Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 129 total)
  • Who's the best-ever lyricist/songwriter?
  • brooess
    Free Member

    Even though I’ve been listening to Handsome Devil by The Smiths for 20 years I’ve only just properly listened to the words 🙂 – ‘a boy in the bush is worth two in the hand’ – genius…

    Which reminds me Morrissey is IMO the best lyricist we’ve ever had. Ok his opinions voiced in public can be an acquired taste but he writes more honestly about the human condition than any other songwriter I’ve listened to.
    Richard Hawley covers love and loneliness well but Morrissey has to go down as our best overall winner…

    Opinions?

    edlong
    Free Member

    Ginger from the Wildhearts

    billyblackheart
    Free Member

    Bruce Dickinson.

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    scaled
    Free Member

    If you overlook the massive plagiarism from scripture Dylan has to be up there 😀

    hels
    Free Member

    Billy Bragg

    binners
    Full Member
    swamp_boy
    Full Member

    Ian Dury

    next question?

    brakes
    Free Member

    Paul Simon – simply wonderful songwriter with simple, relatable, lyrics that are brought to life by the music that accompanies them.

    “In the clearing stands a boxer
    And a fighter by his trade
    And he carries the reminders
    Of ev’ry glove that layed him down
    Or cut him till he cried out
    In his anger and his shame
    ‘I am leaving, I am leaving’
    But the fighter still remains”

    shaggmiester
    Free Member

    Eminem

    brakes
    Free Member

    lol @Binners.
    it’s toast I likes the most.

    Garry_Lager
    Full Member

    All time you’ve got people like Bob Dylan or Leonard Cohen who are poets, basically. Say what you want about their music (Cohen’s is pretty ordinary IMHO) but their lyrical output is in a different league – very few singer songwriters can stand comparison.

    Morrissey is in the pantheon, no doubt, but I don’t think of him as a very honest songwriter like the OP says. He’s more arch and clever – like a melancholy PG Wodehouse. Still one of the best of the last 30 years say.

    Personal favourite is Will Oldham (Bonnie Prince Billy). Not listening to him as much these days but he’s the modern songwriter I’ve liked best.

    zippykona
    Full Member

    Binners,you have ruined my day.

    cinnamon_girl
    Full Member

    Van Morrison.

    kayak23
    Full Member

    Morrissey, I concur…

    If I seem a little strange, well that’s because I am. …

    righog
    Free Member

    Neil Young. ” You are like a hurricane, there’s calm in your eye”

    schrickvr6
    Free Member

    Beck for me.

    alex222
    Free Member

    BIG, Tupac, Ian Brown, Beck, Kurt Cobain, John Lennon, Stamina MC, Bob Dylan – there’s quite a few of excellent song writters past and pressant in my honest opinion.

    BIG is my favourite though. No rapper can touch him tupac comes close though.

    DezB
    Free Member

    I reckon Elvis Costello.
    Not a massive fan of his voice, but so many amazing lyrics.

    lasty
    Free Member

    Shane Mcgowan

    – How anybody so ugly & wasted could create such beauty is beyond belief…

    loum
    Free Member

    IHN
    Full Member

    Steve Earle or Paul Simon

    Haze
    Full Member

    BIG is my favourite though. No rapper can touch him tupac comes close though.

    Chuck D.

    soobalias
    Free Member

    cant believe nobody has voted for Matt Goss (Bros!) yet.

    binners
    Full Member

    Got to agree with loum about Shaun Ryder

    Son, I’m thirty
    I only went with your mother cos she’s dirty

    … is the best opening lyric ever written. But Mozza is a genius songwriter! Even if nowadays he’s a complete tool!

    Kryton57
    Full Member

    Axl Rose.

    Cletus
    Free Member

    I like Nick Cave’s lyrics. Tom Waits is good too.

    wukfit
    Free Member

    Paul Simon +1

    MrSmith
    Free Member

    Dylan.

    not those baggy trousered arm waving shouty blokes who come up with such inspired witticisms as this:

    “Nobody better test me, cuz I don’t wanna get messy
    Especially when I step inside this bitch, dick freshly”

    Northwind
    Full Member

    edlong – Member

    Ginger from the Wildhearts

    Songwriter maybe. Definitely best rock songwriter of his generation I reckon. Lyricist I am not so sure. D D D Dayglo buffaloes…

    yossarian
    Free Member

    Bob Dylan

    edlong
    Free Member

    Beck for me.

    Really? His lyrics seem to me as though he’s written a load of random words on pieces of paper, thrown them into the air and recorded them in the order they landed.

    Sample:

    In the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey
    Butane in my veins so I’m out to cut the junkie
    With the plastic eyeballs, spray paint the vegetables
    Dog food stalls with the beefcake pantyhose
    Kill the headlights and put it in neutral
    Stock car flamin’ with a loser and the cruise control
    Baby’s in Reno with the vitamin D
    Got a couple of couches sleep on the love seat
    Someone keeps sayin I’m insane to complain
    About a shotgun wedding and a stain on my shirt
    Don’t believe everything that you breathe
    You get a parking violation and a maggot on your sleeve

    (I’m a big fan, by the way)

    DezB
    Free Member

    I saw a newspaper picture from the political campaign
    A woman was kissing a child, who was obviously in pain
    She spills with compassion, as that young child’s face in her hands she grips
    Can you imagine all that greed and avarice coming down on that child’s lips
    Well I hope I don’t die too soon
    I pray the Lord my soul to save
    Oh I’ll be a good boy, I’m trying so hard to behave
    Because there’s one thing I know, I’d like to live long enough to savour
    That’s when they finally put you in the ground
    I’ll stand on your grave and tramp the dirt down

    martinxyz
    Free Member

    Miles Hunt. He’ll sing the song too, not bleat them out like a sheep. Like Dylan.

    AlexSimon
    Full Member

    Just to throw in some of the opposite sex:

    Joni Mitchell
    Janis Ian

    mr-potatohead
    Free Member

    Tom Waits
    Louden Waitwright 3

    emac65
    Free Member

    Jello Biafra – Dog bite & Nazi Punks,to name but two classics…..

    sadexpunk
    Full Member

    nick cave. genius.

    alex222
    Free Member

    the best opening lyric ever written

    is BIG

    **** it; when I die I hope I go to hell

    Chuck D.

    Is a good shout but I think BIG is better.

    zippykona
    Full Member

    My fave lyrics are..
    Dress me up for battle
    When all i want is peace
    Those of us who pay the price
    Come home with the least.

    emsz
    Free Member

    Loads and loads

    Mos def, just because, y’know. Scrobious Pip is just a great poet, Justin vernon ( Bon Iver), is very cool, Karen Washington, sufjan Stevens, another fav is jewel by the Bombay bicycle club, such great lyrics ” you control the game, without playing it right”…. Ouch

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