As important as the music is to rock is the lyrics. That is one reason why I feel that rock goes much further than other musical genres. Country music always tells a story, but they lyrics in country music are not very imaginative and certainly has no abilty to abstract-at least the country that I have heard.
So the question is-Who has written the best lyrics in Rock. My vote goes to REM. Take away the silly songs like stand or shiney happy people-Stipe does an amazing job with lyrics. He is always can twist a phrase nicely. For example the song "nightswimming."

"The photograph on the dashboard,
taken years ago,
turned around backwards so the windshield shows
every streetlight reveals a picture in reverse...the photgraph reflects, every streetlight a reminder"
The lyrics are typcial of Stipe's work. He is able to paint an everyday thing such a picture thrown on a dashboard of a car and turn it into something more meaningful.
Of course, Lennon also gets a nod. I think the early work of Rod stewart (Before disco confused him)is also incredible. So who do you guys think gives us the best lyrics in rock??

My Votes:

Bob Dylan
Elvis Costello
Tom Waits
Lou Reed
Nick Cave
Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes)
Richard Buckner
Bruce Springsteen
David Bowie
James Mercer (The Shins)

Some of my favorites:

Bob Dylan
John Lennon
John Darnielle (Mountain Goats)
Frank Black
Elvis Costello
Paul McCartney
Leonard Cohen
Gordon Downie (Tragically Hip)
Jeff Mangum (Neutral Milk Hotel)
Isaac Brock (Modest Mouse)
Stephen Malkmus (Pavement)
Van Morrison
Randy Newman
Thom Yorke (Radiohead)
Dave Berman (Silver Jews)
Paul Simon
Elliott Smith
Bruce Springsteen
Sufjan Stevens
Lou Reed
Jeff Tweedy (Wilco)

quote:

Originally posted by superabound:
Some of my favorites:

Bob Dylan
John Lennon
John Darnielle (Mountain Goats)
Frank Black
Elvis Costello
Paul McCartney
Leonard Cohen
Gordon Downie (Tragically Hip)
Jeff Mangum (Neutral Milk Hotel)
Isaac Brock (Modest Mouse)
Stephen Malkmus (Pavement)
Van Morrison
Randy Newman
Thom Yorke (Radiohead)
Dave Berman (Silver Jews)
Paul Simon
Elliott Smith
Bruce Springsteen
Sufjan Stevens
Lou Reed
Jeff Tweedy (Wilco)

i agree with all of those and adding Jim Morrison and Syd Barrett

quote:

Randy Newman

"short people got no reason, short people got no reason, short people got no reason to live."

cracks me up every time

Some of my favorites....

Billy Joel - Very underrated lyricist

Jimmy Buffett - Known more for humor but he was also a very strong lyrical folk singer.

Gordon Lightfoot

Robert Hunter / Jerry Garcia - Poetry and stories set to music.

Roger Waters - In my opinion, the best lyricist ever; Bar none.

Paste has a special issue this month that lists the best living songwriters...100 Best Living Songwriters
Aside from the usual Oberst fellating, it's not bad.

my pick is John Lennon, and there's a few reasons. He wrote extremely meaningful stuff, and even the (i guess you could say experimental) stuff was great. Things like Strawberry Fields Forever, (written with Paul, of course, like most beatles songs)were brilliant in my opinion.
'living is easy with eyes closed,
misunderstanding all you see'
and john liked playing with people using his intelligence, hence the Paul is dead thing back in the day. but overall, John would have to be my pick.

quote:

Aside from the usual Oberst fellating, it's not bad.

This brought a smile to my face.

I checked out the list and it only confirmed what I already knew: I love looking at top # lists and at the same time, I get extremely frustrated by them. I realize that everyone has different tastes but, some things people prefer just simply baffle me to no end.

Pink Floyd at #80 beaten by Sting at #62. Ummmm? Unreal

quote:

Originally posted by typewriter:
Aside from the usual Oberst fellating, it's not bad.

Ditto what P-Bo said.

Thanks for the link, t. I'd not seen the list and I have to say I like it. I like it a lot. I'm glad to see it doesn't suffer from the myopia of deciding that having released a couple of good records in the past decade automatically supercedes the contributions others have made over the past three or four and lands the critical darlings of the moment at the top of the list.

For that matter, it's nice to see the occasional contemporary misstep not being held against some of the great songwriters.

And finally, nice to see Joni Mitchell in the top 10. Female songwriters are often criminally overlooked on such lists, though Patty Larkin's lofty placement baffles me and I loves me some Patty Larkin.

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