Great Lyrics...

Pink Floyd - Time

The whole song has cracking lyrics, but this line in paticular is insirational:

The sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older.
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death.

[Paul the 6th]

it's all forced love and affection, you don't want me you just like the attention

la roux - I'm not your toy (prefer the data or mebbeh boy 8-bit remix to the radio edit)

[squirrel_hunter]

My favourite opening line to a song...

Originally Posted by Eels - Last Stop: This Town

You're dead but the world keeps spinning

Originally Posted by Damien Rice - La Professor & La Fille Danse

Loving is fine if you have plenty of time
For walking on stilts at the edge of your mind

Originally Posted by Barenaked Ladies - War On Drugs

Near where I live there's a viaduct
Where people jump when they're outta luck
Raining down on the cars and trucks below.
They put a net there to catch their fall
Like that'll stop anyone at all
What they don't know is when nature calls you go.

Lots more to choose from, though...

mansun _ wide open space (also perfecto remix is ace)

im in a wide open space ,its freezing
you'll never get to heven with a smile on your face for me
,im in a wide open space ,im stareing ,
there is something quite bizare i cannot see

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIHBQzIv6FM

I would've liked you to have been deep frozen too
and waiting still as fresh in your flesh for my return to Earth
But your father refused to sign the forms to freeze you
Let's see you'd be about 60 now,
and long dead by the time I return to Earth
My time held dreams were full of you,
as you were when I left; still underage
Your android replica is playing up again, it's no joke
When she comes she moans another's name

Hawkwind - Spirit of the Age

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.

Nick Cave - The Mercy Seat

Nearly all of Nick Cave's songs have astounding lyrics. Who else would think to compare the Biblical Ark of the Covenant with the electric chair.

I'll face it with a grin!
I'm never giving in!
On with the show!

Queen - The Show Must Go On

Unchain the colours before my eyes,
Yesterday's sorrows, tomorrow's white lies.
Scan the horizon, the clouds take me higher,
I shall return from out of fire.

iron maiden "remember tomorrow"

or
Who left the cap of the toothpaste tube
Who forgot to flush the loo
Leave your sweaty socks outside the door
Don't walk across my polished floor, oh judy

marillion "punch and judy"

[CheGuevara]

I'm a massive fan of The Tragically Hip (a Canadian band I'd guess most here haven't heard of, but have been massive in Canada for over 20 years). Their lyrics have got to be some of the most interesting and debated as to meaning. Anyhow I'm hard-pressed to come up with any single song of theirs as my favourite, nevermind a line or two, but the first two lines of "At the Hundredth Meridian" always make me smile:

Me debunk an American myth?
And take my life in my hands?

Which to me refers to how wound-up Americans (or America as a nation) can get when challenged about their often-skewed perception of the world and historical events.