Rate these singer-songwriter lyrics

They’re all godawful. If you wrote then, OZo, please don’t quit your day job.

LOL R1 they are all written by acclaimed singer-songwriters.

I copied and pasted some from sites and published before realizing there are a few typos ("That let's you in" vs. "that lets you in") but otherwise...these are all lyrics from some of the most celebrated singer-songwriters in popular music.

#6 is the only set of great lyrics, set to exciting music.

LET'S EXCHANGE THE EXPERIENCE! OOOHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Joni Mitchell, Kate Bush, Fiona Apple, Taylor Swift, Tori Amos and Lana Del Rey are the authors of the lyrics at the OP, FYI.

Of course, it's the Tori Amos Troll.

I recognized number 3 immediately as Joni Mitchell's A Case Of You. The others are not familiar, and are mostly bad as far as lyrics go.

I don't listen to any of these artists, OP, no matter how much you and your lonely friends like them. The only one I found interesting was #3, A Case Of You by Joni Mitchell. This is consistent with my actual taste in singer-songwriters. All these songs sound a lot like white people's problems (except perhaps the only one Iiked). Placebo, Tori Amos, Fiona Apple... This is all very one-note, OP.

Posting this thread just to bore us out... You have too much free time on your hands, OP. Have you ever thought about volunteering at the shelter?

You're wrong, R6.

#6 is fantastic and the best of the bunch.

1)3 2)2 3)6 4)5 5)1 6)4

Taylor Swift's "All Too Well," which was celebrated in several reviews as the standout track of her album "Red," and this lyric was noted by several reviewers as outstanding:

"'Cause there we are again in the middle of the night We dance around the kitchen in the refrigerator light Down the stairs, I was there, I remember it all too well, yeah"

...and I've never understood why she is nearly universally acclaimed for her lyrics, so I was wondering what others think about them as compared with other songwriters who are generally accepted as very talented.

The Fiona Apple song

The Kate Bush song

The Tori Amos song (abridged for TV)

Who gives a shit about Taylor Swift?

Who gives a shit about Tori Amos?

[quote] LOL [R1] they are all written by acclaimed singer-songwriters.

Seriously? Well, they are still fucking terrible, sorry. Okay, maybe on a second look, the Joni Mitchell lyrics are fairly interesting, but also a testament to how you need the singer in singer-songwriter to make some lyrics work.

Song #2 is particularly execrable. Song #6 I recognize as a Kate Bush song now that someone mentioned her, but not one I ever particularly liked, and again, it needs to be performed to not sound thoroughly silly.

They are all laughably bad. The Kate Bush song is mostly about the unique melody anyway.

The Lana Del Rey song...almost everyone on DL seems to think she's the greatest thing since Betty White and I don't quite get it.

But she's fine.

R14 She's no worse lyricswise than the others OP posted, though. What we can take away from this thread is that Joni Mitchell is the only decent lyricist out of this bunch. Maybe we knew this already?

Many songs can sound great even though the lyrics are not that great. A song is not a poem.

And finally Joni, who we all agree is a genius.

"Good songwriter" is subjective. Tori Amos is my favorite musical artist and her songs certainly are not for everyone. Her lyrics can be impenetrably enigmatic and sometimes also cloying, but I won't accept that she's not an incredibly talented lyricist.

On my way up north

Up on the Ventura

I pulled back the hood

And I was talking to you

And I knew then it would be

A life long thing

But I didn't know that we

We could break a silver lining

And I'm so sad

Like a good book

I can't put this day back

A sorta fairytale with you

Things you said that day

Up on the 101

The girl come had undone

I tried to downplay it

With a bet about us

You said that you'd take it

As long as I could

I could not erase it

And I'm so sad

Like a good book

I can't put this day back

A sorta fairytale with you

And I ride alongside you then

And I rode alongside you then

And I rode along side 'till you lost me there in the open road

And I rode along side till the honey spread itself so thin

For me to break your bread

For me to take your word

I had to steal it

And I'm so sad

Like a good book

I can't put this day back

A sorta fairytale with you

I could pick back up whenever I feel

Down New Mexico way

Something about the open road

I knew that he was looking for some Indian blood and

Find a little in you find a little in me

we may be on this road but

We're just impostors in this country you know

So we go along and we said we'd fake it

Feel better with Oliver Stone

Till I almost smacked him seemed right that night and

I don't know what takes hold

Out there in the desert cold

These guys think they must

Try and just get over on us

And I'm so sad

Like a good book

I can't put this day back

A sorta fairytale with you

And I was ridin' by

Ridin' along side

For a while till you lost me

And I was ridin' by

Ridin' along till you lost me

'Till you lost Me in The rear view

You lost me I said

Way up North I took my day

All in all was a pretty nice day and

I put the hood right back where

You could taste heaven perfectly

Feel out the summer breeze

Didn't know when we'd be back and I

I don't, didn't think

We'd end up like

Like this

R22 Those lyrics are a pile of shit. Go read/listen to some Simon & Garfunkel, Laura Nyro or Andy Partridge.

Donald? Is that YOU!?

Number 1.

[quote] Her lyrics can be impenetrably enigmatic

Only if your definition of "impenetrably enigmatic" = "total shit"

I love a well-written lyric, but unless a song is really dumb, subpar lyrics won't ruin it for me. Especially when it comes to pop music. It's all about intent and feeling while trying to fit words to a beat and melody. The best lyricist in the world will not save a shitty tune.

Lyric writing has reached its nadir.

The situation is bad when the lyricists writes sensible verses in the English language but the singer feels compelled to add 'oo-oo-ar-ar-aargh-ha-aah' in their own made-up language between the verses.

Current singers are taught to ignore diction.

I can only understand about six words from this amateur singer. But even millionaire singers are equally as bad.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

They are no Leonard Cohen

Jason Isbell, “Live Oak”

There's a man who walks beside me he is who I used to be And I wonder if she sees him and confuses him with me And I wonder who she's pining for on nights I'm not around Could it be the man who did the things I'm living down

I was rougher than the timber shipping out of Fond du Lac When I headed south at seventeen, the sheriff on my back I'd never held a lover in my arms or in my gaze So I found another victim every couple days But the night I fell in love with her, I made my weakness known To the fighters and the farmers digging dusty fields alone The jealous innuendos of the lonely-hearted men Let me know what kind of country I was sleeping in Well you couldn't stay a loner on the plains before the war When my neighbors took to slightin' me, I had to ask what for Rumors of my wickedness had reached our little town Soon she'd heard about the boys I used to hang around We'd robbed a great-lakes freighter, killed a couple men aboard When I told her, her eyes flickered like the sharp steel of a sword All the things that she'd suspected, I'd expected her to fear Was the truth that drew her to me when I landed here

There's a man who walks beside me he is who I used to be And I wonder if she sees him and confuses him with me And I wonder who she's pining for on nights I'm not around Could it be the man who did the things I'm living down

Well I carved her cross from live oak and her box from short-leaf pine And buried her so deep, she'd touch the water table line And picked up what I needed and I headed south again To myself, I wondered, “Would I ever find another friend”

There's a man who walks beside her, he is who I used to be And I wonder if she sees him and confuses him with me.

Try that again.

There's a man who walks beside me he is who I used to be

And I wonder if she sees him and confuses him with me

And I wonder who she's pining for on nights I'm not around

Could it be the man who did the things I'm living down

I was rougher than the timber shipping out of Fond du Lac

When I headed south at seventeen, the sheriff on my back

I'd never held a lover in my arms or in my gaze

So I found another victim every couple days

But the night I fell in love with her, I made my weakness known

To the fighters and the farmers digging dusty fields alone

The jealous innuendos of the lonely-hearted men

Let me know what kind of country I was sleeping in

Well you couldn't stay a loner on the plains before the war

When my neighbors took to slightin' me, I had to ask what for

Rumors of my wickedness had reached our little town

Soon she'd heard about the boys I used to hang around

We'd robbed a great-lakes freighter, killed a couple men aboard

When I told her, her eyes flickered like the sharp steel of a sword

All the things that she'd suspected, I'd expected her to fear

Was the truth that drew her to me when I landed here

There's a man who walks beside me he is who I used to be

And I wonder if she sees him and confuses him with me

And I wonder who she's pining for on nights I'm not around

Could it be the man who did the things I'm living down

Well I carved her cross from live oak and her box from short-leaf pine

And buried her so deep, she'd touch the water table line

And picked up what I needed and I headed south again

To myself, I wondered, “Would I ever find another friend”

There's a man who walks beside her, he is who I used to be

And I wonder if she sees him and confuses him with me

TLDR but like #1. As far as I got.

Kate Bush @no6:

[quote] Unaware I'm tearing you asunder

...quickly became a Mondegreen/mis-heard lyric:

[quote] Underwear, I'm tearing you asunder

This thread reminds me -- hilariously! -- of "journaling" in high school.

When I was a junior, my English teacher required us to "journal" at home 2-3x/week. (private school, she could do that). It could be about anything -- mundane daily events, our deepest thoughts/concerns, write a poem, whatever. She was not going to *read* our journals....just flip through them occasionally (in our presence) to see that we were writing something. It was about the exercise of writing.

Some classmates stayed on top of it, journaling regularly, but usually when she announced: "Please bring your journals on Friday", there was a mad scramble by 50% of the class to fill their journal pages....using different colored pens, so it didn't look like the entries were written on the same day.

I was one of those students, and found that copying SONG LYRICS was a really easy way to fill up a page! I would start an entry in a personal way, for sentence or two, and then it was just song lyrics. A lot of Duran Duran, LOL. That's what I was into & they printed song lyrics on the album sleeves. Also.... I was pretty sure my English teacher didn't know who the fuck Duran Duran was. (picture Dorothy Michaels)

I love Doughnut Song by Tori Amos (#2 on the list). Boys for Pele was the soundtrack of my life at 17.

Oops, forgot to add my contribution to the thread was another 90s singer-songwriter, Ani Difranco, who was tops at clever wordplay.

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