Favorite lyricists and why.

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My favorites....hmmm...

Katy Powers
Andrea Crimmins
Willie McCulloch
Bobbie Gallup
John Daubert
Chris Harris


If you have never heard of any of these people it is because they are relatively unknown.........
It has been my pleasure to be part of their audience...
Their talent is par with all the famous names mentioned.....
they just haven't got a break yet....but, at least they have been heard,.....and appreciated.....by me anyways.....ya know?
My "Famous" favorites would be..
Chapin
Dylan
McCartney/Lennon
all the dudes in the Eagles...
Croce
Joni Mitchell
CSNY
Neil Diamond (and don't give me any shit either unless you know the tunes he has written)
Cohen
Nick Drake


sheesh....there are a lot more to.........






Hey BG...
Thanks man....that was super cool....
Joe
 
my favorite lyricists are the guys that tell a story and dont just string words together......

Jon Bon Jovi
Chris Harris
Al Carmichael (crawdad)

many others, too many too mention...mostly in the country genre....
 
Tom Waits
Paul Westerberg
Lennon and that other guy
Donna L Pearson..Unknown,brillant writer..I learned so much from her lyrics/music..and why mine suck..LOL
And for a Pop writer...Don Henley


Don
 
Dude. I thought I was gonna hafta drag Tom Waits into this one. I'm pleased to see I'm not the first to mention his name. Who else has the ability to elicit your respect for craftmanship and totally creep you out at the same time?
 
Also seconds for Prine and a first nomination for Steve Goodman a la "City of New Orleans," "Never Even Called Me By My Name" "Dying Cubs Fan's Last Request," with which I particularly sympathize....




except for the dying part....



I hope. :)
 
Can't let this go without Lou Reed. I know he was mentioned before, but I'm struck by how brilliantly menacing Perfect Day is.

Also I'm struck by how many people miss the point, which perhaps defeats my case in this particular debate.

And also on his lyrics, his lines

"You're still hanging 'round me
I'm not so glad you found me
You're still doing things
That I gave up years ago"

Are so poignant for us confused middle agers of the punk generation.

(By the way hiya stonep - thought you'd left this place as I arrived)
 
Ya know...I forgot about Lou Reed..He has done some really good things in the past!He was always very edgy..Punk poet type O' thing..good stuff!


Don
 
For those that mentioned David Gilmour & Roger Waters, of Pink Floyd...what about Syd Barrett?
 
One of the most under-appreciated songwriters... (from one of the most under-rated bands)...


Justin Currie of Del Amitri.


Listen to their stuff... (especially from Change Everything and Twisted). He's the king of metaphors. He paints the essence of the moment so succinctly... (e.g. "Driving with the Brakes On").


he's basically everything in a lyricist that I wish I was. :p




that's why. :p


WATYF
 
Peter Sinfield - because...

A flower lady's daughter
As sweet as holy water
Said: "I'm the school reporter
Please teach me"
well I taught her.

Two fingered levi'd sister
Said
Peace
I stopped I kissed her.
Said
I'm a male resister

I smiled and just unzipped her.

High diving chinese trender
Black hair and black suspender
Said
Please me no surrenderJust love to feel your Fender
.

All of you know that the girls of the road
Are like apples you stole in your youth.
All of you know that the girls of the road
Been around but are versed in the truth.

Stone-headed Frisco spacer
Ate all the meat I gave her
Said would I like to taste hers
And even craved the flavour

Like marron-glaced fish bonesOh lady hit the road!

All of you know that the girls of the road
Are like apples you stole in your youth.
All of you know that the girls of the road
Been around but are versed in the truth.
 
Funny how my first love is aggresive music (Godsmack, Fear of God, and the sort), my fav lyricists are anything but...
In no specific order....

1. John Denver...Man is a GENIUS. Writes from the heart. Rocky Moutian High, and "I'm Sorry" are some of the best words ever written.

2. Paul Simon...no reason why needed.

3. Jackson Brown. I heard an early live broadcast of him at the Main Point in Philly. Song for adam was amazing. Again, writes from the heart. I've never like his studio stuff quite as much as the performance.

4. Bernie Taupin (did I spell that right?). So many Great Elton John songs (Someone saved my Life Tonight), but even more so the lyrics on Alice Coopers "From the Inside" album. One of my all time fav alblums...highly under rated. It even had Dave Johnson on guitar (is that his name?) from Eltons band.

5. Willie Nelson. Reasons are stated in other replies for this tread and I second them all
 
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Cool thread!

Tool's lyrics are great, I also like Ani DiFranco's stuff. Her earlier music is kinda of the 'angry girl' genre, but her later stuff is a bit less pissed off (she's coming to Calgary soon...Yay!).
 
Toker41 said:
Funny how my first love is aggresive music (Godsmack, Fear of God, and the sort), my fav lyricists are anything but...
In no specific order....

1. John Denver...Man is a GENIUS. Writes from the heart. Rocky Moutian High, and "I'm Sorry" are some of the best words ever written.

2. Paul Simon...no reason why needed.

3. Jackson Brown. I heard an early live broadcast of him at the Main Point in Philly. Song for adam was amazing. Again, writes from the heart. I've never like his studio stuff quite as much as the performance.

4. Bernie Taupin (did I spell that right?). So many Great Elton John songs (Someone saved my Life Tonight), but even more so the lyrics on Alice Coopers "From the Inside" album. One of my all time fav alblums...highly under rated. It even had Dave Johnson on guitar (is that his name?) from Eltons band.

5. Willie Nelson. Reasons are stated in other replies for this tread and I second them all
Click to expand...


Same here. I'm more the Slayer, Static-X or Slipknot listener before I'd ever get a John Denver cd. But I grew up on guys like Denver and Willie.

Alot of the stuff during that era was quite great, when it came to lyrics. Stuff like Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, Islands in the Stream. Coward of the County, The Gambler, Thank God I'm a Country Boy, Charlie Pride, Leo Fender, Take this Job and shove it. Some of the Waylon/Willie/and Co., where some of the songs were quite good little mini-stories and such.

Who couldn't get the song '9 to 5' out of there head? Rhinestone Cowboy, anyone? ;)

Every once in a while that tv commercial that sells the best of John Denver stuff comes on. And I'm reminded of all the songs I grew up from him, and what great songs and lyrics they had.

Gonna have to go to the Apple Music store and see if they have some stuff of this stuff for download.
 
Tom Petty for his all time simple brilliance.

"Two gunslingers walked out in the street and one said i don't wanna fight no mre.....well the other gunslinger thought about it and he said yeah, what are we fighting for"

Guy Picciotto for his vague brilliance.

"it's cold outside and my hands are dry skin is cracked and i realize that i hate the sound of guitars a thousand grudging young millionaires forcing silence sucking sound forced into this conversation so i shine let their planets collide this is the darkening down of my mind we could be making it oiling like crime we could be making it staking last dimes if you want to sieze the sound you don't need a reservation"

And Robert Smith for creep factor.

" On candystripe legs the spiderman comes
Softly through the shadow of the evening sun
Stealing past the windows of the blissfully dead
Looking for the victim shivering in bed
Searching out fear in the gathering gloom"
 
I have some of the same favorites,

although I think that Sting and John Denver are (or were) actually good bad lyricists


I would also mention Robert Hunter, who wrote most of the Dead's lyrics, and in doing so expressed a unique unified way of being, and Aimee Mann, who I think also has a unique way of saying things. They are both challenging yet accessible.
 
I'm with the post two above (unless someone has jumped in) on John Denver and Sting.

Some of the best are found in the folk-ish or country-ish vein. Peter Case. Dylan. Phil Ochs. Lucinda Williams. Christy McWilson.

Elvis Costello is a given. Chuck Berry.

Paul Westerberg (mentioned above) is oddly good: "I laughed half the way to Tokyo; dreamt I was Surfer Joe; and what that means I don't know." I don't know either, but it seems like it must mean something. Liz Phair. Pete Townshend could be when he put his mind to it ("Substitute").

Why? is harder. If you have to ask you don't know. The key, to me, I guess, is specificity and non-obvious connections. Some are jokes, or almost:

"Now there's newsprint all over your face: maybe that's why I can read you like a book."

"Once he glanced at the jackets of the paperbacks, now he's read every one."

"Should I step on the brakes to get out of your clutches."

"The license says you're supposed to stick around until I was dead; but if you're tired of looking at my face, I guess I already am."

"Poor old Tom, his story's true: got nothing to show, no one to show it to."
 
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