Great list. Five off the top of my head, which I suppose is a kind of Top 5. I could have chosen other examples from all these artists:
1. Robert Wyatt, 'Blues in Bob Minor': a Dylan pastiche where words merge with others to suggest new terms or phrases: 'Tunnelling a wormhole Eartha Kitty catfish ... Hibernate in winter of our discotheque no end in sight' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onieIPXIogc
2. Weird Al Yankovic, 'Bob': another Dylan pastiche where all the lines are palindromes (as is 'Bob'): ‘Do
3. Joni Mitchell, 'Amelia': great imagery: 'I was driving across the burning desert / When I spotted six jet planes / Leaving six white vapor trails across the bleak terrain / Like the hexagram of the heavens /
4. Robbie Fulks, 'That's Where I'm From': many moments of lyrical brilliance in this song, but I'll flag two: the subtle shift at the halfway point in what the 'that' of the refrain refers to, switching from a reference to a place to a reference to the thing that separates a father from his children. The other is much simpler and is a perfect example of how country music authenticity relies on boiling things down to simple equations, reminding us that, despite my longwinded explanation, clever doesn't mean wordy: 'if you've every heard Hank Williams sing / well you know the whole blessed thing' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYETol1JfCw
I appreciate that. I had just written my section of this post, before seeing your comments about list songs (in your round-up post), and I felt like my comments about "The Elements" fit well with what you were saying, but I didn't put it in the context of list songs.
You're description of "That's Where I'm From" makes me think of two things. First, in terms of country music, I thought very seriously about including Lefty Frizzell's "Gone, Gone, Gone" which I sometimes thing is one of the most perfectly written songs.
Second, there's a song (that I haven't heard in years, so I'm working from memory) by Bob (or maybe Bill -- the internet isn't helping me) Imhoff called "Loki" that has a refrain:
"You don't know about me / you don't know about my love for this land and my family"
Which, in different verses is used for different characters and "this land" refers to both America and Vietnam ("That's where I met Loki. / He said he was a missile-truck mechanic and that if he told me more he'd have to kill me")
Ah, Lefty Frizzell. I want to write about him here one of these days. We should compare Lefty notes!
Thanks for the Loki example and I look forward to finding out more. Glad what I said nade sense; I like it when lyricists pull off those kind of turns.
The Divine Comedy's first album, Liberation, (their second if you take into account Fanfare For The Common Muse, which has been disowned by its author, Neil Hannon), opens with birdsong and a hesitant tumble of minor piano notes that carry an air of the Spring about them. 'Festive Road,' follows a man named Mr Benn as he visits a fancy dress emporium, where a grinning shopkeeper rents costumes that allow his customers to indulge in their fantasies. Underlying the insinuation that a parade of adult customers are attempting to add a spark to their love lives by dressing up and playing different roles, is a children's TV show from the 1970s, called Mr Benn, in which the titular character visits the shop and is transported to different periods in time and mythology, according to whatever costume he has chosen. Hannon, who no doubt grew up watching Mr Benn, uses the conceit of the show to make the gentle point that the games that are played in childhood often carry through into adulthood, where they change in tone, though a certain innocence remains. It is a theme that re-emerges periodically across the album.
Madness, during their 1980s prime, were masters of writing the kind of broad pop songs that would appeal to a pre-teen audience while also burying a double meaning that would strike a poignant chord as their fans grew older and more well-versed in the ways of the world. 'Our House' documents the chaos of a family living on top of each other at close quarters – a mother and father and kids of different ages. The line “Something tells you that you've got to move away from it” that is buried, almost as an afterthought in the backing vocals of the later choruses, reframes the song, less as a celebration of family life and more as the unconscious lament of someone who is outgrowing the place where they have grown up.
“Levolor, which of us is blind?” enquires Nina Gordon and Louise Post of Veruca Salt in the chorus of 'Number One Blind' – surely the only song in existence where a girl awakens at an indeterminate hour of the day and addresses her concerns regarding her poor life choices to a popular make of window blind.
'Let the Fight do the Fighting' by Nada Surf, opens with an image of youth gone awry, drinking someone's parent's bar while surrounded by the adult trappings of hardcover books and silver frames. It is a song about one of those mutually destructive friendships where you each bring out the worst in each other. The line “I can't have you, even as an enemy,” reminds me of an unfortunate moment in my life where, having run out of words to express my fury, I ended a well established friendship with a wild punch. I regret it; not ending the friendship, but the way that I ended it.
“When she first saw him, In her blood she knew her role. He'd be king of the castle, she'd be the riches he stole. Some only wander through the empty rooms of their soul. They need the ashes of others to make them whole.”
There is something very literary about the opening lines of 'The Dance' by American Music Club, to the point that you could be forgiven for thinking they were the introduction to a short story. Mark Eitzel is a talented lyricist who knows how to take complicated ideas and boil them down into a verse or a chorus. In this case it is a vignette of an off-duty cop, visiting his girlfriend while he is high, and encouraging her to dance with him. By the second verse, Chekov's gun is out of its holster and being waved around like a conductors baton at a orchestra. By the end of the fifth verse the trigger has accidentally been pulled. “When she was dancing with him, he was dancing with the dead,” observes Eitzel, prior to the strangled guitar solo.
This is such a great question. Up the Junction is an incredible call and I’ve been pondering my choices for a while. It was very easy for me to think of the five artists that I most love at least in part for their clever lyrics, but narrowing it down to specific songs is really tricky.
Firstly, I’ll go for Billy Bragg. Accident Waiting to Happen has always had some of my favourite lyrics
“You’re a dedicated swallower of fascism” is such a great pun, and the chorus: “Your life has lost its dignity, its beauty and its passion. You’re an accident waiting to happen,” is just perfect!
It was really hard to pick a song by The Beths because their lyrics are all superb. I’ve gone for Expert In A Dying Field. I love how well she expresses the pain of knowing that a relationship is over but just not being able to let go:
“I can close the door on us but the room still exists. And I know you’re in it.”
Keith Murray is a great lyricist and there are dashes of brilliance in all We Are Scientist songs. He makes great use of contradiction in lines such as “Nothing’s for sure, and that’s for certain” and uses metaphor really well. I’ve gone for KIT because I love the symmetry in the lines “Hold me in mind, cause you’re always on mine,” and “Maybe there’s no use remembering, if all that we are is pretending.”
Death on the Stairs by The Libertines is amazing lyrically. Again, there are many Peter Doherty songs with fantastic lyrics but this one is chock full of them! I particularly love “I’m reversing down a lonely street to a cheap hotel where I can meet the past to pay it off and keep it sweet.”
Finally, I have to mention Alex Turner. So many great Arctic Monkeys lyrics to choose from! I love the line from Cornerstone: “I elongated my lift home. I let him go the long way round. I smelt your scent on the seatbelt and kept my shortcuts to myself” but I went for Piledriver Waltz in the end:
Great list. Five off the top of my head, which I suppose is a kind of Top 5. I could have chosen other examples from all these artists:
1. Robert Wyatt, 'Blues in Bob Minor': a Dylan pastiche where words merge with others to suggest new terms or phrases: 'Tunnelling a wormhole Eartha Kitty catfish ... Hibernate in winter of our discotheque no end in sight' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onieIPXIogc
2. Weird Al Yankovic, 'Bob': another Dylan pastiche where all the lines are palindromes (as is 'Bob'): ‘Do
geese see God?’, ‘Do nine men Interpret? Nine men I nod’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIty7RqbF9o
3. Joni Mitchell, 'Amelia': great imagery: 'I was driving across the burning desert / When I spotted six jet planes / Leaving six white vapor trails across the bleak terrain / Like the hexagram of the heavens /
Like the strings of my guitar' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsWVRN8DDjs
4. Robbie Fulks, 'That's Where I'm From': many moments of lyrical brilliance in this song, but I'll flag two: the subtle shift at the halfway point in what the 'that' of the refrain refers to, switching from a reference to a place to a reference to the thing that separates a father from his children. The other is much simpler and is a perfect example of how country music authenticity relies on boiling things down to simple equations, reminding us that, despite my longwinded explanation, clever doesn't mean wordy: 'if you've every heard Hank Williams sing / well you know the whole blessed thing' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYETol1JfCw
5. One from this year: Ruthie Foster, 'Mileage': I like a well-run metaphor and Foster keeps this one running along nicely https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcEmTAMwKdQ
I appreciate that. I had just written my section of this post, before seeing your comments about list songs (in your round-up post), and I felt like my comments about "The Elements" fit well with what you were saying, but I didn't put it in the context of list songs.
"Bob" is extremely clever.
Your description of "Blues In Bob Minor" makes me think of John Hartford's stoner version of the Lord's Prayer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9JmfF9ggTs
You're description of "That's Where I'm From" makes me think of two things. First, in terms of country music, I thought very seriously about including Lefty Frizzell's "Gone, Gone, Gone" which I sometimes thing is one of the most perfectly written songs.
Second, there's a song (that I haven't heard in years, so I'm working from memory) by Bob (or maybe Bill -- the internet isn't helping me) Imhoff called "Loki" that has a refrain:
"You don't know about me / you don't know about my love for this land and my family"
Which, in different verses is used for different characters and "this land" refers to both America and Vietnam ("That's where I met Loki. / He said he was a missile-truck mechanic and that if he told me more he'd have to kill me")
Now I wish I could find that song.
Ah, Lefty Frizzell. I want to write about him here one of these days. We should compare Lefty notes!
Thanks for the Loki example and I look forward to finding out more. Glad what I said nade sense; I like it when lyricists pull off those kind of turns.
I only know Lefty Frizell’s hits; but they’re really good.
The Divine Comedy's first album, Liberation, (their second if you take into account Fanfare For The Common Muse, which has been disowned by its author, Neil Hannon), opens with birdsong and a hesitant tumble of minor piano notes that carry an air of the Spring about them. 'Festive Road,' follows a man named Mr Benn as he visits a fancy dress emporium, where a grinning shopkeeper rents costumes that allow his customers to indulge in their fantasies. Underlying the insinuation that a parade of adult customers are attempting to add a spark to their love lives by dressing up and playing different roles, is a children's TV show from the 1970s, called Mr Benn, in which the titular character visits the shop and is transported to different periods in time and mythology, according to whatever costume he has chosen. Hannon, who no doubt grew up watching Mr Benn, uses the conceit of the show to make the gentle point that the games that are played in childhood often carry through into adulthood, where they change in tone, though a certain innocence remains. It is a theme that re-emerges periodically across the album.
Madness, during their 1980s prime, were masters of writing the kind of broad pop songs that would appeal to a pre-teen audience while also burying a double meaning that would strike a poignant chord as their fans grew older and more well-versed in the ways of the world. 'Our House' documents the chaos of a family living on top of each other at close quarters – a mother and father and kids of different ages. The line “Something tells you that you've got to move away from it” that is buried, almost as an afterthought in the backing vocals of the later choruses, reframes the song, less as a celebration of family life and more as the unconscious lament of someone who is outgrowing the place where they have grown up.
“Levolor, which of us is blind?” enquires Nina Gordon and Louise Post of Veruca Salt in the chorus of 'Number One Blind' – surely the only song in existence where a girl awakens at an indeterminate hour of the day and addresses her concerns regarding her poor life choices to a popular make of window blind.
'Let the Fight do the Fighting' by Nada Surf, opens with an image of youth gone awry, drinking someone's parent's bar while surrounded by the adult trappings of hardcover books and silver frames. It is a song about one of those mutually destructive friendships where you each bring out the worst in each other. The line “I can't have you, even as an enemy,” reminds me of an unfortunate moment in my life where, having run out of words to express my fury, I ended a well established friendship with a wild punch. I regret it; not ending the friendship, but the way that I ended it.
“When she first saw him, In her blood she knew her role. He'd be king of the castle, she'd be the riches he stole. Some only wander through the empty rooms of their soul. They need the ashes of others to make them whole.”
There is something very literary about the opening lines of 'The Dance' by American Music Club, to the point that you could be forgiven for thinking they were the introduction to a short story. Mark Eitzel is a talented lyricist who knows how to take complicated ideas and boil them down into a verse or a chorus. In this case it is a vignette of an off-duty cop, visiting his girlfriend while he is high, and encouraging her to dance with him. By the second verse, Chekov's gun is out of its holster and being waved around like a conductors baton at a orchestra. By the end of the fifth verse the trigger has accidentally been pulled. “When she was dancing with him, he was dancing with the dead,” observes Eitzel, prior to the strangled guitar solo.
This is such a great question. Up the Junction is an incredible call and I’ve been pondering my choices for a while. It was very easy for me to think of the five artists that I most love at least in part for their clever lyrics, but narrowing it down to specific songs is really tricky.
Firstly, I’ll go for Billy Bragg. Accident Waiting to Happen has always had some of my favourite lyrics
“You’re a dedicated swallower of fascism” is such a great pun, and the chorus: “Your life has lost its dignity, its beauty and its passion. You’re an accident waiting to happen,” is just perfect!
It was really hard to pick a song by The Beths because their lyrics are all superb. I’ve gone for Expert In A Dying Field. I love how well she expresses the pain of knowing that a relationship is over but just not being able to let go:
“I can close the door on us but the room still exists. And I know you’re in it.”
Keith Murray is a great lyricist and there are dashes of brilliance in all We Are Scientist songs. He makes great use of contradiction in lines such as “Nothing’s for sure, and that’s for certain” and uses metaphor really well. I’ve gone for KIT because I love the symmetry in the lines “Hold me in mind, cause you’re always on mine,” and “Maybe there’s no use remembering, if all that we are is pretending.”
Death on the Stairs by The Libertines is amazing lyrically. Again, there are many Peter Doherty songs with fantastic lyrics but this one is chock full of them! I particularly love “I’m reversing down a lonely street to a cheap hotel where I can meet the past to pay it off and keep it sweet.”
Finally, I have to mention Alex Turner. So many great Arctic Monkeys lyrics to choose from! I love the line from Cornerstone: “I elongated my lift home. I let him go the long way round. I smelt your scent on the seatbelt and kept my shortcuts to myself” but I went for Piledriver Waltz in the end:
“I etched a face of a stopwatch
On the back of a raindrop
And did a swap for the sand in an hourglass
I heard an unhappy ending
It sort of sounds like you leaving
I heard the piledriver waltz
It woke me up this morning
You look like you've been for breakfast
At the Heartbreak Hotel
And sat in the back booth
By the pamphlets and the literature
On how to lose
Your waitress was miserable
And so was your food
If you're gonna try and walk on water
Make sure you wear your comfortable shoes.”
Phenomenal lists. Hard to beat "Up the Junction". A quick selection from my Pantheon:
1. Arthur McBride (trad, by Andy Irvine and Paul Brady). Dylan would have killed to write this.
2. Dirty Old Town - Ewan MacColl (Pogues version)
3. Robert McLennan - Baby Stones (killer finish)
4. Dave Graney - Rock 'n' Roll is Where I Hide
5. Courtney Barnett - Rae Street (among many)
That is a good list and you might enjoy my post about some of the best protest songs (including both Arthur McBride and Ewan MacColl): https://earnestnessisunderrated.substack.com/p/what-makes-a-good-protest-song
Great article. I don't know ANY of these songs ,but now I'm going to listen.
After I've had coffee and woken up my brain, I'll think of some of my own. They're on the tip of my tongue ...........
That is, in some ways, the best possible response to sharing music :)
Looking through my library. I assume Sondheim and other musical theater songs are off-limits?
Go for whatever you feel like -- there are so many possibilities, why not cast a broad net.
That's right, the only rule for Your Top 5 is there are no rules!
OK, you asked for it, Nick. I got a million of ‘em! Not all from Broadway, either.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXYKGL6MgKM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRsdEcybJL0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLxkMGJjuZI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOQPMjKLQQU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWHSFA0qev8&list=PLcvFO4lyuy_tgAuuzz1gU9T5DkWapccxg&index=6
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFiWpoXQZeE&list=PLcvFO4lyuy_tgAuuzz1gU9T5DkWapccxg&index=11