As a longtime fan of good song lyrics my aim for the New Year is to post regularly some of my chosen examples of what I think is good song lyric writing.  I know they won’t be the same as your choices but then you can post your favourite bits of for me and other to see.
 

Song lyric corner Number 1 
Fairytale of New York by Jeremy Finer and  Shane McGowan 

Male voice (accusingly) ‘I could have been someone’ 
Female voice (dismissively) ‘Well so could anyone’ 
  
The whole song deals in dreams and their loss and these lines are simple yet devastating in her dismantling of his dream. The words echo those of Terry Malloy the Brando character in ‘On the Waterfront’ with his desperate scream of loss and anger at his brother who he thinks has stolen his dream of boxing success  ‘I could have been a contender’. The next line of the song ‘You took my dreams from me’ further expresses the devastating loss that comes when the dream that is true love ends and recrimination inevitably begins. The song ends on a plea for reconciliation with the accusatory ‘Can’t make it all alone, I've built my dreams around you’.