Best/Worst Lyrics In Pop/Rock music

david hasselhoff.....oh yeah

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJQVlVHsFF8

[quote]zeds dead wrote:

Overall I don't think anyone can touch Dylan as a lyricist.

the pump don't work 'cause the vandals took the handle

the man on the corner wants 11 dollar bills and you only got

ten

but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now

I like Fidel Castro and his beard

pure genius, just a couple that I like

Motorpsycho Nightmare is just plain funny. Talkin' Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues, well I could just go on forever

"I Shall Be Free No. 10" is his funniest

A couple of verses from Desolation Row--from Highway 61 Revisited--one that any music fan should own.

Now at midnight all the agents

And the superhuman crew

Come out and round up everyone

That knows more than they do

Then they bring them to the factory

Where the heart-attack machine

Is strapped across their shoulders

And then the kerosene

Is brought down from the castles

By insurance men who go

Check to see that nobody is escaping

To Desolation Row

Yes, I received your letter yesterday

(About the time the door knob broke)

When you asked how I was doing

Was that some kind of joke?

All these people that you mention

Yes, I know them, they're quite lame

I had to rearrange their faces

And give them all another name

Right now I can't read too good

Don't send me no more letters no

Not unless you mail them

From Desolation Row

RunDaddy wrote:

How's this for truly horrible: 'The Warrior' by Scandal

My gosh the 80s were more awful than I remember.

I remember.

How about Judas Priest?

I guess this fits somewhere in between "Fight for Your Right to Party" and "Parent's Just Don't Understand"

You say I waste my life away

But I live it to the full

How would you know anyway

You're just mister dull

Why don't you get into the things we do today

You could lose twenty years right away

So we say

We don't need no

No no no

Parental guidance here

We don't need no

No no no

Parental guidance here

Every day you scream at me

To turn the music low

Well if you keep on screaming

You'll make me deaf you know.

You always chew me out, because I stay out late

Until your three-piece suit comes back in date

Get one thing straight

We don't need no

No no no

Parental guidance here

We don't need no

No no no

Parental guidance here

There's no communication

I'm tired of explanation

Is this message getting through

You went through the same thing too

Don't you remember what it's like to lose control

Put on my jacket for you get too old

Let's rock and roll

We don't need no

No no no

Parental guidance here

We don't need no

No no no

Parental guidance here

We don't need no

No no no

Parental guidance here

We don't need no

No no no

Parental guidance here

Oh no

One life

And I'm gonna live it up

Man oh man. No mentions of Steely Dan here? I think they are actually the lyrical kings of ...whatever you want to call their pop/rock/blues/jazz thing that they do.

Babs and Clean Willie were in love they said

So in love the preacher's face turned red

Soon everybody knew the thing was dead

He shouts, she bites, they wrangle through the night

She go crazy

Got to make a getaway

Papa say

Oh - no hesitation

No tears and no hearts breakin'

No remorse

Oh - congratulations

This is your Haitian Divorce

Maybe it lacks the punch of Fagen's delivery. But damn these guys know how to write.

Lately I'm getting better.

Wish I could stay sick with you

But there's too many egos left to bruise.

Call it sin you can call it whatever.

Eating deep inside of you.

Well if it were me It's all I'd ever do.

Steal me now and forever.

I'll steal something good for you

The criminal in me is no one new.

'Till you find something better.

When there's nothing left to use

And everything starts going down on you.

I'm the Generator, firing whenever you quit

Yeah, whatever it is, you go out and it's on.

Yeah, can't you hear my motored heart?

You're the one that started it.

Send me out on a tether.

Swing it 'round, I'll spin your noose.

You let it down, I'll hang around with you.

'Till you find someone better.

When there's no one left to lose,

And everyone keeps going down.

I'm the Generator, firing whenever you quit

Yeah, whatever it is, you go out and it's on.

Yeah, can't you hear my motored heart?

You're the one that started it.

I'm the Generator, firing whenever you quit

Yeah, whatever it is, you go out and it's on.

Yeah, can't you hear my motored heart?

You're the one that started it.

I'm the Generator. I'm the Generator.

I'm the Generator. I'm the Generator.

I'm the Generator. I'm the Generator.

Yeah, can't you hear my motored heart?

You're the one that started it.

The above is probably my favorite song. Here is the song being performed live. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RKPiaq49lo&feature=related

If you're gonna paste a live clip of a band, at least do it with their best song! they are probably the best live band ever, though, no doubt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LA6mRHC1mT4

"jesus christ im not scared to die,

im a little bit scared of what comes after.

do i get the gold charoit,

do i float through the ceiling?"

-brand new

I saw FF at Live Earth last year. They were AMAZING.

All my life I've been searching for something

Something never comes

Never leads to nothing

Nothing satisfies but I'm getting close

Closer to the prize at the end of the rope

All night long I dream of the day

When it comes around and it's taken away

Leaves me with the feeling that I feel the most

Feel it come to life when I see your ghost

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-mff1ukhUg

I am somewhat surprised at the discussion here. Dylan, of course, is hard to beat for both the best and the overall level.

Surprising names that do not show up or do very little. Start with the Beatles - there song book is worth more than most you the people posting here will ever make in their lifetime, and and maybe by a factor of 10 for some. They have probably been covered more than anyone else ever, including Dylan, and I am not sure that will change in a hundred years; it has already been ~40.

Stevie Wonder had Albums of the Year again and again; it isn't just his singing.

American Pie has better lyrics that most of the songs mentioned here that are not by Dylan. Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Sympathy for the Devil (and other Stones songs largely absent here). From a Distance (Gold)

Carol King, Joanie Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Pete Seger, the Hollys, Patti Smith, Paul Simon (w/ and w/o A.G.), Jackson Browne, Natalie Merchant, David Bowie, Van Morrison, Nanci Griffith (Listening to the Radio), Elvis, and even The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, The Mommas and the Poppas, The Who,

eyes... why'd you have to go and let this thread die?

Leonard Cohen is a Canadian-born poet, novelist, and singer/songwriter, and is a member of the Order of Canada.

Although he is a Canadian, he is really a citizen of the World, in all the best senses of that term. He spent years on an Island in Greece, years at a Zen Buddhist retreat outside of L.A., years in New York, etc., in addition to his Jewish, Montreal Quebec home.

For various reasons, he is probably not as well known in the USA, as he is in Canada and Europe and parts of Asia.

His original lyrics have been "covered" more than 1500 times around the World, in many languages, and in virtually all genres of music. Probably everyone reading this would recognize some of his songs, although not knowing the writer.

Here's just a couple of samples of his lyrics, perhaps reflective of the incredible range and power of his themes.

"Closing Time"

So we're drinking and we're dancing

And the band is really happening

And the Johnny Walker wisdom running high

And my very sweet companion

She's the Angel of Compassion

And she's rubbing half the World against her thigh

Every drinker, every dancer

Lifts a happy face to thank her (love that line)

And the fiddler fiddles something so sublime

And the women tear their blouses off

The men they dance on the polka dots

And it's partner found and partner lost

And it's hell to pay when the fiddler stops

It's closing time ...

"Bird on a Wire"

Like a baby stillborn

Like a beast with his horn

I have torn everyone who reached out for me

But I swear by this song

And by all that I have done wrong

I will make it all up to thee...

I saw a beggar leaning on his wooden crutch

He said to me "you must not ask for so much

And a pretty woman leaning in her darkened door

She cried out to me, "hey why not ask for more?"

And so on - some deep dark stuff, and some incredibly uplifting music - death, love, depression, sexuality, spirituality - it's all there.

"this is why I'm hot

this is why I'm hot

this is why, this is why,this is why I'm hot

this is why I'm hot

this is why I'm hot

this is why, this is why, this is why I'm hot

I'm hot 'cause I'm fly, you ain't cause you not

this is why, this is why, this is why I'm hot

I'm hot 'cause I'm fly, you ain't cause you not

this is why, this is why, this is why I'm hot "

-MIMS

"I'm Jocking On Yo Bitch Ass

And If We Get The Fightin

Then I'm Cocking On Your Bitch

You Catch Me At Yo Local Party

Yes I Crank It Everyday

Haterz Get Mad Cause

"I Got Me some Bathing Apes""

-Soulja Boy

F*** the world.

Mariah Carey's new shitshow "Touch my Body" may have the f***ing worst lyrics I have ever heard.

Just when I think this thread is dying, somebody brings it back. OK, here's some more Dylan then. Last 2 verses of "Idiot Wind" from "Blood on the Tracks"--everyone should own this.

I can't feel you anymore, I can't even touch the books you've read

Every time I crawl past your door, I been wishin' I was somebody else instead.

Down the highway, down the tracks, down the road to ecstasy,

I followed you beneath the stars, hounded by your memory

And all your ragin' glory.

I been double-crossed now for the very last time and now I'm finally free,

I kissed goodbye the howling beast on the borderline which separated you from me.

You'll never know the hurt I suffered nor the pain I rise above,

And I'll never know the same about you, your holiness or your kind of love,

And it makes me feel so sorry.

Idiot wind, blowing through the buttons of our coats,

Blowing through the letters that we wrote.

Idiot wind, blowing through the dust upon our shelves,

We're idiots, babe.

It's a wonder we can even feed ourselves.

When I saw/heard this song (Nothin') played by Townes Van Zandt's son in the special features at the end of the documentary "Be Here To Love Me" I cried.

Hey mama, when you leave

Don't leave a thing behind

I don't want nothin'

I can't use nothin'

Take care into the hall

And if you see my friends

Tell them I'm fine

Not using nothin'

Almost burned out my eyes

Threw my ears down to the floor

I didn't see nothin'

I didn't hear nothin'

I stood there like a block of stone

Knowin' all I had to know

And nothin' more

Man, that's nothin'

As brothers our troubles are

Locked in each others arms

And you better pray

They never find you

Your back ain't strong enough

For burdens doublefold

They'd crush you down

Down into nothin'

Being born is going blind

And buying down a thousand times

To echoes strung

On pure temptation

Sorrow and solitude

These are the precious things

And the only words

That are worth rememberin'