10 Lyricists I Admire

I'm going to keep this brief. It's a long standing point of discussion amongst my friends and I as to the value or prominence of lyrics. It keeps coming up in part, I think, because I find it so interesting. I am mostly indifferent to lyrics. Of the things that stand out when listening to a record; lyrics are typically very low on the list.

I wonder if what we are seeing here is something that is distinctive about my brain and contrasting to the brains of my friends. I have a brain that does not register lyrics as prominently as my friends, who have 'opposite' sorts of brains.

Nonetheless, there are songwriters whose lyrics do register. Below is a list of 10 songwriters who I typically hold to write lyrics worth me making the effort to think about. Or, to put it another way, here are lyricists who have broken through my obliviousness, and whose words have arrested me in some fashion.

In no particular order:


Bob Dylan

Let's get this one out of the way first because it is so obvious. I disagree with those who say that there is nothing much to enjoy beyond the lyrics with Dylan. I'll confess (or carelessly proclaim) that I enjoy listening to many Dylan records without the faintest clue what the words might be. As a songwriter he is excellent and, while lyrics may be part of that puzzle, they necessarily include rhythm, melody, textures, the way that the sounds of the words correlate with the music, and so on. And Dylan is really good at this. For me, at least, I enjoy listening to Dylan without lyrics.

But, when I do register Dylan's lyrics (and with a reputation like his, how could I not?) I know that I am listening to something interesting. As a task, it is most straightforward in the earlier 'protest' songs, Blowing in the Wind, Masters of War, With God on our Side, but even when we get the more personal songs that follow, it is plain that Dylan uses lyrics in a way that very few come close to. And that carries even when the meaning of his lyrics become opaque, as, for me, they sometimes do - they remain interesting and stimulating to listen to. They rarely feel forced or artificial or plastic. If you want to put in the time, you will rewarded at least on some level.

It's worth noting that what I have said about Dylan carries to some degree to everyone else on this list. Especially the only possible rival to Dylan's reputation...


Leonard Cohen

Another confession: I think I prefer Leonard Cohen to Dylan. That is not intended as a slight, I just really love the tone and aesthetic that Cohen conjures, especially on those first half dozen LPs. (All the same, for those who care, the songwriting crown is still Dylan's - his sheer volume, range, consistency, influence, is sufficient to secure it for him.)

Cohen, even more than Dylan, is a poet who happens to write songs. The palette is much more the personal. I find Cohen to be more direct than Dylan but there remains a sense, for me, that there are strata that I am not getting or perhaps even looking for - that there are depths of meaning and interpretation that are religious in importance. Cohen's lyrics often feel like scripture to me.





Gil Scott-Heron

Here is another poet so perhaps it is unsurprising that Gil Scott-Heron's lyrics are worthwhile. One thing to note: unless you are listening to his overtly poetic material (principally his first LP, Small Talk at 125th and Lenox) - Scott-Heron's albums are really easy to listen to without thinking about lyrics at all - the music is cool and loose. But if you start listening to the lyrics, they moves effortlessly from the political (he was massively influenced by Proto-Hip Hop pioneers, The Last Prophets) to the personal - including his own, deeply dysfunctional life. Check out: Pieces of a Man (from the album with the same title), The Bottle, or Johannesburg.


Judee Sill

This is probably the most obscure person on the list. I am sad about this, as her albums are amongst the most beautiful in my whole collection. Briefly, Sill was on the edge of the Californian Folk Rock scene of the early 70s - first signed to the Geffen label. She had had a run of bad luck and bad decisions that led her prison and addiction. Ultimately it was the latter that took her from us, but not before releasing two of the most gorgeous albums from that scene. Her records bring together the sacred and profane like no other. I'm not going to say any more - I'll just type out the lyrics to her song The Kiss. It is both deeply religious and yet sensual and physical.

Love rising from the mists,
Promise me this and only this,
Holy breath touching me, like a wind song
Sweet communion of a kiss

Sun sifting through the grey
Enter in, reach me with a ray
Silently swooping down, just to show me
How to give my heart away

Once a crystal choir
Appeared while I was sleeping
And called my name
And when they came down nearer
Saying, dying is done,
Then a new song was sung
Until somewhere we breathed as one
And still I hear their whisper

Stars bursting in the sky
Hear the sad nova's dying cry
Shimmering memory, come and hold me
While you show me how to fly

Sun sifting through the grey
Enter in, reach me with a ray
Silently swooping down, just to show me
How to give my heart away

Lately sparkling hosts
Come fill my dreams, descending
On fiery beams
I've seen 'em come clear down
Where our poor bodies lay,
Soothe us gently and say,
Gonna wipe all your tears away
And still I hear their whisper?

Love, rising from the mists
Promise me this and only this,
Holy breath touching me, like a wind song
Sweet communion of a kissElvis Costello

Elvis Costello is the only Briton on this list. What's that about? I guess, though, he is so well-school in American song-writing that perhaps it doesn't matter...

I bought King of America when I was about 15. It is very well-regarded but it was never one of his classics. Either way, I was immediately struck by it, despite it being very different to my typical listening habits. It was far more literate and grown-up. While it was obviously clever, it was neither preachy or seemingly like the cleverness was the point - I didn't feel like I was supposed to go away thinking ooh... that Elvis Costello, he's clever, isn't he? He just enabled me to see the world in different ways - whether the song was personal like I'll Wear It Proudly, or political like Little Palaces or just telling a story like Glitter Gulch.

Obviously, I have since bought most of his other records and the consistently striking thing is that here is a dude that can write a song.


Will Oldham (a.k.a. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy)

Anyone that knows me will be waiting for this one, I guess. Another story-teller who inhabits so fully the characters that he writes and sings about that it is often hard to disentangle the singer from the song. Oldham becomes these losers, Lotharios, back woodsmen and adventurers so completely that it is sort of disappointing when you realise that he is none of them.

And yet, there are insights that he brings. Perhaps my favourite song of all time is his: I See a Darkness. It encapsulates the virtues of friendship, especially in the face of loneliness and emptiness. The only thing that can get us through the darkness of life is the connection we feel to our friends and those we hold close. Here it is:

Well, you're my friend

And can you see
Many times we've been out drinking
Many times we've shared our thoughts
But did you ever, ever notice
The kind of thoughts I got?
Well, you know I have a love
A love for everyone I know
And you know I have a drive
To live, I won't let go
But can you see this opposition
Comes rising up sometimes?
That it's dreadful imposition
Comes blacking in my mind

And then I see a darkness
And then I see a darkness
And then I see a darkness
And then I see a darkness
Did you know how much I love you?
Is a hope that somehow you
Can save me from this darkness

Well, I hope that someday, buddy
We have peace in our lives
Together or apart
Alone or with our wives
And we can stop our whoring
And pull the smiles inside
And light it up forever
And never go to sleep
My best unbeaten brother
This isn't all I see

Oh no, I see a darkness
Oh no, I see a darkness
Oh no, I see a darkness
Oh no, I see a darkness
Did you know how much I love you?
Is a hope that somehow you
Can save me from this darkness

Other songs tell different stories. Songs of betrayal, love, loss, victory, purpose and purposelessness. I never get tired of Oldham's songs.


Bobbie Gentry
                                                         
Hardly any songwriter that I can think of is as effective at evoking a mise-en-scene within a song as Bobbie Gentry - and that is within country music, which is typically evocative. Perhaps one of the reasons is that she sings about the world that she grew up in and she speaks the language of the world that she is conveying. This carries when she is offering a slice of life song such as Chickasaw County Child or Papa, Won't You Let Me Go To Town With You which sound so authentic that you can almost feel the dust and dirt beneath your nails. But it carries just as well when she turns to personal matters. In I Saw An Angel Die Gentry captures both flush of love and the tragedy of it's decay in so few words. I value economy and directness in my lyrics. (This is why Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands will always remain opaque to me.)


Ghostface Killah

You'd think that Hip Hop might figure higher on this list. After all, I like Hip Hop and it is densely lyrical. Some of my friends have expressed incredulity that I could like Hip Hop and yet be indifferent to the lyrics. I get it.

However, in the most part it is that very denseness that scuppers it. That and the fact that there is often limited returns. But where the general consensus agrees that the rapper has something to say; they are often too obscure in their references and metaphors for me to catch the meaning; that, and, it's often just too fast to keep hold of in my mind. By the time I have caught one thought, the rapper is already deep into the next - and so on.

This is certainly the case with Ghostface. He is not known for going slowly so the thick kid (me) can keep up. On the contrary, his tracks are a juggernaut. But, unlike most rappers, I will often try to hang on even if I only catch bits and pieces. This is because he tells such wild and engaging stories. When I listen in and catch a phrase or something, it sounds like the best movie I never saw. I always want to catch more, and more.

I rarely do, of course.

Smokey Robinson

Smokey has the toughest gig of all the people listed here, since he is constrained more than any by the limitations of the early 1960s music business - two and a half minutes, easily identifiable and repeatable. It's hard to pack that much into such a song. This is one of the reasons why so many pop lyrics devolve into pap. But Smokey manages to work within those limitations and yet to bring something special. Look at some of his classics - and they are classics; My Guy, My Girl, Shop Around, The Tracks of my Tears, The Tears of A Clown, Ain't That Peculiar and so on. His lyrics squeeze a lot of meaning into very few words. He is easily the most economical of everyone here.





Paul Simon

I'll brook no argument here: Paul Simon is the third person in the Holy Trinity of Blessed Lyricists (along with Dylan and Cohen). From his days backpacking up and down the UK, bumming at empty train stations in the early 1960s to the present day, his songwriting is exemplary. His words are playful and thoughtful; naive and childlike, and yet grown up and reflective. It is arguable that he has written more contemporary mainstream classics than anyone on this list, including Dylan.

I think that the thing that marks Simon out is the crispness of phrasing. Some of his songs slip out of meter and become almost conversational, and yet to hold to the rhythm and the purpose of the song.

I'm listening to his 2011 album So Beautiful or So What? It rivals Dylan's Time Out of Mind as the perfect album about getting old. And yet, it is still innovative in a way that Dylan hasn't been since the late 90s. Simon's most recent album, Stranger to Stranger from 2016 was inspired, in part, by Harry Partch's 43 tones in an octave. And again, it is awesome.

The dude is a genius.



Also rans: Lloyd Cole, Bill Withers, Chuck D, Laura Nyro, Michael Gira, Townes Van Zandt, Tom Rapp, Mickey Newbury, Randy Newman, Tom Waits, Morrissey

Also - it has not escaped my notice that the Holy Trinity of Blessed Lyricists are all Jewish. What are you gonna do? It is what it is.