Words?

[Dave Bryce]

We're always talking about music...let's talk a bit about lyrics.

 

Is there any particular lyricist and/or set of lyrics that you really like? How about dislike?

 

Do you even pay attention to lyrics?

 

dB

[jackpine]

I'm gonna date myself on this but I still like old Yes lyrics. Jon Anderson's blend of something that ALMOST sounds meaningful and words he just used to convey a sound still kill me.

 

Or it could have just been the drugs.

 

jim

[ELP71]

Honestly, I listen to lyrics about fourth when taking in a song. One of my favorite lyricists is .Elvis Costello. Also really like Rufus Wainwright right now.

 

Since this is a KBD forum, my favorite keyboard related set of lyrics is ELP's 'Pirates'. Atypical for them - tells a good story without pretense. Is what it is and works.

 

In terms of skill, Stephen Sondheim is a master - technically perfect, intelligent and highly emotional.

[K.C.]

STING

[Slowly]

I`ll listen to a song and maybe even like it, but I won`t buy unless the lyrics can somehow be applied to my life. The song must have meaning. Even if it`s an instrumental, something must have happened and that song was in the background. Kcbass

[b3fiend]

I've always admired how Pink Floyd tells a story in song.. They're deep, yet simple and memorable.

 

-Gregg

[Dan O]

dB,

I am surprised how many lyrics I really can't understand within a song .

 

One thing I miss about ALBUMS is being able to open them up and see the lyrics and credits .

 

You buy a CD and have to pull the cover .

 

I always like the concept albums . Quadrophenia , Tommy , the Wall , 2112 were all cool IMO .

 

I think Harry Chapin , Jim Croce , James Taylor , Bruce Springsteen are a few of the best song writers .

 

dano

[Dave Bryce]

Originally posted by ELP71:

Since this is a KBD forum, my favorite keyboard related set of lyrics is ELP's 'Pirates'. Atypical for them - tells a good story without pretense. Is what it is and works.

Oh, goody - I get to name drop...

 

So, I'm having dinner with Emerson at the Rainbow Room in LA a few years ago ( ), and I ask him which ELP tune is his favorite. He answered that it's "Pirates", and tells me that it's because he thinks that it's the most succesful tune that they ever did in terms of the way that the music fit the lyrics. He recalled a moment at a gig at the Albert Hall where they were playing the tune on the tour where they had the orchestra, and his eye happened to catch Pete Sinfield (lyricist) looking at him with a really big grin. He said that was one of the very memorable moments in his life.

 

Getting to have dinner with him was certainly among the more memorable events in mine...

 

dB

[RABid]

Ok. My favorite two, The Way it Is by Bruce Hornsby and Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon and Garfunkle. The worst to me, anything super repetitive. This includes most anything by Cheryl Crowe or the course of many Beatles hits.

 

Robert

[Mark Zeger]

I'm another fan of Elvis Costello's lyric writing. Sometimes I feel that his choices are for the sake of being clever. But, for the most part, no current writer paints with a more colorful palette than Elvis.

 

In the keyboard camp, Ben Folds' lyrics are a great match to his killer piano chops.

[Botch.]

Steely Dan. The lyrics always paint a very detailed picture of a very small part of a bigger story, and gives people with a decent imagination all kinds of possible storylines. Their lyrics usually have all kinds of double entendres and even puns buried in there if you look for them. Finally, they pay attention just to how the words sound phonetically; a steely dan record sounds good to folks who don't speak English!

 

"We both ran out of small talk,

the connection seemed to go dead,

I was about to say, "Hey, have a nice life",

When she touched my hand and said,

"I just had this great idea, could be very cool,

Why don't we grab a cab to my hotel

And make believe we're back at our old school

 

I said, "Babe, you look delicious,

And you're standing very close,

but, like, this is lower Broadway,

And you're talking to a ghost,

It's not all that I'd hoped it would be,

What a shame about me..."

 

Man, lyrics don't get much better than that!

[FrankieP]

Weird Al Yankovic!!!

 

Nah just kidding...

I gotta say Carole King.

[Dan O]

I remember "wordman" from Eddie and the Cruisers .

Cool flick and Tom Berenger ......

dano

[Superbobus]

Thank God there's more out there than: boom, boom, boom, boom, I want you in my room!

I have to say: PRINCE!

Not only is He a fantastic, singer, performer, guitar player, keys player and drummer. He is writing great poetry. Never was a word like "dawm" more beautiful than when He is using it. I think He is now more into religious lyrics but when you hear these you just have to go with that too. Man, the guy is a Genius!

Listen to "sometimes it snows in April".

[Valkyrie Sound]

Tori Amos

Ani DiFranco

[B3Nut]

Bruce Cockburn writes killer lyrics.

 

Nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight

Got to kick at the darkness till it bleeds daylight..

 

(from Lovers In A Dangerous Time)

 

Bob Dylan is another fave lyricist. Paul Simon too.

 

tOdd

[Intheether]

Tori Amos

You just can't beat "I don't believe you're leaving 'cause me and Charles Manson like the same Ice Cream"

[Tusker]

Leonard Cohen - for rich word pictures and a subversive spirit:

 

"There is a war between the rich and poor,

a war between the man and the woman.

There is a war between the ones who say there is a war

and the ones who say there isn't."

 

Peter Gabriel has his moments too:

 

"You can blow out a candle

But you can't blow out a fire

Once the flames begin to catch

The winds will blow it higher"

 

Jerry

[Pat Azzarello]

I love good lyrics. Most of the lyrics I hear today are fairly lame, but there are some great stories (though I try to stay away from those that are pretentious).

 

• Dixie Chicken (Little Feat) - Great story, terrific last verse.
  
• Pirates (ELP)
   
  

[Gus Lozada]

I guess you should see THIS

[Llarion]

My favorite lyricists:

 

James Taylor - Earthy, gentle, warm

Sting - sohisticated, sublime

Donald Fagen - obscure, avant garde, acute

 

And, the gent who posted Weird Al as a joke should rethink that, Al is a madman genius. It taks great skill and vision to so thoroughly and accuratle pull off parody/satire.

[Steve Frederick]

Jule Styne, Sammy Cahn, Ira Gershwin, Tom Waits, Morrissey, and I'll second Leonard Cohen

[quendalin0018]

I agree with B3fiend. Pink Floyd has a way of telling a story that is masterful...most of their songs are very melodic, and contain some unique words that makes them worth listening to.

[Magpel]

I generally don't look to lyrics for a thesis or a conrete meaning or theme, a story, or even necessarily a sentiment I can identify with. If the language is rich and vital (and consistent) and the fit between verbal phrase and melodic phrase is happening, I'm happy. That said, a lot of my favorite writers tend to be the notorious wordsmiths on the pop scene--Elvis Costello, Randy Newman, Tom Waits, Paul Simon, Stephen Malkmus, and so on and so on. Oddly, I like most of these cats for their music, primarily.

 

There are certainly some lyricists that I hate. With malice or disrespect toward none, I'm afraid Sting is one of them. Gabriel, to me, can be unbearably earnest and stiff, even when crafting an ode to sex like sledgehammer. There's something overly studied about his lyrics. That said, I adore the lyrics to The Battle of Epping Forest, my favorite prog rock epic of all time.

 

Some other lyricists I find highly erratic and ocassionally inspired: Pete Townshend. I don't know if anyone has written more clunker lines than Pete, but brilliant ones too. Someimes I go for "big brush and broad stroke" lyricists like Bono or post Beatle Lennon, but my tastes run toward complex miniatures, not bold statements. With a bunch of notable exceptions, I shy away from overtly political lyrics, finding them inadequate both as lyrics and as political utterance. I've cut the aforementioned Bruce Cockburn some slack here because he can be a really passionate prosyltizer in his lyrics and somehow make the phrasing work.

 

For a while I was impressed by Aimee Mann's lyrics but have become less so over time. She's a bit...facile. People like Aimee and Elvis should self-adminsiter a sedative to their intellects before writing a song, or spend more time studying the poetry of Bon Scott.

 

Patti Smith? Michael Stipe? Leonard Cohen? Old Zimmerman? They're all good, I guess.

Cole Porter, yes indeed. Sondheim, of course.

 

Oh, and I really like David Lee Roth's lyrics. Seriously.

[Tedster]

Some of Tom Petty's lyrics hit me just the right way:

 

"It's time to move on, time to get going

What lies ahead, I have no way of knowing

But under my feet, baby, grass is growing

It's time to move on, it's time to get going

 

Broken skyline, movin' through the airport

She's an honest defector

Conscientious objector

Now her own protector"

 

And...

 

"I remember walking with her in town

Her hair was in the wind

I gave her my best kiss

She gave it back again

When I add up what I've left behind

I don't want to lose no more"

 

Listen to "Wildflowers". That's lyrically where I'd like to be.

[SolipsismX]

I like a lot of pink floyd lyrics. I especially like "The Wall" lyrics. IMO it's probably the best concept album of all time in terms of being a cohesive album. Meaning the story gets told well and in a believable way with the theme (both lyrically and musically) tying together nicely.

Now I know a lot of people hate his lyrics, but I love Trent Reznor's lyrics. They get criticized a lot for being too bleak, but to me, they sound more honest than any other lyricist doing something similar. When I hear Jonathan Davis from korn and other nu metal bands trying to imitate the bleak style, it just comes off really insincere, adolescent and unrealistic.

His lyrics also have a lot more integrity in them than ANY other artist I can think of. He doesn't make jokes in his songs or write about how one day his dog was chewing bubble gum or some weird anecdote. Since "broken," he's been writing concept albums and puts a lot of thought into his lyrics instead of just getting drunk one night and writing them down. He also doesn't just write weird psychedelic ramblings that don't mean anything. He doesn't mention pop culture in his songs either which is a plus. I really don't like it when people are referring to things that will be irrelevant in 10 years or to people who don't live in the same culture. Basically, if you're down, his lyrics can easily be universalized.

Shirley Manson is probably my favorite female lyricist because she writes songs that don't sound like they were written for a female audience (well actually garbage's new album sort've does it a little).

I also like a lot of thom yorke and kurt cobain lyrics for being weird, obscure, and hard to understand.

David Bowie also has cool lyrics simply because he phrases them in weird ways and doesn't always rhyme words the way you'd expect him to.

[KTempo]

Stevie Wonder, Carole King, Eric Clapton and Babyface. I think they're great songwriters and their lyrics are what I like most then the music! Their story-telling (imagery, choice of words...) in their songs are top hotch! Very believable and very moving. For rap lyrics, I say, Nas and Tupac!

[Felix_dup1]

Depeche Mode have written some killer lyrics during their 20-year career (and no, I'm not talking about People are People).

 

I've always admired Sting's ability to write very intelligent, well-read lyrics too.

 

As for bad lyrics, I don't know if there's anything worse than what you'll find here:

http://www.geocities.com/bloodhound_gang_site/

These are the guys who brought us "You and me baby ain't nothin' but Mammals, so let's do it like they do on the Discovery Channel."

[Peake]

"Wake me up, before you go-go. Don't leave me hangin' on like a yo-yo."

 

I want back the ten seconds it took to type that out.

[Graham English]

Originally posted by Superbobus:

I have to say: PRINCE!

Not only is He a fantastic, singer, performer, guitar player, keys player and drummer. He is writing great poetry. Never was a word like "dawm" more beautiful than when He is using it. I think He is now more into religious lyrics but when you hear these you just have to go with that too. Man, the guy is a Genius!

Listen to "sometimes it snows in April".

I'm with you! I dig Prince's lyrics- of the past. His latest album is so much religious dogma. He's losing it. That's what happens to artists when they don't have anyone around them saying, "dude, what the hell are you thinking!?"

I also love Sting's lyrics. He's a master songwriter.