Most poetic lyrics in Richard Goldstein's The Poetry of Rock (1969)

I left out the section on early rock 'n' roll because I had to pare it down to 50 options. and for all Goldstein's ambitions of reclaiming early r 'n' r as high art, he seems to only really value the lyrics for their primitivism. here's what he included:

Chuck Berry - Rock 'n' Roll Music
Chuck Berry - Almost Grown
Chuck Berry - Maybellene
Little Richard - Long Tall Sally
Elvis Presley - Hound Dog
Gene Vincent - Be-Bop-A-Lula
The Teddy Bears - To Know Him Is to Love Him
Gene Chandler - Duke of Earl
The Crystals - Uptown
The Coasters - Yakety Yak
The Silhouettes - Get a Job
Barry Mann - Who Put the Bomp
The Jaynettes - Sally, Go 'Round the Roses
Elvis Presley - Heartbreak Hotel
Willie Dixon - Back Door Man
Willie Dixon - Spoonful
The Troggs - Wild Thing
Aretha Franklin - Respect
The Who - My Generation

I also left out these two Roger Miller songs for space reasons (and because I have a personal beef against Roger Miller):

Roger Miller - King of the Road
Roger Miller - My Uncle Used to Love Me But She Died

I have a personal beef against Roger Miller

Do tell.

the funniest part of the book is when he claims that Procul Harum's lyrics are so over-the-top that they barely merit inclusions, and yet he still throws in two of them ("Stripped of their rhythmic robes, these lyrics make ponderous poetry. In fact, they reek of random allusions and post-graduate funk).

the most baffling moment is when he refers to Johnny Cash as 'Dylan without a metaphor', and yet his selection for Cash is the metaphor-laden 'I Walk the Line'. he seems to have only a grudging respect for non-rock lyricists: at one point he characterizes soul lyrics as inexpressive, claiming that Joe Tex is "the closest R and B comes to achieving a lyrics significance that is profound without appearing stilted."

(Joe Tex is great though)

xpost - [I don't feel comfortable sharing the details on a public forum]

barely merit inclusions

Crikey (xp)

Right this second it's Arlo, though if I really sat down and thought about this seriously it seems inevitable I'd pick "Subterranean Homesick Blues."

Based on lyrical quality alone, it's gotta be "The Sound of Silence". I can't think of too many opening lines as strong and evocative as "Hello darkness my old friend..."

I'm torn between 'Eight Miles High', 'Suzanne', and 'Wonderful'. the two Dylan lyrics are great, but they don't look so impressive on the printed page, imho. it's interesting how the author favors lyricists who are generally considered lightweight in 2015. did rock fans regard John Sebastian and John Phillips as serious 'song-poets' in 1969? I don't necessarily disagree with his assessment (relative to some of his other inclusions, at least), but they definitely haven't been mythologized to the same extent as Dylan and Morrison.

One thing I know for sure, it's not "Motorcycle Irene" by Moby Grape.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Funny, I just loaned this book to a friend a few weeks ago in advance of a podcast he did with Goldstein (quite good, as it turned out; Goldstein has some amazing stories, like the Velvet Underground playing his wedding after-party in exchange for--long-gone, I think--liner notes he wrote for the first album). As I flipped through the book before the loan, I started thinking that back then, with no internet, Goldstein probably had to sit down and transcribe all the lyrics by hand.

I was wrong. When I glanced at the intro, he got most of them from sheet music courtesy of the record labels.

In answer to the question...I'm not very good at detaching lyrics from the song itself. My favourite songs here are "Substitute," "Desolation Row" (but not "Sad-Eyed Lady"), "Eight Miles High," "Norwegian Wood," "Darling, Be Home Soon," "Feelin' Groovy," and, from the omissions, "Almost Grown." So one of those. I think "Norwegian Wood" is very poetic.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Think the topic got more replies than votes.

Today's rock partisan - plugged into a stereophonic nirvana - is more likely to arch his eyebrows than his pelvis. He may casually remark, with a gleam in his hookah, "I empathize with it. It has truth and beauty. Besides, my kids say it's psychedelic."