I'll head straight back to that song that has seen me through two or three sticky winters. A fabulous album all told but 1/2 a mark off for not succesfully relaunching Dave "The Gypsy" Essex's career.

From Richard Thompson's (yes, I know, but bear with me) I Ain't Gonna Drag My Feet No more, 'Where I come from feeling is a crime'.
Without getting too Boo-Fucking-Hoo* it sums up my upbringing and what I struggle with even now.

* I coined the term in relation to horrible-childhood books and referred to it in an old thread on misery memoirs. I suspect the conjuction of that and the RT line is not entirely coincidental.

"Was there ever a winter so cold and so sad
The river too weary to flood
The storming wind cut through to my skin
But she cut through to my blood"

from The Poor Ditching Boy

Jeez, how could she ever have left me with taste in music like that?!

The Rocker - The Lizzy

I am your main man if you're looking for trouble
I'll take no lip 'cause no ones tougher than me
If I kicked your face you'd soon be seeing double
Hey little girl, keep your hands off me 'cause I'm a rocker
I'm a rocker!
I'm a roller too, baby
I'm a rocker!

Down at the juke joint me and the boys were stompin'
Bippin' an a boppin', telling a dirty joke or two
In walked this chick and I knew she was up to something
I kissed her right there out of the blue

I said "Hey baby, meet me I'm a tough guy"
Got my cycle outside, you wanna try?
She just looked at me and rolled them big eyes
And said "Ooh I'd do anything for you 'cause you're a rocker"
That's right I'm a rocker!
I'm a roller too, honey
I'm a rocker!

On more melancholy days the first few lines of this verse from Simon and Garfunkel's "America" always hit home:

"Kathy, I'm lost", I said,
Though I knew she was sleeping;
"I'm empty and aching and I don't know why",
Counting the cars on the New Jersey turnpike
They've all come to look for America...

The part that makes this a work of genius is the "though I knew she was sleeping", which multiplies the helplessness.

I once had a girl
or should I say
she once had me?

One of the major questions turned into world weary opening line.

It's not always true that time heals all wounds
There are wounds that you dont wanna heal
The memories of something really good
Something truly real, that you never found again

(From Louise, by the Human League)

Mark Eitzel's penned many a sobering / inspired lyric. For me at least.

Sick of Food

I'm sick of food
So why am I so hungry
I was sick of you
But I dont mind seeing your little face
I was sick of love
So I just stopped feeling
But I couldnt find anything to take its place

What'll I do with my time?

Im sick of drink
So why am I so thirsty
I must have been born on the planet mercury

I just called to ask you what I said last night
I just called to ask you what I did last night

So what'll I do with my time?

Now I wake up and I don't have any gravity
Now I wake up still walking in my sleep
Now I wake up feel the world drawing away from me
And now I wake up still walking in my sleep

I'm sick of food
So why am I so hungry
I'm sick of feeling the world draw away from me

And now I wake up
Yeah I remember
Feel the whole world draw away from me
Now I wake up what good is it
Another bright nothing
Another day

I'm not feeling at my perkiest at the mo (My words, not his)

I hope we have all been in this place, or can be at some stage. Best description of the gibbering idiot love makes of us, blind to the obviousness of it to all else.

"A man is in love, how do I know?
He came and walked with me, and he told me so
In a song he sang, and then I knew
A man is in love with you
A man is in love, how did I hear?
I heard him talk too much whenever you're near
He whispered your name when his eyes were closed
A man is in love and he knows
A man is in love, how did I guess?
I figuered it out while he was watching you dress
He'd give you his all, if you'd but agree
A man is in love and he's me"

My parents got divorced and it was really tough at times but this great song Can Of Worms By Squeeze encaptulates many feelings especially in relation to step parents.

She was married and then divorced
Things seemed to happen that way
The children were confused,
sometimes they'd fight
Sitting in their toys and games
To them she's mummy and I am their friend
Who sits with them on his lap
And sleeps on the sofa on alternate weekends
No substitute for their dad

She's a very good mum
As she tries to explain
Everything that she can
But a child's mind is sharp
They imagine the worst
Sometimes can't understand
That there's so much to learn
When you open a can of worms

So to the park to play on the swings
To give their mother a break
When I saw their father walking down the path
Heading down towards the gate
I froze on the spot, heart in my throat
I hoped he'd not see us there
He soon disappeared and the kids on the slide
Were happy and unaware

I read the papers and made scrambled eggs
The kids got ready to leave
Their dad was taking them for the weekend
With pocket money and sweets
They were excited as they waved goodbye
And I went straight back to bed
Their mother stood and waved as they drove away
Standing on the front door step.

Thank You Chris Difford

... I was really looking for just ONE LINE that somehow sums up everything for you.

...swore by the line...

"There's a kid who had a big hallucination,
Making love to girls in magazines.
He wonders if you're sleeping with your new found faith.
Could anybody love him
Or is it just a crazy dream?"

...certainly, line 2 was appropriate for him judging by his extensive "collection". Personally I'd hope the sum of my being to be slightly more than a rockstar's aphorism, though

"I was young and foolish then, I'm old and foolish now" by they Might Be Giants might just fit.

A punctured bicycle
On a hillside desolate

at the time seemed to sum up my dire attempts at romance