Sometimes you need to see it written out
No Depression has a started a series where readers ask questions of famed musical people. Lots of pubs take questions from readers, but ND curates with greatness. This exchange with T Bone Burnett, asked about "the greatest lyric couplet of all time," is bound to bring a smile.
In my view the best lyric couplet of all might be from this verse:
She lit a burner on the stove and offered me a pipe
"I thought you'd never say hello" she said "You look like the silent type"
She opened up a book of poems and handed it to me
Written by an Italian poet from the thirteenth century
And every one of them words rang true and glowed like burning coal
Pouring off of every page like it was written in my soul from me to you
Tangled up in blue
I’d take maybe:
“She opened up a book of poems and handed it to me
Written by an Italian poet from the thirteenth century”
Or the next couplet.
Then there is:
Long Tall Sally she’s built for speed
She got every thing that Uncle John need
Then he quotes lines from Cold, Cold Heart and others.
