Have you ever listened to lyrics to a song and thought to yourself, "I wish I could write lyrics so brilliant?" Well some songwriters are better then others, and I'm just spotlighting 4 that I think are the best for various reasons.

Kurt Cobain is probably the most difficult of the lot. His lyrics are hard to understand unless you really study then, and him. Here are some lyrics from Nirvana's song "Milk It".

I am my own parasite
I don't need a host to live
We feed off of each other
We can share our endorphins

Doll steak, test meat

I own my own pet virus
I get to pet and name her
Her milk is my shit
My shit is her milk

Doll steak, test meat

Look on the bright side is suicide
Lost eyesight I'm on your side
Angel left wing, right wing, broken wing
Lack of iron and/or sleeping
Protector of the kennel
Ecto-plasma
Ecto-skeletal
Obituary birthday
Your scent is still here in my place of recovery


I love Cobain's lyrics even though I don't understand some of them. They are also morbid and abstract, and they feel poetic.

Tori Amos isn't much different. Her lyrics are obtuse and very cryptic, yet have a poetic flow that can't be denied. One of her most straight forward songs is also one of her best, "God".

God sometimes you just don't come through
God sometimes you just don't come through
Do you need a woman to look after you
God sometimes you just don't come through

You make pretty daisies pretty daisies love
I gotta find what you're doing about things here
A few witches burning gets a little toasty here
I gotta find why you always go when the wind blows
Tell me you're crazy maybe then I'll understand
You got your 9 iron in the back seat just in case
Heard you've gone south well babe you love your new 4 wheel
I gotta find why you always go when the wind blows.

I like the way she plays with gender here.

PJ Harvey isn't one to shy away from gender either. I suppose you'd consider her a feminist writer. Her song "Angeline" is from an album in which Harvey took on guises of different women:

My first name Angelene
Prettiest mess you've ever seen
Love for money is my sin
Any man calls, I'll let him in

Rose is my colour, and white
Pretty mouth and green my eyes
I see men come and go
But there'll be one who will collect my soul and come to me

Two-thousand miles away
He walks upon the coast
Two-thousand miles away
It lays open like a road

Dear God, life ain't kind
People getting born and dying
But I've heard there's joy untold
Lays on that open road in front of me

My first name is Angelene.

You have to give it up to artists like Amos and Harvey who tackle gender roles so creatively. But my favorite writer in this group is Courtney Love. No one touches love in brilliance of the written lyric. She's the ultimate feminist writer, the ultimate gen-x writer, the ultimate quotable writer. On her best work, "Live Trhough This", she encounters motherhood and appearance on "Plump":

He shakes his damn rattle
Spittle on his bib
But I don't do the dishes, I throw them in the crib
I'm eating you, I'm overfed
Your milk's in my mouth
It makes me sick
Now I've stumbled here
Failed to make it mine
They say I'm plump, but I throw up all the time
I'm eating you, I'm overfed
Your milk's in my mouth
It makes me sick
Do you fake it for me like I
Do you fake it for me like I
Do you fake it for me like I
My baby's in her arms, crawling up her legs
Like a liar at a witch trial
You look good for your age
I'm eating you, I'm overfed
You milk's in my mouth, it makes me sick.

So who's your favorite songwriter and why? Quote lyrics and explain. Is it one of these are Madonna, Prince, Janet or Ashlee Simpson?

bjork..

handsdown!!


Who would have known
That a boy like him
Would have entered me lightly
Restoring my blisses

Who would have known
That a boy like him
After sharing my core
Would stay going nowhere

Who would have known
A beauty this immense
Who would have known
A saintly trance
Who would have known
Miraculous breath
To inhale a beard
Loaded with courage

Who would have known
That a boy like him
Possessed of magical
Sensitivity
Would approach a girl like me
Who caresses cradles his head
In a bosom

He slides inside
Half awake, half asleep
We faint back
Into sleephood
When I wake up
The second time
In his arms
Gorgeousness
He's still inside me

Who would have known
Who ahhh
Who would have known

A train of pearls
Cabin by cabin
Is shot precisely
Across an ocean

From a mouth
From a
From the mouth
Of a girl like me
To a boy
To a boy
To a boy

Harm of will



If there is a troubador washing
It is he
If there is a man about town
It is he
If there is one to be sought
It is he
If there are nine she is
They are bought for me

This way is as is she
And he placed her
Unclothed
Long long longlegged
Atop of the family tree

And if he has chosen the point
While she is under him
Then leave her coily placed crouched sucking him
For it is I with
Her on knee

*** Icelandic part ***

I leave her
Without pith or feel
And leave her be
Leave her be
For he controls what there´ll be
He makes his face known to none
For if he is seen
Then all will
And all will know
Know me

I meant to mention her. How could I forget. She's an argueable top 4.

Michael Stipe
Look up, what do you see?
All of you and all of me
Fluorescent and starry
Some of them, they surprise

The bus ride, I went to write this, 4:00 am
This letter
Fields of poppies, little pearls
All the boys and all the girls sweet-toothed
Each and every one a little scary
I said your name

I wore it like a badge of teenage film stars
Hash bars, cherry mash and tinfoil tiaras
Dreaming of maria callas
Whoever she is
This fame thing, I don’t get it
I wrap my hand in plastic to try to look through it
Maybelline eyes and girl-as-boy moves
I can take you far
This star thing, I don’t get it

I’ll take you over, there
I’ll take you over, there
Aluminum, tastes like fear, there
Adrenaline, it pulls us near
I’ll take you over
It tastes like fear, there
I’ll take you over

Will you live to 83?
Will you ever welcome me?
Will you show me something that nobody else has seen?
Smoke it, drink
Here comes the flood
Anything to thin the blood
These corrosives do their magic slowly and sweet
Phone, eat it, drink
Just another chink
Cuts and dents, they catch the light
Aluminum, the weakest link

I don’t want to disappoint you
I’m not here to anoint you
I would lick your feet
But is that the sickest move?
I wear my own crown and sadness and sorrow
And who’d have thought tomorrow could be so strange?
My loss, and here we go again

Look up, what do you see?
All of you and all of me
Fluorescent and starry
Some of them, they surprise

I can’t look it in the eyes
Seconal, spanish fly, absinthe, kerosene
Cherry-flavored neck and collar
I can smell the sorrow on your breath
The sweat, the victory and sorrow
The smell of fear, I got it

Neil Tenant is one of the best songwriters in the business. Definitely the funniest.

"Dreaming Of The Queen"

The Pet Shop Boys
Dreaming of the queen
Visiting for tea
You and her and i
And lady di

The queen said: I’m aghast
Love never seems to last
However hard you try
And di replied

That there are no more lovers left alive
No one has survived
So there are no more lovers left alive
And that’s why love has died
Yes, it’s true
Look, it’s happened to me and you

Then carriages arrived
We stood and said goodbye
Diana dried her eyes
And looked surprised

For I was in the nude
The old queen disapproved
But people laughed and asked
For autographs

And there were no more lovers left alive
No one had survived
So there were no more lovers left alive
And that’s why love had died
Yes, it’s true
Look, it’s happened to me and you

I woke up in a sweat
Desolate

For there were no more lovers left alive
No one had survived
So there were no more lovers left alive
And that’s why love had died
Yes, it’s true
Look, it’s happened to me and you
[Edited 3/9/05 16:46pm]

Nick Cave's lyrics kick my ass hard.

I've been told my lyrics are poetic:

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[Edited 3/9/05 17:59pm]

Bjork is easily in my top 5.

David Lowery, Elvis Costello, Ani DiFranco, Ben Folds even are all artists that get me every time.

But some of my new discoveries are Kimya Dawson (thanks Anxy) and Stephen Merrit (Magnetic Fields, the6ths) in particular. Sometimes wordy, sometimes pithy, sometimes silly, often witty and sometimes an English major's wet dream. Word on the street is he chose the name th6ths because of (and I forget what it's called) but it's a particular way the vowels all sound/run together. One of the6ths cds is called wasps nests. Stuff like that just makes me all gooey inside. I'm a big dork for things like that.

CarrieMpls said:

yeah, stephin merritt is okay.






awright, he's more than okay. he's kinda brilliant. musically i'm not big on a lot of his albums, though i like 'wasps nests' and i really really REALLY like the last magnetic fields album. 'get lost' is good, too.

CarrieMpls said:

Yeah, I'm not exactly sure what the term is that you're looking for, but he chose "The 6ths" and "Wasps Nests" because they're extremely difficult to pronounce. The crotchety old crank in him probably just liked the idea of hipster college d.j.s stumbling over the title/name.

I usually don't bother listening to lyrics - they're not what attracts me to music, and generally the only time I notice them is if they irritate me to the extent that they shock me out of the enjoyment of a song. Y'know, like when you hear something really stupid like "Girl, I need your body".

I guess if I had to name-check one person, it would be Grant Forrester from the brilliant and sadly neglected Go-Betweens.

The Wrong Road

A trader in furs living in exile
Boy what a kook
Look at that passport
Stale bread and paper without privilege
If you live here learn the language
When the rain hit the roof
With the sound of a finished kiss
Like when a lip lifts from a lip
I took the Wrong Road round
A room in a lighthouse
Near the park
The ghosts in the next room hear you cough
Time drags on Sundays spent in Mayfair
With all your riches, why aren't you there?
The wind acts like a magnet
And pulls the leaf from the tree
And the town's lost its breath
I took the Wrong Road round
Handsome is good, pretty is better
What was that phrase
Grace under pressure?
Blind by the light bulb
Blood to the bank
Lost all yours letters when the ship sank
In the disjointed breaking light
The soft blue approach of the water
Makes a sound you won't forget
I took the Wrong Road round
Stranded at low-tide where the river bends
Wouldn't you know it, that's how life ends
Lucky at cards, that's an old lie
Lucky in love, that's how life ends
Well the turncoats turned around
When they heard the sound of the bell
Dropped their coins into the well
I took the Wrong Road round
Started out Oliver, ended up Fagin
Don't you worry, it's my problem
What's my name, what's my number?
I'm the lonely one
It's just at the end of the day
When the light makes its slow move away
That I know all I can say is
I took the Wrong Road round
Gambled with risk
Paid you back with risk
So now you know who your friends are
They'll steel your shadow when your back's turned
Bouquets of flowers
Lesson's over
When the rain hit the roof
With the sound of a finished kiss
Like when a lip lifts from a lip
I took the Wrong Road round

Neil Finn!

Private Universe
Written By N. Finn

no time no place to talk about the weather
the promise of love is hard to ignore
who said the chance wasn't getting any better
the labour of love is ours to endure
the highest branch on the apple tree
it was my favourite place to be
I could hear them breaking free
but they could not see me
I will run for shelter
endless summer lift the curse
it feels like nothing matters
in our private universe
I have all I want is that simple enough
there's a whole lot more I'm thinking of
every night about six o'clock
birds come back to the palm to talk
they talk to me, birds to talk to me
if I go down on my knees
I will run for shelter
endless summer lift the curse
it feels like nothing matters
in our private universe
it feels like nothing matters
in our private universe
and it's a pleasure that I have known
and it's a treasure that I have gained
and it's a pleasure that I have known
it's a tight squeeze but I won't let go
love is on the table and the dinner's cold (*)
I will run for shelter
endless summer lift the curse
it feels like nothing matters
in our private universe

damosuzuki said:

you're kinda right. it's kind of a dark autobiographical joke based on a childhood lisp.

althom said:

ahhh fuck me hard i love neil finn's lyrics.....