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[Will]

Any other lyric-whores out there care to share who some of their favorites are?  Doesn't necessarily have to be any one style of music, just who grabs your attention with their words.  Anyone who influences you in your own writing (if you write, that is)?

I've been completely enthralled with Converge (they're my favorite band) since I first heard the Jane Doe album.  Anyone who's heard Converge knows you can't understand a damn word he "sings," so I checked out the lyrics on their site and discovered that for that particular time in my life, it was like I was reading my own biography.  I just love the imagery that is conveyed in some of their lines...

"And I spent the last of days burning my oldest of bridges
And I spent my last of night killing the best of friends
In the company of thieves, liars, beggars and whores
I'll lay waiting, just waiting for my time to come"

Anyone else want to share some of their favorites?

[Cartilage Head]

Sam Beam.

 Amanda Plummer.

 Roger Waters.

 Mikael Akerfeldt.

[Mikendher]

I second Sam Beam.

Also:
Elliott Smith
Cat Stevens
whoever wrote the lyrics for the arcade fire

[Will]

Elliot Smith was great just for how simple some of his songs could be, and yet they would say so much...

[Will]

Dan Weyandt from Zao - dude wrote a love song about zombies in the last album!

Aaron Weiss from mewithoutYou...

[charlesegabel]

Well, the ones that influence me are mostly up the alley of Jeff Tweedy, Conor Oberst, and this guy Dan Mecher (I think i'm spelling it wrong). He's a musician from Cincinnati who's in a band called the Turnbull AC's. www.myspace.com/turnbullacs.

I would also like to mention Thom Yorke, Ian Curtis, and Robert Smith, but I feel like they don't influence me so much as I just admire them.

[Der Golem]

Martin Walkyer of Skyclad is in a league of his own.

Others whose lyrics I greatly enjoy would include;
Tony Wakeford of Sol Invictus is pretty awesome.
Mike Patton has really enjoyable lyrics, not very emotional, but he tells great stories.
Frank Black deserves a mention as well, his references to the old testament are pretty entertaining.

[Will]

For story-telling type lyrics, I don't think you get much better than Nick Cave...of course, I'm sure that someone is going to correct me sooner or later - which is fine by me!  More music to discover, hooray!

[Omnicide]

Nigel Blackwell from Half Man Half Biscuit. typical lyric:

“In the kingdom of the blind,
The one-eyed man is king.
But in the kingdom of the bland,
It’s nine o’clock on ITV”.

2nd for Nick Cave
Ray Davies
Loudon Wainwright
Elvis Costello
Gil-Scott Heron
Paul Weller

[Thrillho]

Well I have several favourite lyricists and godammit I'm going to post examples of all of them.

1. Roger Waters
'If you should go skating on the thin ice of modern life
Dragging behind you the silent reproach of a million tear-stained eyes
Don't be surprised when a crack in the ice appears under your feet
You slip out of your depth and out of your mind'
Pink Floyd - The Thin Ice

'Babe, don't leave me now
I need you to beat to a pulp on a saturday night
To put through the shredder in front of my friends'
Pink Floyd - Don't Leave Me Now

'The silver in her hair shines in the cold November air'
Pink Floyd - The Gunner's Dream

A master of imagery, pretension and the human condition.

2. Syd Barrett
'I've got a bike you can ride it if you like
It's got a basket a bell that rings and things to make it look good
I'd give it to you if I could but I borrowed it'
Pink Flyod - Bike

Bike is a textbook in how to rhyme, and how not to rhyme. Psychedelic genius.

3. Graham Coxon
'Do you go to the country?
It isn't very far
There's people there who'll hurt you
Because of who you are'
Blur - Coffee And TV

An underrated lyricist...mainly because he's awful half the time. But once in a while he comes up with something great.

4. Rivers Cuomo
'Goddamn you half-Japanese girls
You do it to me every time
The redhead said you shred the cello
And I'm jello, baby'
Weezer - El Scorcho

Discordant melodies, odd chord progressions, a muddy guitar tone and some of the quirkiest, most worrying and most interesting lyrics I've ever heard.

5. Noel Gallagher (no, really)
'It's the little things that make me so happy
All I want to do is live by the sea'
Oasis - (It's Good) To Be Free

'When you look in the mirror and you're tying up your buttons and bows
And as you face your disease you can squeeze into the Emperor's clothes
You found your gun in a paper bag
You get your history from the Union Jack'
Oasis - Mucky Fingers

Most of his lyrics are total bollocks, but once in a while he comes up with something that I find really affecting, although the former example shows how I can get affected by stupid shit.

6. Jeff Tweedy (duh)
'The cash machine is blue and green
For a hundred in twenties and a small service fee
I could spend three dollars and sixty-three cents
On diet coca-cola and unlit cigarettes

I wonder why we listen to poets
When nobody gives a fuck
How hot and sorrowful
This machine begs for luck

All my lies are always wishes
I know I would die if I could come back new'
Wilco - Ashes Of American Flags

'Distance has no way of making love understandable'
Wilco - Radio Cure

A combination of surrealist weirdness and wonderfully open emotion.

7. John Lennon
'Here I stand head in hand, turn my face to the wall
If she's gone I can't go on, feeling two foot small
Everywhere people stare, each and every day
I can see them laugh at me, and I hear them say'
The Beatles - You've Got To Hide Your Love Away

Probably a genius, even if his solo work was patchy as hell.

8. Zack de la Rocha
'The teacher stands at the front of the class
But the lesson plan he can't recall
The student's eyes don't perceive the lies
Plastered on every fucking wall'
Rage Against The Machine - Take The Power Back

A militant left-winger of the best kind.

9. Eminem (again, I mean it)
I won't bother copying and pasting all of Stan.

'They say music can alter moods and talk to you
But can it load a gun up for you and cock it too?
Well if it can then next time you assault a dude
Tell the judge it was my fault; then I'll get sued
See what these kids do is, they hear about us toting pistols
They wanna get one, they think this shit's cool
Not knowing we're really just protecting ourselves we entertainers
Of course this shit's effecting our sales you ignoramus'
Sing For The Moment

Everyone will take the piss for this choice, but I stand by it. Especially for the second example, if only for probably being the first rapper to use 'ignoramus' in a rhyme.

10. Nick Cave
'I went to bed last night and my moral code got jammed
I woke up this morning with a frappucino in my hand'
Abattoir Blues

'I don't believe in an interventionist God
I know darling that you do
But if I did I would kneel down and ask him
Not to intervene with me and you
Not to lay hand on your head, leave you as you are
If he felt he had to direct you, direct you into my arms

Into my arms, oh Lord, into my arms

I don't believe in the existence of angels
Looking at you, I wonder if that's true
But if I did I would summon them together
Ask them to watch over you
To each burn a candle for you, make bright and clear your path
And to walk like Christ in grace and love and guide you into my arms'
Into My Arms

'L is for love
O is for only you that I do
V is for loving virtually all that you are
E is for loving almost everything you do
R is for rape me
M is for murder me
A is for answering all of my prayers
N is for knowing your loverman's going to be the answer to all of yours'
Loverman

Simply a genius. Probably the only lyricist I appreciate more than even Bob Dylan. He has such variation too, he can do a soppy love song with the rest of them (although they usually contain a blatant sex reference just to blindside you) but also write the darkest lyrics you'll hear.

11. Neil Hannon
'Take the National Express when your life's in a mess, it'll make you smile
All human life is here from the feeble autier to the screaming child
To the studel(sp?) who knows that to have one of those would be suicide
To the family man manhandling the pram with paternal pride

On the National Express there's a jolly hostess selling crisps and tea
She'll provide you with drinks and theatrical winks for a sky-high fee
Mini-skirts were in style when she danced down the aisle back in '63
But it's hard to get by when your arse is the size of a small country'
The Divine Comedy - National Express

Where Hannon gets his ideas from I'll never know. The rhymes and jokes in his songs boggle my mind, especially in National Express.

12. Ian Curtis

'Here are the young men, the weight on their shoulders,
Here are the young men, well where have they been?
We knocked on the doors of Hell's darker chamber,
Pushed to the limit, we dragged ourselves in,
Watched from the wings as the scenes were replaying,
We saw ourselves now as we never had seen.
Portrayal of the trauma and degeneration,
The sorrows we suffered and never were free.'
Joy Division - Decades

'I was there in the back stage,
When first light came around.
I grew up like a changeling,
To win the first time around.
I can see all the weakness.
I can pick all the faults.
Well I concede all the faith tests,
Just to stick in your throats.

I hung around in your soundtrack,
To mirror all that you've done,
To find the right side of reason,
To kill the three lies for one,
I can see all the cold facts.
I can see through your eyes.
All this talk made no contact.
No matter how hard we tried.

I can still hear the footsteps.
I can see only walls.
I slid into your man-traps,
With no hearing at all.
I just see contradiction,
Had to give up the fight,
Just to live in the past tense,
To make believe you were right.'
Joy Division - Warsaw

Depressing, dark, affecting, but occasionally with a glimmer of hope, such as on 'Transmission.'

13. Shane McGowan

I'm not going to bother copying and pasting 'Fairytale of New York' which is the most obvious example, but just about every Pogues song has fantastically witty lyrics (especially for a guy who was drunk 24/7) with a smattering of filth and fury.

14. Billie Joe Armstrong

'Going straight will get you nowhere.'
Green Day - Jaded

'I cannot speak
I've lost my voice
Speechless and redundant'
Green Day - Redundant

'Shoplifter you'll never learn
When you commit the crime
Shoplifter you're getting burned
And now you're gonna do the time

It's not considered stealing unless you're getting caught
And you've been caught stealing
Trying to take something you haven't got'
Green Day - Shoplifter

An underrated lyricist. Can be dark, can be witty, can be funny, can be boneheaded, and can be subversive.

15. Bob Dylan (no shit)

There are way too many Bob Dylan songs to list here, because lyrics are his strong point, and over 29 albums (not counting the new one on Monday) he's done so many great songs with brilliant lyrics I can't think of two or three to put down. However, I can think of the single line from 'Visions of Johanna' which I think totally epitomises his genius:

'The ghost of electricity howls in the bones of her face.'

How the hell do you go about coming up with a line like that? It's so surreal, there's simultaneously nothing and everything going on in it. It blows my mind.

[Praeserpium Machinarum]

Seconding the Nick Cave, Shane McGowan and adding:

Tom Waits: He's amazing pure and simple.

Well the smart money's on Harlow and the moon is in the street
And the shadow boys are breaking all the laws
And you're east of East Saint Louis and the wind is making speeches
And the rain sounds like a round of applause
And Napoleon is weeping in a carnival saloon
His invisible fiancee's in the mirror
And the band is going home, it's raining hammers, it's raining nails
And it's true there's nothing left for him down here

from Time.

Will Oldham: it's not that technical but really affecting:

She loves a soul that I have never been
A dog among dogs, a man among men
And every day when I come home to her

She holds a phantom, she kisses and she hugs him
And I am not averse to how she loves him
Why must I live and walk unloved as what I am ?

Why can't I be loved as what I am ?
A wolf among wolves and not as a man among men

From Wolf Among Wolves.


others I like are Cedric Bixler-Zavala(At the Drive-In/Mars Volta), Henriette Sennenvaldt(Under Byen), Colin Meloy(The Decemberists) and so on.
I really enjoy good lyrics to the point where it might determine if I like a band or not.

[Will]

An example of Aaron from mewithoutYou that I love:

Wearing black canvas slippers in that frog-on-a-lily-pad pose we sewed buttons and zippers to pink Chinese silk and olive night clothes if you can someday stop by somehow we'll show you the pictures and fix you some tea (see, my dad's getting a bit older now, and just unimaginably lonely)

--from Four Word Letter, Pt. 2--

I also like JR Hayes from Pig Destroyer...he's demented as all fuck, but some of his lines are brilliant:

Certain things fascinate me.
First I went blind and then the sun went out.
The way you hold a match so steady.
How heaven is collapsing under so much joy.
--from Evacuating Heaven--

My knuckles are bleeding on your front door
and these flowers are wilting in the rain.
They were for you and now they are for no one.
They are irrelevant as mercenaries in times of peace.
--from Junkyard God--

[Omnicide]

OK- Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Nick Cave etc. all go without saying. Any new business?

[Skittish]

1) Ryan Adams
2) Mike Doughty
3) Thom Yorke
4) Will Scheff
5) Craig Finn

[Slick]

James Taylor! Not all of his stuff is great, but my name is James, my nickname in residence was baby james, and I love the song 'Sweet Baby James'. Whatever.

There's a song that they sing as they take to the highway, a song that they sing as they take to the sea, a song that they sing of their home in the sky, maybe you can believe it if it helps you to sleep, but singing works just fine for me

Thanks for making me feel better at night, James.

[Will]

Put music to our troubles, and we'll dance them away..."

From a mewithoutYou song, can't remember which one

[Joseph]

Bruce Springsteen

In the parking lot the visionaries
Dress in the latest rage
Inside the backstreet girls are dancing
To the records that the DJ plays
Lonely-hearted lovers
Struggle in dark corners
Desperate as the night moves on
Just one look
And a whisper, and they're gone

Jim Morrison

Before you slip into unconsciousness
I'd like to have another kiss
Another flashing chance at bliss
Another kiss, another kiss

Jeff Mangum

Two headed boy
With pulleys and weights
Creating a radio played just for two
In the parlor with a moon across her face
And through the music he sweetly displays
Silver speakers that sparkle all day
Made for his lover who's floating and choking with her hands across her face
And in the dark we will take off our clothes
And they'll be placing fingers through the notches in your spine
And when all is breaking everything that you could keep inside
Now your eyes ain't moving now
They just lay there in their climb

Spencer Krug

Well I've got a hand
So I've got a fist
So I've got a plan
It's the best that I can do
And I'll save, using god's hands
But god doesn't always have the best god damn plans does he?

[Skittish]

I'll do some examples of mine too:

Ryan Adams
Can you still have any famous last words
If you're somebody nobody knows,
I don't know
Somebody go and ask Clair
She's been dead twenty years just look at her hair
Strawberry blonde with curls
She gets her hair done then she gossips
With the younger waitress girls at the bar
The old Irish rose
Drinking strawberry wine
Until it comes out her nose
She spent too much time on the other side,
And she forgot to let the daylight in

Mike Doughty
Your back curves like a creeping vine
With the answers in the fluid in the stem of the spine
In the black-coffee bowl of your eye
Why do you overestimate the size of the lie?

I’ve seen
The dangers of
Your rising sign
But i swear
I’d like
To drink the fuel straight from your lighter
It’s all inside the wrist, it’s
All inside the way you time it
I resent the way you make me like myself

Thom Yorke
 I am the key to the lock in your house
That keeps your toys in the basement
And if you get too far inside
You'll only see my reflection
It's always best when the light is off
I am the pick in the ice
Do not cry out or hit the alarm
You know we're friends 'til we die

And either way you turn
I'll be there
Open up your skull
I'll be there
Climbing up the walls

Craig Finn
i guess you're old enough to know. kids out on the east coast. roughly twenty years old. got coaxed out by a certain perfect ratio. of warm beer to the summer smoke. and the meat loaf to the billy joel. certain songs they get so scratched into our souls.

she goes low on the seats when she gets high in her car. she looks shallow but shes neck deep in the steamy dreams of the guys along the harbor bars. she's pulling out her shirttails and jacking up her socks. stern and stoned and confident, coming up towards the jukebox. born into the only songs that everybody finally sings along.

Will Scheff
You love a stone, because it’s dark, and it’s old, and if it could start being alive you’d stop living alone. And I think I believe that, if stones could dream, they’d dream of being laid side-by-side, piece-by-piece, and turned into a castle for some towering queen they’re unable to know. And when that queen’s daughter came of age, I think she’d be lovely and stubborn and brave, and suitors would journey from kingdoms away to make themselves known. And I think that I know the bitter dismay of a lover who brought fresh bouquets every day when she turned him away to remember some knave who once gave just one rose, one day, years ago.

[mysteriousbriefcase]

I'll second Tommy with the lyricists in Fugazi, but also Frank Black, back when he was Black Francis of the Pixies.

oh, and conor oberst.  i mean, his lyrics are so brilliant. /sarcasm

[Mobius_Logic]

Robert Smith-

Remembering
You standing quiet in the rain
As I ran to your heart to be near
And we kissed as the sky fell in
Holding you close
How I always held close in your fear
Remembering
You running soft through the night
You were bigger and brighter and whiter than snow
And screamed at the make-believe
Screamed at the sky
And you finally found all your courage
To let it all go

Isaac Brock-

Well, Cowboy Dan's a major player in the cowboy scene
He goes to the reservation drinks and gets mean
He drove the desert, fired his rifle in the sky
And says, "God if I have to die you will have to die"

Well, Cowboy Dan's a major player in the cowboy scene
He goes the the reservation drinks and gets mean
"I didnt move to the city, the city moved to me
And I want out desperately"

Colin Meloy-

Your parents were anxious,
Your cool was contagious
At the old school.
You left without leaving
A note for your grieving
Sweet mother, while
Your brother was so cruel.
And here in the alleys
Your spirits were rallied
As you learned quick to make a fast buck.
In bathrooms and barrooms,
On dumpsters and heirlooms,
We bit our tongues.
Sucked our lips into our lungs
'til we were falling.
Such was our calling.



[/i]

[E. Spaceman]

I'll try to skip anyone already mentioned
Morrissey (mostly with The Smiths)
Brian McMahan (Slint)
David Bowie
Michael Stipe (REM)
Stuart Murdoch (Belle and Sebastian)
David Byrne (both with Talking Heads and solo)
Chan Marshall (Cat Power)
Douglas Pearce (Death In June)
Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus (ABBA, no, seriously)
Lou Reed (up till the 80s)

[Luke C]

Bob Dylan is an all time great songwriter. As well as Dylan Serj Tankian, Michael Stipe and Dave Mustaine write some great lyrics.

[TrueNeutral]

Mark Olivier "Mr. E" Everett

Look at all the people with the flowers in their hands
They put the flower on the box that's holding all the sand
That was once... that was once you

I still have never heard anyone put such real anguish into his music.

I also like Isaac Brock,

We kiss on the mouth but still cough down our sleeves

Beck,

Who could ever be so cruel,
Blame the devil for the things you do
It’s such a selfish way to lose
The way you lose these wasted blues

And whoever writes the lyrics for The Shins

These are the muddy waters
I am swimming in to make a living
Were I to drown in them
It should come as no surprise

[KharBevNor]

Martin Walkyer of Skyclad is in a league of his own.

"Court is now in session, Mother Nature presides,
The jury are our children, whose futures we've denied.
The evidence conclusive, we have no alibi,
The victim was our planet, the verdict: MATRICIDE!"

Skyclad - Our Dying Island

"She whispered of her innocence - (a plea I must contest)
While baptising helpless sinners with a missionary zest
She will exorcise your demons - then exercise your thighs
Await your 'second-coming' with a hunger in her eyes.

Her sweetmeats are the souls of men - she'll gorge herself to bursting
And for yours her heart is thirsting - as a spider craves a fly
No mortal man could ever hope to suit her as a suitor
Sh'll rewrite the Kama Sutra if you'd care to watch her try"

Skyclad - Spinning Jenny

"D.J.s, V.J.s, pimps and trollops,
never mind music - this is bollocks!"

Skyclad - Penny Dreadful

"What did we learn in history lessons?
How to sit quiet at the back of a class
with so many things open to questions,
it's too late to cry - there's no one to ask.

Life's an education - a multiple equation,
everybody finds their own solution in the end.
"To be or not to be" is a very lengthy question,
has somebody please got a sharpened pencil they can lend?

Marching in time down a production line,
what did that teach you about life in the dole queue?

The Law of Relativity - (life's relative misery).
The Law of Probability - (it's probably contrived).
Newton's Law of Gravity - (we face a grave reality).
The Law that runs the jungle - (only the strong survive)."

Skyclad - History Lessens

And countless, countless more, which I will post probably in the future. Incredible stuff. Nothing I've ever seen in the field of lyrics actually written for music equals it for me.

Tony Wakeford of Sol Invictus is pretty awesome.

The man says it like it is. Almost brutal.

"Here I am, drunk and bored.
And even I don't wanna drink anymore.
And here you are, drunk and scared.
You finally realised: Life's not fair."

Sol Invictus - Here Am I

"This is the longest road to nowhere
Although it's shorter than you think
When the shutters comes down
When the chain breaks its link

Can love triumph
Will hate fall
Can good win?
Probably not at all

The tide will go out and not return
The flame will die and never again burn
I will fall asleep and never awake
The next page of the diary won't have a date

Can love triumph
Will hate fall
Can good win?
Probably not at all

With vile defeats
I limp towards December
Full of vile deceits
But destined not to be remembered"

Sol Invictus - December Song

" They're making the last film
They say that it's the best
And we all helped make it
It's called "The Death of the West"
The kids from Fame will all be there
Free Coca-Cola for you
And Eurodisney is here
Just for me and you

The death of the west

They're making the last film
They say that it's the best
And we all helped make it
It's called "The Death of the West"
A star has risen on northern skies
And on that star we'll be crucified
And the chains of gold around this world
They're ruled by those who lie

The death of the west"

Sol Invictus - The Death of the West

and so forth.

Also, gotta add Dave Tibet of Current 93. I'll put in some stuff by him later.

I think what really makes Martin and Tony is not just the lyrics, but the raw power of their delivery and their sheer integrity. These guys never have sold out and never will sell out. It's also the totality of the experience. I have almost every song ever written by both these lyricists, and the worlds or experiences they create are just enriched with each song. Martin in particular I feel like I know like a friend through his lyrics.

[space_oddity]

David Byrne was always my favorite. Observations so honest and uncoated that they sound surreal compared to more bombastic songwriting.
I love Bob Pollard as a lyricist as well.

[ImRonBurgundy?]

4. Rivers Cuomo
'there's the pitch
slow and straight
all i have to do is swing
and i'm a hero
but i'm a zero'
Weezer - Perfect Situation

Discordant melodies, odd chord progressions, a muddy guitar tone and some of the quirkiest, most worrying and most interesting lyrics I've ever heard.

WHAT.

just kidding, dude.  Rivers Cuomo was a damn good lyricist before he forgot how to write songs.

[mysteriousbriefcase]

oh, and conor oberst.  i mean, his lyrics are so brilliant. /sarcasm

i'm actually going to defend oberst despite the fact i don't like his music a whole lot. simply for performing this song on syndicated television in america -

"When The President Talks To God"

whether or no these are 'good' lyrics doesn't really matter to me.
the fact that he is saying what the killers or panic at the disco are not is admirable.

i'll give him props for that, but conor oberst's lyrics as a whole (mostly for bright eyes, i kinda dig the desaparecidos) get on my nerves.

[edgyswingsetacid]

penny rimbaud, from crass:

I am no feeble Christ not me. He hangs in glib delight upon his
cross, above my body. Christ forgive. FORGIVE? I vomit for you
Jesu. Shit forgive. Down from your cross. Down from your papal
heights, from that churlish suicide petulant child. Down from
those pious heights, royal flag bearer, goat, billy. I vomit for you.
Forgive? Shit he forgives. He hangs in crucified delight nailed to
the extent of his vision, his cross, his manhood, violence, guilt,
sin. He would nail my body upon his cross, suicide visionary,
death reveller, rake, rapist, lifefucker, Jesu, earthmover Christus,
gravedigger, you dug the graves of Auschwitz, the soil of
Treblinka is your guilt, your sin, master, master of gore, enigma.
You carry the standard of your oppression. Enola is your gaiety.
The bodies of Hiroshima are your delight, the nails are your only
trinity, hold them in your corpsey gracelessness, the image I
have had to suffer. The cross is the virgin body of womanhood
that you defile. You nail yourself to your own sin. Lame arse Jesus
calls me sister there are no words for my contempt, every
woman is a cross in his filthy theology, his arrogant delight. He
turns his back upon me in his fear, he dare not face me.
Fearfucker. Share nothing you Christ, sterile, impotent, fucklove
prophet of death. You are the ultimate pornography, in your
cuntfear, cockfear, manfear, womanfear, unfair, warfare, warfare,
warfare, warfare, warfare, warfare, warfare, warfare.

Jesus died for his own sins, not mine.

mike kinsella, whose every written word to me is genius, but for our current purposes, i choose these:

Well, just between you and me
I don't know what I'm doing here
In your room, close to you
Full of shit and free beer
My brother, the bartender
I tip him well, and I drink for free
Well, he takes good care of me; he takes care of me
Anyway, I'm here

I'm a bicycle; I'm too tired to ride home
If it's okay with you, can I take off these shoes, stay the night

Well, just between you and me
This thing between you and me
Might not be anything worth singing about
Or it might be just what I need
Someone to take my mind off things
At the end of a long day
Someone to take my pants off for me
At the end of a long night
Either way, we're here

We're two bicycyles, ridden, too tired to know
Which one of us two
Was dumb enough to choose the other as a lover

other good ones are:
joe queer (the queers)
brandon tussey (a radio with guts/the connie dungs)
paul simon, and
phil elverum.

[logosmonkey]

Hmm I don't think anyones said it so I will
Shane McGowan

One summer evening drunk to hell
I stood there nearly lifeless
An old man in the corner sang
Where the water lilies grow
And on the jukebox johnny sang
About a thing called love
And its how are you kid and whats your name
And how would you bloody know?
In blood and death neath a screaming sky
I lay down on the ground
And the arms and legs of other men
Were scattered all around
Some cursed, some prayed, some prayed then cursed
Then prayed and bled some more
And the only thing that I could see
Was a pair of brown eyes that was looking at me
But when we got back, labeled parts one to three
There was no pair of brown eyes waiting for me

And a rovin a rovin a rovin Ill go
For a pair of brown eyes

I looked at him he looked at me
All I could do was hate him
While ray and philomena sang
Of my elusive dream
I saw the streams, the rolling hills
Where his brown eyes were waiting
And I thought about a pair of brown eyes
That waited once for me
So drunk to hell I left the place
Sometimes crawling sometimes walking
A hungry sound came across the breeze
So I gave the walls a talking
And I heard the sounds of long ago
From the old canal
And the birds were whistling in the trees
Where the wind was gently laughing

And a rovin a rovin a rovin Ill go
For a pair of brown eyes

Hmm also Johnny Cash

Well, I woke up Sunday morning
With no way to hold my head that didn't hurt.
And the beer I had for breakfast wasn't bad,
So I had one more for dessert.
Then I fumbled in my closet through my clothes
And found my cleanest dirty shirt.
Then I washed my face and combed my hair
And stumbled down the stairs to meet the day.

I'd smoked my mind the night before
With cigarettes and songs I'd been picking.
But I lit my first and watched a small kid
Playing with a can that he was kicking.
Then I walked across the street
And caught the Sunday smell of someone frying chicken.
And Lord, it took me back to something that I'd lost
Somewhere, somehow along the way.

On a Sunday morning sidewalk,
I'm wishing, Lord, that I was stoned.
'Cause there's something in a Sunday
That makes a body feel alone.
And there's nothing short a' dying
That's half as lonesome as the sound
Of the sleeping city sidewalk
And Sunday morning coming down.

In the park I saw a daddy
With a laughing little girl that he was swinging.
And I stopped beside a Sunday school
And listened to the songs they were singing.
Then I headed down the street,
And somewhere far away a lonely bell was ringing,
And it echoed through the canyon
Like the disappearing dreams of yesterday.

On a Sunday morning sidewalk,
I'm wishing, Lord, that I was stoned.
'Cause there's something in a Sunday
That makes a body feel alone.
And there's nothing short a' dying
That's half as lonesome as the sound
Of the sleeping city sidewalk
And Sunday morning coming down.

[ImRonBurgundy?]

brandon tussey (a radio with guts/the connie dungs)

I LOVE YOU.

[Scytale]

Aside from whats been mentioned by others, theres two lyricists I really enjoy.

The first is Elena Schirenc (Hollenthon)- I love the way she mixes fantasy themes with the wonderfully vivid words she uses.

"Reprisal - Malis Avibus"

The ticking hour of Father Time releases memories locked in mind
A wandering beggar digging holes in all unspoken deeds of old
A yellow death lay on his face, a smile so fixed not of this race
Indeed he'd known where he would go, to where he feared it clearly showed

The devil I can safely tell
Has neither hoof, nor tail, nor sting
Nor is he, as some sages swear,
A spirit, neither here nor there
In nothing-yet in everything
He is what we are-a gentleman
A statesman spinning his web of crimes,
A swindler, living as he can

The ticking hour of Father Time released the memories locked in mind
The clock's monotonous tick obscured to most this man's so lonely cry
He'd said that with his clenched teeth, he'd seize the earth from underneath
He'd seize the earth from underneath, and drag it with him down to hell

Eclipse - Vita Nova

Dowager of wandering empires knocking at death's door
Putrid winds carried the voices wailing in the night
Solitude of land Europa; battalions ominous
Conquest dressed in ivory garb attack from east and west

Baleful ballad tragic spews
From her lips of lurid blue

Infantries of bony vampires draining one by one
From the headlands plunge like death-birds;predators descend
Prancing, laughing, undertakers don tools of dusky trade
Puppeteers in childish play,ghoulish marionettes

Baleful ballad tragic spews
From her lips of lurid blue
In a dream I saw her
Drape her cloak from sea to sea

In dawn of life she came to flee with lonesome shadows before noon
Who dare impede her timely flight or rob of quarry due?

The coy, unwilling silent bride; Misery stands by her side
The demon mourner bathes in tears of those she left behind

The Calm Before The Storm

No cypress shades the grave
But gentle violets weep with dew
Weave on war-torn bones
Buried nameless in eternal sands

Sound no trumpet of mourn
Forget not the wandering soul
One with this brazen earth
With vilest of worms to dwell

No sunshine reverent
But stoic storm clouds soak scarlet ground
Wash the bloodstained face
Vanished nameless in eternal sands

Listen closely
Dreadful and grand
The hush of the null and void
Slave to fate kings and desperate men

Await the splendor
Dreadful and grand
Lingering shadows undead
Slave to fate, kings and desperate men

Forget not wandering souls
With vilest of worms to dwell

The other lyricist is Fenriz of Darkthrone fame.

I really enjoy Fenriz's lyrics, he put a lot more thought into them then most BM bands do. From the vivid and introspective musings like "Sempiternal Sepulchrality"

Oh, once again, I kneel before this altar
Out in the moist chilly forest I proclaim
The Autumn leaves that fall
And those still attached to the trees
The Breeze that blew my hair
The one I've known through all these years...
The songs I never forgot -
A past that is now Lost....

To the seemingly straightforwards social critique of "Information Wants to be Syndicated"

Three inch health
Population copulation
Twice bitten
Lay down the law

It's great to see...
I've become what you hate
I grow
Information wants to be syndicated

Blame unintentionalism
Scared of pride
Hate what you don't understand
(I am) laughing all the way to the grave

It's great to see...
I've become what you hate
I grow
Information wants to be syndicated

Uninformed
Ill Informed
Comfortably dumb
Easily formed

Hail fuckin' darkness

Then there's my favorite, one of the only BM 'Love' songs I've ever heard, the awesome "Natassja in Eternal Sleep"

Alcohol is in my veins...
Tears fall as I think of you.
The true memory you left me with
is a key to the wine of melancholy.

I drown myself in the deepest of sorrows-
As you Burned on that stake they burnt
my soul as well.
Your pure feelings, your flaming hate;
it was not enough.

Natassja, my beloved satanic witch,
The power in your eyes and yourself.
Worked for the noble in man.
Pass the bottle, pass the knife,
Pass me your unholy crafts.

I shall never forget you, the best
of all there is, I lick your cold lips,
I embrace your coffin as I sigh in woe.
You never kissed the priest, you never
Drank the blood of jesus. Weird, they say -
well, turn it upside down like you did,
and they kill, kill, and they take you away...

Now, centuries later, I do yours and my sign.
You live in me, like you moved in with my soul.
Your resurrection is the spirit of you -
Installed in me. So now, your thougths
and your pains are my wine; and Natassja:
I'll get these goddam angels drunk...

[Omnicide]

Hmm also Johnny Cash

Well, I woke up Sunday morning
With no way to hold my head that didn't hurt...

That's a Kris Kristoferson song. The more you know...

[logosmonkey]

Oh bloody hell really? Alright then....

        I hear the train a comin'; it's rollin' 'round the bend,
        And I ain't seen the sunshine since I don't know when.
        I'm stuck at Folsom Prison and time keeps draggin' on.
        But that train keeps rollin' on down to San Antone.

        When I was just a baby, my mama told me, "Son,
        Always be a good boy; don't ever play with guns."
        But I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die.
        When I hear that whistle blowin' I hang my head and cry.

        I bet there's rich folk eatin' in a fancy dining car.
        They're prob'ly drinkin' coffee and smokin' big cigars,
        But I know I had it comin', I know I can't be free,
        But those people keep a movin', and that's what tortures me.

        Well, if they freed me from this prison, if that railroad train was mine,
        I bet I'd move on over a little farther down the line,
        Far from Folsom Prison, that's where I want to stay,
        And I'd let that lonesome whistle blow my blues away.

[ChaosTriangle]

Warren Zevon.  Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner is, for some reason, one of the most haunting songs I've ever heard; however, he's also got deadpan humor to spare.  Example:

He took little Suzie to the Junior Prom
Excitable boy, they all said
And he raped her and killed her, then he took her home
Excitable boy, they all said
Well, he's just an excitable boy
After ten long years they let him out of the home
Excitable boy, they all said
And he dug up her grave and built a cage with her bones
Excitable boy, they all said
Well, he's just an excitable boy

And MC Frontalot, if for no other reason than the following:

MC Frontalot: the arch criminal for some reason not
Sought by authorities, though I been running wild for days
They's surely gonna track me down
I'm the #1 menace for miles around
With the littering, the loitering, the mattress tags
All the piratated mp3s I grabs
All the cable I stole, a certain bathroom wall I wrote on
I'm so cruel & cold you put a coat on
I even cheat on my tax!
From this life of crime there could be no turning back
Riding all around on my bike with no helmet
Commit mail fraud whenever I see a mailman
Got a jaywalking ticket, I crumpled it up!
Still bump the bootleg cause I'm hanging tough

Crime spree that I'm on
Breaking the law until the break of the dawn
Then I'll break it again, then I'll break it some more
(MC Frontalot, you're so hardcore)
Crime spree that I'm on
Breaking the law until the break of the dawn
Yo, it seems like I break it all the time
(This MC led a life of crime)

There's others, but I'm feeling lazy.

[Will]

I'm also a real big fan of the lyrics from Pedro The Lion's "Control" album...they're so damn cynical I can't help but love it

[Merkava]

Isaac Brock is truly brilliant. I've never heard philosophical concepts of such complexity put into such simple, small-american wording. He's even a good commentator. He reminds me of Bob Dylan, actually, except...well, you know.

Did anyone mention John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats? The way he creates stories and describes scenes is beautiful. I can easily write pages and pages about any one of his songs.

[logosmonkey]

I totally forgot about Sufjan..
Sufjan Stevens
Casimir Pulaski Day

Golden rod and the 4-H stone
The things I brought you
When I found out you had cancer of the bone

Your father cried on the telephone
And he drove his car to the Navy yard
Just to prove that he was sorry

In the morning through the window shade
When the light pressed up against your shoulder blade
I could see what you were reading

Oh the glory that the lord has made
And the complications you could do without
When I kissed you on the mouth

Tuesday night at the bible study
We lift our hands and pray over your body
But nothing ever happens

I remember at Michael's house
In the living room when you kissed my neck
And I almost touched your blouse

In the morning at the top of the stairs
When your father found out what we did that night
And you told me you were scared

Oh the glory when you ran outside
With your shirt tucked in and your shoes untied
And you told me not to follow you

Sunday night when I cleaned the house
I find the card where you wrote it out
With the pictures of your mother

On the floor at the great divide
With my shirt tucked in and my shoes untied
I am crying in the bathroom

In the morning when you finally go
And the nurse runs in with her head hung low
And the cardinal hits the window

In the morning in the winter shade
On the first of March on the holiday
I thought I saw you breathing

Oh the glory that the lord has made
And the complications when I see his face
In the morning in the window

Oh the glory when he took our place
But he took my shoulders and he shook my face
And he takes and he takes and he takes

[Will]

Wes Eisold from American Nightmare/Give Up The Ghost and Some Girls...one of my favorite lines comes from the song "AM/PM":

My parents fell in love and all I got was life, and all I ever wanted was to not be alone..."

also the dude from Modern Life Is War...

there's been so much talk of so many slashed up wrists...but we're much too young to be dwelling on thoughts like this. so scrape your heart up from the bottom of the bottom of the barrel. keep your faith in the path that's growing narrow. kill the doubt inside your head. we overcome. we push ahead.

[logosmonkey]

Also did someone say Elvis Costello yet?

See her picture in a thousand places
'cause she's this year's girl.
You think you all own little pieces
of this year's girl.
Forget your fancy manners,
forget your English grammar,
'cause you don't really give a damn
about this year's girl.

Still you're hoping that she's well-spoken
'cause she's this year's girl.
You want her broken with her mouth wide open
'cause she's this year's girl.
Never knowing it's a real attraction,
all these promises of satisfaction,
while she's being bored to distraction
being this year's girl.

Time's running out. She's not happy with the cost.
There'd be no doubt, only she's forgotten
much more than she's lost.

A bright spark might corner the market
in this year's girl.
You see yourself rolling on the carpet
with this year's girl.
Those disco synthesizers,
those daily tranquilizers,
those body building prizes,
those bedroom alibis,
all this, but no surprises for this year's girl.
All this, but no surprises for this year's girl.
All this, but no surprises for this year's girl.

[Shaft]

GERARD WAY

I'M TELLING YOU I'M OK
TRUST ME
I'M NOT OK
I'M NOT OK I'M NOT O FUCKING K

WHAT A GENIUS

[Johnny C]

The Long Winters' John Roderick.

Student, why do you dream of me
When you dream of your acre of trees?
It was agreed I came to burn leaves
It's all I ever claimed to do
A ploughman i'll never grow into

...

My arms miss you
My hands miss you
The stars sing, i've got their song in my head
Oh, I don't want my words twisted
I don't want you to listen to close
Or wait for me impatiently
And I hope I can keep seeing you
As long as you don't say you're falling in love

Adding to the praise previously heaped on Spencer Krug, here's an interview snippet regarding "Dear Sons And Daughters Of Hungry Ghosts."

CMG: Like, what’s a “Hungry Ghost”?
SK: It’s – ok I’m going to forget the details now, so I’m going to sound kind of dumb…But in one particular Buddhist religion – and don’t ask me why I referred to something Buddhist – but there are these neat characters in Buddhism that are these tortured characters. They symbolize one of the levels of Hell. I forget the name for it – but there are a bunch of different levels of Hell, and one of them is this level where hypocrites and liars go; not the worst sins, sort of middle-ground punishment. And when they get there, they turn into hungry ghosts, that’s the best translation for it. And hungry ghosts are always thirsty, and always hungry. They’re sort of like that character Tantalus in Greek mythology: he can’t eat or drink, but he’s always hungry or thirsty. And these ghosts, they have really tiny throats, so if they try to eat, it chokes them and they die, because they only have these little straws for throats. I THINK that when they drink water it turns into fire.
CMG: That happens to my grandfather.
SK: Yeah, so Sons and Daughters of Hungry Ghosts is addressing my own generation, I guess. Insatiable thirsts, and hunger for whatever…

And let's face it, dude from Okkervil River. Will Sheff's stuff oughta be eligible for AP English kids to use on the exam. Look at Black Sheep Boy's habit of referencing preceding songs or the songs that follow: it's one dizzyingly allusory piece, and it succeeds on the strength of its actual poetic merit. The entire album is a case in point of his skills.

EDIT: I wish I could get ahold of some Novillero lyrics to prove it, but I'm lazy. Guys got skills, though: "Aim Right For The Holes In Their Lives" and "Habit Over Heart" are both stellar songs that lyrically live up to their titles.

[Kai]

GERARD WAY

I'M TELLING YOU I'M OK
TRUST ME
I'M NOT OK
I'M NOT OK I'M NOT O FUCKING K

WHAT A GENIUS

DUDE

GO LISTEN TO THE SONG, IT'S I'M NOT HAWOAAAAOKEY.

[Johnny C]

HI'M NAH-HOT HOAW-KAY

[ayePod]

Bruce Springsteen knows how to write a simple song that connects to the audience and is quite frankly a king when it comes to story telling.

Tom Waits makes you feel dirty with his lyrics. Just plain dirty.

But my all time favourite lyricist is Billy Bragg. Getting out sociopolitical ideas whilst being heartbreakingly funny is something that takes a genius.

[Scytale]

Another lyricists I really enjoy is Bruce Dickinson, whilst Steve Harris writes the majority of Maiden's music / lyrics I really like the stuff Bruce comes up with both in Maiden and he's solo albums.

from "Revelations"

Just a babe in the black abyss,
No reason for a place like this,
The walls are cold and souls cry out in pain,
An easy way for the blind to go,
A clever path for the fools who know
The secret of the Hanged Man - the smile of his lips.

The light of the Blind - you'll see,
The venom that tears my spine,
The Eyes of the Nile are opening - you'll see.

From "Powerslave"

Now I am cold but a ghost lives in my veins,
Silent the terror that reigned -
Marbled in stone
A Shell of a man God preserved -
From thousand ages,
But open the gates of my hell -
I'll strike from the grave

And then there is he's William Blake inspired stuff, which I think is just brilliant.

From "Chemical Wedding"

How happy is the human soul
Not enslaved by dull control
Left to dream and roam and play
Shed the guilt of former days

Walking on the foggy shore
Watch the waves come rolling home
Through the veil of pale moonlight
My shadow stretches out its hand

And so we lay, we lay in the same grave

Our chemical wedding day

and from "Killing Floor"

So this is dreamtime, and all is quiet
So this is dreamtime, and all is night
You've never been held by the hand of God
Who's rocking the cradle, if he is not?

He turned the oil into his blood
Panzer divisions burning in the mud
The stain of freedom, he's washed it out
Who's rocking the cradle, I have no doubt

Sleeping eyes awake
To see his hooded gaze
Whispers on the wind
The darker side of ecstasy

Satan has left his killing floor

[Storm Rider]

Well, if we're talking about secondary writers for Iron Maiden, I still like Adrian Smith if only for 2 Minutes to Midnight.

The bodybags and little rags
of children torn in two
and the jellied brains
of those who remain
they put the finger right on you

As the madmen play on words
and make us all dance to their song
to the tune of starving millions
to make a better kind of gun!

[JLM]

Dalek
Hrishkish Hirway
Duncan Sumpner
Michael Franti

All are great lyricists.  But a wise writer once told me that bad poetry usually makes great songs (and sometimes vice versa).  I don't find too much influence for my writing in music, or rather I'm not influenced often by lyricists.  The actual music may inspire me to compose a thought or a sketch based on the sound and image created by the song, but rarely do the lyrics, taken on their own, hold any type of value for me.

[mysteriousbriefcase]

i'm gonna have to say jello biafra.  his lyrics weren't anything too poetic, but they were to the point and powerful for what they were meant.  his spoken word stuff is pretty good too, in my opinion better than alot of his music.

[lbarbs]

Jeffery Lewis.

If you haven't heard him, do so now. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/collective/A6999853

(for moondog)

[SensoryOssuary]

Captain Beefheart is a very under-appreciated lyricist, in my opinion.

Human bark,
beautiless hide from beauty.
Bow your eyes and heads to the duty of the dead,
suck the ground;
breathe life into the dead dinosaurs.
Let the past demons rear up and belch fire into the air of now.
The rug's wearing out that we walk on
soon it will fray and we'll drop
dead into yesterday
Must the breathing pay for those who breathe in and don't
breathe out?
There'd be no gain, brothers, if no one would play
and for your games count me and all that can see,
breathe in and out hungry today and eat hearty tomorrow,
or eat away and be eaten some day.
No seed shall sow in salt water.
If the dinosaur cries with blood in his eyes,
and eats our babies for our lies,
belches fire into our skies.
Maybe I'll die but he'll be rumbling through
your petrified forest.

Here's another of his I particularly enjoy: http://beefheart.com/walker/lyrics/tmr/billscorpse.htm