Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

Not all heroes wear capes.

I’m sure you banged some questionable people yourself. We’re allowed to grow past that.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Never forget that he train is barreling down on Trump, even as he dances on the tracks.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

You are here: Home / Medium Cool / Medium Cool – Music as Poetry!

Medium Cool – Music as Poetry!

by | 137 Comments

This post is in: , , ,

Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in.  We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.

Arguments welcomed, opinions respected, fools un-suffered.  We’re here every Sunday at 7 pm.

This week, let’s talk about music as poetry.  And story-telling.

Medium Cool – Music as Poetry! 1

I spent one day of my trip last week working to meet an unexpected deadline for one of my clients.  So I worked for 10 hours straight while everyone else was off to the Meijer Gardens in Michigan in 90-degree heat and thunderstorms.  Not sure, but I may have gotten the better end of the deal!  (Though I did want to see the gardens.)

Anyway… I volunteered to keep my niece’s 2 dogs (the ones the stayed with me for 2 weeks when they were only 4 months old) for the day because they kind of panic when it storms.  Shortly before they arrived, I clicked on Jimmy Buffett on the iPad that’s hooked up to the stereo and turned up the volume so if it stormed that would help mute the sound of the thunder, took my work spot at the kitchen table, and got to work.  It did indeed storm, and I had a 90-lb dog in my lap multiple times, and I sang to him as I worked.  When he wasn’t in my lap, he was lying on one foot with his body wedged between my feet and legs.  So we listened to Jimmy Buffett for about 7 hours until all the storms stopped, because I was mostly pinned in place, and I wasn’t gong to do anything to disturb that dogs that I was mostly able to keep calm!

It’s been a long time since I have listened to 7 hours of Jimmy Buffett, and I was really struck by the poetry in his songs.  And by his ability to tell interesting stories with his songs.

I was reminded of that again this week when, in one of the morning threads, lowtechcyclist posted a line from a Simon & Garfunkel song: July, she will fly, and give no warning to her flight… Such a lovely song!

For me, the best music is poetry, when the lyrics and the music mesh perfectly.

The music itself is a big part of the equation, of course, but I am willing to bet that for some people, it’s all about the sound and a lot less about the lyrics, or the voices, or harmony, or about the telling of a story.  (looks around for Omnes to see if he is nodding in agreement)

Anyway, let’s talk about music as poetry, music as story-telling, and music as music.  How do you see it, and what do you like about the music you like best?

Oh, and does older Jimmy Buffett look like Biden, or what?

Medium Cool – Music as Poetry!

 

Reader Interactions

137Comments

  1. 1.

    billcinsd

    My friend Mike Connell wrote this lyric for his song Scotty’s Lament on The Connells recording “Boylan Heights”

    So surprised
    I fought windmills
    So surprised
    I saw angels
    I know my place in this…

    So surprised
    I had visions
    So surprised
    You were in them
    I found my place in this world

    It’s you I swear
    It’s you I swear
    I delight in my despair
    (I’ll wait for you)
    It’s you I swear
    It’s you I swear
    Giving me the right
    (I’ll wait for you)
    It’s you who lied
    It’s you who lied
    When you had to swallow pride
    (I’ll wait for you)
    It’s you I swear
    It’s you I swear..

     

    eta: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKSg3zFB2dE

  2. 2.

    Maxim

    I know some people come at a song lyrics-first, and the tune is just a vehicle. I’m the other way around. I’m an absolute sucker for the sound of a song, and the lyrics are secondary (though not necessarily unimportant, depending on the song). I can forgive mediocre lyrics if I like the music, but if I don’t like the music, the lyrics can’t save it.

  5. 5.

    UncleEbeneezer

    The music itself is a big part of the equation, of course, but I am willing to bet that for some people, it’s all about the sound and a lot less about the lyrics, or the voices, or harmony, or about the telling of a story.

    That would be me. Don’t get me wrong, I love when BOTH the music and the lyrics are incredible and work together in a way that just seems to be a perfect fit. But I can enjoy a song where the music is amazing and the lyrics are just meh, or there even ARE NO lyrics (this is one of the reasons I love instrumental jazz so much). But the other way around (great lyrics but boring music) just doesn’t do it for me. My listening is mostly about the beat, chord changes, melody, harmony etc. And I love, love, LOVE a repeating outro that feels like it could just go on forever.

    I do also love songs that tell a story, even if I’m not quite sure what the story is or means. One of my all-time faves is Tangled Up In Blue, the Dylan classic, covered by The Jerry Garcia Band.

  6. 6.

    UncleEbeneezer

    To Be Counted Among Men– The Villagers

    Young Paul decides upon a future
    And he asks from her a favor
    He wants to know if she will tell him
    If he’s for Hell or he’s for Heaven
    If he’s for Hell he’ll show no sorrow
    Until he’s born again tomorrow
    If he’s for Heaven there’s no reason
    To lament the passing season
    She says, Don’t be a fool, son
    There aren’t any rules, son
    And as she spoke He lost his faith
    He asked her name, she told him Laurie
    Proceeded to give him her life story
    She was a teacher and a scholar
    They built a statue in her honor
    Then she became a slave in ancient Athens
    She doesn’t know quite how it happened
    Now she paints faces in the city
    Making all those ugly girls look pretty
    She says, Look at this town, son
    Take a good luck around, son
    Why should anyone here be saved?
    So he says, Every crooked lane that you can see
    Every open home, every hollow tree
    Is a home for creatures loved by me
    And oh to be counted among them, Among them
    Oh to be counted among them, Among them
    Oh to be counted among them

  7. 7.

    billcinsd

    @piratedan:What’s So Funny (about Peace, Love and Understanding) was written by Nick Lowe, which I’m not saying you were wrong about as Elvis’ version is much more popular

  10. 10.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Always loved the haunting story of River Man by Nick Drake.  Plus it’s the greatest song ever written in 5/4 time signature (and INFINITELY better than Take Five), which as a drummer, I absolutely love.

  11. 11.

    Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg

    I love Buffett for several reasons – he’s been the music of my entire adult life – I’ve probably been to 20 live appearances.  Each one is a separate adventure, and each speaks to me in its own way.

    The guy has been really prolific, and seems to continue to enjoy himself.

    One of the first things I tried to learn on guitar was a rack of Buffett tunes. They’re approachable and feel great to play.

  12. 12.

    Craig

    I worked with Jimmy Buffett once in a very small private venue. I had to tell him that the rental company had sent the wrong in-ear monitor, not the model on his rider. He just smiled and said, “That’s ok man, I don’t need to hear, these guys will just sing the songs for me”. And they did. Really a low key, chill guy. Absolute pleasure to be around.

  13. 13.

    patrick II

    I am not generally a fan of country music but Willie Nelson is the exception.  At his best he is one of the great American poets, no musical accompaniment is needed.
    Two of my favorites are “Blue eyes standing in the rain” and “Angel flying too close to the ground”.

    In the twilight glow I see them
    Blue eyes crying in the rain
    When we kissed goodbye and parted
    I knew we’d never meet again

    Love is like a dying ember
    And only memories remain
    And through the ages I’ll remember
    Blue eyes crying in the rain

  14. 14.

    oatler

    Your situation reminds me of that scene in “One, Two, Three” involving Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini…

  15. 15.

    anitamargarita

    I have no links or lyrics for this guy, Slaid Cleaves, a folkie Americana type with some great songs

  16. 16.

    piratedan

    @billcinsd: I know that, but its kind of understood that the EC version turns it from a ballad to an anthem.  Lowe’s always had a wonderful turn of lyric with Time Wounds All Heels, Half-A-Boy, Half-A-Man and Stick It Where The Sun Don’t Shine…..amongst others

  17. 17.

    Steeplejack

    I just spent a few minutes looking (in vain) for a book that made a big impression on me as a kid. It was called The Muse of Rock (I think), came out as a small paperback around 1965-66, and it was all about how rock lyrics could be, like, poetry. Whoa! Remember that this was a time when pundits and critics were still debating whether those Liverpudlian lads would really amount to anything or, alternately, giving us their long-winded exegesis of what “Eleanor Rigby” “meant.”

    The book had comments on artists and songs, as well as lyrics from a number of them, some I had heard of and some not. I remembered tonight how it was frustrating not to be able to immediately listen to an interesting song. Another reason to be thankful for the Internet.

    One song that I remembered (but had never heard) was Donovan’s “Sand and Foam,” which had the memorable line “Valentino vamp cut and trim the lamp.” I ran it down tonight and heard it for the first time. It’s actually called “Mexico,” and at this date it doesn’t have a lot to recommend it. But it was nice to make the connection. (Donovan himself seems to have completely disappeared after being the British mini-Dylan for a time.)

    On a more upbeat note, one of my all-time favorite songs for pure lyrical mayhem is the Association’s “Along Comes Mary” (with lyrics). Dick Clark: 😯

    Finally, I love this song anyway—Jackie DeShannon’s “When You Walk in the Room”—but I light up at the way she casually works nonchalant into a pop song (at 0:54). In a nonchalant way, you might say. (I looked it up to make sure she wrote it, and I found that she also wrote “Bette Davis Eyes” for Kim Carnes. Go figure.)

  19. 19.

    phein64

    If you like storytelling and music in one work, try any James McMurty album.  I think my favorite might be Peter Pan off the It Had to Happen album.  The opening stanza:
    Beer cans to the ceiling
    ashtray on the floor
    laundry on the sofa
    need I say more
    I walked out with my hair wet
    I caught one awful cold
    should have been more careful
    should have done like I was told
    I can’t believe it
    how could it be
    just like you said could happen
    so it did to me
    Just when I might have seen the light of day
    I crossed my eyes ’til they stayed that way

    I keep my distance
    as best I can
    living out my time here in Never Never land
    I can’t grow up’cause I’m too old now
    I guess I really did it this time mom

  20. 20.

    Rand Careaga

    Singer/songwriter Elizabeth “Connie” Converse, who would have turned ninety-nine the other day, packed up and disappeared around this time in 1974: neither she nor her Volkswagen have ever been seen again. She left behind a handful of recordings and some unrecorded “art songs,” which were recorded some years back by Charlotte Mundy. I slapped together this (somewhat amateurish) video of one of the pieces from her “Cassandra Cycle” a while ago.

  21. 21.

    Larch

    Dessa tells a story in most (all?) of her songs, but probably The Chaconne is the best-known: https://youtu.be/Dnaf9yU-yTY

    Tracy Chapman’s Fast Car has to be a classic of musical storytelling – glad it’s getting attention again.

  25. 25.

    Steeplejack

    Since I’m stuck in a ’60s time warp, I’ll continue the whitebread go-go dancers theme with the Reflections, “Just Like Romeo and Juliet.” A great song, reminding us that there was more than Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons in that era.

    The lyrical hook is that the refrain

    Our love’s gonna to be written down in history
    Just like Romeo and Juliet

    Gets twisted in the last verse:

    If I don’t find work tomorrow
    It’s gonna be heartaches and sorrow
    Our love’s gonna be destroyed like a tragedy
    Just like Romeo and Juliet

    Crusher ending to a nice little pop song.

  29. 29.

    Omnes Omnibus

    I think music and lyrics have to work together.  If you don’t really do great music, your lyrics have to be spectacular.  A Leonard Cohen example.  On the other hand, if the music is banging enough, the words don’t matter.  The Trashmen. Or Blur.   Everyone else has to balance it out.

  30. 30.

    Miki

    I’m on my way to Old which makes me a child of the era of so many songster poets: Laura Nyro, Joni Mitchell, John Prine, Bob Dylan, Ricki Lee Jones, Gorden Lightfoot, The Roche Sisters, etc., etc.

    There’s a ton of awesome songs out there. Here’s one –

    The Hammond Song

  32. 32.

    kalakal

    I remember hearing an interview with Jon Anderson where he was asked why Yes’ lyrics were mostly gibberish. This was after their 3rd album. He replied that generally individual sentences made sense but as a totality the questioner was right. That was because he picked words based on how they sounded not what they meant, if he could find a word that worked for both great, otherwise…

  39. 39.

    Splitting Image

    I think that Simon and Garfunkel have one of the highest value-for-money equations of any musicians of any time. If you like even one of their songs, you can buy their entire catalogue with confidence that you will like almost all of it.

    A couple of earworms I’ve had in my head recently are “Paris 1919” by John Cale and “All Tomorrow’s Parties” by VU. Two wildly different musical arrangements that complement the song lyrics perfectly.

    One of my favourite musical storytellers is Loreena McKennitt. Her music for “The Lady of Shalott” greatly improves the poem, which was already considered a classic. No mean feat, that. Her arrangement of “The Highwayman” is also terrific.

  43. 43.

    Another Scott

    @Maxim: I still remember being shocked in grad school when a fellow student said he was convinced that the lyrics to Yes songs were mainly a bunch of nonsense.

    The music dance and sing
    They make the children really ring
    I spend the day your way
    Call it morning driving through the sound and in and out the valley

    ;-)

    A song with lyrics that are painfully poignant for me are Tori Amos’ Winter.

    Good words are good. Good music is good. Having both is great.

    Cheer,
    Scott.

  45. 45.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Splitting Image: ​A couple of earworms I’ve had in my head recently are “Paris 1919” by John Cale and “All Tomorrow’s Parties” by VU. Two wildly different musical arrangements that complement the song lyrics perfectly.

    Yes!

    One of my favourite musical storytellers is Loreena McKennitt. Her music for “The Lady of Shalott” greatly improves the poem, which was already considered a classic. No mean feat, that. Her arrangement of “The Highwayman” is also terrific.

    And yes!

  47. 47.

    Ivan X

    In 10th or 11th grade — so 1986 or 1987 — my English teacher assigned us to write an essay comparing a poem and a song of our choosing. For the latter, we were allowed to provide a cassette.

    In retrospect, I think this was a fairly relatable way of allowing students to connect to the subject, and I have a lot of sympathy for the teacher.

    But, back then, I was an arch and difficult teenager. I felt the assignment was invalid — poetry and music, even music with lyrics, were two entirely different forms. (Plus, I loved music, and hated poetry.)

    So, for my poem, I chose the Vogon poem from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. For the uninitiated, Vogon poetry is considered to be the worst in the universe, and is primarily used to torture non-Vogons  unlucky enough to be exposed to it.

    For my song, I chose Ministry’s Crash and Burn, which is six minutes of wordless, melody-less, industrial electronic percussion, long before such things found their way into popular culture. I argued that the two works shared a similarity in seeking to create discomfort.

    She responded that, despite how well I wrote my essay and argued my case, I ultimately didn’t engage with the assignment.

    I got a B.

  53. 53.

    hotshoe

    I try to tell folks about this song whenever I get a chance — have listened to it hundreds of times and it still gives me goosebumps:

    Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit; If We Were Vampires
    “If we were vampires and death was a joke
    We’d go out on the sidewalk and smoke
    And laugh at all the lovers and their plans
    I wouldn’t feel the need to hold your hand
    Maybe time running out is a gift
    I’ll work hard ’til the end of my shift
    And give you every second I can find
    And hope it isn’t me who’s left behind”​​
    ​
    ​

  54. 54.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @Ivan X:

    … Vogon poetry is considered to be the worst in the universe…

    Please, the second worst. Of course, the worst perished with the destruction of Earth.

    [my chance at BJ pedantry]

  57. 57.

    Eric K

    If we’re talking music as storytelling gotta include Harry Chapin, the end of Taxi is like a New Yorker story in a few lines

  60. 60.

    raven

    @phein64:
    “Dreams” is an interesting part of the Allman Brothers Band canon. Of their early compositions, it is the one that is most clearly jazz-influenced. Drummer Jai Johanny “Jaimoe” Johanson dubbed it “‘My Favorite Things’ with lyrics,” referencing the Rogers and Hammerstein tune from The Sound of Music that saxophonist John Coltrane had released in 1961. The waltz-time “Dreams” also closely mirrors “All Blues” from Miles Davis’s groundbreaking album Kind of Blue, from which Johanson derived his drum part. The tune reflects this in several ways, particularly in its gentle 6/8 rhythm and a long, improvised solo over a two-chord vamp. “Dreams,” Duane Allman opined, “is the effect that good jazz has had on us.”
    “We all really got in the Coltrane together,” Gregg Allman noted, “which became a big influence, and that was because of Jaimoe.” “When we were first putting a group together,” Duane Allman shared, “We were listening to Jefferson Airplane and the Dead’s records. We were all kicking around down South, buying records out of the Kmart and taking them home and digging them. And [Johanson] comes along and says, ‘Well that’s cool — good, but check out what I got over here, this collection.’ They just turned us all around. We heard with them cats were doing. Knocked us out.” Davis’s Kind of Blue and Coltrane’s My Favorite Things were both band favorites. “It’s like the blues background was right in there,” Dickey Betts shared, “and then like Roland Kirk, Pharoah Saunders, and John Coltrane kind of gave my music that far-out effect, and then adding that blues thing makes it a little more soulful than your jazz music.” Jazz became the bar for the band’s musical aspirations. “Those [jazz] cats catch the flow, so it’s on a level man that — like if you can ever achieve, you’ll never be satisfied with nothing else,” Duane Allman said. “If you can get the music flowing out there, where you don’t have to listen to it, it just takes you away. That’s the way we try to do it. It’s what we want to get out of it.”

  62. 62.

    raven

    @phein64:

    “Dreams” is an interesting part of the Allman Brothers Band canon. Of their early compositions, it is the one that is most clearly jazz-influenced. Drummer Jai Johanny “Jaimoe” Johanson dubbed it “‘My Favorite Things’ with lyrics,” referencing the Rogers and Hammerstein tune from The Sound of Music that saxophonist John Coltrane had released in 1961. The waltz-time “Dreams” also closely mirrors “All Blues” from Miles Davis’s groundbreaking album Kind of Blue, from which Johanson derived his drum part. The tune reflects this in several ways, particularly in its gentle 6/8 rhythm and a long, improvised solo over a two-chord vamp. “Dreams,” Duane Allman opined, “is the effect that good jazz has had on us.”
    “We all really got in the Coltrane together,” Gregg Allman noted, “which became a big influence, and that was because of Jaimoe.” “When we were first putting a group together,” Duane Allman shared, “We were listening to Jefferson Airplane and the Dead’s records. We were all kicking around down South, buying records out of the Kmart and taking them home and digging them. And [Johanson] comes along and says, ‘Well that’s cool — good, but check out what I got over here, this collection.’ They just turned us all around. We heard with them cats were doing. Knocked us out.” Davis’s Kind of Blue and Coltrane’s My Favorite Things were both band favorites. “It’s like the blues background was right in there,” Dickey Betts shared, “and then like Roland Kirk, Pharoah Saunders, and John Coltrane kind of gave my music that far-out effect, and then adding that blues thing makes it a little more soulful than your jazz music.” Jazz became the bar for the band’s musical aspirations. “Those [jazz] cats catch the flow, so it’s on a level man that — like if you can ever achieve, you’ll never be satisfied with nothing else,” Duane Allman said. “If you can get the music flowing out there, where you don’t have to listen to it, it just takes you away. That’s the way we try to do it. It’s what we want to get out of it.”

  63. 63.

    Citizen Dave

    Tom Waits, Nick Cave, Willie, Dylan (there is a great Youtube video on how great Tangled Up in Blue is).  Neil Young I know has ridiculous (T Bone) lyrics, but also sublime lyrics. I’ve always been partial to Thrasher:

    They were hiding behind hay balesThey were planting in the full moonThey had given all they had for something newBut the light of day was on themThey could see the thrashers comingAnd the water shone like diamonds in the dew

    And I was just getting up, hit the road before it’s lightTrying to catch an hour on the sunWhen I saw those thrashers rolling byLooking more than two lanes wideI was feelin’ like my day had just begun

    Where the eagle glides, descendingThere’s an ancient river bendingThrough the timeless gorge of changesWhere sleeplessness awaitsI searched out my companionsWho were lost in crystal canyonsWhen the aimless blade of scienceSlashed the pearly gates
    It was then that I knew I’d had enoughBurned my credit card for fuelHeaded out to where the pavement turns to sandWith a one way ticket to the land of truthAnd my suitcase in my handHow I lost my friends, I still don’t understand

    They had the best selectionThey were poisoned with protectionThere was nothing that they neededNothing left to findThey were lost in rock formationsOr became park bench mutationsOn the sidewalks and in the stationsThey were waiting, waiting
    So I got bored and left them thereThey were just dead weight to meBetter down the road without that loadBrings back the time when I was eight or nineI was watchin’ my mama’s TVIt was that great Grand Canyon rescue episode

    Where the vulture glides, descendingOn an asphalt highway bendingThrough libraries and museums, galaxies and starsDown the windy halls of friendshipTo the rose clipped by the bullwhip
    The motel of lost companionsWaits with heated pool and bar

    But me I’m not stopping thereGot my own row left to hoeJust another line in the field of time
    When the thrasher comes, I’ll be stuck in the sunLike the dinosaurs in shrinesBut I’ll know the time has comeTo give what’s mine

    Source: LyricFind

    Songwriters: Neil Young
    Thrasher lyrics © Words & Music A Div Of Big Deal Music LLC

  65. 65.

    piratedan

    @Steeplejack: yeah, Faron had a pipeline of good writers working for him, I mean he bought Willie Nelson’s “Hello Walls” for 50 bucks…. also have to say I’ve also got a soft spot for Unmitigated Gall…..

     

    El Paso is such a classic story song, so many of them the Western tunes are, like Streets of Laredo and Running Gun.  That Gunfighter Ballads vinyl is just ohhh so classic.

  67. 67.

    kalakal

    Ray Davies has written so many great songs it’s ridiculous. He’s always been very strong lyrically both with humour Dedicated follower of fashion, Superman  and social commentary Shangri la, House in the country. 

    A favourite of mine Waterloo sunset

  69. 69.

    billcinsd

    I just got my tickets to go see The Beths, so here’s one of their early ones
    I never wanted to, I didn’t want to fall
    I don’t believe that love’s a good idea at all
    Oh, this well-designed woe
    Everyone that I know is broken
    And has fell for it before

    Sometimes, I think I’m doing fine, I think I’m pretty smart
    I’m quite convinced that I can keep myself apart
    Oh, then the walls become thin
    And somebody gets in, I’m defenseless
    But it won’t happen again
    It probably won’t happen again

    But there’s something about you
    (About you, about you)
    There’s something about you
    (About you, about you)
    There’s something about you
    I wanna risk going through

    Future heartbreak
    Future headaches
    Wide-eyed nights late-lying awake
    With future cold shakes
    From stupid mistakes
    Future me hates me for
    Hates me for

    It’s getting dangerous, I could get hurt, I know
    I’ve counted up the cons, they far outweigh the pros
    Oh, and the floodgates are down
    It’s the Marlborough Sounds, I am drowning
    It’s too late for me now
    I need you sticking around

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVImwSb4EYU

  70. 70.

    Eric

    off the top of my head a few more great songs as stories writers:

    Bruce of course, Sean Penn literally made a movie out of Highway Patrolman

    Paul Simon, duh

    Dylan, double duh

    Warren Zevon

    Johnny Cash

    Roger Waters

    Al Stewart

    Lorenna Mckennitt

  74. 74.

    Steeplejack

    @piratedan:

    My mom was a big Marty Robbins fan and had that Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs album. I listened to that in between her Joan Baez and all my rock ’n’ roll stuff. “Big Iron” was a favorite.

  77. 77.

    kalakal

    Al Stewart’s written some of my favourite lyrics

    On a morning from a Bogart movie

    In a country where they’ve turned back time

    You go strolling through the crowd like Peter Lorre

    Contemplating a crime

    Year of the Cat

    often with a nifty sense of history

    On the border

  79. 79.

    cope

    “Little old lady got mutilated late last night…”

    Pure poetry with some fine alliteration thrown in for affect.

  81. 81.

    piratedan

    @Steeplejack: yup, my old man had that out frequently when I was a yout….. While the hits were a hit for a reason, it was chock full of stories, some sad and tragic, some less so… Running Gun, Utah Carol and The Strawberry Roan I can still almost sing from memory alone…

    Granted as I got older, all of my teenage angst got translated into Pop Music and hormonal yearning for the fairer sex thru the combination of power chords, vocal harmonies (Badfinger, Raspberries, The Cars) and lyrical longing.

    As others have mentioned, sometimes a lyric is almost secondary depending upon the melody, sometimes something strikes that emotional vibration within and it feels like its simply speaking to you, personally.

  82. 82.

    kalakal

    On a cheerful note

    “Death seed, blind man’s greed

    Poets starving, children bleed

    Nothing he’s got, he really needs”

  85. 85.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @oatler: It seems that Elno the apartheid nepo baby is outraged about a song in South Africa calld “Kill the Boers”.

  89. 89.

    billcinsd

    @hotshoe: So was I. I think they all survived. They put out a few albums last year — Steadman’s Wake, an acoustic Steadman’s Wake and a Live recording called Set the Stage

  91. 91.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Eric: Warren Zevon penned the unofficial camp song of JTF Bravo, located at then Palmerola AB, Honduras.   Now it’s Comayagua International Airport, but JTF Bravo is still there.

  92. 92.

    Ivan X

    @Omnes Omnibus: A turn I quite liked, and a gateway for my ears to entirely new things, but, yes. (They also took a turn again in the 90’s, and not for the better.)

    @Mr. Bemused Senior: Ah, thank you. It’s been a while since I’ve read them, and I do not want to get the details wrong.

  94. 94.

    hotshoe

    @Steeplejack:

    “pure lyrical mayhem”

    Ooh that’s a great phrase!

    Soundtrack of my childhood — and I honestly never knew any of the words except “Now my empty cup tastes as sweet as the punch” which only makes sense if you’re stoned.

  95. 95.

    Call_me_ishmael

    @cope:

    Also, among many other examples of brilliant writing, Zevon’s the first and only rock singer to talk about bovine bacterial infections:

    “Daddy’s doing Sister Sally
    Grandma’s dying of cancer now
    The cattle all have brucellosis
    We’ll get through somehow”

  98. 98.

    phein64

    @raven: Thanks for that.   I was listening to “Live at Fillmore East” on a flight the other day, and was struck by how much more I like the live Allman’s than the studio Allman’s, and it’s probably because they jam like a jazz band.

  99. 99.

    Alison Rose

    I generally need both working together, but I do listen to a lot of instrumental stuff (well…in a manner of speaking — electronic/dance/etc). I don’t need songs to sound poetic to love them, but I do love when a songwriter can put words together in a way that hits you just right every time.

    The Dead have a lot of songs like that, Robert Hunter being both a poet and lyricist. Black Muddy River, Ripple, Row Jimmy, He’s Gone, a lot more.

    Ben Harper also writes quite poetically, especially on the album Fight For Your Mind. Basia Bulat is another, and I’d throw Nick Cave in there on certain songs.

    Me being me, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Depeche Mode. Martin Gore is the most underrated songwriter in existence, and while I of course love basically everything he’s penned, there are definitely some that really reach toward that poetic quality: Soul With Me, I Am You, My Cosmos Is Mine, Macro, Sacred, In Your Room, Sweetest Perfection, okay okay I’ll stop

    ETA: Ooh and one very specific line that I have always thought was so beautiful in its simplicity, from It’ll All Work Out by Tom Petty: “She had eyes so blue, they looked like weather”

  101. 101.

    Xavier

    Lotta great comments here, I’ve believed for a long time that we’re in a golden age of songwriting. But as a dedicated honky tonk man, I gotta mention Merle Haggard. It seems almost an unwritten rule in honky tonks to have a Merle Haggard song every set.

  102. 102.

    dp

    @patrick II: Fred Rose wrote that song.  But it is definitely a great, and Willie’s version of it is definitive.  That’s actually the last song I ever sang in public, way back in the 70s.

  104. 104.

    dp

    @Miki: I actually grew up in Hammond, so I was pretty stunned when I heard that back in the day.  Apparently, one of the sisters attended Southeastern Louisiana University, my mother’s and grandmother’s alma mater.

  105. 105.

    Bg

    @hotshoe: thank you for mentioning that song. Every song on the Nashville Sound album is a poem and a story and a song. But If We Were Vampires does me in every time

  107. 107.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @Miki: [the Hammond Song] ooh, thanks!  I remember that one, it has been much too long since I heard it.

  108. 108.

    sxjames

    For pure story telling, I’m surprised no one has mentioned John Prine.  ‘Sam Stone’ obviously, but also ‘The Great Compromise’.  Arguably the best song describing the Vietnam war experience in America.

  110. 110.

    RSA

    @billcinsd: I was amazed by the Beth’s debut album (full-length, after the EP).  Take the chorus of Future Me Hates Me that you quote:

    Future heartbreak
    Future headaches
    Wide-eyed nights late-lying awake
    With future cold shakes
    From stupid mistakes
    Future me hates me for
    Hates me for

    It’s wonderful to listen to (video link), and aside from the guitar work, the lyrics have those tight rhymes on very short lines, plus the striking assonance in “Wide-eyed nights late-lying”… It’s so literate and clever.

  112. 112.

    RSA

    One band I’ve come to appreciate for storytelling is The Hold Steady.  Here’s Denver Haircut:

    He shaved his head at the airport
    In a bar at the end of the concourse
    He said you’re kind of catching me at a transitional time
    I’m a bright light burning into a dark horse
    She said I’ll strap on the saddle
    And I’m sorry but this city’s a cesspool
    I’ve kissed and I’ve cackled with half of these jackals
    Still couldn’t get any jet fuel
    Walked her out to the taxis
    Took her out to some parties
    Found a man with a handful huddled over some car keys
    It doesn’t have to be pure
    It doesn’t have to be perfect
    Just sort of has to be worth it
    A Residence Inn at the top of the exit
    You pay the admission and here’s what you get
    The stench of death in the credits
    The montage set to the time of your life
    A shot in the dark in a bar that’s too bright
    A window sucking up all the available light, right?
    And a clock on the bed stand with a cord to connect it
    Liberty and Justice into Master of Puppets
    Rolling off of the mattress
    Waking up on the carpet
    It shouldn’t have to be perfect
    He said he can’t read the paper
    It’s not worth the trouble
    Finds out about funerals from the blasts of the bugles
    Wherever he goes he always orders the usual
    He likes to see what they’ll bring him
    In five hours on the carpet
    He visits six different planets
    On a spaceship shaped like a Gibson Marauder
    The pilot kinda looked like Kirk Hammett
    While he was floating in space that chick took his wallet
    Wasn’t really a date
    Wasn’t sure what to call it
    That same stupid feeling but he likes his new haircut
    It doesn’t have to be pure
    It doesn’t have to be perfect
    Just sort of has to be worth it

    The bit about “Wherever he goes he always orders the usual / He likes to see what they’ll bring him” makes me laugh. Great sound as well.

  113. 113.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Just got back from our second viewing of Barbie (it was just as good, maybe even better, on second watch).  The music in the film is so much fun, but Billie Eilish really knocked it out of the park by writing the perfect song for it.  Apparently she wrote it in one day.  It’s brilliant and in the context of the movie, incredibly moving.

    What I Was Made For– Billie Eilish (the lyrics are just heartbreaking)

  114. 114.

    kalakal

    The Return of Captain Invincible is a very silly film* from 1983 starring Alan Arkin and Christopher Lee. The eponymous hero ( The Legend in Leotards!) is hounded out of the country by the McCarthy commission “Why is your cape red?” and becomes an alcoholic. Years later he dries out to save the world. The song “Name Your Poison” was written by Richard O’Brien and shows the final, cunning attempt to stop our hero when he breaks into the lair of the evil Mr Midnight.

    It is a magnificent example of punnery. Nearly every line is a pun on a type of booze

    Name your poison

    *Terry Pratchett’s favourite film.

  115. 115.

    laura

    I love music so much, I can hardly stand it! The music, the lyrics, the arrangements, vocals- the internal imagery and stories I can tell myself about a song, or a time, or a feeling. It would be so much easier- and make a much shorter list of what I don’t like. Nick Lowe was touring with Los Straightjackets in the before times and in December or 2019 (possibly 2018), played a small club here in Sacramento for his Quality Street lovely holiday album. After the show, after the encore, after the gear had been broken down and loaded up, and as the last straggers were doing what you do at the end of a great show, he oh so quietly slipped back on the stage with his acoustic guitar and began singing What’s So Funny About Peace Love and Understanding. It was so intimate and so beautiful and just wow.

  118. 118.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @laura: Me too.  As a listener.  And as a player (the rush from playing for others and connecting with an audience is truly incredible, regardless of what type of music, crowd etc.). And when it comes to tv/film, nothing moves me more than when the music perfectly sets the mood for the story/scene.  Nothing makes me sob like a good score/soundtrack.

  119. 119.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Mr. Bemused Senior: I’m a drummer so I normally obsess over the drumming (and Jeff Ballard is one of my biggest influences in the past 15 years or so) but on this song, it’s Larry Grenadier’s bass work that I can never stop following.  He does so many cool things to change the vibe throughout the arc of the song, it’s absolutely sublime.  And the arrangement takes a fairly repetitive song and takes it in so many interesting directions.  LOVE IT!!!  This album (Day Is Done) is along with Largo, probably my fave Mehldau studio album.

  121. 121.

    Sister Golden Bear

    I’m generally not into country, but I’m a huge Joe Ely fan (he straddles the line between roadhouse and kick-ass rock, once toured with The Clash).

    He and his fellow songwriters (Butch Hancock and Jimmie Dale Gilmore) have written many storytelling songs over the years. One my favorites is “Me and Billy the Kid.”

     

    Me and Billy the Kid
    Never got along
    I didn’t like the way he cocked his hat
    And he wore his gun all wrong
    We had the same girlfriend
    And he never forgot it
    She had a cute little chihuahua
    Til one day he up and shot it

    He rode the hard countryDown the New Mexico lineHe had a silver pocket watchThat he never did wind
    He crippled a piano playerFor playing his favorite songYeah, me and Billy the KidJust never got along

    Me and Billy the KidNever got alongI didn’t like the way he parted his hairAnd he wore his gun all wrong
    He was bad to the boneAll hopped up on speedI would’ve left him aloneIf it wasn’t for that senorita

    He gave her silverAnd he paid her hotel billBut it was me she lovedShe said she always will
    I’d always go and see herWhen Billy was goneYeah, me and Billy the KidNever got along

    Me and Billy the KidNever got alongI didn’t like the way he tied his shoesAnd he wore his gun all wrong
    One day, I said to Billy:”I got this foolproof schemeWe’ll rob Wells FargoIt’s busting at the seams”

    I admit that I framed himBut I don’t feel badBecause the way I was livingWas driving me mad
    Billy reached for his gunBut his gun was on wrongYeah, me and Billy the KidJust never got along

    Me and Billy the KidNever got alongBut I did like the way he swayed in the windWhen I played him his favorite song
    Now my baby sings harmony with meTo “La Cucaracha”She winds her silver pocket watchAnd pets her new chihuahua
    I moved into the hotelGot a room with a showerWe lay and listen to that watch tickHour after hour
    Outside, I hear the windBlowing oh so strongMe and Billy the KidNever got along

    We never got along
    He’d been in the sun too long 

  123. 123.

    patrick II

    @dp: ​
     
    Thanks, that is a beautiful song. I will substitute Crazy and still be comfortablecwith Willie.

  125. 125.

    billcinsd

    @RSA: I am really looking forward to the concert this Friday in Denver. Sometimes Youtube recs are good. More often they are to Ben Shapiro

  128. 128.

    Craig

    I’ve always been amazed by Bernie Taupin and Elton John’s relationship. It’s cool how Elton can write music for those cool words. Tom Petty wrote some really beautiful songs.

  130. 130.

    billcinsd

    John Peel’s favorite song. I believe teenage dreams, so hard to beat is on his tombstone. The Undertones, “Teenage Kicks”

    A teenage dream’s so hard to beat
    Every time she walks down the street
    Another girl in the neighbourhood
    Wish she was mine, she looks so good

    I wanna hold her, wanna hold her tight
    Get teenage kicks right through the night

    I’m gonna call her on the telephone
    Have her over ’cause I’m all alone
    I need excitement, oh, I need it bad
    And it’s the best I’ve ever had

    I wanna hold her, wanna hold her tight
    Get teenage kicks right through the night

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PinCg7IGHg

  131. 131.

    RevRick

    One thing that strikes me about American pop music culture is how we seem to have almost completely memory-holed the music of the 40s and early 50s. When we talk about oldies, it’s invariably early rock n roll. Heck, it was even referred to as that back in the 70s. You never heard a pop music station of that day with any large listening audience playing music of the 40s or early 50s. Fats Domino and Elvis, yes; Bing Crosby and Bea Wain, never. And yet in terms of distance in time, the 70s are as far from us today as the dawn of radio was to the 70s. Now, I can understand why no one cared much about reminiscing over music of the 20s and 30s, since sound reproduction was primitive and recorded music sounded tinny and scratchy. But the 40s and early 50s? It’s like they never existed.

  132. 132.

    billcinsd

    One final great song, Colour Me Wednesday, “Shut”

    I don’t know why
    I keep my mouth shut most of the time
    When I burn inside
    Regret sets in
    Now I’m thinking up
    Perfect responses
    That will change your mind
    And I’d change the world
    One person at a time

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lkni5QYgcvE

  133. 133.

    NotMax

    @RevRick

    While residing in the Poconos during the 1970s, the jukeboxes at the local watering holes were stocked almost exclusively with records of 40s and 50s* music. To this day I can rattle off the lyrics to the Andrews Sisters’ Rum and Coca-Cola, burned into the brainpan via sheer repetition.

    *50s as in not rock ‘n’ roll, instead lots and lots and lots of polka music.
    ;)

  134. 134.

    Tehanu

    @kalakal: ​
      “Baker Street” is my favorite song. But for sheer poetry melded to melody Steely Dan’s “Doctor Wu” and “Don’t Take Me Alive” are close to it. And Bruce Springsteen’s “Meeting Across the River”, a story told in such simple, understated language, with a tune you can’t forget.

    I know these are all really old. I don’t listen to music much anymore because my hearing is now so bad that even with hearing aids, the sound is distorted — I can’t even hear it as music. But I remember.

  136. 136.

    RevRick

    @NotMax: I don’t doubt that, but in my experience growing up in the New York metropolitan area, the big AM stations in the 60s were exclusively rock n roll. To listen to the music she heard, my mom had to rely upon the local station WSTC, which she played on Saturday mornings. Of course, on TV there was Perry Como, NatKing Cole, Dean Martin, Mitch Miller, and Lawrence Welk playing/singing those old tunes, but once they went off the air… pffft.

    Meanwhile, rock/tribute bands are still drawing crowds until God knows when.

Comments are closed.