Best Lyricists

[Quom]

So who are they? Might also be a good idea to list a song that shows just why they are a good song writer or to link to a youtube file (I assume that's legal?). Obviously about 400 people will list Dylan, Cohen, Cave, Cobain, Lennon, Tupac, Biggie, Francis, Kwelli etc. so it might be an idea to find out what it is about their lyrics, or a particular lyric/song you love so much.

I'm going to avoid the biggies for fear I'll make a tit of myself. Besides I'd be lying, whilst I like Dylan and love Cave I honestly don't listen that much to the lyrics or can never hear them properly (except earlier Dylan).

For me you cant look past Darren Hanlon. He's Australian, has worked with various international names, toured a few times with the mag fields, used to tour as a Lucksmith and like the Lucksmiths writes really great lyrics. You can't look past http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYOAtZG2X7I,

or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVBDAtHR_Iw.

Magnetic Fields, well Stephin Merritt. The man is a living treasure. Just picking one song off each of his albums would prove impossible. He has written some shit songs granted, but his best is better than anyone else's and when he's mediocre he leaves most wanting. Heres a short list off the top of my head: Lonely Highway, I'm Lonely (and I Love It), The Flowers She Sent and the Flowers She Said She Sent, Aging Spinsters, Deep Sea Diving Suit, Fear of Trains, When the Open Road is Closing in, The Nun's Litany, and most of 69 Love Songs as well as countless others.

Augie March. Another Australian band. One Crowded Hour. Have no idea how they haven't broken overseas, or gotten huge over here. They're polished, the lyrics are great in a Dylanesque smarter than you type way, and they are samey to a lot of stuff yet unique.

Fuck it. Just realised there are countless others. Will add them tomorrow when I'm not falling asleep typing.

Edited July 20, 2008 by QuomQuat

[Dingle]

I'm gonna stick to my main man with this, and although I do enjoy Nick Cave's lyrics and I do think that Dylan was fantastic for his time, the lyrics that have connected most significantly and strongly with me would be that of Morrissey's. He may be reknowned for be 'depressing' and for 'monotone' vocals, but his lyrics connect perfectly with me and satirical comments that he makes can make me laugh very easily. He has everything that I'd want in a lyricist, words that I can relate to, things I can find funny and can reflect on.

[Skummy]

Dylan, Tom Waits, Shane MacGowan and Leonard Cohen are all undoubtedly amongst the best lyricists ever, but they do fall into a kind of "poetic" category, which while wonderful, personally I'm more inclined towards lyricists of the kind that Quom listed; The Lucksmiths' lyrics are absolutely incredible, and have been a huge influence on my own writing style, for example.

Personally, at the moment, my favourite lyricist is Malcolm Middleton. He manages to be insightful, but at the same time doesn't really deal with "big" issues or anything, and doesn't try and dress up his lyrics in really fancy metaphor or Dylanesque storytelling, it stays deeply personal and incredibly human - I'd give an example, but I can't think of any one song that's a better example than another. Just listen to the bastard.

[450_Splash]

the guy I thought of when i read the topic name doesnt fit in with anyone whose been mentioned so far, but screw it im gonna throw him in the pot anyway. Cos im crazy like that.

Modern day, best lyricist out right now imo. Lupe Fiasco. He's in a scene thats all about bling bling and women and cars and hos and drugs and being posted on tha block. But he's rapping from the heart. And it's not just the lyrics or the themes he deals with in those lyrics but the passion you can feel coming through every part of the song. Whether its American Terrorists, The Cool, or my favourite Little Weapon. He raps about some fairly hard issues and he does it well.

Good to see someone making a difference in mainstream hip hop.

Along the same lines I'd say Chamillionaire, Lil Wayne, Dead Prez and Edo G aswell, but they aren't really on the same level as the Lupe.

Also as emo as it will make me sound Jesse Lacey and Adam Lazzara are the most under rated of the over rated teenage poets crowding the music world today. Forget about Pete Wentz heartbreak stories, or Bert's subliminal disses on Gerard Way, or Gerard Ways subliminal homo erotica fuelled sex romp that was the black parade. Their lyrics are open and honest and as far as teenage poets go, no one does it better than these two.

[IAceI]

Suck on my lollipop.

That's deep stuff right there

[Verder]

"Dear Mr. Toilet, I'm the shit."

"It's Young Money and we on like the television."

Lil Wayne's lyrics range from great to downright stupid or making no sense. Sure he can rhyme words well and he's got a really good flow when he spits his lines fast, but more often than not he kinda makes no sense. As far as Lupe Fiasco goes... yeah, he's not the first guy or the only guy currently to rhyme about 'real' things, but it's respectable that he does. It'd be much easier for a rap artist right now to just go with the flow and make a song about... well, you know. Rap could somewhat soon be heading towards another era where it's regarded more as an artform instead of selling ringtones and making a quick buck.

My favorite lyricist (and I only really listen to rap, mind you) is Nas. I won't even say anything about Illmatic and It Was Written, but his latest records like Hip Hop is Dead and Untitled really had some lyrical gems in there. Moreover, he uses no autotune

“Nas’ the only true rebel since the beginning, still in musical prison/still in jail for the flow, try tellin’ Bob Dylan, Bruce, or Billy Joe they can’t sing what’s in their soul.”

I'll admit that at some points on his new record he kinda derails from his subjects though.

EDIT: And in all fairness, it's not like Lollipop is meant to be the greatest song lyrically of all time, a lyrical homicide. It's exactly what it's supposed to be, a club banger, and it does the job well. Tha Carter III features a few songs like Tie My Hands where he very well rhymes about actually important things. Of course, you could argue Wayne's status as a good lyricist due to him being willing to do a song like Lollipop in the first place.

Edited July 20, 2008 by Verder

[Nerf]

I've always really dug Jose Gonzalez as a singer/songwriter.

[450_Splash]

Suck on my lollipop.

That's deep stuff right there

I may have named Lil Wayne in the wrong sentence, he obviously doesnt rap politically or on many deep issues. Although he has adressed the Katrina disaster and the governments inability to provide aid. Also on the carter III he does a nice spoken word interlude on misunderstood in regards to the amount of young black men in jail and the reasons they are there, and how white boys from the suburbs dealing E don't get put away when either way it is drug dealing. etc. But where he isn't deep he is unique. If Tupac can be considered one of the greatest lyricists of all time, which by all means he should be, then in my mind lil wayne is up there. Because back when tupac was doing it, it hadnt been done. So it was all new and all revolutionary. Nowadays there are only so many ways you can say "look at me im a gangsta, i kill people, i sell drugs, now im rollin in money, imthe best rapper alive". But along comes lil wayne, and he is able to say all of that and more in a newer unique way. Using new metaphors, and new plays on words. And just changing the game up.

For example in Dr. Carter he is "working on patients", rappers who have a lack of style, no flow, no confidence, no vocab etc. and he loses two patients before saving the third....and closing the song with a very typical inflated ego style rap line. But he does it so well that you believe he did. here are some of my favourite excerpts....

Okay.

Respect is in the heart.

So thats where i'ma start.

And a lot of heart patients don't make it.

Now hey kids

Plural. I graduated

cause you could get through anything if Magic made it.

And that was called recycling

or rereciting

something cause you just like it

so you say it just like it.

Some say its biting

but i say its enlightning

besides Dr. Kanye West is one of the brightest.

And Dr. Swizz can stitch your track up the tightest.

And Dr. Jeezy can fix your back up the nicest.

Arthritis in my hand from writing.

But i'm a doctor they don't understand my writing.

------------------------------------------------

And I Don't Rap Fast I Rap Slow.

Cause I Mean Every Letter In The Words In The Setence Of My Quotes.

Swagger Just Flow Sweeter Then Honey Oats.

That Swagger I Got It I Wear It Like A Coat.

Wait, As I Put The Light Down His Throat.

I Can Only See Flow.

His Blood Starting To Flow.

His Lungs Starting To Grow.

This One Starting To Show.

Strong Signs Of Life.

Wheres The Stiches Heres The Knife.

Smack His Face His Eyes Open.

I Reply With A Nice Welcome Back.

Hip Hop I Saved Your Life.

I wont be suprised if a lot of people disagree with me on every single one of the people whose lyrics I praised. But to me, there is something about each of those artists that connected and felt true and honest and unique...so... =) thats my input

[IAceI]

Why are people so serious on EWB?

[450_Splash]

"Dear Mr. Toilet, I'm the shit."

"It's Young Money and we on like the television."

think of the amount of weed that must have been in his system when he wrote those lines...a lesser man would have trouble stringing together sentences.

[Guest Offbeat Bareass]

I'm going with Saul Williams.

[nihilist]

I'm a massive fan of Joy Division, and honestly I think Ian Curtis' lyrics are amazingly evocative of his emotions and feelings. Love Will Tear Us Apart, that's the big JD song and if you just look at the lyrics to the song, you can imagine the relationship he had with his wife and how his feelings contributed to the destruction of their bond.

If you like controversy, Jaz Coleman of Killing Joke's your man, too.

[Hobo]

Dylan is amazingly poetic but Cohen trumps him for my money in terms that Cohen is less prolific but produces a much more higher quality of lyric. Whereas Dylan will be very surreal and difficult to understand, Cohen is pretty easy to understand and far more emotive in his lyrics. Famous Blue Raincoat and Chelsea Hotel #2, are straight forward though oblique in there own ways and also have an emotive quality that very little of Dylan's work can touch.

However, I would also throw names like Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark into this hat. TVZ lyrics are amazing, Mr Mudd and Mr Gold, Marie, Waitin' Around To Die for example. Guy Clark is a genius in his own way too, I remember reading the lyrics to She Ain't Goin Nowhere long before I heard it and I think it's one of the best set of lyrics I've ever read: "Standing on the gone side of leaving, she found her thumb and stuck it in the breeze/she'll take anything thats going close to somewhere/she can lay it down and live it as she please/she ain't goin' nowhere, she's just leavin', she ain't goin nowhere she can't breathe in, she ain't goin home and that's for sure/and the wind had its way with her hair/and the blues had away with her smile/and she had a way of her own/like a prisoner has a way with a file". Then other Clark songs like L.A Freeway, Magnolia Wind, Magdeline, Desperadoes Waiting For A Train, Instant Coffee Blues all have amazing lyrics, between the phraseology used and the emotiveness of them.

John Prine is another with a simple but elegant songwriting style, Tom Waits is amazing for the phrases and the stories he's able to weave. Louden Wainwright III for the ability to mix humor with sorrow and brutal honesty, I don't think many songwriters are as open in there songwriting as LWIII.

[YI]

John K Sampson.

[Tarheels.]

Jeff Mangum has to rank up there with some of them for me. I love the way he can convey such raw emotions, the best example of it is in Two Headed Boy Pt. 2 for me:

And when we break

we’ll wait for our miracle,

God is a place where some holy spectacle lies.

And when we break

we’ll wait for our miracle,

God is a place you will wait for the rest of your life.

Two-headed boy,

she is all you could need,

she will feed you tomatoes

and radio wire,

and retire to sheets safe and clean,

but don’t hate her when she gets up to leave.

Ben Gibbard also seems to have a way with creating very moving and unique lyrics in his songs, whether it be with Death Cab, Postal Service, or any other projects. I wouldn't list him as one of the best, but he is certainly working his way up there.

Then there's Dylan, Cohen, in my eyes Morrisey is a great one too.

[Turbo Yannis]

Roddy Woomble.

In my eyes, he's not so much a vocalist but more of a poet. That sings

[I Don't Mind]

I don't listen to his stuff a lot because his voice bugs the crap out of me, but Conor Oberst is simply amazing. I wouldn't say he's a great musician, but much like Roddy Woomble is described a poet that sings his poems.

A sampling from

We must talk in every telephone

Get eaten off the web

We must rip out all the epilogues in the books that we have read

And in the face of every criminal

Strapped firmly to a chair

We must stare, we must stare, we must stare

We must take all of the medicines too expensive now to sell

Set fire to the preacher who is promising us hell

And in the ear of every anarchist that sleeps but doesn’t dream

We must sing, we must sing, we must sing

It’ll go like this:

While my mother waters plants

My father loads his guns

He says death will give us back to God

Just like this setting sun is returned to this lonesome ocean

[DeeJam]

Someone is bound to say it sooner or later, so I'll go ahead and be that one...Eminem. He may say some oulandish things here and there, but when he wants to, he can spit some of the best verses in any genre of music. And the best thing about him is nothing is off limits with this guy. From Jesus to George Bush to September 11th to his own mother, everything is fair game. He shows his lyrical dominance on songs like Sing For The Moment, Til I Collapse, Fight Music, No Apologies, Rock Bottom, The Way I Am...etc. He even outshines great lyricists when featured on their albums like his verses on Jay-Z's Renegade. And to give an example, Eminem's verses on Renegade...

Since I'm in a position to talk to these kids and they listen

I ain't no politician but I'll kick it with 'em a minute

Cause see they call me a menace; and if the shoe fits I'll wear it

But if it don't, then y'all'll swallow the truth grin and bear it

Now who's these king of these rude ludicrous lucrative lyrics

Who could inherit the title, put the youth in hysterics

Usin his music to steer it, sharin his views and his merits

But there's a huge interference - they're sayin you shouldn't hear it

Maybe it's hatred I spew, maybe it's food for the spirit

Maybe it's beautiful music I made for you to just cherish

But I'm debated disputed hated and viewed in America

as a motherfuckin drug addict - like you didn't experiment?

Now now, that's when you start to stare at who's in the mirror

and see yourself as a kid again, and you get embarrased

And I got nothin to do but make you look stupid as parents

You fuckin do-gooders - too bad you couldn't do good at marriage!

(Ha ha!) And do you have any clue what I had to do to get here I don't

think you do so stay tuned and keep your ears glued to the stereo

Cause here we go - he's {*Jigga joint Jigga-chk-Jigga*}

And I'm the sinister, Mr. Kiss-My-Ass it's just the

See I'm a poet to some, a regular modern day Shakespeare

Jesus Christ the King of these Latter Day Saints here

To shatter the picture in which of that as they paint me

as a monger of hate and Satan a scatter-brained atheist

But that ain't the case, see it's a matter of taste

We as a people decide if Shady's as bad as they say he is

Or is he the latter - a gateway to escape?

Media scapegoat, who they can be mad at today

See it's easy as cake, simple as whistlin Dixie

while I'm wavin the pistol at sixty Christians against me

Go to war with the Mormons, take a bath with the Catholics

in holy water - no wonder they try to hold me under longer

I'm a motherfuckin spiteful, DELIGHTFUL eyeful

The new Ice Cube - motherfuckers HATE to like you

What did I do? (huh?) I'm just a kid from the gutter

makin this butter off these bloodsuckers, cause I'm a muh'fuckin

[Only In Dreams]

John K Sampson.

Quoted for emphasis.

[apsham]

Okay, first of all Matthew Good is going to kick anyone else out of the water for me, as he has everything. You want political, you have songs like songs like Black Helicopter and If I Were A Tidal Wave. You want songs that are about emotions, and you have older stuff like Whispering In The Dark and Jenni's Song. Funny songs, you've got yourself some Downloading Blues and M. Good vs. M. Trolley. Upbeat and poppy type songs... Rico and Hello Time Bomb. Hell, if you want something that has a lot of instrumental in it, you've got Weapon and While We Were Hunting Rabbits. I guess I shouldn't leave out some pretty sweet covers, cause there's Hurt and Enjoy The Silence for that. If I had to choose some lyrics, well hell it would be way too hard so I'll just go with the first ones that I can think of, from Running For Home;

They beam things into your head, the ghosts of your pleasure and content

When we were liars, things were seamless

When we were wired, the world was like a secret

I close my eyes now and I scream

I turn the light on and there's nothing left redeeming

I saw your face before it changed

The gun it makes you look nicer in a bad way

So low for how high? It's too late, tonight

And I'm sure, you're right

So low, for how high?

And after this, there's just the circus

And every morning your carny heart stops working

It gets tight in there sometimes, looking for those defects

Talking like it's a reflex

I close my mouth now and I scream

I open the door and there's nothing left redeeming

I saw your face before in rough

You should wait around a while cause your body's bound to turn up

So low for how high? It's too late, tonight

And I'm sure, you're right

So low, for how high?

So low, for how high?

------------------------------------

But moving on, yeah I have to say Leonard Cohen as well. Call me simple, but I'm just going to point to Hallelujah... you can't really go any wrong, the song has been used and covered as many times as it has been for a reason. But that's not to take away from everything else, I mean sometimes... Leonard Cohen only seems to understand Leonard Cohen, but I think that's the appeal.

Another guy that I need to say, would be Nate Ruess from the band The Format, because I think that out of young guys writing today... he has some of the best lyrics. Not a lot of the songs repeat, like poppy crap... there's always new and interesting lines in the next verse over... which is always awesome to see for sure. Plus, I think the guy is just clever as hell. But I would also have to put Max Bemis from Say Anything into the same category, if only for the lines;

Here I am laid bare, at the end of my rope

I've lost all hope, so long

Molly Connolly just broke up with me over the revealing nature of the songs

You god damn kids had best be gracious with the merch money you spend

Cause for you, I won't ever have rough sex with Molly Connolly again

Oh, and Adam Goren just because Atom And His Package is amazing.