I need a little help with a paper I'm thinking of writing. The subject is the perfect song lyric.
This is the basic idea: there's lots of music out there. Lots of it sucks. Some of it's good. A small percentage of it is blow-you-away awsome. But sometimes a lyric hits you so hard, a gut-wrenching, purely visceral/emotional response it almost makes the whole song worth listening to just to get to that good bit, even if, without that lyrical punch, it's completely worthless. I'm not talking about a good lyric or a cute turn of phrase, I mean a lyric that instantly fires up your imagination, planting a picture of a scene so eloquently you're left out of breath.
I'm not asking for your favorite lyrics. I'm not asking for what a lyric means to you (it should be apparent in and of itself). I'm asking for a lyric that creates a scene, gives you backstory, tells you much much more than the words do by themselves, all in a few lines.
WARNING: THIS IS NOT EASY. I've been thinking about this for 6 months. I have, as of yet, thought of two.
#1: Don Henley, "The Boys of Summer"
"Out on the road today I saw a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac.
A little voice inside my head said 'don't look back, you can never look back.'"
and
#2: Third Eye Blind, "Slow Motion"
"Miss Jones taught me English,
but I think I just shot her son."
It's worth noting that these aren't from my favorite bands. I actually pretty much despise "Third Eye Blind" and the rest of that song is absolutely terrible. It's a pity that the lyric is the first one heard in the song - I might listen to the rest of it just to hear it. That's the point, really.
So please, reply here. Tell your friends. Just tell 'em to reply here with their choices. Be sure to include the artist, the song and the lyric. I'm planning to publish this if I get enough of these together, and you'll get credit where it's due (of course). :)
Thanks y'all.
Triv