Eagles Lyrics - Favorite One-Liners (or Two)

[sodascouts]

-From Hole In The World, "They say that anger is just love disappointed / they say that love is just a state of mind". (Random side note... could that be a throwback to Stevie Nicks/Fleetwood Mac? "Dreams unwind, love's a state of mind" from the very end of Rhiannon... Hmmmm..... Am I the only one who's noticed that??)

I'm a huge Fleetwood Mac fan and I noticed the similarity - he does say "they say..." like it's a common phrase, but really the only person I've heard say it like that is Stevie Nicks. lol Maybe it was a subconscious borrowing.

Waiting in the weeds:
And though I heard some wise man say
That every dog will have his day
He never mentioned that these dog days get so long ...

Always disliked the repetition of the word 'dog' here, otherwise I'd agree with you that most of WITW is worthy of this thread.

I actually like the fact that he chose to extend the metaphor by putting a twist on how it's used. Indeed, I found it quite clever!

[NightMistBlue]

From Wasted Time:

I could have done so many things baby
If I could only stop my mind
From wondering what I left behind
And from worrying 'bout that wasted time

Sadly I think this applies to me occasionally. It didn't take long to get away from it being one liners!

That whole song is devastating (as is The Last Resort). What makes the bit you quoted particularly powerful IMO is that throughout the song he's been quite tough and judgmental towards the woman, but then turns it around on himself and admits to being flawed and full of regret also.

That's how I interpret it anyway.

[sodascouts]

Some more I came up with:

You Never Cry Like a Lover
"Your life goes on like a broken down carousel where somebody left the music on"
I hate this song, but I love the sophistication of this metaphor

My Man
"My man's got it made; he's gone far beyond the pain and we who must remain go on living just the same"
Moving, powerful, relatable message

James Dean
"I know my life would look alright if I could see it on the silver screen"
Love this metaphor and sometimes I think of my life like a movie, weirdly enough, in terms of self-awareness about how I live and how people's perceptions of me would change if they could see all my secrets ; I sometimes imagine what a commentator would say if he observed me; this also plays into the idea that God is constantly watching; it's all very meta, lol

Ol' 55
"Stars beginning to fade and I lead the parade"
This metaphor is open to interpretation and makes you think - what's going through his head? Yet, even though it's a bit myserious, the emotion in the vocal lets you know that whatever he's thinking means a lot to him. I love that.

Best of My Love
"That same old crowd was like a cold, dark cloud that we could never rise above, but here in my heart, I give you the best of my love"
This metaphor really communicates their situation - both cynicism and sincerity wrapped up in one

Already Gone:
"So often times it happens that we live our lives in chains but we never even know we have the key"
How freaking true is this? A very resonant lyric

[thelastresort]

I give it until the end of June before we've quoted every Eagles line.

Another one I love that never even made the studio cut was 'Don't know if I'm growing wise, or telling lies' from Tequila Sunrise, I think that can apply a lot to life. And yes, I also keep the 'We may lose...' line from TIE in my head a lot!

Some of the best of the rest for me:
'If you're fast, and if you're lucky, you will never see that hanging tree' - Doolin-Dalton. Sums up the lawless and anything goes nature of the Old West pretty succinctly.

What you get is not quite what you choose. - How Long. As with TS, very telling of life.

'It's like going to Confession every time I hear you speak' - Get Over It. Not one of Don's more gentle lines, but it always makes me smile.

[DJ]

This is a fun thread. I think I could have picked a better name for it though because I didn't really intend this to necessarily be limited to one or two lines. Hey, we're talking Eagles songs here - in some cases a whole verse may be worthy of inclusion.

In reading everyone's comments, I was thinking that I could probably find a really good lyric in just about everyone of their songs, so I'm going to start at the beginning and post a few at a time that may not have already been mentioned ...

Take It Easy - Heck, this song has so many great lines that we could probably post the entire song, but a few others that stand out to me are the oft quoted "Lighten up while you still can", as well as one of the great double entendres "We may lose and we may win, but we will never be here again, so open up I'm climbin' in".

Witchy Woman - I love the imagery of "A restless spirit on an endless flight", as well as, "She drove herself to madness with a silver spoon", although I had no idea what this one meant for the longest time.

Chug All Night - I think there a few really good lines in this one. My favorite is probably "I'm wired for sound. Are you wired for light?" - very clever.

Dreamer I've always loved that lyric from Chug........

[sodascouts]

I like that one, too - can't believe I forgot it!

[GlennLover]

Dreamer I've always loved that lyric from Chug........

I've always loved it too, once I found out what he was singing there. For some reason those words were the only ones in the song that I couldn't understand. I had to look up the lyrics.

[AlreadyGone95]

I'm kind of shocked that no one has mentioned the chorus of Lyin Eyes (unless I missed it)
You can't hide your lyin eyes
And your smile is a thin diguise
I thought by now you'd realize
There ain't no way to hide your lyin eyes

Some more I thought of:

LITFL:
- He was brutally handsome and she was terminally pretty
-Eager for action and hot for the game
The coming attraction, the drop of a name
They knew all the right people, they took
all the right pills

Hotel California:
-And I was thinking to myself,
"This could be Heaven or this could be Hell"
- And she said "We are all just prisoners here, of our own device"

The Long Run-
- I used to hurry a lot, I used to worry a lot
I used to stay out till the break of day
Oh, that didn't get it,
It was high time I quit it
I just couldn't carry on that way
Oh, I did some damage, I know it's true
- Well, we're scared, but we ain't shakin'
Kinda bent, but we ain't breakin'

Greeks Don't Want No Freaks:
-She was the pride and the passion of Dixie
She did exactly what her daddy had planned.
She was perfect little sister until somebody missed
her and they found her in the bushes with
the boys in the band


Get Over It:
They point their crooked little fingers at everybody else
Spend all their time feelin' sorry for themselves
Victim of this, victim of that
Your momma's too thin; your daddy's too fat


How Long: (can JD's lyrics count?)
- Well I been doin' time in lonesome prison, where the sun don't shine
Just outside, the freedom river runs

Smuggler's Blues:
- I knew the gun was loaded, but I didn't think it'd kill

[Freypower]

New Kid In Town is my favourite Eagles lyric. The best line is 'they will never forget you etc' but I love 'great expectations/everybody's watching you' because I never thought I would hear a rock song which referenced Charles Dickens.

[maryc2130]

What you get is not quite what you choose. - How Long. As with TS, very telling of life.

'It's like going to Confession every time I hear you speak' - Get Over It. Not one of Don's more gentle lines, but it always makes me smile.

The How Long line you quoted kind of reminds me of the line from Desperado: It seems to me some fine things have been laid upon your table, but you only want the ones that you can't get.

Both great lines!

The Get Over It line you quoted always makes me think that it should be it's like hearing a confession every time I hear you speak. But maybe I'm missing something!

I'll have to come back later with my favorites, although there are WAY too many of them to try and condense into one post.