Lyrics!

[Ridan]

Who in your opinion is the greatest lyricst of our time?

I thought I'd make a poll but then it would be long long one. Just post your opinions and why do you think so.

[ganaffe]

Who in your opinion is the greatest lyricst of our time?

I thought I'd make a poll but then it would be long long one. Just post your opinions and why do you think so.

What do you consider "of our time"?

I like W.B Yeats a lot, but I'm not sure if you would consider him to be of our time. He died in 1939...

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

He wrote this a few years before WW2 started, it's almost as if he predicts the rise of Hitler, the persecution of the jewish people and the falling apart of the world. Hard to tell why I exactly like this so much, it's just the imagery that gets me. Don't know why, but I always find the imagery a bit 'Floydian'...

[Flame-Sky Diver]

The best of our time is hard. Anyway, my favourite lyricists are John Lennon, Roger Waters, Peter Gabriel... but who'd be the best I don't really know.

EDIT: I forgot to add Jimi Hendrix of course.!

[mosespa]

In no particular order:

Bob Dylan
John Lennon
Roger Waters
Kurt Cobain
Bernie Taupin
David Bowie
Bono
Don McLean
Billy Corgan








me (humble, no?)

[Pugs on the Wing]

Roger Waters.

Why?
The way he constructs his lyrics is like poetry. The subject matter is both very personal yet universal.

I'm sorry, I'm not very good at critical analysis of poetry and prose...it's more of an intuitive thing that moves you, you know?

[Ivan_2068]

I'll go with Peter Gabriel, he was so versatile and complex in his lyrics, he wrote about everything:

Politics:

Tell me my life is about to begin.
Tell me that I am a hero.
Promise me all of your violent dreams
Light up your body with anger.

Now, in this ugly world,
it is time to destroy all this evil.
Now, when I give the word,
are you ready to fight for your freedom?

The Knife

History/Legends:

For from the north overcast ranks advance
Fear of the storm accusing with rage and scorn.
The waves surround the sinking throne
Singing crown him, crown him,
"Those who love our majesty show themselves!"
All bent their knees.

But he forced a smile even though
His hopes lay dashed where offering fell.
Nothing can my peace destroy as long as no one smiles.
More opened ears and opened eyes,
And soon they dared to laugh.
See a little man with his face turning red
Though his story's often told you can tell he's dead.

The Story of King Canute in Can-Utility and the Coastliners

Mythology:

From a dense forest of tall, dark, pinewood,
Mount Ida rises like an island.
Within a hidden cave, nymphs had kept a child;
Hermaphroditus, son of gods, so afraid of their love.

Fountain of Salmacis

Desperation, terror, anguish:

There's sunshine in my stomach
Like I just rocked my baby to sleep.
There's sunshine in my stomach
And I can't keep me from creeping sleep,
Sleep, deep in the deep.

Rockface moves to press my skin
White liquids turn sour within
Turn fast-turn sour
Turn sweat-turn sour.
Must tell myself that I'm not here.
I'm drowning in a liquid fear.
Bottled in a strong compression,
My distortion shows obsession
In the cave.
Get me out of this cave!

If I keep my self-control,
I'll be safe in my soul.
And the childhood belief
Brings a moment's relief,
But my cynic soon returns
And the lifeboat burns.
My spirit just never learns

In the Cage

He even wrote short stories about the songs:

THE MUSICAL BOX
.
While Henry Hamilton-Smythe minor ( 8 ) was playing croquet
with Cynthia Jane De Blaise-William ( 9 ), sweet-smiling
Cynthia raised her mallet high and gracefully removed
Henry's head. Two weeks later, in Henry's nursery, she
discovered his treasured musical box. Eagerly she opened it
and as "Old King Cole" began to play a small spirit-figure
appeared. Henry had returned - But not for long, for as
he stood in the room his body began ageing rapidly,
leaving a child's mind inside. A lifetime's desires surged
through him. Unfortunatly the attempt to persuade
Cynthia Jane to fulfil his romantic desire, led his nurse
to the nursery to investigate the noise. Instinctively
Nanny hurled the musical box at the bearded child,
destroyed both.

Sorry for the long post, but I believe the guy is a great lyrycist.

Iv

[Anna-Roza]

Blixa Bargeld of Einstuerzende Naubauten. He is able to write equally good lyrics in German and in English, it's a great, very sophisticated poetry, I even made some translations of his lyrics for stage.

[Ringorocks]

Tough question, I have many, but right now, Quicksand by David Bowie.

I'm closer to the Golden Dawn
Immersed in Crowley's uniform
Of imagery
I'm living in a silent film
Portraying Himmler's sacred realm
Of dream reality
I'm frightened by the total goal
Drawing to the ragged hole
And I ain't got the power, anymore
No I ain't got the power anymore

I'm the twisted name on Garbo's eyes
Living proof of Churchill's lies
I'm destiny
I'm torn between the light and dark
Where others see their targets
Divine symmetry
Should I kiss the viper's fang
Or herald loud the death of Man
I'm sinking in the quicksand of my thought
And I ain't got the power anymore

Don't believe in yourself
Don't deceive with belief
Knowledge comes with death's release

Can't take my eyes from the great salvation
Of bullshit faith
If I don't explain what you ought to know
You can tell me all about it
On the next Bardo
I'm sinking in the quicksand of my thought
And I ain't got the power anymore

Don't believe in yourself
Don't deceive with belief
Knowledge comes with death's release

Don't believe in yourself
Don't deceive with belief
Knowledge comes with death's release

I'm not a prophet or a stone age man
Just a mortal with the potential of a superman
I'm living on
I'm tethered to the logic of Homo Sapien
Can't take my eyes from the great salvation
Of bullshit faith
If I don't explain what you ought to know
You can tell me all about it
On the next Bardo
I'm sinking in the quicksand of my thought
And I ain't got the power anymore

Don't believe in yourself
Don't deceive with belief
Knowledge comes with death's release

[Piper]

Though "their time" was a good deal before I was born, my list of great lyricists can't be without

Syd Barrett
Roger Waters
John Lennon
Bob Dylan
Jim Morrison
Jimi Hendrix
Ian Anderson

and other 60s-70s ones that skip my mind right now

As for "my time," er, I like Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips, and Tool's Maynard James Keenan.

[RKBfan]

Ian Curtis
Elvis Costello
Syd Barrett
Bob Dylan