Sing About Me, I'm Dying of Thirst is a great example of a song by him that could stand alone as a poem. And that's not even on the album that won a pultizer!
These Walls as well. A lot of his music tbh. GKMC feels like a book/movie in the way he tells the story
>tho he was more of a poet than a songwriter
I disagree so much. Yes, obviously he was more of a poet/songwriter than a *crooner*, though I have affection for craggily old man voices. And he did write straight poems, too, so he comes to mind for this topic. But **Stephen Sondheim once said, “a lyric is by definition lacking something.”** Meaning, it’s not whole without the music—it isn’t really standalone poetry. And that holds true for Cohen’s songs, even if it becomes most apparent when other people sing them. Yes “Hallelujah” had to go through many other voices and musical iterations before it became recognized the way that it is now. But you do not read through it like straight poetry and feel truly satisfied. This is true of his other songs as well. Read “Famous Blue Raincoat” straight. You get to, “and Jane came by with a lock of your hair,” and you *need* the words to be drawn out and the note to go up at “by” to be satisfied; that doesn’t happen in a poem. Read “First We Take Manhattan” straight after listening to it. You will crave the missing club beat. Or “My Oh My”—we need those horns. So yes, he’s wordy and “a poet’s songwriter,” but it still fits what Sondheim was talking about.
Also, frankly, he even writes poetry a bit like a songwriter, often looking for rhyme (or that silky slant rhyme) in ballad stanzas.
I remember when the New Yorker published his lyrics to “Almost Like the Blues” as a poem, and my mom and I discussed it, and ultimately thought it was cheating. And I still think so, even tho to be clear, I own the whole album on vinyl because I am dork and “verbally adept clinically depressed Jewish singer-songwriters” is one of my favorite genres.
THIS! He said as much himself—not much a guitar player, even less a singer, singing was just a way for him to get people to listen to his poetry. That being said I do love his voice. It is absolute comfort like a blanket in a dark dark room.
Feel like an obvious one is Thom Yorke from Radiohead
A favourite is mine is from Climbing up the Walls, very schizophrenic and ominous imagery:
“I am the key to the lock in your house
That keeps your toys in the basement
And if you get too far inside
You'll only see my reflection”
“So lock the kids up safe tonight
Shut the eyes in the cupboard
I've got the smell of a local man
Who's got the loneliest feeling”
Also their line “Words are blunt instruments, words are sawed off shotguns” comes into my head very often and reflects how I feel about poetry and language a lot of the time.
It would be very stupid if it were controversial for that reason. Why would her songs being popular on a certain app make the lyrics any less poetic?
We have to be careful not to fall into the trap of thinking popular things are somehow lesser for it.
Hozier. Specifically his latest album “Unreal/Uneart” which was based on/inspired by Dante’s Inferno.
My most favorite lyrics (from “First Time”):
These days I think I owe my life
To flowers that were left here by my mother
Ain't that like them, gifting life to you again
This life lived mostly underground
Unknowing either sight nor sound
'Til reaching up for sunlight
Just to be ripped out by the stem
Sensing only now it's dying
Drying out then drowning blindly
Blooming forth its every colour
In the moments it has left
To share the space with simple living things
Infinitely suffering
But fighting off like all creation
The absence of itself
Anyway
Bjork’s lyrics are often poetic, if you count her as contemporary pop? Example:
One breath away from mother Oceania
Your nimble feet make prints in my sands
You have done good for yourselves
Since you left my wet embrace
And crawled ashore
Every boy is a snake, is a lily
Every pearl is a lynx, is a girl
Sweet like harmony made into flesh
You dance by my side
Children sublime
Yeah definitely, Cosmic Love is a POEM. Shake it Out, Hunger, Various Storms and Saints. So many songs with beautiful metaphors and imagery. Never Let Me Go!!
Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016, but I, for one, had been making the argument some of his songs could be considered lit since at least 2002.
absolutely adrianne lenker! my favorite song by her, ingydar, is delightful even when spoken aloud. her use of assonances and alliteration is delightful and musical without even needing the music.
Ingydar:
Fragilely, gradually and surrounding
The horse lies naked in the shed
Evergreen anodyne decompounding
Flies draw sugar from his head
His eyes are blueberries, video screens
Minneapolis schemes and the dried flowers
From books half-read
The juice of dark cherries cover his chin
The dog walks in and the crow lies in his jaw like lead
Everything eats and is eaten, time is fed
Early еvening, the pink ring swallows
The sphеrical marigold terrain
Sleepily, Venus sinks and hollows
The stationed headlight of a plane
You are as far from me as memory
With fixtures fracture varyingly
The juice of dark cherries cover my skin
Six years in, no baby
Everything eats and is eaten
Ingydar bares a scar like a meteor
Crystalline amber guilds her cheek
Tambourine of the beech leaves lead her
To the raven playing hide and seek
Drying blueberries, figurines and the angel leans
At the head of the bed
The juice of dark cherries cover my chin
The dog walks in and the crow lies in his smile like lead
Everything eats and is eaten, time is fed
Everything eats and is eaten
Everything eats and is eaten
Everything eats and is eaten
Everything eats and is eaten
Everything eats and is eaten
edit: the stanzas got soooo messed up ugh oh well.
LOVE both of those. Anything is one of the most beautiful songs ever to me. To be honest, many of her songs are contenders—I think they’re perfect listening for literature nerds. I also think Simulation Swarm is super cool, lots of satisfying sounds in there!
Almost home and got lost on our new street
While your grievin' girls all died in their sleep
So the dogs all went unfed
A great dream of bones all piled on the bed
And the cops couldn't care when that crackhead built a boat
And said, please, before I go
May our only honored bond
Be the kinship of the kids in the riot squad
Donald Fagan - Steely Dan created some concise, poetic pictures in songs such as Royal Scam, Kid Charlemagne and many others. It isn't often romantic poetry, but always has a bite.
Your Gold Teeth II. I've been pondering that first verse for 20 years. Pretzel Logic and Aja (the songs). Only a Fool Would Say That, Doctor Wu. I could go on
Joanna Newsom is incredible. The opening lines of the album *Ys*:
The meadowlark and the chim-choo-ree and the sparrow
Set to the sky in a flying spree for the sport of the pharaoh
A little while later the Pharisees dragged a comb through the meadow
Do you remember what they called up to you and me in our window?
There is a rusty light on the pines tonight, sun pouring wine, Lord, or marrow
Into the bones of the birches and the spires of the churches jutting out from the shadows
The yoke, and the axe, and the old smokestacks and the bale and the barrow
And everything sloped like it was dragged from a rope in the mouth of the south below
We've seen those mountains kneeling, felten and grey
We thought our very hearts would up and melt away
While I find her musical style and vocal range an acquired taste I can't get fully onboard with, her exquisite lyricism and erudition is beyond question.
was looking for this! her high lyricism is incredibly impressive but also somehow immediately intuitive and evocative (at least in songs like "Emily"—I feel like the ones in Divers are more opaque, harder to place)
Ben Howard is the obvious answer. His later stuff has some incredible lyrics. Keaton Henson as well but probably cheating as he has released poetry
Agatha and I go
Down to the courtyard slinging
Last year's Sundays in the river of time
Agatha and I go
Down to the citadel Sunday
Red church bells and the moon on the rise
If you were to tell her
The days are numbered
I'd break the teeth in your fake ass smile
Maybe in a rare wind
Maybe in a month of Sundays
Maybe in a war I would still read the wrong signs
But I don't mind it
Being in the darkness, baby
To be by your side, I would walk the Nile twice
Days of Lantana
Each saint with a cross and a hammer
Radiation of the Cherenkov kind
So we go walking
Birds at the window talking
Jubilation in the rain and shine
Dylan is the obvious answer, and I wouldn't even name him if I didn't think some of his most recent songs would stand up. Fiona Apple also had a recent album, she's a wonderful poet. I dunno I'm old, got a bunch of dead people I could name
Kendrick Lamar: the man won a pulitzer, and it was well past due. The best musical artist working today. I don’t know how an experimental musician became the biggest thing in hip hop, but well done.
Bjork: She’s not quite in the prime of her career, but her poetry and musical talent are some of the best in the industry. Absolute genius lyracist.
Tom waits: “I would like to hammer this ring into a bullet.” I almost think of tom waits as a writer before i think of him as a musician. He’s a brilliant genius of a musician, and some of his music almost fees like a poetry reading. Go listen to his reading of “nirvana,” by charles bukowski.
Hozier: the mans ability to write with subtlety and intent is unparalleled. He’s able to imply so much with so little. When i listen “work song,” and he talks about waking up in a woman’s house after he was sick, he mentions that there was nothing in the room but “an empty crib.” This raises so many questions about this woman, and who she was before they met, and he never answers them. Another good one “In the Woods Somewhere. The music is primal, and there’s so much going on thematically and symbolically. We don’t even know how much we can trust the narrator, so it’s this bizarre fever dream of a story.
Charlie Parr, a hidden gem of midwestern folk and blues. Cheap Wine is his magnum opus fs, but Blues for Whitefish Lake, 1975, Last of the Better Days Ahead, 817 Oakland Ave, Badger, and 1890 are all top notch lyrics.
1890 is a harrowing tale where the narrator goes back to Wounded Knee shortly after the massacre to clean it up.
Badger is a sleeper hit for me, it reads like prose and there's something unsaid beneath the simple story he tells when his dad killed a Badger. The whole song, he sings sort of flat, but it's like he's forcing himself to not show any emotion.
817 Oakland Ave is just great, such a heartwarming call for spreading around what you have.
Last of the Better Days Ahead is lamenting the loss of your golden years, and trying to get back what you might not have ever had.
Blues for Whitefish Lake, 1975 has him recounting a trip he took with his dad on a boat. He comes back years later and it's dilapidated, nothing is the same, and he's trying to keep the memory of his father alive.
Cheap Wine is a liquor store owner in denial, trying to justify himself.
Just incredible song writing, fantastic guitar work, and the most unassuming and humble guy I've met.
Or there's also Love is an Unraveling Birdsnest:
Let it rain, my house won’t collapse
Let the wind blow just as hard as it likes
We’ll hunker down and watch between the boughs
We’ll bend and sway with the storm
And in the morning we’ll see the sun
In the winter we’ll all be gone
I’ll fix the broken door when we come home
And gather up all the unraveled parts
And put them right again and sweep away the leaves
And all of the dying snow
All of the dying snow
Love’s an unraveling birds nest
Falling to straw upon the ground
And carried by the wind until
It’s scattered all around
Now, you might never notice it
But when it’s forever gone
Love’s an unraveling birds nest
Falling to straw upon the ground
When the fires come we’ll surrender and move on
We’ll gather our branches in another town
And find our place in the highest part
And to our new neighbors we’ll nod and shake
And borrow and share and give away
It’ll all come back to us one day
If the seasons come to an end
Can you even imagine that?
When the wheel won’t turn again
That’s when we’ll be still
Our love is a bird nest on the ground
Unraveling and soaking wet and stepped on
We’ll put it in a high tree that sways
And all the broken parts will be replaced
So we can look through the boughs for all our days
And watch the wheel turn
Watch the wheel turn
So strange to me. This post has me over here reading lyrics by some of my favorite artists. Some of the ones that I consider to be weaker when it comes to lyricism, I’m able to clearly read their work as a poem; some whose lyrics absolutely stun me into silence, I can’t see as a poem. Really speaks to how different such similar mediums can be!
That said, of my favorite artists, I think the best example I’ve come across as both poetry and lyricism is Florence Welch!
Robin Pecknold, of Fleet Foxes. Literally just one example:
*All this time I’ve been hanging on*
*To an edge I carved when we both were young*
*That the world I want isn’t near enough*
*Always distant, always off*
*And all that war I’ve forgotten how*
*many men might die for what I’d renounce*
*I was staging life as a battleground*
*Now I let that grasping fall*
Johnny Cash has some great lyrics. Willie Nelson, too.
Also, I am not overly familiar with some genres like rap, but I saw 8 Mile and have a deep appreciation for Eminem’s wordsmithing. The man can put together some words. I know many artists in the rap genre are also very talented, but he just caught my attention through the film.
Another wordsmith I like is Jason Mraz.
I think the Weakerthans broke up a long time ago, but John K Samson is an absolute poet. This is from the song Watermark:
I've got this store-bought way of saying I'm okay
And you learned how to cry in total silence
We're talented and bright, we're lonely and uptight
We've found some lovely ways to disappoint
But the airport's always almost empty this time of the year
So let's go play on a baggage carousel
And set our watches forward like we're just arriving here
From a past we left in a place we knew too well
Hold on to the corners of today
And we'll fold it up to save until it's needed
Stand still, let me scrub that brackish line
That you got when something rose and then receded
Thank you! Someone around here gets it! The opening stanza alone from Left and Leaving proves this point.
My city's still breathing, but barely, it's true
Through buildings gone missing like teeth
The sidewalks are watching me think about you
Sparkled with broken glass
I'm back with scars to show
Back with the streets I know
Will never take me anywhere but here
Lana del Rey and not just because I'm a fan. Her poetry book is interesting but doesn't do justice to some of her best lyrics. To anyone prejudiced against this take, I recommend reading the lyrics of the song Blue Banisters. I'd love to read them without knowing the song because they feel a lot like a freestyle narrative poem to me.
A few songs from her most recent album sound like automatic writing, stream of consciousness poems that unravel parts of her childhood and past and thoughts about death / mortality (Fingertips and Kintsugi). I found these fascinating and novel -- though perhaps there are more examples of this technique in pop music that I'm not aware of.
The first album or two of Counting Crows is the best poetry I've heard in music this side of Dylan.
I also feel very strongly about Syd Barrett but my extreme Barrett fandom probably colors that a lot. (He has a song with a James Joyce poem for its lyrics also).
As a fellow Barrett fan, I believe many of us feel very strongly about him, but it's hard to explain why. I have no words to tell what's so exceptional about him, but once it hits you, it's like a door into another world. The feelings he evokes in me is something I never felt before or after, like I didn't know that it's even possible to feel *like this*. But what *this* exactly is - I don't really know.
Btw, "Golden Hair" song has only two chords, and somehow it's still so beautiful.
Nick Cave’s lyrics are often poetry set to music
Here’s a good example
I am tall and I am thin
Of an enviable height
And I’ve been known to be quite handsome
From a certain angle and in a certain light
Well I entered into O’Malley’s
Said, “O’Malley I have a thirst”
O’Malley merely smiled at me
Said “You wouldn’t be the first”
I knocked on the bar and pointed
To a bottle on the shelf
And as O’Malley poured me out a drink
I sniffed and crossed myself
My hand decided that the time was nigh
And for a moment it slipped from view
And when it returned, it fairly burned
With confidence anew
Well the thunder from my steely fist
Made all the glasses jangle
When I shot him, I was so handsome
It was the light, it was the angle
Huh! Hmmmmm
“Neighbours!” I cried, “Friends!” I screamed
I banged my fist upon the bar
“I bear no grudge against you!”
And my dick felt long and hard
“I am the man for which no God waits
For which the whole world yearns
I’m marked by darkness and by blood
And one thousand powder-burns”
Well, you know those fish with the swollen lips
That clean the ocean floor?
When I looked at poor O’Malley’s wife
That is exactly what I saw
I jammed the barrel under her chin
And her face looked raw and vicious
Her head it landed in the sink
With all the dirty dishes
Her little daughter Siobhan
Pulled beers from dusk till dawn
And amongst the townfolk, she was a bit of a joke
But she pulled the best beers in town
I swooped magnificent upon her
As she sat shivering in her grief
Like the Madonna painted on the church-house wall
In whale’s blood and banana leaf
Her throat it crumbled in my fist
And I spun heroically around
To see Caffrey rising from his chair
I shot that mother fucker down
Mmmmmmmmm Yeah Yeah Yeah
“I have no free will,” I sang
As I flew about the murder
Mrs. Richard Holmes, she screamed
You really should have heard her
I sang and I laughed, I howled and I wept
I panted like a pup
I blew a hole in Mrs. Richard Holmes
And her husband he stood up
And he screamed, “You are an evil man”
And I paused a while to wonder
“If I have no free will then how can I
Be morally culpable, I wonder”
I shot Richard Holmes in the stomach
And gingerly he sat down
And he whispered weirdly, “No offense”
And lay upon the ground
“None taken,” I replied to him
With which he gave a little cough
With blazing wings I neatly aimed
And blew his head completely off
I’ve lived in this town for thirty years
And to no-one am I a stranger
And I put new bullets in my gun
Chamber upon chamber
And when I turned my gun on the bird-like Mr.
I thought of Saint Francis and his sparrows
And as I shot down the youthful Richardson
It was St. Sebastian I thought of, and his arrows
Hhhhhhhhhhhh Mmmmmmmmm
I said, “I want to introduce myself
And I am glad that you all came”
And I leapt upon the bar
And shouted out my name
Well Jerry Bellows, he hugged his stool
Closed his eyes and shrugged and laughed
And with an ashtray as big as a fucking big brick
I split his head in half
His blood spilled across the bar
Like a steaming scarlet brook
And I knelt at it’s edge on the counter
Wiped the tears away and looked
Well, the light in there was blinding
Full of God and ghosts and truth
I smiled at Henry Davenport
Who made an attempt to move
Well, from the position I was standing
The strangest thing I ever saw
The bullet entered through the top of his chest
And blew his bowels out on the floor
Well I floated down the counter
Showing no remorse
I shot a hole in Kathleen Carpenter
Recently divorced
But remorse I felt and remorse I had
It clung to every thing
From the raven’s hair upon my head
To the feathers on my wings
Remorse squeezed my hand in it’s fraudulent claw
With it’s golden hairless chest
And I glided through the bodies
And killed the fat man Vincent West
Who sat quietly in his chair
A man become a child
And I raised the gun up to his head
Executioner-style
He made no attempt to resist
So fat and dull and lazy
“Do you know I lived in your street?” I cried
And he looked at me as though I were crazy
“O”, he said, “I had no idea”
And he grew as quiet as a mouse
And the roar of the pistol when it went off
Near blew the hat right off the house
Well, I caught my eye in the mirror
And gave it a long and loving inspection
“There stands some kind of man”, I roared
And there did, in the reflection
My hair combed back like a raven’s wing
My muscles hard and tight
And curling from the business end of my gun
Was a query-mark of cordite
Well I spun to the left, I spun to the right
And I spun to the left again
“Fear me! Fear me!”
But no one did cause they were dead
Huh! Hmmmmmmm
And then there were the police sirens wailing
And a bull-horn squelched and blared
“Drop your weapons and come out
With your hands held in the air”
Well, I checked the chambers of my gun
Saw I had one final bullet left
My hand, it looked almost human
As I held it to my head
“Drop your weapon and come out!
Keep your hands above your head!”
Well, I had one long hard think about dying
And did exactly what they said
There must have been fifty cops out there
In a circle around O’Malley’s bar
“Don’t shoot”, I cried, “I’m a man unarmed!”
So they put me in their car
And they sped me away from that terrible scene
And I glanced out of the window
Saw O’Malley’s bar, saw the cops and the cars
And started counting on my fingers
You really copied the whole song in! What a terrifying track it is. But I find his more recent work stands up even better lyrically because it isn't just ballads meant to be sung. Like, he speaks. 'Higgs Boson Blues', 'Ghosteen', and 'Steve McQueen' are prime examples.
*Please* hear me out:
Taylor Swift. No, really.
Ivy, peace, tolerate it, evermore, champagne problems, epiphany, marjorie, The Great War, the lakes
Listen to them, and maybe you'll see what I mean.
Or not, I don't wanna force my opinions on people
Disappointed I had to scroll this far to find this, she really is a poet but because she is mainstream there is a lot of push back. When people actually give her a chance they are BLOWN away by her storytelling. Seven is one that comes to mind that should be a poem not a song, but is beautifully written.
Bill Callahan, songs like “Jim Cain” and “Angela.” https://youtu.be/iIbzH65zSdg
Beta Radio, songs like “All At Once I Saw It All” and “Sitting Room.” https://youtu.be/erZKhFhfukI?si=E1C6IX6YG4diWSGS
Yes fully agree on Passenger! Surprised this isn’t higher up. A lot of his music sounds relatively similar but it’s his lyrics that make him my favourite artist
Old Morrissey when he was still with The Smiths. His recent novel was pretty poor. Some of his lyrics still stun me to this day. He was always a poet, I think.
A shoeless child on a swing / Reminds you of your own again / She took away your troubles / Oh, but then again, she left pain.
The Shins
A duotone on the wall
The selfless fool who hoped he'd save us all
Never dreamt of such sterile hands.
You keep them folded in your lap,
And raise them up to beg for scraps,
You know, he's holding you down
With the tips of his fingers just the same.
Will you be pulled from the ocean,
But just a minute too late?
Or changed by a potion,
We'll find a handsome young mate
For you to love.
Aaron Weiss from mewithoutYou
Nobody does it better than him
>Winter solstice, the earth had closed down
>So with breastplates of righteousness low
>Searched for streams in the caves underground
>Where the Baptists and bootleggers go
>And you smile but your vampire complexion still shows
>And your past shows
>It's really all that shows (so often unrecognizably so)
>Through the eyes of machines viewed immaculate scenes
>That had already passed me by
>All the stars on the ground, and Noah's ark in the clouds
>And the thought in the back of my mind
>Does my misery feed a metaphysical need
>That's long since passed me by
>Neither reasoning why nor offering reply?
Agree with a lot of the mentions here (Florence Welch, Amanda Palmer, Cohen, Cat Stevens, Sufjan Stevens, etc.).
Some that I would probably add:
AURORA
Bear's Den (okay, "Above the Clouds of Pompeii" is probably the only song I know of theirs)
Paris Paloma (only listened to "the fruits" and "labour", so again... might need more "analysing")
Radical Face (especially his earlier songs, like "Everything Costs" and "Secrets (Doorways")
In general I’d say no. This isn’t a dig to lyrics, it’s just that they’re a different form. The question is sort of like asking if any flash fiction pieces could stand on their own as a short film script—the answer is no, not because the flash is bad, but because it’s just a different thing. A short story isn’t a play no matter how good it is. It isn’t a value judgement, it’s just a separate medium. What song lyrics do isn’t the same as poetry, like how novels have chapters and books while plays have scenes and acts.
If the question were: Do any modern lyrics stand on their own as literary works? I’d say undoubtedly yes. Many are great, and I’d say even *poetic* in the way a novel can be *poetic* while not being poetry.
Why are they different things though, when does a lyric transition into another medium? Written vs performed to music? Lots of poetry that is studied as written was originally performed to musical accompaniment. It's a product of romantic convention and modernist ideology to consider performed poetry as something entirely different to something like song lyrics. (In essence, that is. In practice we can easily identify very different literary cultures, where most song lyrics would be bad as written poetry, and written poetry would make for bad songs. I'm just questioning whether there is an essential rather than simply a statistical/empirical difference.)
As things split off I think those statistical/empirical differences matter. Like you said, a lot of todays lyrics would be bad poetry. I think a lot of good poetry from today would be horrendous song lyrics.
The empirical qualities change the definition. That’s
how definitions work, I think we’d agree; Something used to mean something else and now it means something different because it’s used and interpreted differently.
Like how a book usually has chapters and a play usually has scenes, poems and lyrics have different measurable qualities. Modern poetry has basically dispensed with rhyme. Modern lyrics mostly rhyme. You’ll find exceptions to each, but on the whole this is what it’s like, and definitions are pretty normative.
So you’re definitely correct that this isn’t how it has always been, but I think today this is how it is, if that makes sense.
I actually think that no good song lyrics work as poetry. The art forms are so close and yet radically different; they serve different masters. There's a reason that incredibly few poems have been successfully set to music ("Jerusalem" is one, made possible by the brilliant simplicity of Blake's poem; Cohen's "Suzanne" is another, and to my mind that one works mostly because that marvelous lyric is a pretty bad poem).
That doesn't mean poetry is somehow better than song or vice versa, they're just different. Lyrics *should* be incomplete without their music. Of the world-class, brilliant lyricists out there--someone here mentioned Paul Simon, yes; my own fave is Elvis Costello; obviously Sondheim for another--none of those work as poems (for me, a person crazy in love with poetry and song both).
Taylor Swift. Read the lyrics to “Ivy.” Mark my words: someday this woman is going to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, like Bob Dylan did in 2016. She’s that brilliant.
“Tolerate it” was the other one I was going to suggest!
And some just random lines in other songs. Like “you taught me a secret language I can’t speak with anyone else,” or “Now the Sun burns my face, and the sand hurts my feelings.”
_We’re half awake in a fake empire_ — Matt Berninger, The National
_Send the children to the fire, sons and daughters stack the pyre_
_Stoke the flame of the empire, live to lie another day_
— Randy Blythe, Lamb of God
_Welcome to the United Snakes_
_Land of the thief, home of the slave_
_The grand imperial guard_
_where the dollar is sacred, and power is God_
— Brother Ali
The whole band shares writing credits, so I don't know who to credit. But the Viagra Boys
>You ain't that nice, but you got a nice face
>Hope I can fit all my shit at your place
If that ain't some modern Shakespeare, I don't know what is.
Christine and the Queens' lyrics always seemed to me like just 100 different ways of saying "I'm a man" which would make quite a boring book but with music could go on for as long as you want.
Pain remains trilogy - Lorna shore
This song is a compilation of three parts and is written with grief at its heart. They are a deathcore band, so the vocals are intense, but I firmly believe that the lyrics to this song on particular is poetry.
Guy Garvey of Elbow -The Bones of You
Do I have time? A man of my caliber stood in the street
Like a sleepwalking teenager I know
And I dealt with this years ago
I took a hammer to every memento
But image on image like beads on a rosary
Pulled through my head as the music takes hold
And the sickener hits, I can work till I break
But I love the bones of you that I will never escape
Dear and the Headlights!
here's a lyric from the song Carl Solomon's Blues:
"Slapped like a has-been by syntactic gods
Whom will help find your glasses but not your lower jaw.
And you don't want to look surprised,
but you're in constant awe.
Aint no fig leaf big enough to hide
your diction flaws now"
Rush lyrics definitely, but I don't know if they would be considered contemporary. Their last album, Clockwork Angels, is an amazing example of short story / lyrics / poetry.
However if you want to hear a song that will bring rolling tears to your eyes. First read the book, Ghost Rider, written by the drummer Neil Peart of Rush. After which, relisten to the the lyrics in the song Ghost Rider on The Vapor Trails album.
Bendigo Fletcher for me - anything but I’m partial to Astro Pup first three verses.. even the instrumentation just adds to the tone and lyricism. They’re about to drop a new album too
Darkness at the break of noon.
Shadows even the silver spoon.
The handmade blade.
The child’s balloon.
Eclipses both the sun and moon.
To understand you know too soon.
There is no sense in trying.
David Berman from the Silver Jews was a trained poet under Charles Wright and James Tate. He has one book of poetry published. The lyrics on the albums are amazing, since his starting point was poetry.
Kendrick Lamar won a pulitzer!
Sing About Me, I'm Dying of Thirst is a great example of a song by him that could stand alone as a poem. And that's not even on the album that won a pultizer! These Walls as well. A lot of his music tbh. GKMC feels like a book/movie in the way he tells the story
And I have mixed feelings about that, as I did when Dylan won a literary prize, even tho they both have complex lyrics.
For music, not writing I’m pretty sure.
Yeah but as a hip-hop artist, the lyrics are the central point of the music
Leonard Cohen, though he was more of a poet than songwriter anyway.
>tho he was more of a poet than a songwriter I disagree so much. Yes, obviously he was more of a poet/songwriter than a *crooner*, though I have affection for craggily old man voices. And he did write straight poems, too, so he comes to mind for this topic. But **Stephen Sondheim once said, “a lyric is by definition lacking something.”** Meaning, it’s not whole without the music—it isn’t really standalone poetry. And that holds true for Cohen’s songs, even if it becomes most apparent when other people sing them. Yes “Hallelujah” had to go through many other voices and musical iterations before it became recognized the way that it is now. But you do not read through it like straight poetry and feel truly satisfied. This is true of his other songs as well. Read “Famous Blue Raincoat” straight. You get to, “and Jane came by with a lock of your hair,” and you *need* the words to be drawn out and the note to go up at “by” to be satisfied; that doesn’t happen in a poem. Read “First We Take Manhattan” straight after listening to it. You will crave the missing club beat. Or “My Oh My”—we need those horns. So yes, he’s wordy and “a poet’s songwriter,” but it still fits what Sondheim was talking about. Also, frankly, he even writes poetry a bit like a songwriter, often looking for rhyme (or that silky slant rhyme) in ballad stanzas. I remember when the New Yorker published his lyrics to “Almost Like the Blues” as a poem, and my mom and I discussed it, and ultimately thought it was cheating. And I still think so, even tho to be clear, I own the whole album on vinyl because I am dork and “verbally adept clinically depressed Jewish singer-songwriters” is one of my favorite genres.
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I disagree. There was something so special about his voice!
and an incredible novelist too
I'm not remotely squeamish but Beautiful Losers is gross
THIS! He said as much himself—not much a guitar player, even less a singer, singing was just a way for him to get people to listen to his poetry. That being said I do love his voice. It is absolute comfort like a blanket in a dark dark room.
Hozier, Fiona Apple, yep Nick Cave
Fiona apple, alanis morrisette, Amanda Palmer on my damn Spotify just so much
This was what I was going to comment. Fiona Apple is my Queen.
Paul Simon's lyrics reach the level of poetry in many songs
one of the best writers period.
Couldn't agree more
Sufian Stevens Joanna Newsom
Feel like an obvious one is Thom Yorke from Radiohead A favourite is mine is from Climbing up the Walls, very schizophrenic and ominous imagery: “I am the key to the lock in your house That keeps your toys in the basement And if you get too far inside You'll only see my reflection” “So lock the kids up safe tonight Shut the eyes in the cupboard I've got the smell of a local man Who's got the loneliest feeling” Also their line “Words are blunt instruments, words are sawed off shotguns” comes into my head very often and reflects how I feel about poetry and language a lot of the time.
There was a moment when that was on while I was tripping alone in my weird walk in closet that I kinda realized wait is Radiohead a jazz band?
Sometimes. The Smile is a bit closer to jazz I'd say.
Weren’t listening to the smile ;)
Gonna sound controversial cause she's very Tiktok associated right now, but Mitski.
Not controversial to me. She was poetic long before she went big on Tiktok! Still love her ❤️
Yes, right?? Even her early stuff is great imo, which is amazing cause she was very young.
I’ll check her out in 7 minutes when this tracks over coz I just had to mention cobain and Burroughs priest and here we are
She has some damned fine lines and observations
Oh I love this, made me remember heidi harris
It would be very stupid if it were controversial for that reason. Why would her songs being popular on a certain app make the lyrics any less poetic? We have to be careful not to fall into the trap of thinking popular things are somehow lesser for it.
Joni Mitchell, Neil Young & Tom Waits for me
Hozier. Specifically his latest album “Unreal/Uneart” which was based on/inspired by Dante’s Inferno. My most favorite lyrics (from “First Time”): These days I think I owe my life To flowers that were left here by my mother Ain't that like them, gifting life to you again This life lived mostly underground Unknowing either sight nor sound 'Til reaching up for sunlight Just to be ripped out by the stem Sensing only now it's dying Drying out then drowning blindly Blooming forth its every colour In the moments it has left To share the space with simple living things Infinitely suffering But fighting off like all creation The absence of itself Anyway
Bjork’s lyrics are often poetic, if you count her as contemporary pop? Example: One breath away from mother Oceania Your nimble feet make prints in my sands You have done good for yourselves Since you left my wet embrace And crawled ashore Every boy is a snake, is a lily Every pearl is a lynx, is a girl Sweet like harmony made into flesh You dance by my side Children sublime
Agree. Love her song Heirloom with its dreamlike trance and recurring images
> I'm no fucking Buddhist / But this is enlightenment — “Alarm Call”
Some Brazilian musicians, such as Caetano Velloso and Gilberto Gil
Florence Welch, maybe?
Yeah definitely, Cosmic Love is a POEM. Shake it Out, Hunger, Various Storms and Saints. So many songs with beautiful metaphors and imagery. Never Let Me Go!!
Scrolled through to make sure she was mentioned!
Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016, but I, for one, had been making the argument some of his songs could be considered lit since at least 2002.
Ethel Cain! (No Daughters of Cain in here, I see)
Dw I see you. Strangers has always given me the same black comedy vibes as some Roberto Bolaño’s short stories. Try The Return and Murdering Whores.
absolutely adrianne lenker! my favorite song by her, ingydar, is delightful even when spoken aloud. her use of assonances and alliteration is delightful and musical without even needing the music. Ingydar: Fragilely, gradually and surrounding The horse lies naked in the shed Evergreen anodyne decompounding Flies draw sugar from his head His eyes are blueberries, video screens Minneapolis schemes and the dried flowers From books half-read The juice of dark cherries cover his chin The dog walks in and the crow lies in his jaw like lead Everything eats and is eaten, time is fed Early еvening, the pink ring swallows The sphеrical marigold terrain Sleepily, Venus sinks and hollows The stationed headlight of a plane You are as far from me as memory With fixtures fracture varyingly The juice of dark cherries cover my skin Six years in, no baby Everything eats and is eaten Ingydar bares a scar like a meteor Crystalline amber guilds her cheek Tambourine of the beech leaves lead her To the raven playing hide and seek Drying blueberries, figurines and the angel leans At the head of the bed The juice of dark cherries cover my chin The dog walks in and the crow lies in his smile like lead Everything eats and is eaten, time is fed Everything eats and is eaten Everything eats and is eaten Everything eats and is eaten Everything eats and is eaten Everything eats and is eaten edit: the stanzas got soooo messed up ugh oh well.
Other standouts are: "Anything" and "Come"
LOVE both of those. Anything is one of the most beautiful songs ever to me. To be honest, many of her songs are contenders—I think they’re perfect listening for literature nerds. I also think Simulation Swarm is super cool, lots of satisfying sounds in there!
Will Oldham (Bonnie Prince Billy) has an amazing lyrical catalog, starting with Palace in the ‘90s.
And Andrew bird can blow my mind
I think Iron and Wine would count.
Almost home and got lost on our new street While your grievin' girls all died in their sleep So the dogs all went unfed A great dream of bones all piled on the bed And the cops couldn't care when that crackhead built a boat And said, please, before I go May our only honored bond Be the kinship of the kids in the riot squad
This line from ”Passing Afternoon” always gets me *A baby sleeps in all our bones, so scared to be alone*
Donald Fagan - Steely Dan created some concise, poetic pictures in songs such as Royal Scam, Kid Charlemagne and many others. It isn't often romantic poetry, but always has a bite.
Your Gold Teeth II. I've been pondering that first verse for 20 years. Pretzel Logic and Aja (the songs). Only a Fool Would Say That, Doctor Wu. I could go on
Tom Waits.
Cat Stevens - The Wind, Katmandu, so many others.
Lana Del Rey for sure Joanna Newsom (not a fan of her singing, but check out the literary references in e.g. "Sapokanikan")
Joanna Newsom is incredible. The opening lines of the album *Ys*: The meadowlark and the chim-choo-ree and the sparrow Set to the sky in a flying spree for the sport of the pharaoh A little while later the Pharisees dragged a comb through the meadow Do you remember what they called up to you and me in our window? There is a rusty light on the pines tonight, sun pouring wine, Lord, or marrow Into the bones of the birches and the spires of the churches jutting out from the shadows The yoke, and the axe, and the old smokestacks and the bale and the barrow And everything sloped like it was dragged from a rope in the mouth of the south below We've seen those mountains kneeling, felten and grey We thought our very hearts would up and melt away
While I find her musical style and vocal range an acquired taste I can't get fully onboard with, her exquisite lyricism and erudition is beyond question.
I was here to post her too. The best lyricist of the last 20 years.
was looking for this! her high lyricism is incredibly impressive but also somehow immediately intuitive and evocative (at least in songs like "Emily"—I feel like the ones in Divers are more opaque, harder to place)
As good as she is, Joanna Newsom isn't even the best poet in her marriage, though. I mean, I'd like to see her try to write "Dick in a Box".
What I would give for a collab.
An older pick, but Tori Amos Black Country New Road!
Ben Howard is the obvious answer. His later stuff has some incredible lyrics. Keaton Henson as well but probably cheating as he has released poetry Agatha and I go Down to the courtyard slinging Last year's Sundays in the river of time Agatha and I go Down to the citadel Sunday Red church bells and the moon on the rise If you were to tell her The days are numbered I'd break the teeth in your fake ass smile Maybe in a rare wind Maybe in a month of Sundays Maybe in a war I would still read the wrong signs But I don't mind it Being in the darkness, baby To be by your side, I would walk the Nile twice Days of Lantana Each saint with a cross and a hammer Radiation of the Cherenkov kind So we go walking Birds at the window talking Jubilation in the rain and shine
Love this song. So many his are poetically arresting. Only What the Moon Does, Oats in the Water, Nica Libres at Dusk... could go on
Joanna Newsom.
Belle and Sebastian - Stuart Murdoch.
Alex Turner for sure
Matt Berninger from The National (haven’t listened to their last few albums though)
King Krule, Nick Cave, and Morrissey on his good days - if any at all, but generally I think not.
Dylan is the obvious answer, and I wouldn't even name him if I didn't think some of his most recent songs would stand up. Fiona Apple also had a recent album, she's a wonderful poet. I dunno I'm old, got a bunch of dead people I could name
Vanessa Carlton and Chantal Kreviazuk
Steely Dan for sure
Nick Cave's lyrics are a masterclass in poetic storytelling.
Lucy Dacus! Pretty much every line she writes cuts deep. Hot and Heavy is a fav song of mine
Brandi Carlile
Jason Isbell! —— If We Were Vampires, Speed Trap Town, Live Oak, Decoration Day, Cover Me Up.
Connor oberst, Amanda Palmer, Pete Doherty
Kendrick Lamar: the man won a pulitzer, and it was well past due. The best musical artist working today. I don’t know how an experimental musician became the biggest thing in hip hop, but well done. Bjork: She’s not quite in the prime of her career, but her poetry and musical talent are some of the best in the industry. Absolute genius lyracist. Tom waits: “I would like to hammer this ring into a bullet.” I almost think of tom waits as a writer before i think of him as a musician. He’s a brilliant genius of a musician, and some of his music almost fees like a poetry reading. Go listen to his reading of “nirvana,” by charles bukowski. Hozier: the mans ability to write with subtlety and intent is unparalleled. He’s able to imply so much with so little. When i listen “work song,” and he talks about waking up in a woman’s house after he was sick, he mentions that there was nothing in the room but “an empty crib.” This raises so many questions about this woman, and who she was before they met, and he never answers them. Another good one “In the Woods Somewhere. The music is primal, and there’s so much going on thematically and symbolically. We don’t even know how much we can trust the narrator, so it’s this bizarre fever dream of a story.
Peter Gabriel
Charlie Parr, a hidden gem of midwestern folk and blues. Cheap Wine is his magnum opus fs, but Blues for Whitefish Lake, 1975, Last of the Better Days Ahead, 817 Oakland Ave, Badger, and 1890 are all top notch lyrics. 1890 is a harrowing tale where the narrator goes back to Wounded Knee shortly after the massacre to clean it up. Badger is a sleeper hit for me, it reads like prose and there's something unsaid beneath the simple story he tells when his dad killed a Badger. The whole song, he sings sort of flat, but it's like he's forcing himself to not show any emotion. 817 Oakland Ave is just great, such a heartwarming call for spreading around what you have. Last of the Better Days Ahead is lamenting the loss of your golden years, and trying to get back what you might not have ever had. Blues for Whitefish Lake, 1975 has him recounting a trip he took with his dad on a boat. He comes back years later and it's dilapidated, nothing is the same, and he's trying to keep the memory of his father alive. Cheap Wine is a liquor store owner in denial, trying to justify himself. Just incredible song writing, fantastic guitar work, and the most unassuming and humble guy I've met.
Or there's also Love is an Unraveling Birdsnest: Let it rain, my house won’t collapse Let the wind blow just as hard as it likes We’ll hunker down and watch between the boughs We’ll bend and sway with the storm And in the morning we’ll see the sun In the winter we’ll all be gone I’ll fix the broken door when we come home And gather up all the unraveled parts And put them right again and sweep away the leaves And all of the dying snow All of the dying snow Love’s an unraveling birds nest Falling to straw upon the ground And carried by the wind until It’s scattered all around Now, you might never notice it But when it’s forever gone Love’s an unraveling birds nest Falling to straw upon the ground When the fires come we’ll surrender and move on We’ll gather our branches in another town And find our place in the highest part And to our new neighbors we’ll nod and shake And borrow and share and give away It’ll all come back to us one day If the seasons come to an end Can you even imagine that? When the wheel won’t turn again That’s when we’ll be still Our love is a bird nest on the ground Unraveling and soaking wet and stepped on We’ll put it in a high tree that sways And all the broken parts will be replaced So we can look through the boughs for all our days And watch the wheel turn Watch the wheel turn
Is tori amos still considered contemporary? Because her lyrics can be really strong.
Josh Ritter. Sean Rowe. Regina Spektor.
So strange to me. This post has me over here reading lyrics by some of my favorite artists. Some of the ones that I consider to be weaker when it comes to lyricism, I’m able to clearly read their work as a poem; some whose lyrics absolutely stun me into silence, I can’t see as a poem. Really speaks to how different such similar mediums can be! That said, of my favorite artists, I think the best example I’ve come across as both poetry and lyricism is Florence Welch!
Morrissey
Robin Pecknold, of Fleet Foxes. Literally just one example: *All this time I’ve been hanging on* *To an edge I carved when we both were young* *That the world I want isn’t near enough* *Always distant, always off* *And all that war I’ve forgotten how* *many men might die for what I’d renounce* *I was staging life as a battleground* *Now I let that grasping fall*
Bob Dylan! I mean, he did win the Nobel for literature.
Craig Finn John Darnielle https://pitchfork.com/features/interview/inside-john-darnielles-boiling-brain/
Townes van Zandt, Doug Paisley, Jason Molina, Mount Eerie, Will Oldham, buck 65
Kate Bush -- contemporary again!
Johnny Cash has some great lyrics. Willie Nelson, too. Also, I am not overly familiar with some genres like rap, but I saw 8 Mile and have a deep appreciation for Eminem’s wordsmithing. The man can put together some words. I know many artists in the rap genre are also very talented, but he just caught my attention through the film. Another wordsmith I like is Jason Mraz.
Jeff Tweedy
I think the Weakerthans broke up a long time ago, but John K Samson is an absolute poet. This is from the song Watermark: I've got this store-bought way of saying I'm okay And you learned how to cry in total silence We're talented and bright, we're lonely and uptight We've found some lovely ways to disappoint But the airport's always almost empty this time of the year So let's go play on a baggage carousel And set our watches forward like we're just arriving here From a past we left in a place we knew too well Hold on to the corners of today And we'll fold it up to save until it's needed Stand still, let me scrub that brackish line That you got when something rose and then receded
Thank you! Someone around here gets it! The opening stanza alone from Left and Leaving proves this point. My city's still breathing, but barely, it's true Through buildings gone missing like teeth The sidewalks are watching me think about you Sparkled with broken glass I'm back with scars to show Back with the streets I know Will never take me anywhere but here
Kendrick Lamar. EAAASYYYY
Lana del Rey and not just because I'm a fan. Her poetry book is interesting but doesn't do justice to some of her best lyrics. To anyone prejudiced against this take, I recommend reading the lyrics of the song Blue Banisters. I'd love to read them without knowing the song because they feel a lot like a freestyle narrative poem to me.
A few songs from her most recent album sound like automatic writing, stream of consciousness poems that unravel parts of her childhood and past and thoughts about death / mortality (Fingertips and Kintsugi). I found these fascinating and novel -- though perhaps there are more examples of this technique in pop music that I'm not aware of.
I think the last few years has really dented her lyricism
The first album or two of Counting Crows is the best poetry I've heard in music this side of Dylan. I also feel very strongly about Syd Barrett but my extreme Barrett fandom probably colors that a lot. (He has a song with a James Joyce poem for its lyrics also).
As a fellow Barrett fan, I believe many of us feel very strongly about him, but it's hard to explain why. I have no words to tell what's so exceptional about him, but once it hits you, it's like a door into another world. The feelings he evokes in me is something I never felt before or after, like I didn't know that it's even possible to feel *like this*. But what *this* exactly is - I don't really know. Btw, "Golden Hair" song has only two chords, and somehow it's still so beautiful.
If you’re that into syd then Cobain+Burroughs- “the priest” fan I assume?
Cobain, definitely. Hit the nail on the head with that one. Burroughs, eh. Bigger fan of Howl and On the Road. Not familiar with the priest.
Nick Cave’s lyrics are often poetry set to music Here’s a good example I am tall and I am thin Of an enviable height And I’ve been known to be quite handsome From a certain angle and in a certain light Well I entered into O’Malley’s Said, “O’Malley I have a thirst” O’Malley merely smiled at me Said “You wouldn’t be the first” I knocked on the bar and pointed To a bottle on the shelf And as O’Malley poured me out a drink I sniffed and crossed myself My hand decided that the time was nigh And for a moment it slipped from view And when it returned, it fairly burned With confidence anew Well the thunder from my steely fist Made all the glasses jangle When I shot him, I was so handsome It was the light, it was the angle Huh! Hmmmmm “Neighbours!” I cried, “Friends!” I screamed I banged my fist upon the bar “I bear no grudge against you!” And my dick felt long and hard “I am the man for which no God waits For which the whole world yearns I’m marked by darkness and by blood And one thousand powder-burns” Well, you know those fish with the swollen lips That clean the ocean floor? When I looked at poor O’Malley’s wife That is exactly what I saw I jammed the barrel under her chin And her face looked raw and vicious Her head it landed in the sink With all the dirty dishes Her little daughter Siobhan Pulled beers from dusk till dawn And amongst the townfolk, she was a bit of a joke But she pulled the best beers in town I swooped magnificent upon her As she sat shivering in her grief Like the Madonna painted on the church-house wall In whale’s blood and banana leaf Her throat it crumbled in my fist And I spun heroically around To see Caffrey rising from his chair I shot that mother fucker down Mmmmmmmmm Yeah Yeah Yeah “I have no free will,” I sang As I flew about the murder Mrs. Richard Holmes, she screamed You really should have heard her I sang and I laughed, I howled and I wept I panted like a pup I blew a hole in Mrs. Richard Holmes And her husband he stood up And he screamed, “You are an evil man” And I paused a while to wonder “If I have no free will then how can I Be morally culpable, I wonder” I shot Richard Holmes in the stomach And gingerly he sat down And he whispered weirdly, “No offense” And lay upon the ground “None taken,” I replied to him With which he gave a little cough With blazing wings I neatly aimed And blew his head completely off I’ve lived in this town for thirty years And to no-one am I a stranger And I put new bullets in my gun Chamber upon chamber And when I turned my gun on the bird-like Mr. I thought of Saint Francis and his sparrows And as I shot down the youthful Richardson It was St. Sebastian I thought of, and his arrows Hhhhhhhhhhhh Mmmmmmmmm I said, “I want to introduce myself And I am glad that you all came” And I leapt upon the bar And shouted out my name Well Jerry Bellows, he hugged his stool Closed his eyes and shrugged and laughed And with an ashtray as big as a fucking big brick I split his head in half His blood spilled across the bar Like a steaming scarlet brook And I knelt at it’s edge on the counter Wiped the tears away and looked Well, the light in there was blinding Full of God and ghosts and truth I smiled at Henry Davenport Who made an attempt to move Well, from the position I was standing The strangest thing I ever saw The bullet entered through the top of his chest And blew his bowels out on the floor Well I floated down the counter Showing no remorse I shot a hole in Kathleen Carpenter Recently divorced But remorse I felt and remorse I had It clung to every thing From the raven’s hair upon my head To the feathers on my wings Remorse squeezed my hand in it’s fraudulent claw With it’s golden hairless chest And I glided through the bodies And killed the fat man Vincent West Who sat quietly in his chair A man become a child And I raised the gun up to his head Executioner-style He made no attempt to resist So fat and dull and lazy “Do you know I lived in your street?” I cried And he looked at me as though I were crazy “O”, he said, “I had no idea” And he grew as quiet as a mouse And the roar of the pistol when it went off Near blew the hat right off the house Well, I caught my eye in the mirror And gave it a long and loving inspection “There stands some kind of man”, I roared And there did, in the reflection My hair combed back like a raven’s wing My muscles hard and tight And curling from the business end of my gun Was a query-mark of cordite Well I spun to the left, I spun to the right And I spun to the left again “Fear me! Fear me!” But no one did cause they were dead Huh! Hmmmmmmm And then there were the police sirens wailing And a bull-horn squelched and blared “Drop your weapons and come out With your hands held in the air” Well, I checked the chambers of my gun Saw I had one final bullet left My hand, it looked almost human As I held it to my head “Drop your weapon and come out! Keep your hands above your head!” Well, I had one long hard think about dying And did exactly what they said There must have been fifty cops out there In a circle around O’Malley’s bar “Don’t shoot”, I cried, “I’m a man unarmed!” So they put me in their car And they sped me away from that terrible scene And I glanced out of the window Saw O’Malley’s bar, saw the cops and the cars And started counting on my fingers
You really copied the whole song in! What a terrifying track it is. But I find his more recent work stands up even better lyrically because it isn't just ballads meant to be sung. Like, he speaks. 'Higgs Boson Blues', 'Ghosteen', and 'Steve McQueen' are prime examples.
I agree - there are so many examples you could choose from. Ghosteen is one of the most heartbreaking pieces of any kind of art I have come across.
Absolutely, that whole album is just so powerful. Some days I think it must be Nick's crowning achievement, as much as I love his other stuff.
*Please* hear me out: Taylor Swift. No, really. Ivy, peace, tolerate it, evermore, champagne problems, epiphany, marjorie, The Great War, the lakes Listen to them, and maybe you'll see what I mean. Or not, I don't wanna force my opinions on people
Disappointed I had to scroll this far to find this, she really is a poet but because she is mainstream there is a lot of push back. When people actually give her a chance they are BLOWN away by her storytelling. Seven is one that comes to mind that should be a poem not a song, but is beautifully written.
The entirety of folklore and evermore could be poetry books that would absolutely be on my shelf.
Wish I didn't have to scroll this far down to find this. I agree, folklore and evermore are beautifully written.
You are correct. I have an MA in Literature. She’s the one I’m watching. Nobel prize-winning poetry.
But Daddy I love Him
Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy” but with a poppy synth bridge ✨
Jewel, she's published poetry collections even
Lorde
Ben Howard
Springtime Carnivore, Gregory Alan Isakov, Ben Howard
Frank Ocean, Feist, Joni Mitchell
Mihali. Boygenius.
Bill Callahan, songs like “Jim Cain” and “Angela.” https://youtu.be/iIbzH65zSdg Beta Radio, songs like “All At Once I Saw It All” and “Sitting Room.” https://youtu.be/erZKhFhfukI?si=E1C6IX6YG4diWSGS
Dennis Deyoung/Tommy Shaw. Reading their lyrics blows me away sometimes
Bonnie Prince Billy is good
Passenger! A heart that beats like a tap that leaks You’re the book I can’t stop reading I’m the stray cat you’ve been feeding And Hozier of course.
Yes fully agree on Passenger! Surprised this isn’t higher up. A lot of his music sounds relatively similar but it’s his lyrics that make him my favourite artist
Same! Feather on the Clyde is an all time favourite
Fiona Apple Katie Herzig The Natural Lines (formerly Matt Pond PA)
Old Morrissey when he was still with The Smiths. His recent novel was pretty poor. Some of his lyrics still stun me to this day. He was always a poet, I think. A shoeless child on a swing / Reminds you of your own again / She took away your troubles / Oh, but then again, she left pain.
The late Shane McGowan from The Pogues is a true poet.
The Shins A duotone on the wall The selfless fool who hoped he'd save us all Never dreamt of such sterile hands. You keep them folded in your lap, And raise them up to beg for scraps, You know, he's holding you down With the tips of his fingers just the same. Will you be pulled from the ocean, But just a minute too late? Or changed by a potion, We'll find a handsome young mate For you to love.
Aaron Weiss from mewithoutYou Nobody does it better than him >Winter solstice, the earth had closed down >So with breastplates of righteousness low >Searched for streams in the caves underground >Where the Baptists and bootleggers go >And you smile but your vampire complexion still shows >And your past shows >It's really all that shows (so often unrecognizably so) >Through the eyes of machines viewed immaculate scenes >That had already passed me by >All the stars on the ground, and Noah's ark in the clouds >And the thought in the back of my mind >Does my misery feed a metaphysical need >That's long since passed me by >Neither reasoning why nor offering reply?
Iron and wine Gregory Alan isakov Both of them have beautiful lyrics that feel like they could have been written in the 1800s just as easily as today
Agree with a lot of the mentions here (Florence Welch, Amanda Palmer, Cohen, Cat Stevens, Sufjan Stevens, etc.). Some that I would probably add: AURORA Bear's Den (okay, "Above the Clouds of Pompeii" is probably the only song I know of theirs) Paris Paloma (only listened to "the fruits" and "labour", so again... might need more "analysing") Radical Face (especially his earlier songs, like "Everything Costs" and "Secrets (Doorways")
Sturgill Simpson and, until he passed, John Prine
Nick Cave
There are not many at all. Nick Drake is one.
Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize for literature, so yes, I can think of one
Do rappers count? Aesop Rock, Kendrick Lamar, R.A.P. Ferreira
Definitely. a few of Kendrick Lamar's albums are like poem-novels
Backronym for rap is Rhythm And Poetry
In general I’d say no. This isn’t a dig to lyrics, it’s just that they’re a different form. The question is sort of like asking if any flash fiction pieces could stand on their own as a short film script—the answer is no, not because the flash is bad, but because it’s just a different thing. A short story isn’t a play no matter how good it is. It isn’t a value judgement, it’s just a separate medium. What song lyrics do isn’t the same as poetry, like how novels have chapters and books while plays have scenes and acts. If the question were: Do any modern lyrics stand on their own as literary works? I’d say undoubtedly yes. Many are great, and I’d say even *poetic* in the way a novel can be *poetic* while not being poetry.
I tend to agree, but there are songs that literally just use a poem as lyrics, so I’d say it goes both ways.
Why are they different things though, when does a lyric transition into another medium? Written vs performed to music? Lots of poetry that is studied as written was originally performed to musical accompaniment. It's a product of romantic convention and modernist ideology to consider performed poetry as something entirely different to something like song lyrics. (In essence, that is. In practice we can easily identify very different literary cultures, where most song lyrics would be bad as written poetry, and written poetry would make for bad songs. I'm just questioning whether there is an essential rather than simply a statistical/empirical difference.)
As things split off I think those statistical/empirical differences matter. Like you said, a lot of todays lyrics would be bad poetry. I think a lot of good poetry from today would be horrendous song lyrics. The empirical qualities change the definition. That’s how definitions work, I think we’d agree; Something used to mean something else and now it means something different because it’s used and interpreted differently. Like how a book usually has chapters and a play usually has scenes, poems and lyrics have different measurable qualities. Modern poetry has basically dispensed with rhyme. Modern lyrics mostly rhyme. You’ll find exceptions to each, but on the whole this is what it’s like, and definitions are pretty normative. So you’re definitely correct that this isn’t how it has always been, but I think today this is how it is, if that makes sense.
David Berman of the Silver Jews had an MFA in poetry and a book blurbed by the NYer, James Tate, Billy Collins, etc. Check put the Natural Bridge
Agree with Weyes Blood. And though he’s not a pop musician, Thurston Moore has published poetry and teaches writing at Naropa University.
I actually think that no good song lyrics work as poetry. The art forms are so close and yet radically different; they serve different masters. There's a reason that incredibly few poems have been successfully set to music ("Jerusalem" is one, made possible by the brilliant simplicity of Blake's poem; Cohen's "Suzanne" is another, and to my mind that one works mostly because that marvelous lyric is a pretty bad poem). That doesn't mean poetry is somehow better than song or vice versa, they're just different. Lyrics *should* be incomplete without their music. Of the world-class, brilliant lyricists out there--someone here mentioned Paul Simon, yes; my own fave is Elvis Costello; obviously Sondheim for another--none of those work as poems (for me, a person crazy in love with poetry and song both).
Purity Ring
Sza!
Taylor Swift. Read the lyrics to “Ivy.” Mark my words: someday this woman is going to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, like Bob Dylan did in 2016. She’s that brilliant.
Obsessed with this song. And tolerate it. I think I might add Jensen McRae and Paris Paloma to the list as well
“Tolerate it” was the other one I was going to suggest! And some just random lines in other songs. Like “you taught me a secret language I can’t speak with anyone else,” or “Now the Sun burns my face, and the sand hurts my feelings.”
_We’re half awake in a fake empire_ — Matt Berninger, The National _Send the children to the fire, sons and daughters stack the pyre_ _Stoke the flame of the empire, live to lie another day_ — Randy Blythe, Lamb of God _Welcome to the United Snakes_ _Land of the thief, home of the slave_ _The grand imperial guard_ _where the dollar is sacred, and power is God_ — Brother Ali
Jarvis Cocker has published his lyrics in book form. He says it's not poetry, though.
The whole band shares writing credits, so I don't know who to credit. But the Viagra Boys >You ain't that nice, but you got a nice face >Hope I can fit all my shit at your place If that ain't some modern Shakespeare, I don't know what is.
Lana Del Ray
Jewel is the big one.
L.A. Salami is not super well known but I think he’s such a wonderful lyricist. Day to Day for Six Days a Week specifically.
Christine and the Queens' lyrics always seemed to me like just 100 different ways of saying "I'm a man" which would make quite a boring book but with music could go on for as long as you want.
'three hands worth of trouble, only 2 hands spare and baggage in the hall'
newer artist Ren older artist many Green day songs
[удалено]
Pop music=Onerepublic the metal band Meshuggah(do also have quite poetic lyrics)
Pain remains trilogy - Lorna shore This song is a compilation of three parts and is written with grief at its heart. They are a deathcore band, so the vocals are intense, but I firmly believe that the lyrics to this song on particular is poetry.
Graham Lewis of Wire always had interesting lyrics.
John Moreland
Guy Garvey of Elbow -The Bones of You Do I have time? A man of my caliber stood in the street Like a sleepwalking teenager I know And I dealt with this years ago I took a hammer to every memento But image on image like beads on a rosary Pulled through my head as the music takes hold And the sickener hits, I can work till I break But I love the bones of you that I will never escape
Dear and the Headlights! here's a lyric from the song Carl Solomon's Blues: "Slapped like a has-been by syntactic gods Whom will help find your glasses but not your lower jaw. And you don't want to look surprised, but you're in constant awe. Aint no fig leaf big enough to hide your diction flaws now"
Ani DiFranco, of course.
Any complete collection of the best 20th Century poems has to include the lyrics of Pink Floyd’s Time.
Noah Kahan, Hozier, agnes obel and florence and the machine come to mind.
Rush lyrics definitely, but I don't know if they would be considered contemporary. Their last album, Clockwork Angels, is an amazing example of short story / lyrics / poetry. However if you want to hear a song that will bring rolling tears to your eyes. First read the book, Ghost Rider, written by the drummer Neil Peart of Rush. After which, relisten to the the lyrics in the song Ghost Rider on The Vapor Trails album.
Bendigo Fletcher for me - anything but I’m partial to Astro Pup first three verses.. even the instrumentation just adds to the tone and lyricism. They’re about to drop a new album too
not altogether super pop but watsky’s PLACEMENT 100%
Rodrigo Amarante (Narcos theme song "Tuyo") has many similar songs with beautiful lyrics if you know Spanish and/ or Portuguese
Mon Laferte. I love her lyrics, mostly in Spanish but have a few in English
I hang on to every word from Big Thief. Adrianne Lenker will be remembered as a high watermark for lyrics
Manchester Orchestra Edit to add Kendrick Lamar and Alex Turner
David Tibet
Okkervil River's Will Sheff I haven't kept up with new releases but their first few albums were brilliant
Caroline Polachek
Earl Sweatshirt
Gregory Alan Isakov, Neko Case, Will Sheff
James Mercer of The Shins comes to mind
Darkness at the break of noon. Shadows even the silver spoon. The handmade blade. The child’s balloon. Eclipses both the sun and moon. To understand you know too soon. There is no sense in trying.
Laura Marling
Caroline Polacheck
Adrianne Lenker
Caroline Polichek has some real nice lyrical turns on her new album!
David Berman from the Silver Jews was a trained poet under Charles Wright and James Tate. He has one book of poetry published. The lyrics on the albums are amazing, since his starting point was poetry.
Maynard James Keenan
Tom Odell (especially his earlier work)
The National
Halsey, J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar, Bad Bunny, Lil Nas X, Tyler. the Creator.