I was glad to see Cat Stevens, Jim Croce, Don McClean and Phil Ochs. I didn't know that anyone even remembered Phil Och's (I ain't a marchin anymore).
This list is laughable for one reason. Nowhere on the list is there any mention of Paul Westerberg. Apparently the voters didn't listen to everything in the 1980's or 1990's. It's totally freaking inexcusable!! Let it Be, Tim, Pleased to meet Me and All shook Down all prove that he has to be ranked up there with Dylan, Costello and the likes. And no Lucinda Williams either!! They should limit these list's to every 10 years so people can get their s**t together. I know it's subjective, but please try to be a bit more inclusive and not forget someone as HUGE a songwriter as Paul Westerberg. Look Ashamed. My Favorites : Elvis Costello Paul Westerberg Joni Mitchell Neil Finn Stevie Wonder Van Morrison Bob Dylan Neil Young
Axl Rose is a better lyricist than Chris Robinson or Patty Griffin? UNLIKELY. Plus no Ray Wylie Hubbard. Bad! BAD LIST!
Roy Orbison should have been ranked much higher. And, for the luvvaGod, would someone please put Otis Redding on that list. -- droxford
So Conor Oberst, who is often called his generation's Bob Dylan doesn't even get on the top 100. What a joke.
brian wilson? i thought van dyke parks wrote all the beach boys lyrics? willie nelson at 92 is a joke.
The fact that Robert Plant is #48 is insulting. He should be much higher as should be Cat Stevens. Also, I can't believe that Van Zandt was left off the list.
Billy Joel has always been a rung below most rock and rollers in the respect category because he did "Just the Way You Are." For a lot of musicians, that is like You Light Up My Life and it cost him respect in the music community. Even "Sir" Elton John managed to maintain credibility with some of the schlock he put out, but not Billy, unfortunately. He is a tremenously underrated songwriter.
Jeff, Bernie Taupin wrote the lyrics for Elton John's classic albums. Your Song It's a little bit funny this feeling inside I'm not one of those who can easily hide I don't have much money but boy if I did I'd buy a big house where we both could live If I was a sculptor, but then again, no Or a man who makes potions in a travelling show I know it's not much but it's the best I can do My gift is my song and this one's for you And you can tell everybody this is your song It may be quite simple but now that it's done I hope you don't mind I hope you don't mind that I put down in words How wonderful life is while you're in the world I sat on the roof and kicked off the moss Well a few of the verses well they've got me quite cross But the sun's been quite kind while I wrote this song It's for people like you that keep it turned on So excuse me forgetting but these things I do You see I've forgotten if they're green or they're blue Anyway the thing is what I really mean Yours are the sweetest eyes I've ever seen lyrics by Bernie Taupin Of course, without Elton's music...
Jeff touched on a good point that people's opinion of an musician's lyrics are influenced by that musician's worst examples. Sting is another good example - "Message in a Bottle" alone should be reason to rank him higher, but his blah solo stuff drags him down. Of course, other aspects can unfairly influence (both positively and negatively) a musician's reputation. Hendrix's guitar playing has overshadowed the fact that he could turn a really nice phrase, while Morrison's self-description as a "poet" seems to have made many people overrate his rather amateurish lyrics. And some of the artists have no right being on this list - Robert Plant has a hell of a voice, but his lyrics were pretty much terrible (when they weren't blatantly stolen). I don't know how you rate Willie Dixon lower than the Plant, when Dixon actually succesfully sued him for plagiarism.
No question about it. Opinion can be shaped by an artist's worst work. It can be shaped simply by our own particular preferences and bias. For example, I can't stand to listen to 98% of the rap music out there, but I've read the lyrics to some of it that has blown me away... some of it on this BBS, when a member posted it to make a point during a discussion. I have a tough time with lists like these. Many of those on it are people I saw perform, like Morrison and Hendrix, and I'm influenced by that a great deal. In a way, reading the lyrics 25 or 30 years later, and/or listening to a CD of an artist, doesn't have the same impact, IMO, that it would if you had seen them perform. "Come on baby, light my fire" can sound juvenile, but watching Jim sing the song, with the Doors, affects my opinion. And then there are lyricists, like Dylan, Mitchell, Van Zandt, and Cohen, who write/wrote poetry put to music. I've been fortunate enough to see them as well, but I don't think any reasonable person could argue their genius. It can be so hard to separate the music from the lyrics. Ray Davies, of the Kinks, is a brilliant rock lyricist, but go read his lyrics, not listening to them, but reading them, and they don't stand up, IMO, to the artists I just mentioned, and I've seen the Kinks more times than I can remember. They're one of my favorite groups. Some lyrics really need the music to show how great they are. Some you can just read as poetry... it stands by itself.
I think there is something that transcends the lyrics themselves, which is this sort of intangible "voice" that a songwriter projects. That develops over time, and can go up and down. The fact that John Lennon is above Paul McCartney is less because of the actual lyrical content, more the 'voice' people remember him by. Yes, John Lennon wrote some preposterously good songs, but pound for pound, Paul had more game during the Beatle years. Certainly equal, certainly not less. Problem is, Paul also has had twenty-five years post-John-Lennon to sully his own legacy with albums like "Off The Ground," stuff like "Ebony and Ivory" and whatnot. His songwriting "voice" - the same one that wrote the absolutely stunning lyrics to "Hey Jude," "Let It Be," "Mull Of Kintyre," "I'm Looking Through You" and whatever. People remember John Lennon for "Imagine" and "In MY Life," forgetting crap like "How Do You Sleep," or his unlistenable political excursions like "Some Time IN NEw York City." Good lyric from Lennon which would end up being appropriate: "Everyone loves you when you're dead and buried, but no one loves you when you're old and gray." Maybe he did not wite that, who knows. Billy Joel? I actually think "Just The Way You Are" is better than most of his other stuff. "Moving Out" and whatnot. I don't think he was able to make his "voice" contemporary. He got trapped in era that is not highly regarded, as many acts do in what could be called the "Huey Lewis Rule" -- be careful how much popularity you wish for. As for Elton John, I can't imagine how he has one shred of credibilty at this point. Maybe he sells because he has a gay following, that's all I can figure. Billy Joel is just hairier and a little swarthier, and maybe he did not develop a loyal Cher-like following, but that's not a bad thing. They are both pretty rough to listen to, I think, their music does not age well. They have their moments, but Billy Joel takes his fairily inert observations about people too seriously, and Elton John is not a serious artist. He has a knack for a good tune, but also a knack for a bad one. Screw both of those guys. But this stuff is all impossible to rank. I know Dylan is great, but to me there is too much 'fat' in his music for him to affect me regularly. I feel like I have to dig too hard, and suspend appreciation for musical craft to some extent because the playing is sloppy. And lyrics and melody are not separable to me, and Dylan's tunes are weighed down by the 43 verses and so forth. I appreciate it, but it does not do IT for me the way the Beatles, Nick Lowe or even the Flaming Lips do. Dylan has great lines to me, great quotes, but part of his craftsmanship does not hit me right. I think Chuck Berry is totally underrated. His stuff is so subtle - he sang about race, sex in a time that no one did it, and he snuck it all on the radio, and he is funny. "Brown Eyed Handsome Man" is like my favorite Chuck Berry thing; a song sort of about jungle fever - with a verse about baseball, no less - in the freaking 1950's. What a ninja. But ranking theese people is silly. Awards and standings for art are fundamentally flawed.
Chuck Berry ... what a ninja. Gotdamn I love your posts. He should be top 5 for "Promised Land" alone.
Most underrated lyricist and musician, generally, is Smokey Robinson. He wrote and sang beautifully. I second that emotion about Paul Westerberg's omission. That's a travesty! I would also like to see Pete Shelly of the Buzzcocks, Robyn Hitchcock and especially Andy Partridge of XTC on any best lyricist list. "Dear God" is pure genius! Top lyricists for me: 1) Dylan 2) Costello 3) Tom Waits 4) Neil Young 5) Smokey Robinson 6) Black Francis/Frank Black 7) David Bowie 8) Jay Z 9) John Lennon 10) Ray Davies
