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Who's Your Favorite Lyricist?


rocketman

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I like John Lennon, Bob Marley and Bob Dylan, but my favorite is Neil Peart.

 

The Trees

 

There is unrest in the forest,

There is trouble with the trees,

For the maples want more sunlight

And the oaks ignore their please.

 

The trouble with the maples,

(And they're quite convinced they're right)

They say the oaks are just too lofty

And they grab up all the light.

But the oaks can't help their feelings

If they like the way they're made.

And they wonder why the maples

Can't be happy in their shade.

 

There is trouble in the forest,

And the creatures all have fled,

As the maples scream "Oppression!"

And the oaks just shake their heads

 

So the maples formed a union

And demanded equal rights.

"The oaks are just too greedy;

We will make them give us light."

Now there's no more oak oppression,

For they passed a noble law,

And the trees are all kept equal

By hatchet, axe, and saw....

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Chuck...

 

Do you feel what I feel, see what I see, hear what I hear

There is a line you must draw between your dream world and reality

Do you live my life or share the breath I breathe

Lies feed your judgment of others

Behold how the blind lead each other

The philosopher

You know so much about nothing at all

 

Ideas that fall under shadows of theories that stand tall

Thoughts that grow narrow upon being verbally released

Your mind is not your own,

What sounds more mentally stimulating is how you make your choice

So you preach about how I'm supposed to be, yet you don't know your

Own sexuality

Lies feed your judgment of others

Behold how the blind lead each other

The philosopher

You know so much about nothing at all

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Chuck...

 

Do you feel what I feel' date=' see what I see, hear what I hear

There is a line you must draw between your dream world and reality

Do you live my life or share the breath I breathe

Lies feed your judgment of others

Behold how the blind lead each other

The philosopher

You know so much about nothing at all

 

Ideas that fall under shadows of theories that stand tall

Thoughts that grow narrow upon being verbally released

Your mind is not your own,

What sounds more mentally stimulating is how you make your choice

So you preach about how I'm supposed to be, yet you don't know your

Own sexuality

Lies feed your judgment of others

Behold how the blind lead each other

The philosopher

You know so much about nothing at all [/quote']

 

I'm surprised, dem00n! You listen to Death?

 

I never would've guessed...[biggrin]

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Alice Cooper[cool]

 

If there's a tear on my face

It makes me shiver to the bone ya it shakes me babe

It's just a heartache that got caught in my eye

and you know I never cry I never cry

 

Sometimes I drink more than I need

Until the T.V.'s dead and gone

I may be lonely but I'm never alone

and the night may pass me by

but I'll never cry

 

Take away take away my eyes

Sometimes I'd rather be blind

Break a heart break a heart of stone

Open it up but don't you leave it alone

 

'Cause that's all I've got give to you

believe me babe it ain't been used

My heart's a virgin it ain't never been tried

and you know I'll never cry

 

Break a heart break a heart of stone

Open it up but don't you leave it alone

 

'Cause that's all I've got give to you

believe me babe it ain't been used

My heart's a virgin it ain't never been tried

and you know I'll never cry

and you know I'll never cry

and you know you know you know you know

I'll never cry, I'll never cry

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Robert Hunter

 

Wharf rat down

way down

down, down by the docks of the city,

Blind and dirty

asked me for a dime--

dime for a cup of coffee

I got no dime but

I got time to hear his story:

 

My name is August West

and I love my Pearly Baker best

more than my wine

...more than My wine

more than my maker

though he's no friend of mine

 

Everyone said

I'd come to no good

I knew I would

Pearly believed them

 

Half of my life

I spent doin' time for

some other ****er's crime

Other half found me stumbling around

drunk on burgundy wine

 

But I'll get back

on my feet someday

The good Lord willing

if He says I may

'cause I know the life I'm

living's no good

I'll get a new start

live the life I should

 

I'll get up and fly away

I'll get up and

fly away...

...fly away

 

Pearly's been true

true to me, true to my dying day he said

I said to him:

I'm sure she's been

I said to him:

I'm sure she's been true to you

 

I got up and wandered

Wandered downtown

nowhere to go

just to hang around

I got a girl

named Bonny Lee

I know that girl's been true to me

I know she's been

I'm sure she's been

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Johnny Mercer

 

"Lyricist, composer and singer Johnny Mercer was born in Savannah, Georgia in 1909. He had hit songs with Bing Crosby in the late 1930s, with Jo Stafford ("Candy') and on his own, especially "Accentuate the Positive." On the radio he sang with Benny Goodman and had his own shows, including "Johnny Mercer's Music Shop." Greatly admired in the music industry both personally and for his intelligent, optimistic lyrics, he wrote or co-wrote over 1,100 songs, including "Blues in the Night," "That Old Black Magic," "One For My Baby, "Come Rain or Come Shine" (all with Harold Arlen); "Lazy Bones" and "Skylark" with Hoagy Carmichael; "I'm a Old Cowhand," "I Remember You," "P.S. I Love You," "Jeepers Creepers," "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby," "When a Woman Loves a Man," "Too Marvelous for Words," and "Fools Rush In." He won Academy Awards for "The Atchison, Topeka and The Santa Fe" (1946, with Harry Warren), "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening" (1951, with Hoagy Carmichael), "Moon River' (1961, with Henry Mancini) and "Days of Wine an Roses" (1962, with Mancini). As president and co-founder of Capitol Records, Mercer was instrumental in the early recording careers of such musicians as Peggy Lee and Nat King Cole. He died in Los Angeles in 1976." (exerpted from http://www.johnnymercer.com/johnny_mercer.htm)

 

 

One of my favorites:

 

"One For My Baby"

 

Its quarter to three,

There's no one in the place cept you and me

So set em up joe

I got a little story I think you oughtta know

 

Were drinking my friend

To the end of a brief episode

So make it one for my baby

And one more for the road

 

I know the routine

Put another nickel in that there machine

Im feeling so bad

Wont you make the music easy and sad

 

I could tell you a lot

But you gotta to be true to your code

So make it one for my baby

And one more for the road

 

Youd never know it

But buddy Im a kind of poet

And Ive got a lot of things I wanna say

And if Im gloomy, please listen to me

Till it's all, all talked away

 

Well, that's how it goes

And joe I know you're gettin anxious to close

So thanks for the cheer

I hope you didn't mind

My bending your ear

 

But this torch that I found

Its gotta be drowned

Or it soon might explode

So make it one for my baby

And one more for the road

 

Great song written about the ending of an affair he was having with Judy Garland.

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Johnny Mercer!!!!

Awesome pick, L5

 

Ani DiFranco

 

"Bodily"

 

You broke me bodily

The heart ain't the half of it

And I'll never learn to laugh at it

In my good natured way

In fact I'm laughing less in general

But I learned a lot at my own funeral

And I knew you'd be the death of me

So I guess that's the price I pay

 

I'm trying to make new memories

In cities where we fell in love

My head just barely above

The darkest water I've ever known

You had me in that cage

You had me jumpin through those hoops for you

Still, I think I'd stoop for you

Stoop for your eyes alone

 

From that bomb shell moon in yet another lovely dress

To the deep mahogany sheen of a roach

I am trying to take an appreciative approach

To life in your wake

I focus on the quiet now

And occasionally I'll fall asleep somehow

And emptiness has its solace

In that there's nothing left to take

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It might sound wierd here, but Billy Joel writes some of the best lyrics IMO. Very mature, adult subject matter, but doesn't sound "old" to me. Even his love songs are much more complex than generic stuff like "Baby I love you, do you love me too" type songs.

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So many, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Robbie Robertson, I could go on and on.

 

EDIT: Do'h I forgot Neil Young

 

 

As a side note, I dont think Hendrix gets enough credit for lyrics, some of them make me think deepley, maybe it's just me.

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Of all time? Geeze... I don't know. But contemporary is a bit easier: Jon Foreman

 

everyone dies

everyone loves a fight

nothing is sound

nothing is right side right

the evening comes

when the sun goes down in red

nothing is new

when will all the fighting end?

when will all the fighting end?

 

happy is a yuppie word

nothing in the world could fail me now

as empty as an argument

running down the life that won't cash out...cash out

 

everything fails

everything'll run its course

a time and a place

for all of this nothing war

everything buys

everything's got a price

nothing is new

when will all us failures rise

when will all the failures rise, rise

 

happy is a yuppie word

nothing in the world can fail me now

as empty as an argument

running down a life that won't cash out

everything is meaningless

i want more than simple cash can buy

happy is a yuppie word, word

 

i'm looking for an orphanage

i'm looking for a bridge i can't burn down

i don't believe in emptiness

i'm looking for the kingdom coming down

everything is meaningless

i want more than simple cash can buy

everything is meaningless

happy is a yuppie word

happy is a yuppie word

happy is a yuppie...

 

nothing is sound!

nothing is sound!...

 

happy is a yuppie word

happy is a yuppie word

nothing in the world can fail me now

happy is a yuppie word, word.

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Not the greatest guitarist nor singer, I think Pete Townsend is the best song writer ever. Tommy and Quadrophenia is testimony to this.

 

Putting aside his politics, Eddie Vedder lyrics are very deep and thoughtful. Like Pete, Eddie puts a lot of thought into his words. Check out Better Man, this song is a great example.

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I like John Lennon' date=' Bob Marley and Bob Dylan, but my favorite is Neil Peart.

 

The Trees

 

There is unrest in the forest,

There is trouble with the trees,

For the maples want more sunlight

And the oaks ignore their please.

 

The trouble with the maples,

(And they're quite convinced they're right)

They say the oaks are just too lofty

And they grab up all the light.

But the oaks can't help their feelings

If they like the way they're made.

And they wonder why the maples

Can't be happy in their shade.

 

There is trouble in the forest,

And the creatures all have fled,

As the maples scream "Oppression!"

And the oaks just shake their heads

 

So the maples formed a union

And demanded equal rights.

"The oaks are just too greedy;

We will make them give us light."

Now there's no more oak oppression,

For they passed a noble law,

And the trees are all kept equal

By hatchet, axe, and saw....[/quote']

 

Neil Peart is also my favorite...

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Robbie Robertson (the Band)

 

The war was over and the spirit was broken

The hills were smokin' as the men withhdrew

We stood on the cliffs

Oh, and watched the ships

Slowly sinking to their rendezvous

They signed a treaty and our homes were taken

Loved ones forsaken

They didn't give a damn

Try'n' to raise a family

End up the enemy

Over what went down on the plains of Abraham

 

Acadian driftwood

Gypsy tail wind

They call my home the land of snow

Canadian cold front movin' in

What a way to ride

Oh, what a way to go

 

 

 

Then some returned to the motherland

The high command had them cast away

And some stayed on to finish what they started

They never parted

They're just built that way

We had kin livin' south of the border

They're a little older and they've been around

They wrote a letter life is a whole lot better

So pull up your stakes, children and come on down

 

Fifteen under zero when the day became a threat

My clothes were wet and I was drenched to the bone

Been out ice fishing, too much repetition

Make a man wanna leave the only home he's known

Sailing out of the gulf headin' for Saint Pierre

Nothin' to declare

All we had was gone

Broke down along the coast

But what hurt the most

When the people there said

"You better keep movin' on"

 

Everlasting summer filled with ill-content

This government had us walkin' in chains

This isn't my turf

This ain't my season

Can't think of one good reason to remain

I've worked in the sugar fields up from New Orleans

It was ever green up until the floods

You could call it an omen

Points ya where you're goin'

Set my compass north

I got winter in my blood

 

Acadian driftwood

Gypsy tail wind

They call my home the land of snow

Canadian cold front movin' in

What a way to ride

Ah, what a way to go

 

Sais tu, A-ca-di-e j'ai le mal du pays

Ta neige, Acadie, fait des larmes au soleil

J'arrive Acadie, teedle um, teedle um, teedle ooh

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And Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth). The lyrics are inspired by the works of Philip K. ****.

 

Stretch me to the point where i stop

run ten thousand miles and then think of me

i think you know the place we should meet

don't worry if it's dark and i'm late

 

run me out a thin wire

help me to kill this love

i'll join you tonight at the bottom of the well

feel around in the dark until you get the idea

 

i'm not moving doesn't mean i can't

flame on in my head

my best friend sucked his wife's blood and shriveled up

he was mistaken for sane

 

we move and groove and cut loose from fear

we should kill time, we'll shut it down

i've got a pipeline straight to the heart of you

opening in my head

 

bright glass on a chain being wound around us

the toiling of idle hands

dripping with guilt

a secret form of punishment

axes through skulls

shadow of futility

endless revolt

the shifting of light and shadows

 

no-one is right

nothing is solid

nothing can be held in my hands for long

 

we

should

kill

time

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