who are your favorite lyricists????

i know baud's.......... ELVIS COSTELLO. DUHR


mine is...

LIZ PHAIR
I was flying into Chicago at night
Watching the lake turn the sky into blue-green smoke
The sun was setting to the left of the plane
And the cabin was filled with an unearthly glow
In 27-D, I was behind the wing
Watching landscape roll out like credits on a screen


SHANNON WRIGHT
You let go of my hand and acted like we never touched
Like some harbour a ship never brushed
I am the floor pile walk over me
My light has grown tired paint over me


AIMEE MANN
In our endeavor we are never seeing eye to eye
No guts to surface
So forever may we wave goodbye
And you're always telling that it's my turn to move
When I wonder
What could make the needle jump the groove
I won't fall for the oldest trick in the book
So don't sit there and think you're off of the hook
By saying there is no use changing
'Cause "that's just what you are"

I think Ani DiFranco is an amazing lyricist

there are too many examples I could use

and I also love the twee darkness of people like Marissa Nadler and Joanna Newsom

Anya Marina:

you retreat, i advance
you cry on graves while i dance
you will ebb and i will flow
i'm so sure about you, you don't know
the more i love you the more you stray
the more i hate you the more you come for me
dance like this, dance like that
love me, love me, love me like a baseball bat


Anna Nalick:

fall awake to the sound of my heart to your beat
melancholy and cool kind of bitter sweet
love on repeat
i'm echoing all your philosophies

Jewel:

you could only believe in embryos
so you held all your high hopes through a telescope
and lavender haunted you so i could
only laugh in yellow
yes you have a genius for subtlety
i slip through the fingers of your ambiguity



and soooooooo many more

Liz Phair
Tori Amos
Fiona Apple
Holly Throsby

John Linnell:

I can't talk, I got to go
Don't call me back, I won't get the door
Got to focus on the job
'Cause I got a new job climbing the walls

I was grinding my teeth, I was wasting my youth
And using up my teeth
Now I'm done chewing my nails
Hanging my head, chasing my tail
It got so bad I quit my job
Then I got a new job climbing the walls

Too much junk, too much junk
Can we please clear out this house?
In the trunk, in the trunk
And then we'll take it all to the dump
Then we won't need the car
'Cause we'll stay where we are
And I'll have all this room

I got tired of pacing the floor
Sick of it all, I'm done with the floor
Walked away ever since I got a new job climbing the walls

I was grinding my teeth, I was wasting my youth
And using up my teeth
Now I'm done chewing my nails
Hanging my head, chasing my tail
It got so bad I quit my job
Then I got a new job climbing the walls

The deep end, the deep end
People talk a lot, but they don't know
They pretend, they pretend
They don't really know how deep it goes

Now I misunderstood,
Thought the wall was just good
For staring blankly at

they might be giants!!! they are great. they really do have some great lyrics.


I'm your only friend
I'm not your only friend
But Im a little glowing friend
But really Im not actually your friend
But I am

Blue canary in the outlet by the light switch
Who watches over you
Make a little birdhouse in your soul
Not to put too fine a point on it
Say Im the only bee in your bonnet
Make a little birdhouse in your soul

I have a secret to tell
From my electrical well
Its a simple message and Im leaving out the whistles and bells
So the room must listen to me
Filibuster vigilantly
My name is blue canary one note* spelled l-i-t-e
My storys infinite
Like the longines symphonette it doesnt rest

Blue canary in the outlet by the light switch
Who watches over you
Make a little birdhouse in your soul
Not to put too fine a point on it
Say Im the only bee in your bonnet
Make a little birdhouse in your soul.......

As I had on my headphones
Along with those eyes that you get
When your circumstance is movie-size



I am actually getting that put on a shirt - true story.

So be it, I'm your crowbar
If that's what I am so far
Until you get out of this mess

And I will pretend
That I don't know of your sins
Until you are ready to confess
But all the time, all the time
I'll know, I'll know

And you can use my skin
To bury secrets in
And I will settle you down

And at my own suggestion
I will ask no questions
While I do my thing in the background
But all the time, all the time
I'll know, I'll know

Baby
I can't help you out
While she's still around

So for the time being
I'm being patient
And amidst the bitterness
If you'll just consider this
Even if it don't make sense
All the time, give it time

And when the crowd becomes your burden
And you've early closed your curtains
I'll wait by the backstage door

While you try to find
The lines to speak your mind
And pry it open, hoping for an encore
And if it gets too late
For me to wait
For you to find you love me, and tell me so
It's ok, don't need to say it.

hey wly, where's edie? what i am is what i am is what i am is what i am is what i am...

definetely Ani Difranco

to name a few

"Studyng Stones"

I am out here studying stones
Trying to learn to be less alive
Using all of my will
To keep very still
Still even on the inside
I've cut all of the pertinent wires
So my eyes can't make that connection
I am holding my breath
I am feigning my death
When I'm looking in your direction

'Course numb is an old hat
Old as my oldest memories
See that one's my mother
And that one's my father
And that one in the hat, that's me
It's a skill I'd hoped to abandon
When I got out on the open road
But any more pent up emotion
And I think I'm gonna explode

There's never been an endeavor so strange
As trying to slow the blood in my veins
To keep my face blank
As a stone that just sank
Until not a ripple remains
I am high above the tree line
Sitting cross legged on the ground
When all of the forbidden fruit has fallen and rotted
That's when I'm gonna come down

"This Bouquet"

got a garden of songs where i grow all my thoughts
wish i could harvest one or two for some small talk
i'm always starving for words when you're around
nothing on my tongue so much in my ground

half the time i got my gaze trained on your motel door
fourth door from the end
rest of the time my gaze lays like a stain on the carpeted floor
if it weren't for my brain i'd go over and make friends
too bad about my brain 'cause i'd like to make friends.

see the little song bird unable to make a sound
even though she follows her words from town to town
we both have gardens of songs and maybe its okay
that i am speechless because i picked you this bouquet.

"Shameless"

i cannot name this
i cannot explain this
and i really don't want to
just call me shameless
i can't even slow this down
let alone stop this
and i keep looking around
but i cannot top this

if i had any sense
i guess i'd fear this
i guess i'd keep it down
so no one would hear this
i guess i'd shut my mouth
and rethink a minute
but i can't shut it now
'cuz there's something in it

we're in a room without a door
and i am sure without a doubt
they're gonna wanna know
how we got in here
and they're gonna wanna know
how we plan to get out
we better have a good explanation
for all the fun that we had
'cuz they are coming for us, baby
they are going to be mad
they are going to be mad at us

This was the one I was first going to put, but I listened to the other track and remembered how abstract the lyrics for that one were, but this one is more abstract. I particularly like the line: "Everyone's deforming in the presence of the swarming"


John Linnell:

Everyone is crying at the dread hypnotic flying
Of the bee of the bird of the moth
You can't walk, you can't ramble 'cause you're gonna have to scramble
From the bee of the bird of the moth

Catbug is a cat, but he's got bugness in his veins
Manhouse lives within himself with thoughtful human brains
Neither one is equal to the challenge of the freak we'll call
The bee of the bird of the moth

Now the moth defeats the mouse and man
It's messing with the plan, it can't be believed
'Cause it's just a hummingbird moth
Who's acting like a bird that thinks it's a bee

Got a brand new shipment of electrical equipment
It's addressed to the bottom of the sea
Send a tangerine-colored nuclear submarine
With a sticker that says STP

Windshield-wiper washer fluid spraying in the air
Head lice under hats lie in the headlights everywhere
Subatomic waves to the underwater caves
Of the bee of the bird of the moth

And the moth defeats the mouse and man
It's messing with the plan, it can't be believed
'Cause it's just a hummingbird moth
Who's acting like a bird that thinks it's a bee

Is it us or it that's messed up?

Everyone's deforming in the presence of the swarming
Of the bee of the bird of the moth
Protozoa, snakes, and horses have enlisted in the forces
Of the bee of the bird of the moth
All are irresistibly directed by the suction
Of a hypnotizing tractor beam presenting a production
Of the sleep of reason corporation in association
With the bee of the bird of the moth

Axl Rose
Chris Cornell
John Lennon
M.I.A.
John Fogerty
Sinead O Connor

sinead o'connor is a great lyricist isn't she. theology is a great example of that.

Alanis, Liz, Ani Difranco, Joni Mitchell

joni's writing though over the last few years has really gone downhill. shine wasn't really that spectacular.

Well I agree with that 100% do not think Shine was bad though just bland as hell. Only been impressed with a hand full of joins stuff since the 70's. But Songs To A Seagul through to Blue are flawless in my eyes.

true. turbulent indigo and taming the tiger are quite nice, but the rest from the 80's, 90's, and now just aren't as captivating. night ride home isn't bad and is pretty good, but it's not something i play often if at all.

I have no major problems with anything she put out bar Mingus. Court and Spark is the only album post Blue I love. Each of the others have a few deccent bits out weighed by carppy songs. The albums just dont live up to the stardered she has set.

Neko Case
Gillian Welch
Aimee Mann
Fiona Apple
Natalie Merchant