Best lyricist?

Glorified Irish Guy

Is eddie the best lyriscist of all time or can someone prove me wrong!!!

jordn6971

I don't know how you could prove someone wrong but I'd say Bob Dylan is up there.

Red Ledbetter

Michael Stipe of R.E.M. has to be the best. His lyrics has so many levels, and they suits me as a person much more than anything else I've ever known.

Eddie is up there, along with Neil Young, Stuart Adamson (of Big Country, one of my favorite bands in music history) and Bruce Springsteen.

Androgynous Mind

garypower wrote:

Is eddie the best lyriscist of all time or can someone prove me wrong!!!

He is the best hands down.

But when Stone sits down and pushes the pen he produces some amazing stuff too... Of the Girl and Brother to name a few (personal favorites).

dan_vedder

I really rate David Bowie, Lou Reed and Neil Young

Ahnimus

Who ever wrote for Led Zeppelin, fucking awesome lyrics.

I also like the lyrics in the song "Escape" by.. by... Rupert Holmes. I always have a hard time remembering that one.

Rupert Holmes - Escape
was tired of my lady, we'd been together too long.
Like a worn-out recording, of a favorite song.
So while she lay there sleeping, I read the paper in bed.
And in the personals column, there was this letter I read:

If you like Pina Coladas, and getting caught in the rain.
If you're not into yoga, if you have half-a-brain.
If you like making love at midnight, in the dunes of the cape.
I'm the lady you've looked for, write to me, and escape.

I didn't think about my lady, I know that sounds kind of mean.
But me and my old lady, had fallen into the same old dull routine.
So I wrote to the paper, took out a personal ad.
And though I'm nobody's poet, I thought it wasn't half-bad.

Yes, I like Pina Coladas, and getting caught in the rain.
I'm not much into health food, I am into champagne.
I've got to meet you by tomorrow noon, and cut through all this red tape.
At a bar called O'Malley's, where we'll plan our escape.

So I waited with high hopes, then she walked in the place.
I knew her smile in an instant, I knew the curve of her face.
It was my own lovely lady, and she said, "Oh, it's you."
And we laughed for a moment, and I said, I never knew...

That you liked Pina Coladas, and getting caught in the rain.
And the feel of the ocean, and the taste of champagne.
If you like making love at midnight, in the dunes of the cape.
You're the love that I've looked for, come with me, and escape.

If you like Pina Coladas, and getting caught in the rain.
If you're not into yoga, if you have half-a-brain.
If you like making love at midnight, in the dunes of the cape.
You're the love that I've looked for, come with me, and escape

I'm not entirely sure why I like that song. :cool:

Jamal

Hendrix's lyrics aren't too shabby either guys...

come on, man, what's more beautiful than his "castles made of sand" ...

Manoo

Simon and Garfunkel lyrics, I like aerosmith lyrics also... THe best are maybe musicians like Jim Morrison, Dylan and John Lennon... (and we also have a pretty famous local band whose lyrics are also great...:))

Ms. Haiku

It would be interesting to have criteria listed for what is a "great" lyric, and then someone could compare a particular song against that criteria. For instance a great lyric is:

1. Goes with the music
2. Could stand alone without music
3. Words flow from beginning to end
4. Great song to listen to; not so depressing/heavy/foufou that listener wants to turn it off.

These are just examples. I really like songs where the lyrics are clear stories. However, a lot of great songs aren't stories so my criteria wouldn't fit across the board. What is your criteria for a great song?

markymark550

The problem with this is that judging poetry and lyrics is subjective. What suits my tastes doesn't necessarily suit your tastes...it's all opinions. There is no objective way to tell who is the best lyricist.

In my view, Eddie is definitely up there in the best lyricist category.

crislx

He ranks my top 5 anglo-saxon songwriters along with:
. Tom Waitts
. Bob Dylan
. Tori Amos
. Patti Smith

Though I agree that judging poetry and lyrics is always subjective, I believe Vedder is one of the most important rock poets of all times. And you don't have to be a PJ fan to agree. Personally, his lyrics are the ones that speak the most to my heart; they've been making the difference through time.

Brez

Ms. Haiku wrote:

It would be interesting to have criteria listed for what is a "great" lyric, and then someone could compare a particular song against that criteria. For instance a great lyric is:

1. Goes with the music
2. Could stand alone without music
3. Words flow from beginning to end
4. Great song to listen to; not so depressing/heavy/foufou that listener wants to turn it off.

These are just examples. I really like songs where the lyrics are clear stories. However, a lot of great songs aren't stories so my criteria wouldn't fit across the board. What is your criteria for a great song?

That's a pretty shallow criteria for lyrics (no offense). Mine would include everything you said plus:

The lyrics should be clever and have a deeper meaning (but that's just me)

As for my favorite it has to be Ed

BetterRadio

Chris Cornell.

FinsburyParkCarrots

One mark of a good songwriter, regardless of whether they dwell on the complexities of unrequited love, the individual's struggle against the state, or the immediate whoomph of a good shag, is whether they can orchestrate vowel sounds that complement the harmonic and melodic structure of a song, and masterfully express a poetic turn of phrase, driven by the musicality of the lyric. For example, take the line "How strange the change from major to minor". The words are simple, as are the uses of rhyme. But tied in with a musical change from major to minor, and sung, those vowel sounds take the listener from hope to melancholy in one powerful shift. Sound is a large part of what makes a lyric great: I can think of some very wordy lyrics that might read well but sound rubbish, because the songwriter hasn't remembered that a great song should be a discourse that conveys in its sounds a true, human voice.

Glorified Irish Guy

http://www.digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/best_lyricists.html

FinsburyParkCarrots

Interesting list. It reflects public rather than "expert" opinion. I guess the people have spoken: well, the ones who visit that site, anyway.

Jamal

FinsburyParkCarrots wrote:

Interesting list. It reflects public rather than "expert" opinion. I guess the people have spoken: well, the ones who visit that site, anyway.

Weird,.... Hendrix is only at 74....

he deserves better, don't you think?

FinsburyParkCarrots

Jamal wrote:

Weird,.... Hendrix is only at 74....

he deserves better, don't you think?

Damn right, he does.

lalalalaaaaaaaa

Are we talking lyricists in rock bands or lyricists in general? If it's the latter, Vedder is nowhere near the top of the list.

wolfbear

My list is :
Eddie Vedder
Jim Morrison
Bob Dylan
John Lennon
Neil Young
Kurt Cobain
Courtney Love
I know I'll get flamed for at least (one) of these, but they are the ones that came to mind and truly touch me in some way.

darthvedder88

Eddie Vedder in my eyes is the greatest lyricist of all time and without a doubt the most passionate vocalist of all time. As Matt Cameron said on the Storytellers Performance, Eddie can make the lyrics fit with the music. And just like Eddie said, "Music is like a wave, and the words can't be above or below the wave, they have to ride the wave (does hand motion)."

-Jeremy-

Three guys, my all time favourites:
1. Eddie Vedder is the first, ofcourse, no doubt;). You all know it and agree with me, nothing to add here.
2. Chris Cornell. One common thing between wine and CC: both get better when they get older. My god, the lyrics on Revelations album are just so great! Wide awake, Until we fall and Nothing left to say but goodbye have to be mentioned here.
3. Last but not the least: Billy Corgan. Masterpieces like Ava Adore and Disarm, simply godly.

Gill

Don't get me wrong, Eddie is amazing at writing, but look at George Harrison (my favourite of the beatles), or for that matter Lennon and McCartney...then you have Jeff Buckley and Grant Nicolas from Feeder....in my opinion...

But then again, something like this is opinion. To me, 'Comfort in Sound' by feeder is like velvet to my ears, but to someone else it might be crap, just because we all look for something else in songs...if that makes any sense WHATSOEVER

smarchee

Shannon Hood from Blind Melon wrote some incredible lyrics. He is really underappreciated as a writer.

From Change, "Find myself signing the same songs everyday, one's that make me feel good when things behind the smile ain't ok". Brilliant!

Also, St. Andrew's Fall is amazing.

Elliot Smith is my favourite lyricist, that guy writes the most haunting, depressing, bleak songs that I have ever heard, but it is absolutly incredible.

searchlightsoul

I agree with Chris Cornell. The lyrics are incredible on their own:


SEARCHING WITH MY GOOD EYE CLOSED

Painted blue across my eyes
And tie the linen on
And I'm on my way
Looking for the paradigm
So I can pass it off
Is it on my side

Is it to the sky
Looking to the sky and down
Searching for a ground
With my good eye closed

If I took you for a ride
Would you take it wrong
Or would you make it right
Looking for a pedestal
That I can put you on
And be on my way

Is it to the sky
Looking to the sky and down
Searching for a ground
With my good eye closed

Stop you're trying to bruise my mind
I can do it on my own
Stop you're trying to kill my time
It's been my death since I was born
I don't remember half the time
If I'm hiding or I'm lost
But I'm on my way

DiRtyFranK38

eddie is the best =]

then chris cornell close second...

dissident31

Kind of surprised no one on this thread has mentioned Bruce. He's easily one of the best lyricists of all time and Eddie has definitely been influenced by him a bit. Just listen to anything on Born to Run, Darkness on the Edge of Town or even the Rising and you can see the range of stories and emotions he's able to describe almost effortlessly. When I first heard Worldwide Suicide I thought it was the type of song you could see Bruce writing, it brilliantly tells one person's experience with a much larger message and meaning.

A lot Pearl Jam's lyrics and themes are similar to Bruce's too: small towns, getting away, being trapped, kept down, and then breaking free, etc. Eddie even mentioned on Storytellers that they've got a ways to go on catching up to Bruce on songs about driving and leaving town before they played "Gone."

Eddie will definitely go down as was one the best song writers of his time, don't see how he wouldn't. He's been so prolific, too.

dissident31

I like Soundgarden but you can't put Cornell up there, he's kind of inconsistent. Some of his stuff is solid (Day I Tried to Live, Outshined, Rusty Cage), but Black Hole Sun? I think that's the worst and most overrated song of the 90s. My ears bleed when I hear that one. Spoonman is another crappy one. Also, some of Audioslave's lyrics are ridicoulously simple:
"I like studying faces in a parking lot
Cause it doesn't remind me of anything
I like driving backwards in the fog
Cause it doesn't remind me of anything"
It's a great sounding song, but those lyrics are pretty stupid, come on.

This one is the dumbest though:

"To be yourself is all that you can do
To be yourself is all that you can do
To be yourself is all that you can do
To be yourself is all that you can do..."

What is this Sesame Street or Romper Room? Another great sounding song, ruined by horribly simple and trite lyrics.

TrixieCat

Red Ledbetter wrote:

Michael Stipe of R.E.M. has to be the best. His lyrics has so many levels, and they suits me as a person much more than anything else I've ever known.

Eddie is up there, along with Neil Young, Stuart Adamson (of Big Country, one of my favorite bands in music history) and Bruce Springsteen.

Bruce is out-of-his-mind amazing. No one summed up the tragedy of 9-11 like he did.
Love Michael Stipe too!!!
Ed is also pretty damn good.

phatucini

There are so many great songwriters that beautifully enhanced our lives for years now and it would take an enormous list to really honour everyone... I would just like to bring a new songwriter into the picture: Sparta's Jim Ward has crafted some outstanding beautiful lyrics on their last record 'Threes'.

Tom K

I'll add Joe Strummer and Pete Townsend to the list..