Yes, you could say she was attractively built

Friends are warmer than gold when you're old
And keeping them is harder than you might suppose
Lately, I tend to make strangers wherever I go
Some of them were once people I was happy to know

Mounting mileage on the dash
Double darkness falling fast
I keep stressing, pressing on
Way deep down at some substratum
Feels like something really wrong has happened
And I confess, I'm barely hanging on

All my happiness is gone
All my happiness is gone
It's all gone somewhere beyond
All my happiness is gone

Ten thousand afternoons ago
All my happiness just overflowed
That was life at first and goal to go
Me and you and us and them
And all those people way back when
All our hardships were just yardsticks then, you know
You know

Not the purple hills
It's not the silver lake
It's not the snowcloud shadowed interstates
It's not the icy bike chain rain of Portland, Oregon
Where nothing's wrong and no one's asking
But the fear's so strong it leaves you gasping
No way to last out here like this for long

Purple Mountains - RIP DC Berman

She calls out to the man on the street
He can see she's been crying
She's got blisters on the soles of her feet
She can't walk but she's trying

Oh, think twice, 'cause it's another day for you and me in paradise
Oh, think twice, it's just another day for you
You and me in paradise

Phil Collins
Paradise

Nightswimming deserves a quiet night
The photograph on the dashboard, taken years ago
Turned around backwards so the windshield shows
Every streetlight reveals the picture in reverse
Still, it's so much clearer
I forgot my shirt at the water's edge
The moon is low tonight.

R.E.M.
Nightswimming

A kindred spirit. I saw them twice this year and I was ecstatic.

Strumming my pain with his fingers
Singing my life with his words
Killing me softly with his song
Killing me softly with his song
Telling my whole life with his words
Killing me softly with his song

I like a Roberta Flacks’s version best

and is it or is it not about the great song writer Don McLean 🤷🏻‍♀️

I will see you in the light of a thousand suns
I will hear you in the sound of the waves
I will know you when I come, as we all will come
Through the doors beyond the grave
All alone I came into this world
All alone I will someday die
Solid stone is just sand and water, baby
Sand and water and a million years gone by

Why was I such a young fool
Thought I'd make history
Making babies was the best I could do
Thought I'd made something that could be mine forever
Found out the hard way one can't possess another
And all that you have is your soul
Don't be tempted by the shiny apple
Don't you eat of a bitter fruit
Hunger only for a taste of justice
Hunger only for a world of truth
Cause all that you have is your soul

10CC - Life Is A Minestrone

Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell - The Onion Song

Richard Harris - MacArthur Park, which is a long song about somebody accidentally ruining a cake!

Time it was,
And what a time it was
It was . . .
A time of innocence
A time of confidences
Long ago . . . it must be . . .
I have a photograph
Preserve your memories
They’re all that’s left you

It's a good thing you don't have a bus fare
It would fall through the hole in your pocket and you'd lose it in the snow on the ground
You got to walk into town to find a job (what's enough?)
Tryin' to keep your hands warm (it's so cold)
When the hole in your shoe let the snow come through and chill you to the bone
Somehow you'd better go home where it's warm...

Love of the Common People. Brilliant song

“Can you imagine it? I’m the last Plantagenet” Richard III song from horrible histories just for the ability to rhyme anything with Plantagenet!

I have learnt my lesson well.
The truth is out there I can tell.
Don't look back and don't succumb to their lies and goodbyes.
Live your life without regret.
Don't be someone who they forget.

Just throw your head back, and spit in the wind
Let the walls crack, 'cause it lets the light in
Let 'em drag you through hell
They can't tell you to change who you are
And when the storm's out, you run in the rain
Put your sword down, dive right into the pain
Stay unfiltered and loud, you'll be proud of that skin full of scars
That's all I know so far

@trockodile got in first with Pulp, Common People, so Simon and Garfunkel:

And the sign said, "The words of the prophets
Are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls
And whispered in the sounds of silence"

Hard to chose but for me both from Territorial postings by Nirvana
'Never met a wise man, if so it's a woman'
'Just because you're paranoid, don't mean they're not after you'