Best lyricist?

Glorified Irish Guy
Glorified Irish Guy Posts: 350
edited March 2007 in Words and Music...Communication
Is eddie the best lyriscist of all time or can someone prove me wrong!!!
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments

  • jordn6971
    jordn6971 Posts: 675
    I don't know how you could prove someone wrong but I'd say Bob Dylan is up there.
    "There was a band playing in my head, and I felt like getting high"
  • Red Ledbetter
    Red Ledbetter Posts: 35
    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.
    Michael

    be strong. be proud. be you.

    - life comes from within your heart and desire -
  • Androgynous Mind
    Androgynous Mind Posts: 520
    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).
    Oh he fills it up with the love of a girl...
  • dan_vedder
    dan_vedder Posts: 213
    I really rate David Bowie, Lou Reed and Neil Young
    Ten Club member 363***


    7/11/06, 8/11/06, 18/11/06

    escape is never the safest plan...
  • Ahnimus
    Ahnimus Posts: 10,560
    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:
    I necessarily have the passion for writing this, and you have the passion for condemning me; both of us are equally fools, equally the toys of destiny. Your nature is to do harm, mine is to love truth, and to make it public in spite of you. - Voltaire
  • Jamal
    Jamal Posts: 2,115
    Hendrix's lyrics aren't too shabby either guys...

    come on, man, what's more beautiful than his "castles made of sand" ... :)
    Surf little waves big... Charge big waves hard

    - Antwerp '06, Nijmegen '07, Werchter '07
  • Manoo
    Manoo Posts: 63
    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...:))
    Zagreb 09/06
    Katowice 06/07

    www.postnobills.hu
  • Ms. Haiku
    Ms. Haiku Washington DC Posts: 7,374
    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?
    There is no such thing as leftover pizza. There is now pizza and later pizza. - anonymous
    The risk I took was calculated, but man, am I bad at math - The Mincing Mockingbird
  • markymark550
    markymark550 Columbia, SC Posts: 5,217
    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
    crislx Posts: 85
    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
    Brez Posts: 570
    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
    And before his first step... He's off again...
  • BetterRadio
    BetterRadio Posts: 189
    Chris Cornell.
    They're gonna tell you where to walk
    When to smile and just what to say
    They say have your own fun...

    Need vinyl, doggs.
  • FinsburyParkCarrots
    FinsburyParkCarrots Seattle, WA Posts: 12,223
    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
    Glorified Irish Guy Posts: 350
    http://www.digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/best_lyricists.html
  • FinsburyParkCarrots
    FinsburyParkCarrots Seattle, WA Posts: 12,223
    Interesting list. It reflects public rather than "expert" opinion. I guess the people have spoken: well, the ones who visit that site, anyway.
  • Jamal
    Jamal Posts: 2,115
    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? :)
    Surf little waves big... Charge big waves hard

    - Antwerp '06, Nijmegen '07, Werchter '07
  • FinsburyParkCarrots
    FinsburyParkCarrots Seattle, WA Posts: 12,223
    Jamal wrote:
    Weird,.... Hendrix is only at 74....

    he deserves better, don't you think? :)

    Damn right, he does.
  • lalalalaaaaaaaa
    lalalalaaaaaaaa Posts: 2,445
    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
    wolfbear Posts: 3,965
    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. :)
    "I'd rather be with an animal." "Those that can be trusted can change their mind." "The in between is mine." "If I don't lose control, explore and not explode, a preternatural other plane with the power to maintain." "Yeh this is living." "Life is what you make it."
  • darthvedder88
    darthvedder88 Posts: 1,023
    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)."
    "Darth Vader would say 'Impressive'."

    -Eddie Vedder

    6/24/06 Cincinatti, Ohio
    6/14/08 Manchester, Tennessee

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