Eagles Lyrics - Favorite One-Liners (or Two)

[Tori]

My goodness, I have way too many favorites to count, because these guys are just too good at what they do. A couple off the top of my head that I love for some reason or another... Sorry for the wall of text in advance!

-"It may be raining / but there's a rainbow above you" is so strangely hopeful to me.
-The whole call-and-response bit in the Desperado/DD reprise - especially "You sealed your fate up a long time ago / now there's no time left to borrow"
-"Beauty in the devil's disguise" and "All this gratification and sick conversation / someone get me outta town" from Good Day In Hell
-I've always love, love, loved "You know I've always been a dreamer, spent my life runnin' round / And it's so hard to change, can't seem to settle down" from TITTL.
-Every lyric in HC is pure genius, let's be real. Favorites include "Some dance to remember, some dance to forget" and the steely knives line because I am a sucker for references. I love how the lyrics have literally painted the same mental picture of "The Hotel California" and its inherent debauchery for me since childhood.
-"We've been up and down this highway, haven't seen a goddamn thing" from LITFL. Along with a couple of the lines central to the meaning of the song that 7 year old me did NOT get the meanings of until much later, like "Lines on the mirror, lines on her face".
-Wasted Time is a goldmine of favorite lyrics for me, but one that's always stuck with me has been "The autumn leaves have got you thinking about the first time that you fell / you didn't love the boy too much, no no you just loved the boy too well".
-"Tell all your girlfriends, your been around the world friends, that talk is for losers and fools" is a great one from my fav Eagles song of all time, Victim Of Love.
-"Hi there, how are ya, been a long time / seems like we've come a long way" is one from PMAIAR that I always seem to remember at Eagles shows... Kinda reminds me that even if I go a while without listening to the boys, they're always there to bring me right back to a state of happiness, like old friends!
-The Last Resort. So, so many in this one. "Where the old world shadows hang heavy in the air" is a favorite because of the stellar imagery it provides for me. The last verses after the key change (one of my favorite key changes ever) are all some of my favorite examples of amazing songwriting from this band, not to mention Don's delivery of those lyrics give me chills every time.
-"I don't know why fortune smiles on some and lets the rest go free" is a GREAT one from Sad Cafe.
-So many great lyrics in Get Over It. But my favorites are "Don't wanna work, you wanna live like a king, but the big bad world doesn't owe you a thing" and "I'd like to find your inner child and kick its little ass". Basically all the lyrics, actually. GOI is my "screw you, world" song.
-From Learn To Be Still, "one more starry-eyed messiah meets a violent farewell". I also kind of want just the phrase "learn to be still" as a tattoo eventually somewhere because I love that phrase/song so much.
-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??)
-"If finding love is just a dance, proximity and chance / you will excuse me if I skip the masquerade" from WITW
-Really, really love the "And we pray to our lord, who we know is American" verses from Frail Grasp. So delightfully, sardonically, politically Henley.
-And lastly, there are SO many in LROOE. But I especially love "Captains of the old order clinging to the reins, assuring us these aches inside are only growing pains" and the last line "All the knowledge in the world is of no use to fools, and it's a long road out of Eden."

This is just a partial list, since EVERY Eagles song has a line or two I really like above all the others. But these are the ones I especially love.

[faded to blue]

I always thought that Desperado was the album that Glenn and Don really begin establish themselves as songwriters, with the help/knowledge of J.D. and Jackson. It's my favourite album and most of favourite Eagles lyrics are from Desperado. Some of them include:

Someone show me how to tell the dancer
From the dance (Saturday Night)

Oh, my, don't the sky look spacious
With the stars all shinin' down (Out of Control)

And all my love's in danger,
'Cause I steal hearts and souls (Outlaw Man)

Well, the towns lay out across the dusty plains
Like graveyards filled with tombstones, waitin' for the names (Doolin-Dalton)

It wasn't for the money, at least it didn't start that way
It wasn't for the runnin', but now he's runnin' everyday (Certain Kind Of Fool)

Sooner or later, that's a stone-cold fact,
Four men ride out and only three ride back (Doolin-Dalton/Desperado Reprise)

And of course the entirety of Hotel California lol.

[Brooke]

There are so many lyrics I love, but a couple more:

Another from Already Gone

When you look up in the sky
You can see the stars and still not see the light

Best of My Love

Wastin’ our time on cheap talk and wine
Left us so little to give

After The Thrill Is Gone

What can you do when your dreams come true
And it's not quite like you planned?

[VAisForEagleLovers]

Tori, your reference to The Sad Cafe is one of my favorite lines and another I quote often. I wonder why fortune smiles on some and lets the rest go free.

Brooke, there's a lot of lines from After The Thrill is Gone that are priceless. Favorites of mine are You don't care about winning but you don't want to lose and Same dances in the same old shoes, you get too careful with the steps you choose. Both of them explain how we're NOT to live our lives. Don't take the safe path with no highs and lows. Live life with all it's ups and downs. Take the risk and aim to win instead of just plodding along a half step better than the person beside you.

[L101]

So many of my favourite lyrics have been posted above so these are just a few extra:

You never cry like a lover:
I thought I saw somebody I loved
Sleeping deep inside you
If I could catch you in an unguarded moment
I'd stay right here beside you (Just the thought of someone (Don ?? ) loving you so much that they are trying their best to find something to hold on to as they don't want to let you go !!)

The best of my love:
Every night I'm lyin' in bed
Holdin' you close in my dreams (Says it all really !!)

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 (Sometimes you just feel that every day is a permanent dog day ....)
Basically all of Waiting in the weeds - such a song!!

My Man:
Tell me the truth, how do you feel?
Like you're rollin' so fast that you're spinnin' your wheels? (Could be a day in my life sometimes - my favourite saying when you are so busy and get nothing done is that you don't know your a**e from your elbow !!)

All of After the thrill is gone - love that song!

[AlreadyGone95]

Ok, now that I can think straight, here's some for me:

Take it Easy: ( i love this whole verse)
-Don't let the sound of your own wheels
drive you crazy
-Lighten up while you still can
don't even try to understand
-Just find a place to make your stand
and take it easy


Outlaw Man, I love the whole song, but my favorite lines are the last lines:
- When you got no life to lose
Then there's nothin' left to gain
Outlaw man
Outlaw man


Desperado:
-These things that are pleasin' you
Can hurt you somehow

Already Gone (besides the line in my signature )
- Just remember this, my girl, when you look up in the sky
You can see the stars and still not see the light

- Already Gone... Alright, nighty night

James Dean:
-You were the lowdown rebel if there ever was
Even if you had no cause

- You were too fast to live, too young to die, bye-bye

One of these Nights:
- You got your demons
You got desires
Well, I got a few of my own


In the City:
- I know there must be somethin' better
but there's nowhere else in sight


I've got more, but I'll save them for another post later.

[thelastresort]

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.

[VAisForEagleLovers]

If we could slip into solo mode for a moment...not that I have a line of lyrics that I'm going to post about... The entire song of Dirty Laundry. Talk about a song with lyrics that mean something and probably mean more now than when it was written. If I had to pick a favorite, it would be People love it when you lose.

[AlreadyGone95]

If we could slip into solo mode for a moment...not that I have a line of lyrics that I'm going to post about... The entire song of Dirty Laundry. Talk about a song with lyrics that mean something and probably mean more now than when it was written. If I had to pick a favorite, it would be People love it when you lose.

I agree that all of the lyrics to that song are great My favorite is probably "You know the boys in the newsroom
Got a running bet
Get the widow on the set
We need dirty laundry"

My overall favorite two liner from Don Henley's solo career is fromy 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".

Perhaps we should create threads in each of the band members' forums for our favorite one liners from their solo careers?

[Freypower]

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!