Favorite Lyricists?

I'm of the general belief that most pop and rock music, even good pop and rock music, features shit lyrics. I've come to accept it over the years. For basic lyrical control I pick Tom Petty (again. I know I'm a broken record). Warren Zeavon was always greatbecause he was a storyteller, and his tongue was often crammed in his cheek. Less serious lyrics and lyrics that tell a story have a more lasting effect on me than more personal songs. Chuck D is probably my favorite hip-hop lyricist. A few more picks would be Mick Jagger, DAvid Bowie, Joe Stummer, and every writing member of The Band.

Alex Turner from Arctic Monkeys - he has such an unattached, but charming way with his words, it's like listening to stories from your stoner friend with the biggest vocabulary, a british accent, and an awesome attitude. This is one of my favorites off of the new album:
"Thats right, he wont let her out his sight
Now the shaggers perform
And the daggers are drawn
Whos the crooks in this crime?"

Mike Patton - Some of his lyrics are shit, but I love it when he just goes overboard with the sarcasm and apathy. Especially on the King for a Day... album. Case in point: "your menstruating heart isn't bleeding enough for two" or "it's always funny until someone gets hurt, and then it's just hilarious".

Some of the obvious choices...Dylan, Lennon, Mark E. Smith from The Fall.

Craig Finn from The Hold Steady is probably the best lyricist working in the business now. I like the sarcasm from the guy in Art Brut too. Agree about Well Sheff and John Darnielle.

I think Roger Waters is a great lyricist...and I always find his lyrics dripping with sarcasm, self-doubt and anger. He's a bit too verbose at times (can an album be too wordy?) but I love it....at least with early Pink Floyd. But even a sub-par album like The Final Cut is elevated a little by his wordplay.

Malkmus with Pavement. Early Beck. For rap, I don't think you can get better than MF Doom. The guy's not even as strong of an MC then someone like Chuck D (great pick, by the way) but his wordplay and vocab. are so impressive that it doesn't even matter.

Dylan, Morrissey, Nick Cave, Stephen Malkmus, Springsteen, Will Sheff, Leonard Cohen, John Darnielle, Alex Turner, Chuck D. Those are favorites off the top of my head.

Andrew named most of mine. Tom Waits.

Conversely, some of my favorite music ever is R.E.M. from 1983-1986, and you can't tell what the fuck Stipe is saying. His vocals are just another instrument in the arrangement.

Joni Mitchell.

I love Mike Patton's lyrics but it's funny that he dismisses them himself. He always says that he's more concnerned about the sound a word makes then the actual meaning, but I think he combines both superbly.

Phil, Waits is a great choice. I'll also add Paul Westerberg and Kurt Cobain.

I'm also going to throw a dark horse contender in here: Brad Roberts of The Crash Test Dummies. I hate that here in the U.S. the band as a whole is generally written off as a one hit wonder gimmick band, but I have always admired Robert's lyrics which combine whimsy and sentiment better than BNL ever dreamed of:

Glad to see the love for Sheff. He's astounding, especially in that he's one of the few guys whose lyrics read just as well as they sound. He's also rare in that he balances a lot of the poetic tricks you expect from a good lyric writer with the instincts of a fiction writer. He seems to acknowledge this, as well - if you look at the liner notes for the last two Okkervil River albums, some of the lyrics appear in paragraph-like chunks, some in typical stanza form.

He's probably my favorite new-ish guy out there right now, but Finn is very good (although I fear he's starting to lean a little too heavily on self-referentiality and his catalog of stock phrases); Matt Berninger from the National has a way with a killer phrase, if not always sustained narrative; and John Vanderslice sometimes astounds me with his subject matter and sympathetic characterizations. When Ben Gibbard (Death Cab for Cutie, Postal Service) is at his best, he comes up with amazing, metaphysical poet-like, metaphors. Neko Case didn't really impress me, lyrically, up until her last album, but there were some stellar turns of phrase on that - she keeps getting better.

To get out of indie rock land for a second, Patty Griffin is a logical extension of late 70s, early 80s Springsteen with her stories about small-town life and everyday minutiae. Freedy Johnston (who's all-but-forgotten these days) also had a run of three fantastic albums in the 90s that work on this stripped-down narrative level.

As for sheer bang-for-the-buck, though, it's still hard to beat Elvis Costello. He's put out some subpar stuff (usually when he consciously tries to write in an unfamiliar style, like on North), but his facility for language - rhymes, puns, just sheer level of vocabulary - is practically unsurpassed. He'd probably disagree, but I think he's out-Dylan'ed Dylan pretty regularly.

I so admire DaveB's knowledge of music and artists. I can't tell you how many albums I've bought because of him.

I also want to include David Byrne as another favorite lyricist.

And Rhett Miller.

Tom Wait has already been listed so I'll have to say Lyle Lovett. He combines absurd almost stream-of-consciousness lyrics with quiet introspective songs and then he can tell a story better then anyone.
Absurd:

I don't go for fancy cars
For diamond rings
Or movie stars
I go for penguins
Oh lord I go for penguins

I'm still not sure what this song is about. Are the penguins a metaphor? Or are they just absurd?

Introspective:

Who keeps on trusting you
When you've been cheating
And spending your nights on the town
And who keeps on saying that he still wants you
When you're through running around
And who keeps on loving you
When you've been lying
Saying things ain't what they seem
God does
But I don't
God will
But I won't
And that's the difference
Between God and me

A pretty good 'fuck you' song if I've ever heard one.

Storytelling:

And now everyone was getting so hungry
That the old ones started feeling ill
And the weak ones started passing out
And the young ones they could not sit still

And the preacher's voice rose higher
So I snuck up on the balcony
And I crept into the choir
And I begged them brothers, sisters, help me please

I said when I give you a signal
I said when I raise up my hand
Won't you please join with me together
And praise the Lord I have a plan

And the preacher he kept preaching
Long is the struggle, hard the fight
And I prayed, Father please forgive me
And then I stood up and with all my might
I sang

To the Lord let praises be
It's time for dinner now let's go eat
We've got some beans and some good cornbread
And I listened to what the preacher said
Now it's to the Lord let praised be
It's time for dinner now let's go eat

This whole song is awesome but the story is just a funny little bizarre tale that it takes it right over the top.

Michael Stipe

Once you actually understood what he was saying from Pageant on he had some fantastic lines. Also as much as REM gets critisized for anything in the 90s on Stipe wrote some beautiful fantastic lyrics for Up. Lyrically that album is amazing.

Robert Pollard, in his GBV days, never failed to hold my attention with his lyrics. You could probably write several books trying to interpret what the hell a lot of the songs were about, but the way he used language was poetic and gripping, even as it was supported by giant powerpop hooks that would sneak the words by you.

Hell, he's responsible for this line: "Doo doo doo doo doo doo, kicker of elves."

I run kind of hot and cold on his solo stuff, both during and post-GBV.

Waits and Costello are so far above and beyond everybody else to me. Waits is who he is, and he's amazing at it. Elvis is the only lyricist that I can remember actually making me ache with certain lines though. His use of language can make you identify with a song or an individual in a song in uncanny ways.

I'm probably alone on this but I really love Win Butler's turns of phrase for the Arcade Fire. On first listen a lot of his lyrics, especially on Funeral, are hard to distinguish but there are some absolutely great little lines in most Arcade Fire songs. I'm particularly fond of his vague rantingish monologue in Antichrist Superstar and some of the more whimsical stuff in Funeral 'so the neighbours can dance in the police disco lights"

Already mentioned favorites: Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Lennon, Tom Waits, Warren Zevon, Elvis Costello, Bruce Springsteen, and Tom Petty. Now, the others:

Woody Guthrie. It's kind of weird to have Guthrie, Dylan, and Petty on the same list because of how direct of an influence both predecessors had on their successor. However, early Dylan is clearly an imitation of/homage to late career/post-Huntington's Disease Guthrie and all the people directly influenced by him--including Petty--seem to derive most of their influence from later periods.

Guthrie himself, however, is markedly different from even Dylan. While Dylan was the king of the "protest song," he doesn't really wear his own political leanings on his sleeve in his work and--by all accounts--he has never actually been a political activist. Guthrie, on the other hand, is very explicit in his sympathy towards distributive theories of social justice, most famously in "This Land Is Your Land." He also seems to have a sort of naive or innocent affinity for Eastern religions in a lot of his work, which is interesting to encounter in an artist from his period in American history. If you guys haven't listened to the Mermaid Avenue recordings Billy Bragg and Wilco released of the lyrics Guthrie had yet to write accompaniment for or record, it's worth a listen.

Chuck Berry. Paul McCartney once remarked that Chuck Berry will one day be remembered not only as one of rock's greatest lyricists but also as one of America's greatest poets. I think that's a bit of overpraise on the poetry bit, however, I do agree with is take on Berry as a lyricist. He's a very diverse and interesting lyricist. Not only does he have rock anthems like "Johnny B. Goode" and "Roll Over Beethoven" to his credit but there are also country influenced songs like "Downbound Train" and "Maybelline," songs like "My Ding-a-Ling," and Afro-Cuban influenced songs like "Havana Moon." The anthology that was put out a few years ago would be a good buy.

Paul McCartney. While neither he nor Lennon were really the songwriter they were when they collaborated--and there is definitely a case to be made that McCartney suffered the most creatively from that dissolution--"Maybe I'm Amazed," "Band on the Run," "Jet," "Bluebird" and much of what's on Ram stands alongside his Beatles output in my esteem.

Randy Newman. Outside of Kubrick, he's the only artist that has got me to laugh at the prospect of humanity's annihilation, which buys him a lot of love. Plus, my nieces love him for his Pixar output.

Stephen Lynch. He's one of the very, very few comedian-singer-songwriters who is actually consistently funny and has actual musical talent.

Francis Scott Key. It's an election year and I think we actually have a great national anthem, so, why not.

Frank Zappa. The man titled an instrumental track "I Promise Not to Come in Your Mouth" and stood up to Tipper Gore during her crusade against our First Amendment rights, which makes him a personal hero. "Titties and Beer" makes him one of my favorite lyricists.

Who's the guy that wrote most of the lyrics for Jerry Garcia's Grateful Dead tracks? Hunter? I've always liked those lyrics.

He's also a good storyteller, particularly in songs like "Memphis," "You Never Can Tell," and "Brown-Eyed Handsome Man." He could do some pretty silly things for a rhyme, but the characters are memorable.

Huge fan of McCartney's melodies and, yes, his lyrics. I'm tired of arguing with knuckleheads who claim that Lennon was the only genius of that songwriting partnership, though, so kudos to you for having the balls and patience to step up.

A bold and unusual choice, somehow, and agreed.

We're Only It For the Money has satire and black humor far beyond Dylan's capabilities, and Joe's Garage is at times laugh-out-loud funny.

I say this not to attack the creator of the thread, or those participating, but to perhaps make this thread about a larger question: why do we make a distinction between lyricist and musician/artist/creator/etc.? In other words, couldn't this thread just as easily be "favorite musician" or "favorite band" or "favorite songwriter"?

To be fair, this is a pet peeve of mine. But this thread seems to suggest that some of you may defend a musician or band with shitty lyrics just for the instrumentation. Or listen to a song because the lyrics are great, even if everything else sucks.

In fact, I think that would be a more interesting discussion than this one. I love me some Costello. In fact, A-P says it quite nicely when the man can make you ache with some of his phrases. But that's just one piece of the work, and rarely quite satisfying when viewed out of context.

I'll end with this: if "music" is the finished product, shouldn't the lyrics serve the instrumentation? And vice versa? If so, don't we do a disservice to music criticism by discussing them as separate entities? Such a conversation suggests that these parts can exist without the other.

And again, I'm not just saying this to tear down the thread. In fact, I suppose this could just be a way to defend a choice. Like, let's say, Thom Yorke, who never gets mentioned in this kind of conversation, but I would include immediately. Near the top, even.

Echo the love for Costello, and I'm gonna toss Peter Gabriel into the mix, especially on some of his earlier solo albums. "Here Comes the Flood" has some of my favorite lyrics of his:

When the night shows
The signals grow on radios
All the strange things
They come and go, as early warnings
Stranded starfish have no place to hide
Still waiting for the swollen easter tide
Theres no point in direction we cannot even choose a side.

I took the old track
The hollow shoulder, across the waters
On the tall cliffs
They were getting older, sons and daughters
The jaded underworld was riding high
Waves of steel hurled metal at the sky
And as the nail sunk in the cloud, the rain was warm and soaked the crowd.

And some people call him bombastic, but I really like Neil Peart's lyrics as well.

Trent Reznor
James Hetfield
Jonathan Davis

You are correct flyarz, a song is both the words and the music (see the scene from Music & Lyrics, yes I went there, for a fun debate on the subject). But I think the thread is about those who write lyrics that stand out in some way or elevate the music behind them to a new level. Or maybe it's just about lyrics you really, really like singing.

I'll toss in my vote behind Pete Townshend of The Who. He might be going deaf, he may have done some illegal stuff featuring kids, but that guy knew how to write the shit out of songs.

See, I don't agree there at all. One of the things I love about the last three Okkervil River albums is that the music finally caught up to his lyrics. The compositions may not be Radiohead levels of groundbreaking, but Sheff shows a fine attention to detail in the arrangements and knows how to deliver a line. In reading the lyrics to the old stuff (pre-Black Sheep Boy), you can see that he's always been a decent wordsmith; unfortunately, the music could sometimes be godawful boring.

To answer flyarz's question, I will absolutely cop to enjoying artists who aren't particularly strong in the lyric department. I generally don't listen to the New Pornographers for the words; when Carl Newman comes up with a great turn-of-phrase, it's a bonus, not necessarily an expectation. The same with My Morning Jacket, Sonic Youth, The Stooges, and, heck, even the Beatles a lot of the time. There are even a few bands I like lots that I have to consciously ignore the meaning of the words and just treat the vocals more-or-less like sounds (Smashing Pumpkins and Nine-Inch Nails, for instance). And there are, of course, some for which the words are non-considerations (Sigur Ros for most of us, obviously; Serge Gainsbourg, since my French is pretty weak).

I guess you could argue that there's as much an art to intentionally writing words that are easy to ignore if the music is to be highlighted or writing words that operate more on a musical, rather than meaningful, level ("Tutti Frutti" or even "I Zimbra"). But when we talk about great lyricists, I think it's akin to talking about great guitarists (or great guitar part-writers, I supposed). Neither is essential for a song to be good. It's all in how the parts interact, and great lyrics are just one of several possible components. That said, the single greatest appeal of some of the artists mentioned is that the words are good - this is not to say it's the only appeal. But I'm not exactly listening to early Dylan for the masterful chord changes, you know?

EDIT: Incidentally, I should mention that I'm far more tolerant of a musically talented artist without a facility for lyrics than a brilliant lyricist who's often backed with terrible music (for instance, I can't get into a lot of Leonard Cohen's mid-period stuff because of the 80s synths and soulless backup vocals).

I once saw Paco de Lucia in concert. Fucking amazing show. Didn't understand most of what was said.

Although some of his writing strains of bohemian elitism, I still have a deep connection with Paul Simon.

From "The Dangling Conversation":

And you read your Emily Dickinson
And I my Robert Frost
And we note our page with book markers
That measure what we've lost

His words are often so beautifully structured, both in content and rhythm.

Thanks for the replies. Upon reading yours, Dave, it made me consider that my thesis should have been: if I'm struck by the lyrics of a Mountain Goats song, is it more constructive to write about that song and that album or to write about lyricists in general?

I say that not to pick on Patrick, but just to draw upon the example at the top of the thread.

Furthermore, I'd say that David Byrne is a great lyricist. Incidentally, "I Zimbra" is likely my favorite Talking Heads song. I think that song is perfect, albeit it's one we'd most likely talk about conceptually than lyrically.

Do any of you prefer to simply read lyrics on the page/monitor? We all do this to check out a line we may not hear correctly. But does anyone simply read them? I imagine Dylan would be the foremost example for many, but I'd like to hear more. Going back to my first post, I have trouble "reading" the words without the voice. Which is performed to the track. Which therefore ties them together in a way that generates my original complaint. Just to explain it a bit further.

"Eleanor Rigby" (credit has been debated) blows me away with its sad simplicity on a lyrical level.

Lately, Waits has been rocking my world. Clever and strange, and always worth paying attention to.

Not much hip hop or rap in this thread. Surprising, since it's mostly the lyrics that are in the spotlight. I've always preferred the old school and lyrical approaches to this genre of music. The TRIBE CALLED QUESTs and the JURASSIC 5s.

Or musicals (besides Newman) for that matter. Howard Ashman's words for LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS tickle my funny bone everytime. And speaking of funny bone, Weird Al. He can be judged for MOSTLY lyrics, by the simple fact that the music is borrowed from others (even if he re-arranges, which he can be brilliant at). Tom Lehrer comes to mind as well. I'm a sucker for satire.

Joe Raposo's "Bein' Green" hits me squarely in the heart almost every time. Part of it is the tone of the tune and context/performer, but I think it's mostly the earnestness of the words. EDIT: Food for thought: Just to think about what context/performer can have on a set of lyrics, I compare NIN's "Hurt" w/ the Cash version. Same set of words and 2 totally different reactions from me.

I do both. I like to listen to the lyrics within the construct of the song because even how they are sung make up part of the whole.

But looking at them outside of their context helps a lot. Using Okkervil River again as an example...I was convinced that the climax of Black Sheep Boy ("So Come Back, I am Waiting") was about one thing entirely. After reading the lyrics online, I'm not so sure. What's weird is that I pretty much nailed most of the lyrics in my own head. But seeing them written out and being able to focus on them without the mood of the music gave me a more well rounded understanding of the song. It was about what I thought it was, but it was about a lot more too.

And that's why I do it. I discover more complexity in a well written song if I investigate the lyrics, usually later, after I've become initially comfortable with a great song.

Here's a question: has reading lyrics ever given you a negative impression of a band or a song? I think "Funeral" by Band of Horses is a good song. I used to think it was a great song. The lyrics never came across as strong when I listened to the music, but the power of soul of the arrangement helped me to forget. But after looking them up...I think the song is kinda dumb, which is disappointing.

I wouldn't call it a negative impression, but I do remember not knowing what to do when Laugharn told me Starálfur was about an elf.

Yeah, I do this, too, on occasion. It shifts the interpretive focus in surprising ways sometimes, and Sheff is a fine example. He has a very emotive voice, thus it's easy to get caught up in the sound even when you're conscious of what the words are. But seeing them on paper has a vastly different effect sometimes. It probably has to do with how the brain interprets audio and visual messages.

I've done this a number of times, and it's one reason that I only bother to look up the lyrics of artists about whom I have a pretty good feeling, lyrically. Of course, bad lyrics on paper don't always indicate poor lyric writing - sometimes, a song needs a simple or even a dumb lyric to work. But it's best to leave those unanalyzed and safely in the context of the music.

Top Five off the top:
James Brown
David Byrne
Liz Phair (at her best, which has been a while)
Lou Reed
Christopher Wallace

Or, that is to say, I love storytellers.

Well, I see that Tom Waits has already been mentioned, so...fuck it, as far as I'm concerned, it's all about Tom Waits. His lyrics are unfailingly evocative. Each song is distinct in it's own way, though that has as much to do with the words he sings as how he sings them, but listening to his lyrics there's a sense that every word was very, very carefully chosen. There's a purpose to every line he constructs.

That aside, I tend to favor lyricists who can't be replicated (Eyedea, Pharoahe Monch, Vast Aire Kramer, Claudio of Coheed and Cambria) , and really, no one can sing Tom Waits but Tom Waits. On top of his lyrics, he has, for my money, the most unique voice in music out there today. He shifts between cadences, tones, and pitches from song to song effortlessly, and again each "voice" he supplies is deliberate; as a result of all of this, no Tom Waits songs sound the same, and I love that. He's undeniably unique.

Love Lennon & McCartney equally, but Paul's lyrics really hit the skids post-break up. "Band On The Run" is a cute song, but lyrically, it's garbage. "Jet"? Come on!

Anyway, my favorites not mentioned:

Prince
Willie Nelson
Slick Rick

EDIT--Great point on Chuck Berry & Guthrie

Also, add Kris Kristofferson-he was like the Dylan of country

Don Van Vliet AKA Captain Beefheart. His album "Lick My Decals Off, Baby" has themes of humankind destroying the earth and one of the most explicit songs about fellatio (or selling out?) there are. With today's realization of global warming, that album is especially contemporary. As you decode his surreal imagery he puts Dylan to shame...

Nick Cave. Lou Reed. Mick & Keith. Jack White. Morrissey. Bowie.


I love the work of some other authors in Spanish.

John Darnielle (he's also contributed some of John Vanderslice's lyrics BTW)
Jeff Magnum
Elliott Smith (real feeling, not just feeling real sad)
Paul Simon (90% of the time. "you read your emily dickenson/and I my robert frost" is an example of his tendency to get too cute)
I like Bowie
I like Costello, but sometimes he's trying to hard, which makes the emotions feel insincere.
Ben Folds (again, sometimes too cute)
Early Beck (perfect for the time)
Kimya Dawson/Jeffery Lewis (I realize this is hypocritical, it happens)
Nilsson
Newman (I can just barely stand his music writing, but it's worth it)

I'd also like to drop a line about Lennon. Many people really seem to love his lyrics, but the greatness is very hit and miss with him. While "Imagine" could be seen as a textbook example of the craft, song like "All you need is love" are filled with line after line of tuxedo-wearing emptiness. It gets worse with his solo work because no one's keeping him in line, and he's too eager to make himself seem dangerous. You can almost hear the calculation when he drops an F-bomb in "Working Class Hero" (I do love that song, though). He's not overrated the way, say, Jim Morrison is overrated, but I think people forgive him too much.

Sorry. Didn't mean to fill up that much space.

Lennon's solo career is spotty, I do agree with you there. Still, he manages a lot of bite in songs like "How Do You Sleep?" and "God." I don't think McCartney is a slouch (and both were excellent lyricists in the Beatles) but they're very different...and I happen to prefer Lennon.

Jeff Magnum is a great choice, by the way...and glad someone agrees about early Beck.

"God" is a song I can get behind. But "How Do You Sleep" has always rubbed me the wrong way, and by that I mean its anger makes me feel embarrassed, uncomfortable. It's a very immature song, which would be fine, except I don't think John Lennon knew that.

My basic rule of thumb with John Lennon: the louder he gets, the harder he is to defend. I'm talking about electric vs. acoustic stuff here, not his awesome screaming on Plastic Ono. He is not a good rocker.

Can't agree with that. Help, Run For Your Life, She Said She Said, Tomorrow Never Knows, Good Morning Good Morning, Happiness is a Warm Gun, Yer Blues, Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except For Me And My Monkey, Come Together all disagree with you too.

Also, regarding How Do You Sleep? Despite the direct references to McCartney, there are also direct references to Lennon himself...and it's long thought that the song wasn't just a swipe at Paul, but a swipe at the both of them as "Beatles" icons. Put into that context, the song becomes similar to "God" in some ways...Lennon deconstruction the myth and public image of his former Beatles self.

Thinking about it...Help and Happiness is a Warm Gun prove me wrong. I don't like the others, but I see your point.

I'll give How do you Sleep another listen.

Too true. El-P, MF Doom, Mike Skinner from The Streets, early Eminem, Tupac etc.

Plenty great punk lyricists too. I really dig Graffin and Gurewitz of Bad Religion (an acquired taste I guess), but one guy whose stuff I've been getting into recently is Jason Cruz of Strung Out. His stuff's phenomenal though kind of punk-angsty.

Donald Fagen.

No one does pure imagery better than Del Tha Funkee Homo Sapien on Deltron 3030.

Ghostface Killah. I'm not sure what most of his lyrics mean (he's like the David Lynch of rappin'), but damn if he doesn't weave an interesting tale.

And on a lot of his non-3030 stuff, too. He's a great rapper.

I'm a big fan of Cannibal Ox, too, for their imagery. Their lyrics are incredibly vivid.

With Lennon, I think a point that flyarz brought up (sort of) really applies - he's one of those guys whose lyrics don't resonate without the context of the music. At least in the Beatles, his songs are about the whole package, and the music is often designed to carry a bum line here and there. "Happiness is a Warm Gun" works wonderfully, but the lyrics, taken separately, don't work particularly well. I get the feeling that it was somewhat de rigeur in the Beatles to sacrifice lyrical meaning if the music's right and the sound of the words work. To use a McCartney example, "The movement you need is on your shoulder."

In the solo years, Lennon's lyrics got less musical, if that makes sense. He shifted the emphasis from sound to meaning, and the language became less poetic, more straightforward and sloganeering. He dabbled in this while in the Beatles, but it always strikes me how much he scaled back the imagery in the 70s in an attempt to be as direct as possible. Yet, again, those lyrics look simplistic on the page - they only have resonance with the music.

Can we agree the only Beatle who got better after the break was Harrison? Underrated lyricist.

Also, Dolly Parton. Seriously.