Favorite Lyricists? - Page 2

Tim Kasher of Cursive. His more recent output has shown some great maturation.

And to the stable of great hip-hop lyricists I'll add Aesop Rock. Some of his imagery is pretty fucking obscure, but he's always fascinated me for some reason. It's like I'm always this close to understanding what the fuck he's trying to say.

Absolutely.

Yeah, but did he ever put out anything quite as good as the best songs he did with the Beatles?

I'll agree with that. Unfortunately, Yoko Ono, heroin, and finally Mark David Chapman took Lennon out of the running, but Harrison is the only Beatle whose output was consistently good from the breakup to the current decade. McCartney had a good run from McCartney through the Wings period, then it seemed like he really, really bought into the idea that he was "Paul McCartney" and so did all of his producers. He admitted this much when he was talking about the most recent album he released by talking about how it was the first time in a long time when a producer said "no" to him.

I'd put "All Things Must Pass," "My Sweet Lord," "Beware of Darkness," and "I've Got My Mind Set On You" up there with his Beatles output. Personally, I think Harrison's best artistic growth after the breakup is found in his role as a producer.

With "Jet," sure, it's silly ... but very, very few of any McCartney's songs are meant to be serious affairs and he actually manages to make a one word refrain work. For me, that earns credit. I can't imagine anyway else just throwing out a random word out there and having it work as well as it does in that song.

I'll second the Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, and Kristofferson love. Songwriter is a pretty nice album/soundtrack from Nelson and Kristofferson. Kristofferson, however, is more a personal hero of mine than one of my favorite lyricists. On the credit of "There's a Tear in My Beer" and "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" alone, I'd put Hank Williams up as my favorite country lyricist, followed closely by Johnny Cash and George Jones (Jones makes the cut largely on the strength of "She Thinks I Still Care").

Del is dope so is Ghostface and MF Doom...can't wait for their collabo...

NaS is one of the best Hip Hop lyricists and as far as old school hip hop is concerned Kool G Rap was better that Rakim.

Greg Ginn of Black Flag, Jello Biafara of DK, Glenn Danzig...

Well said. As for Harrison, I don't like the production on the late 70's albums, but lyrically they were still pretty fantastic. Guy could write a good love song!

Shame on all of us for overlooking Hank Williams. Like Berry, man was a poet.

Not to stake everything on one song, but since Cuchulain brought this one up:

Obviously, he's going for simplicity here, but it doesn't really strike me as great songwriting. And you can't even make a good case for it being some sort of perfect hybrid of lyric and melody, since the melody's pretty much stolen.

Good choice. I agree that as rappers go, he's probably one of the most abstract working today in terms of his lyricism, but he has a way of keeping everything he says from being too obtuse.

I think my admiration for his rapping really solidified when I first heard Day Light and Night Light together.

Incidentally, I've met Aesop before, and I honestly expected talking to him to be as trippy as listening to some of his vocals, but he's pretty down to earth.

Townes Van Zandt, Nick Lowe, John Fogerty, Carole King, Gram Parsons, Guy Clark, Steve Earle, Hoyt Axton, Phil Lynott, Tom T. Hall, John Prine, Iris DeMent, Lucinda Williams.

Some of my faves:

Liz Phair
Eddie Vedder
Stuart Murdoch
Jimi Hendrix
Peter Gabriel
Johnny Cash
Joe Strummer
Christine McVie

I disagree wholeheartedly with Phil Lynott but the rest of those are dead on. I could listen to Van Zandt's Lungs all day, every day. And while I'm no huge fan of her music I do love Lucinda Williams' lyrics. Not to derail but I still think she wouldn't be nearly as acclaimed if it weren't for the early production work of Morlix on her albums.

I'd also add Robert Earl Keene to that list.

Well you'd be wrong.

ETA: Couldn't write more earlier earlier.

Lynott's whole style was deeply rooted in the Irish oral tradition both lyrically and in delivery and as much as I loathe equating rock lyricists to poets Lynott is largely credited as being one of a breed who brought a poetic sensibility to rock lyric writing. His lyrics are a reflective version of the traditional celtic storyteller or racconteur as well as of the celtic ballad brought to a modern context. They fit with the rythm of the music they wrote and that stuttering stream-of-conciousness delivery he had. It was as if you are being recounted a story over a pint. Sometimes I think the frankness of his lyrics is seen as being simple when in fact it is the frankness that relates to the listener on a one-to-one level. I am sure much of Lynott's dismissal as a lyricist comes from those who have only heard Jailbreak or The Boys Are Back In Town on classic rock radio. Take a song like Showdown, hell that is damn near a modern Stack O' Lee. Soldier Of Fortune, Emerald, Black Rose, Waiting for an Alibi, That Woman's Gonna Break Your Heart,Toughest Street in Town. There is an amazing amount of depth once you get past the radio "hits."

Oh I forgot in my earlier post to include Van Morrison and Jim Croce.

I'm really attached to Cave's lyrics due his profound reflections or his insane rants. He is an extraordinary storyteller too.

Oh! Oh! Murs. Love me some Murs. The guy's got a razor-sharp wit that few of his peers can match. "You couldn't run a close second with some clocks on your feet" is brilliant.

I think the intent in using that term is to indicate that the writer has a good vocabulary facility at language, or uses devices commonly used in fiction or poetry, which suggests (possibly incorrectly) that he or she reads a lot. Sheff and Darnielle are both big on narrative and characterization, among other things.

It probably makes some unfair assumptions, though. I wouldn't think of Bono or Thurston Moore as "literate" lyricists in the same sense as Sheff, Darnielle, or Colin Meloy, but I'm fairly certain they both read plenty.

I forgot a big one. Jarvis Cocker.

Cave is really good. One thing I like about him is how he can alter his scope in such drastic ways and still sound entirely convincing. In one song, he'll be writing about some low-life shooting up a bar, and, in the next, he'll be writing about the nature of God, pondering artistic inspiration, or re-contextualizing the myth of Orpheus.

As hesitant as I am to use the phrase, it would be hard to make a case for him not being a "literate" songwriter. If it wasn't clear from his use of complex, character-driven narratives and awareness of the language, he throws in tons of literary allusions. The guy's clearly well-read, and the songs show it.

No mention of Aimee Mann? You guys are weird. She's got a great vocabulary but uses it in a very non-flashy way, filling every line with the prettiest-sounding word for each spot to keep things flowing smoothly. You don't often have to break out the dictionary - not that there's anything wrong with that (I've posted before about my love for obscure words.) I'm sure if you did an analysis of sheer variety of vocabulary, Mann would be up there.

Some of my other favorites are

Matt Berninger - like Dave said, some killer lines. I'm always impressed that they're loong lines, too, kept going by solid structure and rhythm rather than a lot of rhymes or whatnot. "I wanna go gator around the warm beds of beginners" or "You know I keep your fingerprints in a pink folder in the middle of my table" for example.

Mike Skinner - when he writes about the rock and roll lifestyle, he sucks, but when he gets ridiculously specific about returning DVDs or standing in line, it results in some of great details of the so-boring-it's-funny variety. I lose it every time when the girl in "Fit But You Know It" ends up going "into the arms of that fucking white-shirted man."

Amanda Palmer - speaking of "literate" writers, you gotta mention her, IMO.

Nellie McKay - similar to Palmer in that she's usually very detached from her subjects and narrators, the artifice and showmanship is always at the forefront, etc. I eat that shit up, though I can see how some wouldn't like it.

You mean the repetition? Sometimes it works, such as "standing at the punch table swallowing punch," which I think is very nice.

Seconded. One of his best lines from Over the Cliff:

The Devil don't care if you're a fish or a stick

Murray Hammond isn't too bad either. I think if they ever released a Ranchero Brothers disc then Murray's words would get showcased more but until then.

At least Rhett's relationship happiness(i.e. marriage) hasn't really made his writing suffer like most artists. No Doubt used to be good until Gwen got all happy and shit.

I have no idea. But I just forgive that line, because it's followed by "squalor victoria," which is such a delicious double-dactylic phrase with all the best consonant sounds packed in.

Yeah, Berninger regularly sacrifices meaning for sound, and a lot of the greats do that - The Beatles, as mentioned earlier; Costello's done it a lot of times. I don't really know what "Raise our heavenly glasses to the heavens" means, but I'm not sure what "squalor Victoria" means, either. But you put the whole lyrical package together with the sound of the song, and you've got a package that seems to be about (as a number of National songs are) middle-class white-collar ennui and an attempt to emerge from it.

I don't think this is laziness nearly as much as being deliberately impressionistic with the details. Certain lines are designed to stick out to bring out the meaning, others are there specifically to add to the confusion.

Which is not to give an excuse for every bad line Berninger or anyone else comes up with. But if a single line rubs me the wrong way in an otherwise well-constructed song, I tend to doubt that it's just carelessness. Someone directed me to the line "so you swear you just saw a feathery woman carry a blindfolded man through the trees" in "Mistaken for Strangers," and, yeah, it seems like a bit of nonsense imagery, but given the relative care that he puts into the rest of the song, I can't write this off as just a dumb line. It might be there to throw us off, to make us a little uneasy with any overall concrete meaning of a song that's so heavy in specific detail that we might otherwise be tempted to construct one.

I was in Borders last week and saw that there is a novel called Heir to the Glimmering World. So now it's even more complicated, now I have to suspect that maybe I'm just not getting Berninger's references when I don't understand a line. Not that that lets him off the hook for too much abstract wankery.

Ozick's novel is well worth reading, but Berninger has admitted to just stealing the title, which is a pretty great phrase. There's no real connection in meaning.

I've read an interview in which he explained "The Geese of Beverly Road," and the central image is a bunch of kids intentionally setting off car alarms (the titular "geese"). I take the song to be about youthful optimism.

Seconded.

Wanted to second Bowie as well while I'm here. Love the playfulness and personality he injects from the words he chooses. Some of his songs sound like they start as stories but morph into more of a dream. A... freak-y dream.

A couple of guys that I saw mentioned in passing that I really love are Randy Newman and Lucinda Williams, although I think a large part of what makes Williams so great ties into what Flyarz was talking about, which is that most times, her music is inseparable from her voice and her music. You listen to something like "Unsuffer Me" from West, and one of the reasons that song is so powerful/evocative/sexy is her voice and the arrangement. The delivery, her roughness and weariness -- it creates this whole world, character, short story, whatever, in 4 minutes. It's one of the reasons why I think she's one of the best storytellers in music today, because she understands that it's not just what you're saying, your lyrics, but how you say it.

I think Newman is great for similar reasons, his ability to create characters, but I've babbled about him before. One of my favorite lyrics of his, though, is the phrasing in "Sail Away"

There's this little pause Newman gives after the first and second line that makes the song for me, because he never breaks character, but he lets us know that he gets it.

Has anyone mentioned Ray Davies?

Space Oddity among others I guess.

It's "in this Red Lion." He's probably talking about a Red Lion hotel, which works very well with the bit about the keys and the next line about a locked suite. Sheff's not really the type to bring anthropomorphic animals into the mix.

I would argue Wonderwall Music - an entire album with none of his lyrics!

Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes has some very beautiful lyrics.

I doubt anyone has heard of them but Zebulon Whatley of the Sons of Perdition, his lyrics are at times to me darkly beautiful.

Some of my favs:
Maynard James Keenan
Roger Waters
Beth Gibbons
Bjork
Bob Marley (not the entirety of his catalogue, but I love a great deal of it)
Les Claypool
Tom Waits
Thom Yorke

WAITS zillion-ed. Clearly the winner of this thread (and justified that).

Was Elliot Smith already mentioned? I think for me his death has intensified the effect of his lyrics though. I literally could not stand to listen to XO for months after that.

I only saw one mention in the thread of Donald Fagen, so he's definitely underrated. Great witty sarcasm, and perfect match with the deceptively slick music. Do a lyrics search gentlefolks, that stuff stands without the music (although I recommend any Steely Dan album as well).

Personal fave: countrysinger Jim White. Especially the entire first album, 'Wrong-eyed Jesus'. Haunting and imaginative, still sends chills down my spine just reading them from a page.

Today I listened Waits' Closing Time for the first time. All I can say is that lyric suits me perfectly.

For me, hands down, it's Tim Kasher. He's the frontman for Cursive and The Good Life, and TGL's Album of the Year is an amazing record and I suggest anyone pick it up.

How about the three headed songwriting monster from the Drive By Truckers best albums; Patterson Hood, Mike Cooley and Jason Isbell?

Jeff Mangum
Dylan
Colin Meloy
Tom Waits
Leonard Cohen
Conor Oberst, before he became such an egoist.

That's a great tune, but its recently been displaced as my favorite Waits lyric by Never Let Go. It's purdy.


Well, ring the bell backwards and bury the axe
Fall down on your knees in the dirt
I'm tied to the mast between water and wind
Believe me, you'll never get hurt
Our ring's in the pawnshop, the rain's in the hole
Down at the Five Points I stand
I'll lose everything
But I won't let go of your hand

Well, Peter denied and Judas betrayed
I'll bail with the roll of the drum
And the wind will tell the turn from the wheel
And the watchman is making his rounds
Well, you'll leave me hanging by the skin of my teeth
I've only got one leg to stand
You can send me to hell
But I'll never let go of your hand

Swing from a rope on a cross-legged dream
Signed with One Eyed Jack's blood
From Temple to Union, to LA and Grand
Walking back home in the mud

Now I must make my best of the only way home
Molly deals only in stone
I'm lost on the midway, I'm reckless in your eyes
Just give me a couple more throws
I'll dare you to dine with the cross-legged knight
Dare me to jump and I will
I'll fall from your grace
But I'll never let go of your hand
I'll never let go of your hand

It a prefect example of how to write a religious song. It just pure passion. Kristofferson wrote one of my favorite Gospel songs in the last 100 years, Why Me Lord. Most Gospel music suck, but good one are great and far apart.

I can't believe that no has brought up Matt Johnson of “The The”, UNCERTAIN SMILE, This Sinking Feeling, Infected, Giant, SWEET BIRD OF TRUTH, and This Is The Day( which everyone should know, by heart, by now)

The The Twilight Of A Champion lyrics

The rising moon faces the sickening sun,
as the lights in the tower blocks go on, one by one,
A big shot, overlooking this black iron skyline--
Surrounded by his symbols of prosperity--
Sits back in his new leather chair
ripped off the back of some unfortunate beast.
I'm smiling through my teeth.
Anybody can be a millionaire,
so everybody's gotta try
but by the laws of this human jungle
only the heartless will survive.
& down there--but for the grace of god
--go I.
The smoke & the steam, & the broken down dreams,
the hope, & the hunger, frustration & anger,
the little drunken lives,--
driven' through the traffic lights
& away from who they are!
But I've been thinking of you--
In this great city of great solitude.
Crossin' the central reservation, of my imagination,
Searchin' for the world I...left behind.
A shadow hunting shadows of childhood life.
It's all I want--& all I miss--
but how can I return, to a place that don't exist!!
from Mombosa to Miami, Beiruit to Bangladesh,
I've flown around the world standing
on the wing of a jet.
tryin' to salvage my emotions
from the bottom of the oceans--
Y'see I sold my soul, to pay for my dinner.
My stomach grew fatter, but my heart grew thinner,
I ain't foolin' I'm fallin', I wasn't wicked, just weak,
I ain't lyin' I'm dyin', crippled by deceit--
Oh the hand that wrote the agony
has just begun--
Will be the hand that pulls the trigger
--of this gun!!!

The The, "Angels of Deception"

Well its high noon at the U.K. corral,
& its high time I got myself back on the rails,
I'm the lonesome cowboy, ridin across the range,
with just a hand held radio--to keep me sane,
ridin through the f.m. stations, the tumbleweed,
& the petrol stations,
Will all on board this yankee station
Prepare themselves for battle stations--
CHORUS
Jesus Wept. Jesus CHRIST.
I can't see for the tear gas, & the dollar signs in my eyes.
Well, whats a man got left to fight for
when he's bought his freedom
by the look of this human jungle
It aint just the poor who'll be bleeding!
Most everyone round here thinks they're something special
that destiny will be kind--
While they're digging for gold, diving for pearls,
& aiming for heaven from this man made world.
Come on down--the devil's in town
He's brought you sticks and stones
to bust your neighbors bones,
he's stuck his missiles in your gardens,
& his theories down your throat--
& god knows what your gonna do with him
Cos I certainly don't
CHORUS
Down by the river, I've been washing out my mouth,
cos deep in the heart of me
there's a frightened man breaking out.
Oh I was just looking for paradise
anywhere in this world
While they're gunning for heaven--
from this man made hell!!!
Angels of Destruction.
Angels of Destruction!!!!

Issac Brock. Another one of those singers/lyricists that requires hearing the words set to music to really grasp the gravity of what he's saying. For my money, there are some great lyrics on The Lonesome Crowded West (which is an awesome, evocative album title) and The Moon and Antarctica.

Good example, Patrick. I love Brock's lyrics, but that particular song delivers two distinct emotional punches depending on if it's the MM original or the Sun Kill Moon cover (which is awesome in it's own right).