Best Lyric Writers of the last 50 Years

mad4city said:
Dylan - by a country mile, Dylan.

There have been some great names mentioned, so far - and some that haven't (Paul Brady, Tom Waits, John Prine, Mary Gauthier, Todd Snider etc etc) but Bob is something else again.
Like a Rolling Stone, alone has had two books written about it.
His lyrics are on the curriculum of more than a dozen countries' second level schools and have been accepted a third level since Oxford was the first to do so in the early 80's.
I'm not sure any other lyricist can match that recognition by the academic establishment.
Click to expand...

Simply this.
 
Neil Peart
Pete Townshend
David Bowie
Michael Lee Smith
Bruce Springsteen
Jim Steinman
Steve Earle
John Mellencamp
Warren Zevon
Marc Bolan
Sandy Pearlman / Donald Roeser… (Blue Oyster Cult)
Don Henley
Joe Walsh
Ian Anderson
Bruce Springsteen
Neil Young
Bernie Taupin
Ray Davies
Bob Dylan
Lennon / McCartney
Alex Turner
Lou Reed
Roger Waters
 
Shadows are fallin' and I've been here all day
It's too hot to sleep and time is runnin' away
Feel like my soul has turned into steel
I've still got the scars that the sun didn't heal
There's not even room enough to be anywhere
It's not dark yet but it's gettin' there.

Well, my sense of humanity has gone down the drain
Behind every beautiful thing there's been some kind of pain
She wrote me a letter and she wrote it so kind
She put down in writin' what was in her mind
I just don't see why I should even care
It's not dark yet but it's gettin' there.

Well, I've been to London and I been to Paris
I've followed the river and I got to the sea
I've been down on the bottom of the world full of lies
I ain't lookin' for nothin' in anyone's eyes
Sometimes my burden is more than I can bear
It's not dark yet but it's gettin' there.

I was born here and I'll die here against my will
I know it looks like I'm movin' but I'm standin' still
Every nerve in my body is so naked and numb
I can't even remember what it was I came here to get away from
Don't even hear the murmur of a prayer
It's not dark yet but it's gettin' there.

Dylan
 
"Hurricane"

Pistols shots ring out in the barroom night
Enter Patty Valentine from the upper hall
She sees the bartender in a pool of blood
Cries out "My God they killed them all"
Here comes the story of the Hurricane
The man the authorities came to blame
For something that he never done
Put him in a prison cell but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world.

Three bodies lying there does Patty see
And another man named Bello moving around mysteriously
"I didn't do it" he says and he throws up his hands
"I was only robbing the register I hope you understand
I saw them leaving" he says and he stops
"One of us had better call up the cops"
And so Patty calls the cops
And they arrive on the scene with their red lights flashing
In the hot New Jersey night.

Meanwhile far away in another part of town
Rubin Carter and a couple of friends are driving around
Number one contender for the middleweight crown
Had no idea what kinda shit was about to go down
When a cop pulled him over to the side of the road
Just like the time before and the time before that
In Patterson that's just the way things go
If you're black you might as well not shown up on the street
'Less you wanna draw the heat.

Alfred Bello had a partner and he had a rap for the corps
Him and Arthur Dexter Bradley were just out prowling around
He said "I saw two men running out they looked like middleweights
They jumped into a white car with out-of-state plates"
And Miss Patty Valentine just nodded her head
Cop said "Wait a minute boys this one's not dead"
So they took him to the infirmary
And though this man could hardly see
They told him that he could identify the guilty men.

Four in the morning and they haul Rubin in
Take him to the hospital and they bring him upstairs
The wounded man looks up through his one dying eye
Says "Wha'd you bring him in here for ? He ain't the guy !"
Yes here comes the story of the Hurricane
The man the authorities came to blame
For something that he never done
Put in a prison cell but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world.

Four months later the ghettos are in flame
Rubin's in South America fighting for his name
While Arthur Dexter Bradley's still in the robbery game
And the cops are putting the screws to him looking for somebody to blame
"Remember that murder that happened in a bar ?"
"Remember you said you saw the getaway car?"
"You think you'd like to play ball with the law ?"
"Think it might-a been that fighter you saw running that night ?"
"Don't forget that you are white".

Arthur Dexter Bradley said "I'm really not sure"
Cops said "A boy like you could use a break
We got you for the motel job and we're talking to your friend Bello
Now you don't wanta have to go back to jail be a nice fellow
You'll be doing society a favor
That sonofabitch is brave and getting braver
We want to put his ass in stir
We want to pin this triple murder on him
He ain't no Gentleman Jim".

Rubin could take a man out with just one punch
But he never did like to talk about it all that much
It's my work he'd say and I do it for pay
And when it's over I'd just as soon go on my way
Up to some paradise
Where the trout streams flow and the air is nice
And ride a horse along a trail
But then they took him to the jailhouse
Where they try to turn a man into a mouse.

All of Rubin's cards were marked in advance
The trial was a pig-circus he never had a chance
The judge made Rubin's witnesses drunkards from the slums
To the white folks who watched he was a revolutionary bum
And to the black folks he was just a crazy ******
No one doubted that he pulled the trigger
And though they could not produce the gun
The DA said he was the one who did the deed
And the all-white jury agreed.

Rubin Carter was falsely tried
The crime was murder 'one' guess who testified
Bello and Bradley and they both baldly lied
And the newspapers they all went along for the ride
How can the life of such a man
Be in the palm of some fool's hand ?
To see him obviously framed
Couldn't help but make me feel ashamed to live in a land
Where justice is a game.

Now all the criminals in their coats and their ties
Are free to drink martinis and watch the sun rise
While Rubin sits like Buddha in a ten-foot cell
An innocent man in a living hell
That's the story of the Hurricane
But it won't be over till they clear his name
And give him back the time he's done
Put him in a prison cell but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world.

Bob Dylan.
 
Shane MacGowan. His lyrics are beautiful

I've been loving you a long time
Down all the years, down all the days
And I've cried for all your troubles
Smiled at your funny little ways
We watched our friends grow up together
And we saw them as they fell
Some of them fell into Heaven
Some of them fell into Hell

I took shelter from a shower
And I stepped into your arms
On a rainy night in Soho
The wind was whistling all its charms
I sang you all my sorrows
You told me all your joys
Whatever happened to that old song
To all those little girls and boys

Now the song is nearly over
We may never find out what it means
But there's a light I hold before me
And you're the measure of my dreams
The measure of my dreams

Sometimes I wake up in the morning
The gingerlady by my bed
Covered in a cloak of silence
I hear you in my head
I'm not singing for the future
I'm not dreaming of the past
I'm not talking of the fist time
I never think about the last

Now the song is nearly over
We may never find out what it means
Still there's a light I hold before me
You're the measure of my dreams
The measure of my dreams
 
lyrics wise Id say my 5 favourite songs are;

The Gunners Dream - Roger Waters

Famous Blue Raincoat - Leonard Cohen

God - John Lennon

Dont Let It Bring You Down - Neil Young

The Red Telephone - Arthur Lee
 
Robert Calvert out of hawkwind now he was a poet:

I've got the serum and I'm going to take it
All the way to Boston, oh I've got to get through
The going won't be easy, but I'm going to make it
It's the only thing that I'm cut out to do
Ride the post-atomic radioactive trash
The sky's on fire from the nuclear flash
Driving through the burning hoop of doom,
In an eight wheeled anti-radiation tomb
Thank you Dr. Strangelove for going doolally,
and leaving me the heritage of Damnation Alley,
Damnation Alleyway

No more Arizona, now Phoenix is fried up
Oklahoma City; what a pity it's gone
Louisiana Delta where the Mississip's dried up
No more Chattanooga, Cherokee, Lexington
Ride the post-atomic radioactive trash
The sky's on fire from the nuclear flash
Driving through the burning hoop of doom,
In an eight wheeled anti-radiation tomb
Thank you Dr. Strangelove for going doolally,
Leaving me the heritage of Damnation Alley,
Damnation Alleyway
Damnation Alley
Damnation Alley
Damnation Alley
Damnation Alley
Ride the post-atomic radioactive trash
The sky's on fire from the nuclear flash
Driving through the burning hoop of doom,
In an eight wheeled anti-radiation tomb
Thank you Dr. Strangelove for going doolally,
Leaving me the heritage of Damnation Alley,
Damnation Alleyway

Radiation wasteland, radiation wasteland
Ashes coming at me
Craters coming at me now
The radiation wasteland,
I've got my anti-radiation machine
Oh, thank you Dr. Strangelove,
I said thank you Dr. Strangelove
For giving me ashes and post-atomic dust
The sky is raining fishes it's a mutation zoo
Going down Damnation Alley,
Well good luck to you

Armour plated angel, motor-pony express
Armour plated angel, motor-pony express
Armour plated angel, motor-pony express
Armour plated angel, motor-pony express
Armour plated angel, motor-pony express
Armour plated angel, motor-pony express
Armour plated angel, motor-pony express
Armour plated angel, motor-pony express
Going down Damnation Alley
It's one hell of a mess
The sky is raining fishes it's a mutation zoo
Going down Damnation Alley,
Well good luck to you
Good luck to you

No more Arizona, now Phoenix is fried up
Oklahoma City; what a pity it's gone
Louisiana Delta where the Mississip's dried up
No more Chattanooga, Cherokee, Lexington
Ride the post-atomic radioactive trash
The sky's on fire from the nuclear flash
Driving through the burning hoop of doom,
In an eight wheeled anti-radiation tomb
Thank you Dr. Strangelove for going doolally,
Leaving me the heritage of Damnation Alley,
Damnation Alleyway
Damnation Alley
Damnation Alley
Damnation Alley
Damnation Alley
 
'Nuff respec' to Roger Waters, Joe Strummer, Bob Dylan and Lou Reed et al, but Morrissey is and always will be the benchmark. He's a true poet of the highest order, who just happens to use the medium of pop music. He may be divisive, but that just confirms his significance.
 
papillon said:
Shane MacGowan. His lyrics are beautiful

I've been loving you a long time
Down all the years, down all the days
And I've cried for all your troubles
Smiled at your funny little ways
We watched our friends grow up together
And we saw them as they fell
Some of them fell into Heaven
Some of them fell into Hell

I took shelter from a shower
And I stepped into your arms
On a rainy night in Soho
The wind was whistling all its charms
I sang you all my sorrows
You told me all your joys
Whatever happened to that old song
To all those little girls and boys

Now the song is nearly over
We may never find out what it means
But there's a light I hold before me
And you're the measure of my dreams
The measure of my dreams

Sometimes I wake up in the morning
The gingerlady by my bed
Covered in a cloak of silence
I hear you in my head
I'm not singing for the future
I'm not dreaming of the past
I'm not talking of the fist time
I never think about the last

Now the song is nearly over
We may never find out what it means
Still there's a light I hold before me
You're the measure of my dreams
The measure of my dreams
Click to expand...
Beautiful song , going to give that a listen today .
 
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