Lyrical content

[GRAHAM SG1]

Have you been influenced by song lyrics at some time of your life, are there any that you feel strongly about in one way or another or that have affected your life .
Have you ever read a songs lyrics and then read further on a certain point of view or topic, lyrics can be very educational sometimes .
Who in your opinion has written the best song lyrics, whether meaningful, emotional, funny and amusing, sarcastic or nasty, the list is endless ?
Or, who has written the most pointlessn pathetic and meaningless lyrics ?

[AcidFripp]

Originally Posted by GRAHAM SG1

Have you been influenced by song lyrics at some time of your life, are there any that you feel strongly about in one way or another or that have affected your life .
Have you ever read a songs lyrics and then read further on a certain point of view or topic, lyrics can be very educational sometimes .
Who in your opinion has written the best song lyrics, whether meaningful, emotional, funny and amusing, sarcastic or nasty, the list is endless ?
Or, who has written the most pointlessn pathetic and meaningless lyrics ?

I heard some obscure anarchist crust punk record when I was 5 years old. Since then, I've burned at least 5 American flags every week. It's a habit and I can't stop.

[EdHunter]

One of the top examples was about 3 weeks ago. Had Student Council elections Thursday morning. On the bus, Elected by Alice Cooper came on my iPod. I took the Presidency by a landslide.

[tangentmusic]

Dude, who hasnt? I've been influenced by lyrics since I was a small kid.
Started with the Beatles, on to Zep, Sabbath, Yes, Rush just to name a few... all the great, wierd, obscure, thought provoking stuff since the 60's maaaan..

[scottbass]

Everything ever recorded by Shatner. (No, that's not a band named "Shatner"...)

[GRAHAM SG1]

Originally Posted by scottbass

Everything ever recorded by Shatner. (No, that's not a band named "Shatner"...)

What, William Shatner, beam me up Scotty

I have been influenced by many songs, I have always found Dead Kennedys lyrics to be interesting and thought provoking and somehow the music and singers style suited the lyrics perfectly unlike some of the 60s songs where there were some brilliant protest lyrics but played with nice tunes, protest songs should be angry surely ?? am I right to associate protest with anger ??
I dislike pointless lyrics by some heavy metal bands about death and the devil etc, so many so called top bands have written some of the worst lyrics ever, another thing I dislike is the repeat playing in a song of the first verse at the end instead of writing a new one, lots of bands repeat verses

[EdHunter]

There's a lot of Maiden which has helped me through the slightly heavier parts of my life in recent times and the same goes for U2. When you've just found out the girl you like is going out with your friend, "Wasting Love" followed by "Walk On" is a Hell of a pick-me-up...

[cdef]

For me, lyrics have always accounted for 50% of the impact of any song that has them. Even if the performance is fine, a bad lyric (clumsy, trite, predictable, pretentious, contrived, vacuous, turgid, fey, programmatic, etc.) will drag it down. Conversely, a lyric that might work per se won't fly if the musical setting sucks.

These are some of the writers I've found to be pretty consistently good in their various styles: Cole Porter, Ray Evans, Willie Dixon, Chuck Berry, Hank Williams, Mose Allison, Mike Pratt, Leiber-Stoller, Smokey Robinson, Curtis Mayfield, George Clinton, Bob Dylan, Robert Hunter, Don Van Vliet, Randy Newman, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Becker-Fagen, Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, Ian Anderson, Ian Dury, Kirsty MacColl, Chrissie Hynde, Kate Bush, Peter Blegvad, Nick Lowe, John Cooper Clarke, Morrissey, Tom Waits, Lucinda Williams... I can think of more.

But the whole idea of the well-crafted lyric seems to have lost its relevance in recent years, particularly within the endless metal sub-genres. I submit Cannibal Corpse, Kreator and Burzum as examples of some of the sorriest I've heard in this regard. While it's a given that many audiences only listen out for "attitude", the "proud pagan warrior" stereotype certainly has a lot to answer for, decerebration-wise. And then there's the awful White Power scene, which is purely racist/propagandist and only has underground distribution.

Good lyrics needn't be witty or literate, however. Garage band classics like Louie Louie, Gloria, Primitive and Crimson And Clover are great in my book. Most "Trad." stuff is admirable. Random nonsense can work well, too, as long as it's somewhat structured, as in John Lennon's I Am The Walrus and Come Together.

Of course, there's a vast contingent of songs with lyrics that are neither noticeably good nor insufferably bad, but just passable.

[colcifer]

I'm not into lyrics, so long as they aren't bad. Me and cdef have similar tastes, it seems. Two songs that I thinks make great allegories are Casey Jones and Friend of the Devil by Robert Hunter.