Favorite Lines In Lyrics

[Razor X]

From the corners of the country, from the cities and the farms
With years and years of livin', tucked up underneath their arms,
They walked away from everything just to see a dream come true,
So God bless the boys who make the noise on 16th Avenue.

With a million dollar spirit and an old flat top guitar,
They drive to town with all they own in a hundred dollar car,
'Cause one time someone told them about a friend of a friend they knew,
Who owns you know a studio on 16th Avenue.

Now some are born to money they never had to say survive,
And others swing a nine pound hammer just to stay alive,
There's cowboys, drunks and Christians mostly white and black and blue,
They've all dialed the phone direct to home from 16th Avenue.

Ah but then one night in some empty room where no curtains ever hung,
Like a miracle some golden words roll off of someone's tongue,
And after years of being nothing they're all lookin' right at you,
And they for awhile they'll go in style on 16th Avenue.

Hey it looks so uneventful, so quiet and discreet,
But a lot of lives were changed there on that little one-way street,
'Cause they walked away from everything just to see a dream come true,
So God bless the boys who make the noise on 16th Avenue.

[indulgedcountrymusic]

From "Heart Like Memphis" by The Carter Twins:

"She's got a smile like California, she's got a spirit like New Orleans
Eyes like the lights of New York City, yeah, cool as a Carolina breeze
But underneath she's got a heart like Memphis."

[Rose]

I have loved Alan Jackson's Midnight in Montgomery since my dad bought that album when it came out, which would've made me 7. The lyrics just really struck my fancy for some reason, and my imagination really ran wild with it. I saw him live for the first time when I was about 9 (first concert I ever went to), and I don't remember much about it, but I can remember him singing that song like it was yesterday. It was so eerie with the smoke machines and everything (hey, I was 9 - it seemed really cool at the time!) and the blue lights, and it's such a spooky song anyway...I'll never forget that. Thanks, Alan.

Thing is, I didn't have a good grasp of who Hank Williams was at that point, so I kind of pictured a guy who looked a lot like Hank Jr. with a big beard and everything, only a lot older. Just when I didn't think that song could get any sadder, I found out a lot of years later that Hank had died at age 29 and was by no means an old man with a big gray beard. That was definitely kind of a shock when I found that out.

But in other ways, I appreciate all the references to him a lot more now. I didn't exactly understand why he was in Montgomery at midnight on New Year's Eve at the time, and I didn't know that a lot of the lyrics came from Hank's songs themselves. For example, I always really liked the part about "the stars light up the purple sky," which is taken from I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry...it always made me want to visit Alabama just to see the night sky - I'd still like to go, actually. I know it wouldn't be like the really specific picture those words painted in my mind - a literally royal purple sky with clouds rushing by, letting in and then cloaking the light from huge, shining stars like the ones in all those Disney cartoons about the Old West - but I still want to see it. Um, sorry to write a novel here, and probably a boring one at that, but I didn't want to just post the lyrics, because while there are some lyrics I just plain like, others have had a lifetime of history with me, and I wanted to do justice to them just this once.

Midnight in Montgomery, silver eagle, lonely road
I was on my way to Mobile for a big New Year's Eve show
I stopped for just a minute to see a friend outside of town
Put my collar up, I found his name, and felt the wind die down

Then a drunk man in a cowboy hat took me by surprise
Wearing shiny boots, a Nudie suit and haunting haunted eyes
He said 'Friend it's good to see you, it's nice to know you care'
Then the wind picked up and he was gone
Was he ever really there

'Cause it's midnight in Montgomery
Just hear that whipporwill
See the stars light up the purple sky
Feel that lonesome chill
Cause when the wind is right, you'll hear his songs
Smell whiskey in the air
Midnight in Montgomery
He's always singing there

Well, I climbed back on that eagle, took one last look around
Through red tail lights a shadow moved slow across the ground
And off somewhere a midnight train is slowly passing by
I could hear that whistle moaning
I'm so lonesome I could cry

'Cause it's midnight in Montgomery
Just hear that whippoorwill
See the stars light up the purple sky
Feel that lonesome chill
'Cause when the wind is right, you'll hear his songs
Smell whiskey in the air
Midnight in Montgomery
He's always singing there
He's always singing there
Hank's always singing there

[JR Journey]

If I don’t break down and bring it on myself it’ll hit right out of the blue
that’s the difference between the whiskey and you

[JR Journey]

And I hope she can fix you
I hope she's someone who will never let you down
I hope she reminds you nothing of me and - as crazy as crazy as it sounds I hope she's beautiful

[JR Journey]

I think about holding you and kissing you, wanting you and missing you

Clock is tickin’ and the wind is howlin’ and I’m just starin’ at the candle burnin’
Bottle of red that we never opened
Your voice in my head tossin’ and turnin’
The radio is playin’ our song, I can’t sing along, can’t even listen
I dial your number but I don’t let it ring

I think about holding you and kissing you, wanting you and missing you
Building up and breaking down walls
I dream about finding you and keepin’ you, lovin’ you and livin’ you
I’m tellin’ you want it all, all of you

I can't let go and I can't keep holding on to nothin' but I just keep tryin’ to tell myself there’s a damn good reason but
it’s not enough to keep me from cryin’
I’ve memorized every look, every touch, every time you told me our hearts weren’t lying
I’m wondering now, do you even know?

I think about holding you and kissing you, wanting you and missing you
Building up and breaking down walls
I dream about finding you and keepin’ you, lovin’ you and livin’ you
I’m tellin’ you want it all, all of you

I can’t break free of you, I don’t know how
Oh, I’m not about to let go of you. I love you. I need you now

I think about holding you and kissing you, wanting you and missing you
Building up and breaking down walls
I dream about finding you and keepin’ you, lovin’ you and livin’ you
I’m tellin’ you want it all, all of you

All of you ...

[Drew]

And I hope she can fix you
I hope she's someone who will never let you down
I hope she reminds you nothing of me and - as crazy as crazy as it sounds I hope she's beautiful

Yep, great song.

[Razor X]

I love you so much, I can't let you go
And sometimes I believe you love me
But somewhere between your heart and mine
Is a door without any key.

[Mike K]

Ane I don't wanna hear how your time are hard
Gotta pull the weeds from my own backyard
I'm sitting here and drwoning in my sorrow
Hope things aren't like this tomorrow

[Chris J]

(The chorus from Keith Urban's "I'm in"

If I knew what I was doing
I'd be doing that by now
I'd be the best damn poet
Sliver words from my mouth
And my words may not be magic
But, the cut straight to the truth
So if your lookin' for a lover and a friend
Baby I'm in

[Stormy]

That would be Radney Foster's I'm In.

[Chris J]

Well, I guess Keith Urban just covered the song...and now thanks to you I want to hear Rodney's version.

[Stormy]

Go with the live version on Are You Ready for the Big Show.

[Chris J]

I'll just have to go to myspace music and here the version on "Are you ready for the big show)

[Rainbow]

Well, I've walked a hundred miles
Pacin' up and down the halls
Another pot of coffee and I'm bouncin' off the walls
Smokin' like a chimney
Cussin' up a storm
Damn, I need your lovin'
Baby come back home

[Rose]

"If you don't like the way I'm livin'
Why don't you just leave this long-haired country boy alone?"

If more people would follow that (substituting "long-haired country boy" for any group of people you want), the world would have a lot fewer problems.

And I know it's just pointless pondering, so ignore this if you want, but it's been bugging me: why in Travis Tritt's song "Modern Day Bonnie & Clyde" are they "rollin' north on 95" to Richmond if they started out in Johnson City, TN? It really IS "a long way to Richmond" if you go that way, because that means you just took the world's hugest detour through all of NC just to get on 95. Obviously these aren't exactly criminal masterminds we're talking about here, if a Californian could figure that one out...

[JR Journey]

And I know it's just pointless pondering, so ignore this if you want, but it's been bugging me: why in Travis Tritt's song "Modern Day Bonnie & Clyde" are they "rollin' north on 95" to Richmond if they started out in Johnson City, TN? It really IS "a long way to Richmond" if you go that way, because that means you just took the world's hugest detour through all of NC just to get on 95. Obviously these aren't exactly criminal masterminds we're talking about here, if a Californian could figure that one out...

I've always wondered that too, Rose. Since 95 runs pretty much up and down the east coast, they had to go out of their way just to get on the interstate ... maybe it was to throw the cops off their trail?

[Rose]

I've always wondered that too, Rose. Since 95 runs pretty much up and down the east coast, they had to go out of their way just to get on the interstate ... maybe it was to throw the cops off their trail?

Maybe so...okay, I like that answer. I'm going to stick with that because nothing else makes sense, heh!

[Razor X]

Mama loved Daddy, but Daddy loved trains
The steel rails controlled him like whiskey in his brain
Number two diesel fuel flowed through his veins,
Mama loved Daddy, but Daddy loved trains.

[JR Journey]

Imagine a world where no music was playing
And think of a church with nobody praying
Have you ever looked up at a sky with no blue?
Then you've seen a picture of me without you