Songs that are lyrically brilliant

[TheLongshot]

There were already a couple by Rush, and I want to add a couple more that I think are wonderful:

"Marathon"

It's not how fast you can go

The force goes into the flow

If you pick up the beat

You can forget about the heat

More than just survival

More than just a flash

More than just a dotted line

More than just a dash

It's a test of ultimate will

The heartbreak climb uphill

Got to pick up the pace

If you want to stay in the race

More than just blind ambition

More than just simple greed

More than just a finish line

Must feed this burning need

In the long run...

[Chorus:]

From first to last

The peak is never passed

Something always fires the light that gets in your eyes

One moment's high, and glory rolls on by

Like a streak of lightning

That flashes and fades in the summer sky

Your meters may overload

You can rest at the side of the road

You can miss a stride

But nobody gets a free ride

More than high performance

More than just a spark

More than just the bottom line

Or a lucky shot in the dark

In the long run...

[Chorus]

You can do a lot in a lifetime

If you don't burn out too fast

You can make the most of the distance

First you need endurance

First you've got to last...

[Chorus]

-----------------

"Mission"

Hold your fire

Keep it burning bright

Hold the flame 'til the dream ignites

A spirit with a vision is a dream

With a mission

I hear their passionate music

Read the words that touch my heart

I gaze at their feverish pictures

The secrets that set them apart

When I feel the powerful visions

Their fire has made alive

I wish I had that instinct

I wish I had that drive

Spirits fly on dangerous missions

Imaginations on fire

Focused high on soaring ambitions

Consumed in a single desire

In the grip of a nameless possession

A slave to the drive of obsession

A spirit with a vision is a dream

With a mission

I watch their images flicker

Bringing light to a lifeless screen

I walk through their beautiful buildings

And I wish I had their dreams

But dreams don't need to have motion

To keep their spark alive

Obsession has to have action

Pride turns on the drive

It's cold comfort

To the ones without it

To know how they struggled

How they suffered about it

If their lives were exotic and strange

They would likely have gladly exchanged them

For something a little more plain

Maybe something a little more sane

We each pay a fabulous price

For our visions of paradise

But a spirit with a vision is a dream

With a mission

[Kilmer17]

The screen door slams

Marys dress sways

Like a vision she dances across the porch

As the radio plays

Roy orbison singing for the lonely

Hey that's me and I want you only

Don't turn me home again

I just can't face myself alone again

Don't run back inside

Darling you know just what Im here for

So you're scared and you're thinking

That maybe we aint that young anymore

Show a little faith, there's magic in the night

You aint a beauty, but hey you're alright

Oh and that's alright with me

You can hide `neath your covers

And study your pain

Make crosses from your lovers

Throw roses in the rain

Waste your summer praying in vain

For a savior to rise from these streets

Well now Im no hero

That's understood

All the redemption I can offer, girl

Is beneath this dirty hood

With a chance to make it good somehow

Hey what else can we do now?

Except roll down the window

And let the wind blow

Back your hair

Well the nights busting open

These two lanes will take us anywhere

We got one last chance to make it real

To trade in these wings on some wheels

Climb in back

Heavens waiting on down the tracks

Oh-oh come take my hand

Riding out tonight to case the promised land

Oh-oh thunder road, oh thunder road oh thunder road

Lying out there like a killer in the sun

Hey I know it's late we can make it if we run

Oh thunder road, sit tight take hold

Thunder road

Well I got this guitar

And I learned how to make it talk

And my cars out back

If you're ready to take that long walk

From your front porch to my front seat

The doors open but the ride it aint free

And I know you're lonely

For words that I aint spoken

But tonight well be free

All the promisesll be broken

There were ghosts in the eyes

Of all the boys you sent away

They haunt this dusty beach road

In the skeleton frames of burned out chevrolets

They scream your name at night in the street

Your graduation gown lies in rags at their feet

And in the lonely cool before dawn

You hear their engines roaring on

But when you get to the porch they're gone

On the wind, so mary climb in

Its a town full of losers

And Im pulling out of here to win.

[Koolblue13]

Long Black Vail is a amazing song. Not sure who wrote it.

[The Sisko]

That Power - Childish Gambino

So C.G. but a n***a stay real

Though I'm fly I'm ill I'm running sh**

3-point, field goal

Rappers used to laugh like I tripped and fell

Cause I don't stunt a gold cross like I'm Christian Bale

Yeah, they starin' at me jealous cause I do shows bigger

But your looks don't help, like an old gold digger

Uncool, but lyrically I'm a stone cold killer

So it's 400 blows to these Truffaut n***s

Yeah, now that's the line of the century

N***s missed it, too busy, they lyin' 'bout penitentiary

Man, you ain't been there, n***a you been scared

And I'm still living single like Synclaire

Lovin' white dudes who call me white and then try to hate

When I wasn’t white enough to use your pool when I was 8

Stone Mountain you raised me well

I’m stared at by Confederates but hard as hell

Tight jeans penny loafers, but I still drink a four dime

Staying on my me sh**, but hated on by both sides

I’m just a kid blowing up with my father’s name

And every black "you're not black enough"

Is a white "you're all the same"

Mmm Food like Rapp Snitch Knishes

Cuz its oreos, twinkies, coconuts, delicious

How many gold plaques you want inside your dining room?

I said I want a full house

They said, "You got it dude!"

That's not the whole song but I think you get the idea. CG's work is chock full of cultural references, double entendre, word play, puns, and who knows what else. Probably the best example is the "400 blows to these Truffaut n****s" because not only does it reference an obscure film but it's also a pun (True/faux) that refers back to a previous line about him being real. Just sick. I absolutely love this dude.

Touch of Grey - Grateful Dead

Must be getting early clocks are running late

Faint light of the morning sky looks so phony

Dawn is breaking everywhere

Light a candle curse the glare

Draw the curtains I don't care 'cause it's alright

I will get by I will get by

I will get by I will survive

I see you've got your fist out say your piece and get out

Yes I get the gist of it but it's alright

Sorry that you feel that way the only there is to say

Every silver lining's got a touch of grey

I will get by I will get by I will get by I will survive

It's a lesson to me the eagles and the beggars and the seas

The ABC's we all must face try to keep a little grace

It's a lesson to me the deltas and the east and the freeze

The ABC's we all think of and try to win a little love

I know the rent is in arrears the dog has not been fed in years

It's even worse than it appears but it's alright

Cow's giving kerosene, kid can't read at seventeen

The words he knows are all obscene but it's alright

I will get by I will get by I will get by I will survive

The shoe is on the hand that fits, there's really nothing much to it

Whistle through your teeth and spit 'cause it's alright

Oh well a touch of grey kinda suits you anyway

And that was all I had to say and it's alright

I'm not a huge Dead fan but this song is just incredible and only gets more so the older I get.

[SWFLSkins]

PARADISE BY THE DASHBOARD LIGHT - MEATLOAF LYRICS

Words by Meatloaf and Ellen Foley

Not my mis-spellings, lol. This song tells a story, builds to peaks and valleys and has a crescendo. It is pure genius when you look at the words and the story. The song was not taken very serious when released but it really is a play in itself.

Coming of age and how the two sexes look at scoring as teenagers. - classic ending with "Now I am praying for the end of time, so I can end my time with you. LOL

[GhostofSparta]

Constantinople reminded me of how impressed I was the first time I heard the Star Wars version of Bye, Bye American Pie by Wierd Al.

That was one hell of an impressive feat by Weird Al.

Also, I'm partial to this little number. Who else could turn a movie review into one of the greatest love songs of all time?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwF5i8hwGt4

(edit, damn, they took out the line "Why does Michael Bay get to keep on making movies?" from the end of the song, oh well)

[Pick6]

One of my favorites:

"Hurricane" - Bob Dylan

Pistols shots ring out in the barroom night

Enter Patty Valentine from the upper hall

She sees the bartender in a pool of blood

Cries out "My God they killed them all"

Here comes the story of the Hurricane

The man the authorities came to blame

For something that he never done

Put him in a prison cell but one time he could-a been

The champion of the world.

Three bodies lying there does Patty see

And another man named Bello moving around mysteriously

"I didn't do it" he says and he throws up his hands

"I was only robbing the register I hope you understand

I saw them leaving" he says and he stops

"One of us had better call up the cops"

And so Patty calls the cops

And they arrive on the scene with their red lights flashing

In the hot New Jersey night.

Meanwhile far away in another part of town

Rubin Carter and a couple of friends are driving around

Number one contender for the middleweight crown

Had no idea what kinda **** was about to go down

When a cop pulled him over to the side of the road

Just like the time before and the time before that

In Patterson that's just the way things go

If you're black you might as well not shown up on the street

'Less you wanna draw the heat.

Alfred Bello had a partner and he had a rap for the corps

Him and Arthur Dexter Bradley were just out prowling around

He said "I saw two men running out they looked like middleweights

They jumped into a white car with out-of-state plates"

And Miss Patty Valentine just nodded her head

Cop said "Wait a minute boys this one's not dead"

So they took him to the infirmary

And though this man could hardly see

They told him that he could identify the guilty men.

Four in the morning and they haul Rubin in

Take him to the hospital and they bring him upstairs

The wounded man looks up through his one dying eye

Says "Wha'd you bring him in here for ? He ain't the guy !"

Yes here comes the story of the Hurricane

The man the authorities came to blame

For something that he never done

Put in a prison cell but one time he could-a been

The champion of the world.

Four months later the ghettos are in flame

Rubin's in South America fighting for his name

While Arthur Dexter Bradley's still in the robbery game

And the cops are putting the screws to him looking for somebody to blame

"Remember that murder that happened in a bar ?"

"Remember you said you saw the getaway car?"

"You think you'd like to play ball with the law ?"

"Think it might-a been that fighter you saw running that night ?"

"Don't forget that you are white".

Arthur Dexter Bradley said "I'm really not sure"

Cops said "A boy like you could use a break

We got you for the motel job and we're talking to your friend Bello

Now you don't wanta have to go back to jail be a nice fellow

You'll be doing society a favor

That sonofa**** is brave and getting braver

We want to put his ass in stir

We want to pin this triple murder on him

He ain't no Gentleman Jim".

Rubin could take a man out with just one punch

But he never did like to talk about it all that much

It's my work he'd say and I do it for pay

And when it's over I'd just as soon go on my way

Up to some paradise

Where the trout streams flow and the air is nice

And ride a horse along a trail

But then they took him to the jailhouse

Where they try to turn a man into a mouse.

All of Rubin's cards were marked in advance

The trial was a pig-circus he never had a chance

The judge made Rubin's witnesses drunkards from the slums

To the white folks who watched he was a revolutionary bum

And to the black folks he was just a crazy ******

No one doubted that he pulled the trigger

And though they could not produce the gun

The DA said he was the one who did the deed

And the all-white jury agreed.

Rubin Carter was falsely tried

The crime was murder 'one' guess who testified

Bello and Bradley and they both baldly lied

And the newspapers they all went along for the ride

How can the life of such a man

Be in the palm of some fool's hand ?

To see him obviously framed

Couldn't help but make me feel ashamed to live in a land

Where justice is a game.

Now all the criminals in their coats and their ties

Are free to drink martinis and watch the sun rise

While Rubin sits like Buddha in a ten-foot cell

An innocent man in a living hell

That's the story of the Hurricane

But it won't be over till they clear his name

And give him back the time he's done

Put him in a prison cell but one time he could-a been

The champion of the world.

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

Bruce Springsteen- Blinded By the Light.

Go ahead, listen to Bruce's original version, a song about growing up and coming of age.

Once you realize the genius of these lyrics, you'll hate Manfred Mann for the rest of your life, too.

~Bang

I worship Bruce, but I even think he would admit that was a ham-fisted attempt to be Bob Dylan.

The one song on "Greetings" that has really great lyrics is "Spirit in the Night." I love "For You," "It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City" and "Lost in the Flood." But he had not mastered that gift of specificity that he has now. A lot of that album feels like him trying to be someone he is not. Like he decided that he had to rhyme "pretty, "pity, "gritty, and "city" and didn't care how he did it.

[Jumbo]

I am many things, including the seeming contradiction of being quite jaded yet an incurable romantic and sometimes a total cornball. I am also a highly trained assassin, so don't be a wise-ass to me about this.

One of my faves as a kid (I liked the Andy Williams version, tho there are many good ones) is from the play Man of La Mancha: The Impossible Dream.

To dream ... the impossible dream ...

To fight ... the unbeatable foe ...

To bear ... with unbearable sorrow ...

To run ... where the brave dare not go ...

To right ... the unrightable wrong ...

To love ... pure and chaste from afar ...

To try ... when your arms are too weary ...

To reach ... the unreachable star ...

This is my quest, to follow that star ...

No matter how hopeless, no matter how far ...

To fight for the right, without question or pause ...

To be willing to march into Hell, for a Heavenly cause ...

And I know if I'll only be true, to this glorious quest,

That my heart will lie will lie peaceful and calm,

when I'm laid to my rest ...

And the world will be better for this:

That one man, scorned and covered with scars,

Still strove, with his last ounce of courage,

To reach ... the unreachable star ...

[HogNose]

Paul Simon is one hell of a wordsmith. Always loved this one. The lyrics overflow with sadness, etc.

Simon & Garfunkel- For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her

What a dream I had

Pressed in organdy

Clothed in crinoline

Of smoky burgundy

Softer than the rain

I wandered empty streets

Down past the shop displays

I heard cathedral bells

Tripping down the alleyways

As I walked on

And when you ran to me

Your cheeks flushed with the night

We walked on frosted fields

Of juniper and lamplight

I held your hand

And when I awoke

And felt you warm and near

I kissed your honey hair

With my grateful tears

Oh I love you girl

Oh I love you

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

One of my favorites:

"Hurricane" - Bob Dylan

I love the music on Desire, but I feel like Jacques Levy is to blame for some of the awful lyrics on that album. That "We want to pin this triple murd....DER on him" is just awful.

On the other hand, I think "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" could be taught in a poetry class.

I saw an interview with one of the players from the Blonde on Blonde sessions. It may have been Robby Robertson and none of them knew the lyrics or the length of the songs. They would work out a melody while Dylan wrote. If you notice, nearly every verse on "Sad Eyed Lady" ends with the band slowing down as if they are about to play a fade out. That's because on every verse, they thought they were about to play a fade out. They would begin wrapping the song up and Dylan would sing another line.

[Jumbo]

On a darker side, I not only love this song--Wendy-- and the group (a fave--Concrete Blonde) but the playback on top of the line electrostatic or Magnepan speakers with high end tube amps & pre-amps and the right source is particularly riveting.

It is complete now the two ends of time are neatly tied.

A one-way street, she's walking to the end of the line.

And there she meets the faces she keeps in her heart and mind.

They say 'good bye' Tomorrow, Wendy, you're going to die.

They say 'good bye' Tomorrow, Wendy, you're going to die.

Underneath the chilly gray November sky

We can make believe that Kennedy is still alive and

We're shooting for the moon and smiling Jackie's driving by and

They say 'good try'

Tomorrow Wendy's going to die.

Tomorrow Wendy's going to die.

I told the priest, don't count on any second coming.

God got his ass kicked the first time he came down here slumming.

He had the balls to come, the gall to die and then forgive us.

No, I don't wonder why, I wonder what he thought it would get us.

Hey, hey, good bye.

Tomorrow Wendy's going to die.

Hey, hey, good bye.

Tomorrow Wendy's going to die.

Tomorrow Wendy's going to die.

Hey, hey, good bye.

Tomorrow Wendy's going to die.

Tomorrow Wendy's going to die.

Only God says jump,

So I set the time

'Cause if he ever saw her

It was through these eyes of mine!

And if he ever suffered it was me who did his crying.

Hey hey, good bye.

Tomorrow Wendy's going to die

(Tomorrow Wendy's going to die)

Tomorrow Wendy's going to die

[gortiz]

I've heard this song hundreds of times, but listened to it this morning and was just in awe. Maybe its cuz I haven't listened to it in a while, but wow.

I wonder how long it took to write this. Even people who don't like hip hop should be able to appreciate this song.

Safe for work

Song is Fame by GZA

pretty damn cool OP ... love the creativity.

Dylan ... probably the Lonsesome Death of Hattie Carol, here are the lyrics, here is the story.

Dylan again ...

---------- Post added May-29th-2012 at 01:08 PM ----------

One of my favorites:

"Hurricane" - Bob Dylan

And to the black folks he was just a crazy ******

Dylan uses the N word here ... I always thought that was so damn ballsy of him being a white jewish kid, talk about keeping it real. The song is a masterpiece.

[Jumbo]

I have long thought in modern popular music you had to go Dylan and S & G as your front runners, lyrically. You know, a band that should get a mention here is The Police.

Synchronicity as an album was splendid lyrically, and they have other worthy songs.

Message in a Bottle; Englishman in New York; Let Your Soul Be Your Pilot; Russians; Roxanne.

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

One of Dylan's biographers wrote that "Hattie Carroll" is as close as a song can come to libel.

---------- Post added May-29th-2012 at 12:25 PM ----------

I have long thought in modern popular music you had to go Dylan and S & G as your front runners, lyrically. You know, a band that should get a mention here is The Police.

Synchronicity as an album was splendid lyrically, and they have other worthy songs.

Message in a Bottle; Englishman in New York; Let Your Soul Be Your Pilot; Russians; Roxanne.

I never thought Paul Simon was that great a lyricist. I think he is a tremendous songwriter but some of his lyrics are truly awful.

I will go on record that The Dangling Conversation is so bad that's practically a parody of a 1960s folk song. I don't think it's coincidental that Simon and Garfunkel didn't become popular until a producer added instrumentation to the songs. What Simon became brilliant at was marrying his lyrics to rhythms. I mean, 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover looks absolutely stupid in written form but sounds brilliant on an album. If You'll Be My Bodyguard is the same.

You know who writes great lyrics? Nick Lowe writes great lyrics.

The beast in me

Has had to learn to live with pain

And how to shelter from the rain

And in the twinkling of an eye

Might have to be restrained

God help the beast in me

Also, I think the two of the best lyrics in rock history are in the same song, Chelsea Hotel #2. Leonard Cohen was actually a pretty good poet. He and Patti Smith are probably the only two performers who successfully merged rock and poetry.

I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel,

you were talking so brave and so sweet,

giving me head on the unmade bed,

while the limousines wait in the street.

and

I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel

you were famous, your heart was a legend.

You told me again you preferred handsome men

but for me you would make an exception.

If that song is really about Janis Joplin, that second lyric is fascinating since Leonard Cohen was extremely handsome and Janis Joplin was . . . . well . . . . . she was no prize winning beauty.

[gortiz]

anybody into Townes Van Zandt??

High Low and in Between

I come from a long line

High and low and in between

Same as you

Hills of golden

Hails of poison

Time's thrown me through

And I believe I've come to learn

That turnin' round

Is to become confusion

And the gold's no good for spending

And the poison's hungry waiting

What can you leave behind

When you're flyin' lightning fast

And all alone?

Only a trace, my friend,

Spirit of motion born

And direction grown.

A trace that will not fade

In frozen skies

Your journey will be

And if her shadow doesn't seem much company

Who said it would be?

There is the highway

And the homemade lovin' kind

The highway's mine

And us ramblers are getting the travelling down

You fathers build with stones

That stand and shine

Heaven's where you find it

And you can't

Take too much with you

But daddy, don't you listen

It's just this highway talkin'

All things at our life

Are brothers in the soil

And in the sky

And I believe it

With my blood

If not my eyes

I don't know why we can't

Be brothers here

I know we should be

Answers don't seem easy

And I'm wonderin'

If they could be

[Koolblue13]

A cab combs the snake,

Tryin' to rake in that last night's fare,

And a solitary sailor

Who spends the facts of his life like small change on strangers...

Paws his inside P-coat pocket for a welcome twenty-five cents,

And the last bent butt from a package of Kents,

As he dreams of a waitress with Maxwell House eyes

And marmalade thighs with scrambled yellow hair.

Her rhinestone-studded moniker says, "Irene"

As she wipes the wisps of dishwater blonde from her eyes

And the Texaco beacon burns on,

The steel-belted attendant with a 'Ring and Valve Special'...

Cryin' "Fill'er up and check that oil"

"You know it could be a distributor and it could be a coil."

The early mornin' final edition's on the stands,

And that town cryer's cryin' there with nickels in his hands.

Pigs in a blanket sixty-nine cents,

Eggs - roll 'em over and a package of Kents,

Adam and Eve on a log, you can sink 'em damn straight,

Hash browns, hash browns, you know I can't be late.

And the early dawn cracks out a carpet of diamond

Across a cash crop car lot filled with twilight Coupe Devilles,

Leaving the town in a-keeping

Of the one who is sweeping

Up the ghost of Saturday night...

Tom Waits should be mentioned a lot more often in these conversations.

Well is this seat taken?

would you mind some company?

you've been alone all evening

would you like to talk with me?

do I come here often?

you might say that I do

is someone home waitin'?

I was just gonna ask you

Cause you're the prettiest woman I think I've ever seen

and tonight if you let me

I'd like to help you dream

Well you've got the nicest brown eyes

and a little girls smile

you should have been in the movies

you say you haven't heard that in awhile

you sound just like dolly

singin' on the radio

ah do you know someplace quiet where both of us could go?

Cause you're the prettiest woman I think I've ever seen

and tonight if you let me

I'd like to help you dream

I think I know what it looks like when you get back home

maybe dreamin' is all you've got left

but, I could tell you sweet lies like you've never heard before

you see I haven't stopped dreamin' yet

I think I know what it looks like when you get back home

maybe dreamin' is all you've got left

but, I could tell you sweet lies like you've never heard before

you see I haven't stopped dreamin' yet

Well how 'bout another drink?

what's that?

you've gotta go home

you say it's been nice talkin'

then why are you leavin' me alone?

Cause you're the prettiest woman I think I've ever seen

and tonight if you let me

I'd like to help you dream

Well, do I come here often?

you might say that I do

The Blasters Help you dream.

[The Dude]

There are a lot of Vietnam-era songs that have aged badly, but Bill Withers' "I Can't Write Left Handed" has held up nicely.

And while most of the songs on Marvin Gaye's "Here My Dear" are interesting to dissect to find digs at Anna Gordy, my favorite is "Anger." A great mixture of regret, sorrow, and Gaye addressing anger like it's a person. The extended version on the re-release tops the original.

[Califan007 The Constipated]

Middle Of The Road - The Pretenders

In the middle of the road

Is my private cul de sac

I can't get from the cab to the curb

Without some little jerk on my back

Don't harass me kid

Can't you tell,

I'm going home

I'm tired as hell

I'm not the cat I used to be

I've got a kid

I'm thirty-three

Bob George - Prince

Who bought u that diamond ring?

Yeah, right.

Since when did u have a job?

U seeing that rich mother****er again

What's his name? Bob?

Bob, ain't that a *****!

What's he do for a living?

Manage rock stars?

Who?

Prince?

Ain't that a *****!

That skinny mother****er with the high voice?

Please

---------- Post added May-29th-2012 at 11:14 AM ----------

Lucky Ball And Chain - They Might Be Giants

I lost my lucky ball & chain

Now she's four years gone

Just five feet tall and sick of me

And all my rattling on

She threw away her baby-doll

I held on to my pride

But I was young and foolish then

I feel old and foolish now

Confidentially --

she never called me baby-doll

Confidentially --

I never had much pride

But now I rock a bar stool

and I drink for two

just pondering this time bomb in my mind

I lost my lucky ball & chain

Now she's four years gone

Just five feet tall and sick of me

And all my rattling on

She walked away from a happy man

I thought I was so cool

I just stood there whistling

"There goes the bride" as she walked out the door

"There goes the bride" as she walked out the door

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

anybody into Townes Van Zandt??

Townes Van Zandt is awesome.

The older I get, the more bored I get with songs that I've heard 1,000 times. Over the last year, I've started digging into older country a bit. I'm pretty sure I can spend the next 20 years exploring Townes Van Zandt and the half a million cover versions of his songs that are out there.

[TeddyKGB]

For the rap fans,

NSFW

[TradeTheBeal!]

Always loved this one...

She was a princess, Queen of the Highway

Sign on the road said: "Take us to Madre"

No one could save her, save the blind tiger

He was a monster, black dressed in leather

She was a princess, Queen of the Highway

Now they are wedded, she is a good girl

Naked as children out in a meadow

Naked as children, wild as can be

Soon to have offspring, start it all over

Start it all over

American boy, American girl

Most beautiful people in the world!

Son of a frontier Indian Swirl

Dancing through the midnight whirl-pool, formless

Hope it can continue a little while longer

[The Sisko]

I have long thought in modern popular music you had to go Dylan and S & G as your front runners, lyrically. You know, a band that should get a mention here is The Police.

Synchronicity as an album was splendid lyrically, and they have other worthy songs.

Message in a Bottle; Englishman in New York; Let Your Soul Be Your Pilot; Russians; Roxanne.

You know, I almost did. Sting/The Police did a lot of really good stuff. The following is one of my favorite song lyrics, ever.

Loose talk in the classroom

To hurt they try and try

Strong words in the staffroom

The accusations fly

It's no use, he sees her

He starts to shake and cough

Just like the old man in

That book by Nabokov

It's just such a great rhyme and ties in so well with the Lolita-like theme of the song.

[Going Commando]

For the rap fans,

NSFW

I love Imortal Technique. Good call.

[Stadium-Armory]

Almost everything on "Low End Theory" and "Midnight Marauders".