Great lyricists of the rock era - Discuss

[hifiguy]

Not overall songwriters, but the best LYRICISTS, whose words are capable of standing on their own - and not in any rank order with two exceptions.

The unquestioned #1, El Supremo, Imperial Grand Poobah and Grand Fromage is, of course, Bob Dylan, though Robert Hunter (the Dead's lyricist) is mighty, mighty fine as well and would probably be #2 for me.

Some other standouts, IMHO (not intended as anything like comprehensive):

- Joni Mitchell (do I need to explain why?)

- Patti Smith (rivals mid-1960s Dylan in creative and striking use of language when she's at her best)

- Ian Curtis of Joy Division (who actually WAS what Jim Morrison wanted to be)

- Peter Sinfield (King Crimson and ELP) bombastic sometimes, but capable of creating remarkably striking imagery that rattled around in your head for ages

- Howard Devoto (Brit post-punk band Magazine) Dry, acrid, and sometimes quite witty post-modern before there was such a thing

- Robbie Robertson (The Band)

- Jim Morrison (pretentious as hell but when he was on he was magnificent; when he was off - about 50% of the time - he could be genuinely ghastly)

- Peter Hammill (Van der Graaf Generator and solo) tortured, complex as hell, literate and never, EVER boring

- Mark Knopfler (surprising, maybe, but as a writer of "short stories" he has few peers - see "Telegraph Road" for an example)

- Al Stewart (great historical storyteller and observer of the human condition. Could be evocative as hell, too: "Life in Dark Water" and "The Dark and the Rolling Sea")

I could also make excellent cases for Siouxsie Sioux and Brooooooooce, albeit for very different reasons.


Have at it!

[Amerigo Vespucci]

1. Richard Thompson

John Mellencamp once said something like "I'll never write as song as good as his songs."

Said Red Molly to James that's a fine motorbike
A girl could feel special on any such like
Said James to Red Molly, well my hat's off to you
It's a Vincent Black Lightning, 1952
And I've seen you at the corners and cafes it seems
Red hair and black leather, my favorite color scheme
And he pulled her on behind
And down to Box Hill they did ride

Said James to Red Molly, here's a ring for your right hand
But I'll tell you in earnest I'm a dangerous man
I've fought with the law since I was seventeen
I robbed many a man to get my Vincent machine
Now I'm 21 years, I might make 22
And I don't mind dying, but for the love of you
And if fate should break my stride
Then I'll give you my Vincent to ride

Come down, come down, Red Molly, called Sergeant McRae
For they've taken young James Adie for armed robbery
Shotgun blast hit his chest, left nothing inside
Oh, come down, Red Molly to his dying bedside
When she came to the hospital, there wasn't much left
He was running out of road, he was running out of breath
But he smiled to see her cry
And said I'll give you my Vincent to ride

Says James, in my opinion, there's nothing in this world
Beats a 52 Vincent and a red headed girl
Now Nortons and Indians and Greeveses won't do
They don't have a soul like a Vincent 52
He reached for her hand and he slipped her the keys
He said I've got no further use for these
I see angels on Ariels in leather and chrome
Swooping down from heaven to carry me home
And he gave her one last kiss and died
And he gave her his Vincent to ride

[hifiguy]

5. Muchly agreed

and how the hell did I forget him? :banghead:

[Dr Fate]

30. Any man who openly lists The Left Banke as an influence cant be all bad. n/t

n/t

[hifiguy]

32. I didn't know that about RT

but it only increases his fabness. I was head-over-heels for the Left Banke from the first time I heard "Walk Away Renee" when I was a mere sprout. One of the most perfect pop songs of the era and maybe ever. The last word in teenage heartbreak cos it was a true story: Michael Brown - the brains and keyboards of the LB, was 15 or 16 and in love with the bass player's girlfriend, Renee, who didn't know he existed. A classic was thus born.

First time I ever heard RT's work was in '75 on Fairport's 1970 classic "Liege and Lief." Thompson, Sandy Denny, Dave Swarbrick, Simon Nicol, Dave Mattacks and Ashley Hutchings. Now THAT was one hellacious band.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

2. Richard Thompson

John Mellencamp once said something like "I'll never write as song as good as his songs."

Said Red Molly to James that's a fine motorbike
A girl could feel special on any such like
Said James to Red Molly, well my hat's off to you
It's a Vincent Black Lightning, 1952
And I've seen you at the corners and cafes it seems
Red hair and black leather, my favorite color scheme
And he pulled her on behind
And down to Box Hill they did ride

Said James to Red Molly, here's a ring for your right hand
But I'll tell you in earnest I'm a dangerous man
I've fought with the law since I was seventeen
I robbed many a man to get my Vincent machine
Now I'm 21 years, I might make 22
And I don't mind dying, but for the love of you
And if fate should break my stride
Then I'll give you my Vincent to ride

Come down, come down, Red Molly, called Sergeant McRae
For they've taken young James Adie for armed robbery
Shotgun blast hit his chest, left nothing inside
Oh, come down, Red Molly to his dying bedside
When she came to the hospital, there wasn't much left
He was running out of road, he was running out of breath
But he smiled to see her cry
And said I'll give you my Vincent to ride

Says James, in my opinion, there's nothing in this world
Beats a 52 Vincent and a red headed girl
Now Nortons and Indians and Greeveses won't do
They don't have a soul like a Vincent 52
He reached for her hand and he slipped her the keys
He said I've got no further use for these
I see angels on Ariels in leather and chrome
Swooping down from heaven to carry me home
And he gave her one last kiss and died
And he gave her his Vincent to ride

[Tikki]

3. Elvis Costello, Exene Cervenka and Darby Crash among others...

Tikki

[HopeHoops]

4. Peter Gabriel

[ArnoldLayne]

16. I forgot Elvis Costello

[Richardo]

6. Paul Simon

Poetic imagery, language, message, everything.

Head and shoulders above Dylan in my book.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

9. Agreed. And yes, better than Bob Dylan. (Or Dylan Thomas, whoever that was...)

[TuxedoKat]

13. Another vote for Paul Simon here too

Amazing lyrics and great music too. I saw a special about him on PBS once where he talked about the songwriting process. He said something like, if you're trying to write a song and struggling with the words, don't despair, it means you really do have something to say, or something like that!

[meegbear]

7. Roger Waters | Elvis Costello | Robyn Hitchcock

[TZ]

8. Neil Peart does not get nearly enough credit for his lyrics

I know some here dislike him because they think he's a Randian Objectivist (which he's denied..he calls himself a left leaning libertarin, where Objectivists are very much RW libertarians).
And not everything he's written is great (I love Tom Sawyer but thats not lyrically the best thing Rush has done)
However he also has written songs like Red Sector A, Limelight, Faithless, Armor and Sword, Free Will and others that are very thoughtful.

[av8rdave]

19. I LOVE Armor and Sword

He truly is one of the greatest lyricists ever.

[hifiguy]

28. I just rediscovered Rush a couple weeks back

Dug a few albums out of my storage locker, including some earlier Rush, which I played first, and was re-surprised and re-impressed at the intelligence and craftsmanship in Peart's lyrics. But I have always had a fondness for lyricists who didn't write "love" songs but aspired to higher things. Peart does and succeeds.

[Dr. Strange]

33. You do know that part of the lyricing in Tom Sawyer was done by someone else, right?

Tom Sawyer was a collaboration between myself and Pye Dubois, an excellent lyricist who wrote the lyrics for Max Webster. His original lyrics were kind of a portrait of a modern day rebel, a free-spirited individualist striding through the world wide-eyed and purposeful. I added the themes of reconciling the boy and man in myself, and the difference between what people are and what others perceive them to be - namely me I guess.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Sawyer_%28song%29

[LynneSin]

10. Until you can create lyrics like "Pompitus of Love" you all fail...

compared to this guy:

[Gidney N Cloyd]

11. I really can't think of any non-craptrocious lyrics by Jim Morrison . What am I overlooking?

[Tikki]

12. Andy Partridge, Randy Newman, David Bowie...

Michael Stipe and Danny Elfman and Roger Miller...among others.
Did I forget David Byrne!!!

Tikki

[hifiguy]

18. Stipe is an interesting case

His stuff often grabs me even though his lyrics are quite often non-linear. But he creates such vivid word-pictures in the space of a line it often doesn't matter if there doesn't seem to be much connection from line to line. In that way he reminds me of Jon Anderson in Yes' heyday.

[Dr Fate]

25. Assuming you can even understand what he is singing (on the 1st 3 records)

I still have no idea what he is saying 85% of the time on Cronic Town through Reckoning. All I know is whatever it is he is saying, it sounds cool.

[Dr Fate]

24. Andy Partridge is a great hero of mine as well!

Never really thought much about his lyrics, I love his meleodies, but yeah- his lyrcis are good too!

"the Clothes that were draped were all that told man from ape..." (Crap, maybe Colin wrote that one)

[ArnoldLayne]

14. Roger Waters, Peter Gabriel and Bruce Springsteen

[Lars39]

15. Jackson Browne

[City of Mills]

17. Gordon Lightfoot, Jim Croce, Johnny Cash

A few of my favorites.

[Tikki]

20. I need to add Doug Colvin, also...

Donovan, Brian Wilson and Chuck Berry.....


Tikki

[CBGLuthier]

21. I was going to say Ray Davies when I realized nobody has mentioned Warren Zevon

[Tikki]

22. One of the very, very best.....

Tikki

[Dr Fate]

27. He has at least 3 songs about drinking tea. You gotta love that. n/t

n/t

[Arkansas Granny]

23. Bob Seger.

[Dr Fate]

26. James Brown & Chuck Berry. Seriously.

While all the above mentioned artists are poets in their own right-lyrics and "message" are truly the last thing on a record I hear.

Frankly, some of the stuff by Joni, Simon, Browne etc. borders on high school journal material.

I like songs about screwing and partying and dancing- so I pick either JB or Chuck.

If I had to pick a "serious" choice that conforms to this thread- then the John Lennon solo era does it for me...

[hifiguy]

29. I forgot Frank Zappa

who proved that you can write everything from exeedingly pointed social commentary to fart jokes and succeed artistically at both. At least if you are as smart as Zappa was.

[taterguy]

31. Hoyt Axton

"Jeremiah was a bullfrog. Was a good friend of mine.
Never understood a single word he said but I helped him drink his wine.
And he always had some mighty fine wine."

Have better lyrics ever been written? I think not.

And don't get me started on Never Been to Spain.

[Zorra]

34. Roger Waters, Dylan, Robert Hunter, John Fogerty, Don Henley, Neil Young,

Bob Marley, Patti Smith and

whoever writes the lyrics for Rage Against The Machine.

Laurie Anderson is a fantastic lyricist but is probably not considered rock and roll.

[Gabi Hayes]

35. root boy slim

[Gabi Hayes]

36. becker-fagen

[Gabi Hayes]

37. leonard cohen

[melman]

38. Paul Westerberg

The best by a mile. Nobody even comes close imo.

[Burma Jones]

39. John Lennon