poetry/gibberish

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

pop bands are the most common place poetry happens in our society. so which songwriters write songs that work as poems? who could put out books, a la jewel, who obviously couldn't?

is this just another way of asking who writes the best lyrics?

― tse, Saturday, 20 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

anyone could put out a book like Jewel's...it's just so crap. on the other hand Brian Eno would have to be the best lyricist in rock, ever. his words usually mean absolutely nothing, were usually written in a double quick time but they just sound good next to each other anyway.

― philT, Saturday, 20 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

You clearly have yet to experience the aesthetic magic that is Robbie Williams' poetry. Come to think of it I'm not sure he's read it either.

There is of course the breathtakingly minimalist/quasi-haikuesque lyricism of misunderstood Vincent Gallo, viz.: "Baby/my baby/oh baby/love you baby/baby" (repeat x 256).

― Le Freddie Starr de nos jours, Saturday, 20 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i was reading an article with paddy mcaloon and he was quoting phil spector saying something like 'people like jim morrison(allegedly a poet?) ruined pop music'. song lyrics should only be relevant in the context of a song in my opinion some of the greatest songs ever have absolutely retarded lyrics and that shouldn't bother anyone really. i wish more singers/lyric writers would concentrate on how the words sound instead of on what they want to say about themselves.

― keith, Saturday, 20 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

you just described epmd.

― ethan, Saturday, 20 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

search - lou reed pass thru fire

― Geoff, Sunday, 21 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Great doggerel beats crap 'poetry'. Tom Waits, Steven Tyler, Bon Scott ("She had the body of Venus, with arms")

― dave q, Sunday, 21 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Good poetry that could also be good song lyrics is equally rare--the two goals just aren't the same thing. But I always thought that a lot of early Wire lyrics made for good reading on the page too.

― Douglas Wolk, Sunday, 21 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I like the idea of rock music lyrics as complete but somehow brilliant gibberish. Jim Morrison might be guilty for writing such bad lyrics, but his fans are guiltier for claiming everywhere He is such a great poet. Now. Shaun Ryder. Lux and Ivy. Bobbie G's great "freejailbird yeah rocks off!" bollocks. That's kinda cool. Spectorian teen dramas. I myself find Mick Jagger is a fantastic rock'n'roll lyricist, and his writing talent is much underestimated (his acting talent, on the other hand, is rightfully estimated to be crap).

She said, "My breasts, they will always be open
Baby, you can rest your weary head right on me
And there will always be a space in my parking lot
When you need a little coke and sympathy"

That's just perfect.

― Simon, Sunday, 21 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

David Berman of Silver Jews. Of course, the stuff he writes and publishes as poetry is more interesting on the page than the stuff he writes as lyrics. But still. I have the Dylan book Lyrics (complete thru about '85) and I enjoy reading it.

― Mark, Sunday, 21 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Craig Wedren - Shudder to Think

Scott Miller - Game Theory/Loud Family

― Dan, Sunday, 21 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Mark is right: David Berman is tremendous. His lyrics always make me smile (you can't beat the opening lines of 'American Water': 'In nineteen-eighty-four / I was hospitalized for approaching perfection / Slowly screwing my way across Europe / They had to make a correction'), and he has that rare talent of being simultaneously funny and heartfelt. I'm more excited for his new record next month than I've been for just about anything else this year. And his book-- 'Actual Air'--is magical; it's one of those books I've purchased at least 5 times now because I'm constantly giving it away, trying to make converts.

Lyrics-wise, I'm also impressed with Smog's latest record. The title itself--'Rain on Lens'--is a gem of a tight, compressed image, and he has some great conceits in some of the songs--like claiming he's a bit like a peephole that falls in love with all the eyes that look through it, or naming a song 'Live as if Someone is Always Watching You' and then offering advice for those circumstances). Anyone who comes up with a song called 'Dress Sexy at my Funeral' is unassailable in my book.

If I haven't already proven myself to be an unreconstucted indiephile, I will do so now by adding that I think Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse is a brilliant lyricist, a kind of cracked metaphysical poet.

― Martin Swope, Monday, 22 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Momus? Or Neil Tennant for writing in I Want a Dog:

When i get back to my small flat I want to hear somebody bark

― rasko, Monday, 22 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Greil Marcus once noted that Mayakovsky, a russian poet circa 1910s-20s, was the first "rockstar". Pushing further, note that ppl. used to quote poetry at one another all the time & recite. Today we quote & recite pop lyrics. Further, note the modernist/pomo transformation of poetry into something at once inaccessable and about the mundane -- i.e. a poem about love is trash & a poem about a dead tree branch in the rain as a parable for the modern condition is classic -- and reach the inescapable conclusion that pop 2001 = poetry 1901! LyriXoR however != poetic verXor. Too much in terms of meter, melody, arrangement of production is concerned.

In any case, we might make further genric subcategories. For example, undie hip-hop = romantic poets? beck = pomo (okay, duh, I know). Some of the better indie = william carlos williams style minimal realism? Mary timony = magical realism? etc.

― Sterling Clover, Monday, 22 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Oh yes, goth = duh. And PunXoR = futurist/formalist.

― Sterling Clover, Monday, 22 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ladies and gentlemen, Miss Joni Mitchell!

― Sean, Monday, 22 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Hank Williams, Van Dyke Parks

― Keiko, Monday, 22 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

the silence of a falling star
lights up a purple sky
and as i wonder where you are
i'm so lonesome i could cry.

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 22 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Little Richard, Marc Bolan, Alice Cooper. Ray Davies.

― Arthur, Monday, 22 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

one month passes...

Rogan Whitenails is a remarkable poet. I first heard him reading a few poems from his self-pitying book, 'Failure Crawled up my Leg', on BBC Radio Sheffield. He sounded silly ... a bit of an arse, at first - talking about rejection and how hard is life was, and bathetically citing his main influences as being Walt Whitman, Robbie Neville, Teleman and Robbie Neville. The interviewer seemed bemused. But then, as I heard Whitenails reading the title poem ... I got it.

― Aaron Semmence, Monday, 10 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

is this just another way of asking who writes the best lyrics?

Absolutely not. Some of the best lyrics wouldn't work at all on a printed page. Some of them do, but that doesn't mean they're the best. Recent examples of ones that do look good on the lyric sheet can be found on Gorky's Spanish Dance Troupe album, I think.

Example (embarassing, this):

Over & Out

As he flew right over the ocean
Said that's it I'm over and out
Though I started young as a lover
Now I'm just burning out

And his voice used to soar so high
Close your eyes for California sky
When one day melts into the other
Children still know the way

As he flew right over the ocean
Said that's it, I'm over and out
Though I started young as a lover
Now I'm just burning out

― Nick, Tuesday, 11 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

What about the Blue Aeroplanes? Most of their stuff, certainly most of the songs with Gerard Langley as vocalist, are arguably poems to music.

― MarkH, Tuesday, 11 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yes, but they are so self-consciously literary that most people want to throw things at them. I do love Swagger and Beatsongs, mind.

― Nick, Tuesday, 11 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

two years pass...

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/09/books/09DYLA.html

― Scott CE (Scott CE), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 15:48 (twenty-one years ago)

one year passes...

Revive! Since it's been 4 years, any more poetic lyrics S/D (& C/D)?

(More, specific to rap, here.)

― it was a different shark (wetmink2), Thursday, 6 October 2005 21:17 (twenty years ago)

....being in an Original Band for the past 15 years I've come to realize , No matter what : Poetry is to be "READ" !!! Lyics are to be "HEARD" in a Song!!!

― inkedforlife, Friday, 7 October 2005 07:13 (twenty years ago)

Syd Barrett

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 7 October 2005 07:46 (twenty years ago)

I really like Jim Putnam's lyrics for his band, The Radar Brothers. I think he's seriously underrated as a lyricist.

― Drew Daniel (Drew Daniel), Friday, 7 October 2005 08:03 (twenty years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.