Recommend great lyricists

[yermom]

Marc Bolan did some pretty cool things in the same vein as Tweedy's more abstract stuff...

The Slider

i could never understand

the wind at all

was like a ball of love

i could never never see

the cosmic sea

was like a bumblebee

 

and when i'm sad

i slide

 

i have never never kissed

a car before

it's like a door

i have always always

grown my own before

all schools are strange

 

and when i'm sad

i slide

 

i have never never

nailed a nose before

that's hwo the garden grows

i could never understand

the wind at all

was like a ball of love

and when i'm sad

i slide

watch now

i'm gonna slide

 

 

and though it annoys me that he's become so superficially romanticized after his death, I still really feel that Elliot Smith wrote some pretty awesome stuff...

 

Speed Trials

he's pleased to meet you underneath the horse

in the cathedral with the glass stained black

singing sweet high notes that echo back

to destroy their master

 

may be a long time til you get the call-up

but it's sure as fate and hard as your luck

no one'll know where you are

 

it's just a brief smile crossing your face

running speed trials still standing in place

 

when the socket's not a shock enough

you little child what makes you think you're tough

when all the people you think you're above

they all know what's the matter

 

you're such a pinball yeah you know it's true

there's always something you come back running to

to follow the path of no resistance

 

it's just a brief smile crossing your face

running speed trials standing in place

it's just a brief smile crossing your face

running speed trials all over the place

 

Edit: Adding that in these two lines alone, Sam Cooke wins my heart (his delivery is what reaaaally sends it home)...

I was born by the river in a little tent

And just like the river, I've been running ever since

[DrNo]

Timothy Bracy (Mendoza Line & Slow Dazzle):

 

hey you're killing me with protocol

she acts just like she's seen it all

but i don't think she's seen this

a big shot at the mini-mall

you learned to fuck before you could crawl

that don't make you a genius

 

Amen. I also second Townes, David Berman, Joanna Newsom and Joe Pernice.

 

I'd like to add Sam Beam:

 

"Please, remember me

Happily

By the rosebush laughing

With bruises on my chin

The time when

We counted every black car passing

Your house beneath the hill

And up until

Someone caught us in the kitchen

With maps, a mountain range,

A piggy bank

A vision too removed to mention

But

 

Please, remember me

Fondly

I heard from someone you're still pretty

And then

They went on to say

That the pearly gates

Had some eloquent graffiti

Like 'We'll meet again'

And 'Fuck the man'

And 'Tell my mother not to worry'

And angels with their gray

Handshakes

Were always done in such a hurry

And

 

Please, remember me

At Halloween

Making fools of all the neighbors

Our faces painted white

By midnight

We'd forgotten one another

And when the morning came

I was ashamed

Only now it seems so silly

That season left the world

And then returned

And now you're lit up by the city

So

 

Please, remember me

Mistakenly

In the window of the tallest tower call

Then pass us by

But much too high

To see the empty road at happy hour

Leave and resonate

Just like the gates

Around the holy kingdom

With words like 'Lost and Found' and 'Don't Look Down'

And 'Someone Save Temptation'

And

 

Please, remember me

As in the dream

We had as rug-burned babies

Among the fallen trees

And fast asleep

Aside the lions and the ladies

That called you what you like

And even might

Give a gift for your behavior

A fleeting chance to see

A trapeze

Swing as high as any savior

But

 

Please, remember me

My misery

And how it lost me all I wanted

Those dogs that love the rain

And chasing trains

The colored birds above there running

In circles round the well

And where it spells

On the wall behind St. Peter's

So bright with cinder gray

And spray paint

'Who the hell can see forever?'

And

 

Please, remember me

Seldomly

In the car behind the carnival

My hand between your knees

You turn from me

And said 'The trapeze act was wonderful

But never meant to last'

The clown that passed

Saw me just come up with anger

When it filled with circus dogs

The parking lot

Had an element of danger

So

 

Please, remember me

Finally

And all my uphill clawing

My dear

But if i make

The pearly gates

Do my best to make a drawing

Of G-d and Lucifer

A boy and girl

An angel kissin on a sinner

A monkey and a man

A marching band

All around the frightened trapeze swingers"

 

Jason Molina:

"The Farewell Transmission

 

The whole place is dark

Every light on this side of the town

Suddenly it all went down

Now we

[mountain bed]

Another great verse from the NY album --Loooouu ( for you incurable romantics)

 

The man if he marries will batter his child

And have endless excuses

The woman, sadly, will do much the same

Thinking that it's right & it's proper

Better than their momma or their daddy did

Better than the childhood they suffered

The truth is, they're happier when they're in pain

In fact, that's why they got married

[TheMaker]

I just finished listening to New York a few minutes ago, and these great lines reminded me of why I won't ever have/hate kids:

 

"It might be fun to have a kid that I could kick around

Create in my own image like a god

I'd raise my own pallbearers to carry me to my grave

And keep me company when I'm a wizened toothless clod

Some gibbering old fool sitting all alone drooling on his shirt

Some senile old fart playing in the dirt"

 

My other favourite lyricists are Dylan, Waits, Joni, Jim White, Lucinda Williams and Woody. I ain't a-gonna quote 'em all!

[pnêyu]

Elvis Costello, of course (or is that too obvious?):

He's a fine figure of a man and handsome too

With his eyes upon the secret places he'd like to undo

Still he knows who knows who and where and how

And I hope you're happy now

 

And my favorite lyricist, Aimee Mann:

You look like a perfect fit

For a girl in need of a tourniquet

[drag ass snag]

costello! the true elvis...

 

'he's got a mind like a sewer

and a heart like a fridge.

he stands to be insulted,

and he pays for the privilege.'

 

and the whole of beyond belief deserves quoting.

[jakobnicholas]

VIC CHESNUTT

 

'Panic Pure'

 

My earliest memory is of holding up a sparkler

High up to the darkest sky

Some 4th of July spectacular

I shook it with an urgency I'll never be able to repeat

 

at times i might be accused of being painfully nostalgic

but as of late i'm looking forward to the future

thought i've never been much of a planner

throwing caution into the fan

catch as catch as catchers can

 

and so all you observers in your scrutiny

don't count my scars like tree rings

my jigsaw disposition, it's piecemeal properties

are either smoked or honey cured

by the panic pure

 

 

 

 

 

SMOG

 

'Drinking at the Dam'

 

I remember drinking at the dam

With the jarheads on the other side

Warm beer and tearing up the cans

And all of us yelling abuse

Cutting school to go drinking at the dam

 

Skinmags in the brambles

For the first part of my life

I thought women had orange skin

It was the first part of my life

Second is the rest

 

And now teenage warchests fill

And do the dirty dirty work

It was the first part of their lives

 

Drinking at the dam

Holding back what I can

But the power is so much

 

Drinking at the dam

Holding back what I can

I

[MattZ]

I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now.

-dylan

 

Since then it's been a book, you read in reverse

So you understand less as the pages turn.

Or a movie so crass

And awkwardly cast

That even I could be the star.

-james mercer

[Guest Rufer]

Bobby Bare Jr. is an incredible lyricist

 

Adorable Beast

 

I LOOK CUTE AT THE END OF YOUR LEASH-YOUR ADORABLE BEAST

AS I SALIVATE ON YOUR SHOES

OBEDIENT AND TRUE-LOYAL THROUGH AND THROUGH

A FUZZY REFLECTION OF YOU

IF YOU ARE HURT I WILL LICK IT

IF YOU FEED ME I WON'T FORGET IT

IF I MESS UP JUST RUB MY NOSE IN IT

YOU LET ME OUT TO SNIFF AROUND

DO MY BUSINESS AND STRETCH OUT

AND I ALWAYS COME RUNNING FOR YOU

 

I LOOK CUTE AT THE END OF YOUR LEASH-YOUR ADORABLE BEAST

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

 

I WAS LOST WHEN YOU FOUND ME-HALF CRAZY AND MANGY

BUT YOU CLEANED ME UP AND I AM HERE FOR GOOD

 

BUT IF I RUN AWAY WILL YOU MISS ME

SEARCH THROUGH THE STREETS FOR ME

BECAUSE I WILL BE LOOKING FOR YOU

 

AND IF I GROWL WELL I DON'T MEAN IT

AND IF I BARK JUST GIVE ME A KICK

AND WHEN I WHINE-PAY NO MIND

I'M JUST MISSIN' YOU

 

I'LL CHASE YOUR ENEMIES AWAY

LICK YOUR MOMMA ON THE FACE

I'LL ONLY WAG MY TAIL WHEN I'M WITH YOU

 

I WILL FOLLOW YOU AROUND TO EVERY PART OF TOWN

YOU CAN SHOW ME OFF LIKE A BRAND NEW TATOO

[Opuntia]

Palace (aka Will Oldman, aka Bonnie Prince Billy) - The Mountain Low

 

If I could fuck a mountain

Lord, I would fuck a mountain

And I'd do it with a woman in the valley

[yermom]

Ditto on Smog, jakobnicholas. Even the album titles are enjoyable, "Dongs of Sevotion"

&

I almost forgot that Eef Barzelay wrote the sexiest song everererer...

 

Thanksgiving Waves

If this war's ever over, if it ever runs out

Maybe then we can think about travelling

To those far away cities of drug stores and tans

On smooth, hairless Japanese bodies

On smooth, hairless Japanese bodies

 

If this engine turns over we'll tear through the park

On donuts and milk of magnesia

I'll read you a poem of blue skies and eyes

In your sockets that bring them together

In your sockets that bring them together

 

Are your thighs ever tender as they swell in my hands

And are warmed by the spit of my kisses

But I will just graze you like the sun does on grass

And pick at your flesh like an eagle

And pick at your flesh like an eagle

 

If this war's ever over they'll separate us

Leaving videotapes to remember

And I'll go back to Texas and try not to think

Of Thanksgiving waves that can cripple

Of Thanksgiving waves that can cripple

[Aeglos]

Glenn Richards, lyricist/songwriter for Augie March, one example amongst many:

 

Addle Brains

 

A Tuesday night in Winter, holed up in the city of ravens,

The owls in the hills hoo-hooing and eyeing off the field mice down in the cold grey centre,

Addle Brains lining up with the dead for the soup spoon,

Addle Brains and the legions of the passed for the bread bag,

Ladle the soup, pass the rolls,

Addle Brains and the many not here and loose souls.

 

One might fly off to the blank heavens and the lead high halls,

O the hungry sky aches for blokes without folks and bulges with the bearers of palls.

Addle Brains would drink for four days and no eats,

and sleep in the glens of botanical parks, and on the humped bus shelter seats,

Where it's cold, where it's cold.

 

One morning I woke up in a room in the nation's heart,

and couldn't think for the life of me what I was doing, or where to start,

or what rehearsal was required, I was so sad and tired.

 

What does a bird want with money?

Was he made this way?

Do you have to earn the right to find all of this funny?

Nothing's funny today.

 

Addle Brains mixes his powders with his fateful blues,

and the wide-eyed bubs of the Parliament couldn't give a hoot, or even two.

All it takes, it takes, is a kind look and a word, a word,

Some pretty eyes and skin, from your fine family you were given to win,

and spill it over into the basin of common sin,

just a drop, a drop of the stuff that makes us kin

- Addle Brains perching way out on a limb.

[Degenerex]

a couple more:

 

Desperados Under The Eaves by Warren Zevon

 

I was sitting in the Hollywood Hawaiian Hotel

I was staring in my empty coffee cup

I was thinking that the gypsy wasn't lyin'

All the salty margaritas in Los Angeles

I'm gonna drink 'em up

 

And if California slides into the ocean

Like the mystics and statistics say it will

I predict this motel will be standing until I pay my bill

 

Don't the sun look angry through the trees

Don't the trees look like crucified thieves

Don't you feel like Desperados under the eaves

Heaven help the one who leaves

 

Still waking up in the mornings with shaking hands

And I'm trying to find a girl who understands me

But except in dreams you're never really free

Don't the sun look angry at me

 

I was sitting in the Hollywood Hawaiian Hotel

I was listening to the air conditioner hum

It went mmmmmm..

........ Look away

 

Random Rules by Silver Jews (David Berman)

 

In 1984 I was hospitalized for approaching perfection.

Slowly screwing my way across Europe, they had to make a correction.

Broken and smokin' where the infrared deer plunge in the digital snake.

I tell you, they make it so you can't shake hands when they make your hands shake.

 

I know you like to line dance, everything so democratic and cool,

But baby there's no guidance when random rules.

 

I know that a lot of what I say has been lifted off of men's room walls.

Maybe I've crossed the wrong rivers and walked down all the wrong halls.

But nothing can change the fact that we used to share a bed

and that's why it scared me so when you turned to me and said:

 

"Yeah, you look like someone

Yeah you look like someone who up and left me low.

Boy, you look like somene I used to know."

 

I asked the painter why the roads are colored black.

He said, "Steve, it's because people leave

and no highway will bring them back."

So if you don't want me I promise not to linger,

But before I go I gotta ask you dear about the tan line on your ring finger.

 

No one should have two lives,

now you know my middle names are wrong and right.

Honey we've got two lives to give tonight.

[TheMaker]

D'oh. I really should've included Costello on my list. I always forget at least one "heavy" whenever these list things come up...

[welch79]

aeglos, i'll second your augie march. i don't give them enough spinnage...

 

what about this one:

 

Now I

[HighFives]

Don't believe in people who say its all been done

they have time to talk because their race is run.

-DCB

 

My anaconda don't want none unless its gots buns hun.

-Bill Callahan

 

like a baby still born,

like a beast with his horn,

I swear by this song

and all I have done wrong

I will make it all up to thee.

- Leonard Cohen (I'm not sure if its completely accurate just going off of memory)

[Mr. Heartbreak]

Another giant I forgot: Joni Mitchell.

 

Harry's House/Centerpiece

 

Heatwaves on the runway

As the wheels set down

He takes his baggage off the carousel

He takes a taxi into town

Yellow schools of taxi fishes

Jonah in a ticking whale

Caught up at the lights in the fishnet windows

Of Bloomingdale's

Watching those high fashion girls

Skinny black models with raven curls

And beauty parlor blondes with credit card eyes

Looking for the chic and the fancy to buy

 

He opens up his suitcase

In the continental suite

And people thirty stories down

Look like colored currents in the street

A helicopter lands on the Pan Am roof

Like a dragonfly on a tomb

And business men in button downs

Press into conference rooms

Battalions of paper minded males

Talking commodities and sales

While at home their paper wives

And their paper kids

Paper their walls to keep their gut reactions hid

 

Yellow checkers for the kitchen

Climbing ivy for the bath

She is lost in House and Gardens

He's caught up in Chief of Staff

He drifts off into the memory

Of the way she looked in school

With her body oiled and shining

At the public swimming pool ...

 

... Shining hair and shining skin

Shining as she reeled him in

To tell him like she did today

Just what he could do with Harry's House

And Harry's take home pay

 

 

The Silky Veils of Ardor

 

I am a poor wayfaring stranger

Traveling through all these highs and lows

I heard there was no sickness

And no toil or danger

Just mercy and plenty

Where peaceful waters flow

Where peaceful waters flow

 

Come all you fair and tender school girls

Be careful now when you court young men

They are like the stars

On a summer morning

They sparkle up the night

And they're gone again

Daybreak gone again

 

If I'd only seen through the silky veils of ardor

What a killing crime this love can be

I would have locked up my heart

In a golden sheath of armor

And kept its crazy beating

Under strictest secrecy

High security

 

I wish I had the wings

Of Noah's pretty little white dove

So I could fly this raging river

To reach the one I love

But I have no wings

And the water is so wide

We'll have to row a little harder

It's just in dreams we fly

In my dreams we fly