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Goatboy
the anticlimax

Registered: Jul 2000
Location: A New England
Posts: 9187

Top 10 Lyricists

There was a thread on this before, but its older than sin.

In no particular order:

John Darnielle (Mountain Goats)
Morrissey
Billy Bragg
Bob Dylan
Leonard Cohen
Stephen Merrit (Magnetic Fields)
Andy Partridge (XTC)
Jim Morrison
Tom Waits

The last slot would be a pit fight between:

Frank Black
Waters / Gilmour

They are all kind of fey, so the only sure result from the fight is that they would all have HIV (again).

P.S. Fuck the Beatles

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03-07-2007 05:29 PM

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Goatboy
the anticlimax

Registered: Jul 2000
Location: A New England
Posts: 9187

I'd probably ditch Waits, and maybe Morrison. I was too embarrased to say Paul Simon.

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03-07-2007 05:38 PM

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dogcow
bruco�

Registered: Apr 2005
Location: europa
Posts: 10867

no beth gibbons? u2 also has some good lyrics.

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03-07-2007 05:43 PM

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Goatboy
the anticlimax

Registered: Jul 2000
Location: A New England
Posts: 9187

I can't believe I missed out on 2pac

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03-07-2007 05:50 PM

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fubar
ignorami ginormi

Registered: Apr 2005
Location: wookin pa nub
Posts: 10792

Billy Ray Cyrus

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Rokkr
Cwirky

Registered: Apr 2004
Location: Cwesting
Posts: 9053

Elvis Costello
Anyone who could write the line, "I wish you luck with a capital F" rules in my book.

Not as well known, but a great lyricist is Graham Parker.

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03-07-2007 06:57 PM

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Mugtoe
Cuddly Puppy

Registered: Oct 2001
Location:
Posts: 18251

ditto on Elvis Costello

and Stephen Merrit

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quote:
Originally posted by magnolia
never waste a hardon, trust a fart or pass up a breath mint when offered.

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03-08-2007 01:59 AM

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tessellated
naughty bits

Registered: Aug 2002
Location: Pere Ubu land
Posts: 1084

Ian Curtis
Lou Reed
Tom Verlain (Television)
Peter Sinfield (King Crimson circa Lizard)
Bryan Ferry (Roxy Music's In Every Dreamhome a Heartache earns a mention by itself)
I'll have to add David Tibet (Current 93) no one can spin an apocalyptic folk song quite like him

and yeah...Morrissey AND Cohen both are incredible

last edit I swear!*

*Goatboy makes a liar of me: XTC is great stuff too (now I am hearing The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul in my head) but if you mention him, you have to mention Colin Newman (Wire) too!

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Last edited by tessellated on 03-08-2007 at 02:12 AM

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lucidnightmare
Max Power

Registered: Nov 2003
Location: North Myrtle Beach SC
Posts: 3397

Billy corgan.

Ronnie James Dio. He's like a story teller

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03-08-2007 02:40 AM

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Coincidence
Aka 'others'

Registered: Apr 2004
Location: Den
Posts: 11476

quote:
Originally posted by tessellated
I'll have to add David Tibet (Current 93) no one can spin an apocalyptic folk song quite like him

Now you made me do it.

quote:

In the mind of god
The dead sleeping lie
And the little cogs though unmoving
Hover over the turning wheel

All life's a farce
The broken bird is draped over the paths
And paths and paths and paths
And those who say this world is not
The bloody gleaming paradise of blood and jewel
Lie

Opal and pearl bloodsocket castings
Ruby jasmine jasper onyx
Chalcedonthrone and ambergriscrown
Golden green leafwork
Scrolled with the farstars
Pitted with the moonworlds
Mother alldewey
Arrayed with the twinkling lights
The wovengold spungilded blinking godeyes
The spearshafts of heaven
The souldwelling rockhomes
Are...

Dormition and Dominion
Dormition and Dominion
The Mother is dead
The Mother awakens
Dormition
She sleeps
Dominion
He rules
She sleeps and rules
In her starry bodied glory
The Mother sleeps
The Mother loves
Dormition and Dominion
I wait

..Are the holders of the world and its dreams

I say there is no death
No death
We have lived before and shall live again
And again
We have slept before and shall sleep again
We have danced through the shallow pools
And shall rejoice once again
To those who say there is no hope
I say liars
Liars
Liars you are

Over the starry dancing stars
There is a land
Under the sweatribbed brow
There is a land
And this is the globed world of the Pantocrator
Finally I have understood
I have understood
I have understood
Though when I slip sleeping and silently
From this ribbed room of sighs
You shall not find the history of His personal visit
Sewn into my linings perhaps
Nevertheless I have understood
Where the logician watches god hinge all on a die
Nevertheless: I have understood!
That all this is the breathbetween moment
Our eyelids open and close
Between is the land
Between the time I first was accepted
In between Your brightboned body
Between then and there and the time

You wept:
"Goodbye my love goodbye to you"
Goodbye oh goodbye
There there was the land
In the pearls of our heart
There is the immaculate heavenly loveland
In the middle of the forest Act�on is slain by his own hounds
In the middle of the forest Eustace meets the crisscross Stag
There is the land he has reached paradise
There is no death
There is no death
There as the stag turns and smiled loved
There he was takencaught by the prey
All the flowers are blossoming
And all the world calls to you:
"Dormition" -- so you sleep
"Dominion" -- so he rules

Dormition -- oh You sleep, Mother
Dominion -- Father, You rule

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mmmtravis
T-Raz w/ the freaky freak

Registered: May 2002
Location:
Posts: 8932

The only lyricist I actively like is Thom Yorke. His faggotry is radioactive, but he doesn't sound corny.

Frank Black is cool. Weird and offbeat like Waters/Gilmour (I don't know who writes what) without being annoyingly British.

Maynard and Corgan are tolerable with their "slower" songs, I guess, but their God-hating goth diatribes can get silly.

Also, I like the Brian Eno's "Baby's On Fire."

In conclusion: Poetry is gay and prose just usually doesn't sit well when accompanied by music (unless Jimmy Buffett is involved). Rock and roll lyrics are mostly pretty useless.

As long as the voice is used effectively as an instrument and the lyrics aren't making the song worse, I don't give a shit.

A good example is Doug Martsch of Built to Spill. His lyrics are fucking terrible

quote:
"When I was a kid I saw a light / Floating high above the trees one night.
Thought �twas an alien / Turned out to be just god"

I mean, wtf? Really? But who cares, he's a fucking rock God. He makes good songs.

The only lyricist I would call great is Johnny Cohen and, to be honest, I only know one of his songs:

quote:
"Extra Ticket" by Jonny Cohen & Co.

Would you like to go to the Alanis Morissette concert?
Would you like to go to the Luscious Jackson concert?
Would you like to go to the LeAnn Rimes concert?
Would you like to go to the Susan Sarandon movie opening?
What am I gonna do with the extra ticket?
What am I gonna do with the extra ticket?
Would you like to go to the Female Symposium in Maine?
Would you like to go to the health club in Florida?
Would you like to go to the Women�s College Basketball Championships in Iowa?
Would you like to move into my apartment?
What am I gonna do with the extra ticket?
What am I gonna do with the extra ticket?
Is it okay if we get ESPN News?
Is it okay if we have pizza every night?
Is it okay if Steve, Ray, and Bob sleep out in the living room?
Is it okay if Steve, Ray, and Bob sleep in the living room every night?
What am I gonna do with the extra ticket?
What am I gonna do with the extra ticket?
What am I gonna do with the extra ticket?
What am I gonna do with the extra ticket?
What am I gonna do? What am I gonna do?
What am I gonna do? What am I gonna do?
Que Hacer? Que Hacer?
Que Hacer? Que Hacer?
Que Hago? Que Hiciera?
Que Hacer? Que Hacer?
Que Hacer? Que Hacer?
What am I gonna do? What am I gonna do?
What am I gonna do? What am I gonna do?
The rest of my life, what am I gonna do?