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What artist or band writes the best song lyrics?

Brian Fallon (The Gaslight Anthem)


Adam Duritz (Counting Crows)


Step out the front door like a ghost into the fog
Where no one notices the contrast of white on white
And in between the moon and you, angels get a better view
Of the crumbling difference between wrong and right
Well, I walk in the air between the rain
Through myself and back again
Where? I don't know
Maria says she's dying
Through the door, I hear her crying
Why? I don't know

Round here we always stand up straight
Round here something radiates

Maria came from Nashville with a suitcase in her hand
She said she'd like to meet a boy who looks like Elvis
And she walks along the edge of where the ocean meets the land
Just like she's walking on a wire in the circus
She parks her car outside of my house and
Takes her clothes off, says she's close to understanding Jesus
And she knows she's more than just a little misunderstood
She has trouble acting normal when she's nervous

Round here we're carving out our names
Round here we all look the same
Round here we talk just like lions but we sacrifice like lambs
Round here she's slipping through my hands

Sleeping children better run like the wind
Out of the lightning dream
Mama's little baby better get herself in
Out of the lightning
She says, "It's only in my head"
She says, "Shh, I know it's only in my head"
But the girl on the car in the parking lot
Says, "Man, you should try to take a shot
Can't you see my walls are crumbling?"
Then she looks up at the building
And says she's thinking of jumping
She says she's tired of life
She must be tired of something

Round here she's always on my mind
Round here, hey man, got lots of time
Round here we're never sent to bed early and nobody makes us wait
Round here we stay up very, very, very, very late

I, I can't see nothing, nothing round here
You catch me if I'm falling, you catch me if I'm falling
Will you catch me? 'Cause I'm falling down on you
I said I'm under the gun round here
Oh man, I said I'm under the gun round here
Well I can't see nothing, nothing round here
 

Ok, its not a Peter Greene song, but.......

Lyrics

Need someone's hand to lead me through the night
I need someone's arms to hold and squeeze me tight
Now, when the night begins, I'm at an end
Because I need your love so bad
I need some lips to feel next to mine
I need someone to stand up and tell me when I'm lyin'
And when the lights are low, and it's time to go
That's when I need your love so bad
So why don't you give it up, and bring it home to me
Or write it on a piece of paper, baby, so it can be read to me
Tell me that you love me, and stop drivin' me mad
Ooh, because I, I need your love so bad
Need your soft voice, that talked to me at night
I don't want you to worry, baby
I know we can make everything alright
Listen to my plea, baby, bring it to me
Because I need your love so bad
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: John Jr. Mertis
 
IMHO MES hit his stride on some/many Fall songs. E.g :

In the burning scorch of another Sunday over
The miserable Scottish hotel,
Resembled a Genesis or Marillion, 1973 LP cover
All the hotel staff had been dismissed,
It was me, the Hoover, and the O.A.P.s
Asked: Could he turn killer?
Thought: could I kill him?
Pondered: Or is he itinerant?
But I guess he's just a cog analyst
Guest informant, guest informant
 
LostAtSea said:
IMHO MES hit his stride on some/many Fall songs. E.g :

In the burning scorch of another Sunday over
The miserable Scottish hotel,
Resembled a Genesis or Marillion, 1973 LP cover
All the hotel staff had been dismissed,
It was me, the Hoover, and the O.A.P.s
Asked: Could he turn killer?
Thought: could I kill him?
Pondered: Or is he itinerant?
But I guess he's just a cog analyst
Guest informant, guest informant
Click to expand...
Yup, the wordsmith.
 
Brian Eno - Dead Finks Don't Talk

"Oh cheeky cheeky
Oh naughty sneaky
You're so perceptive and I wonder how you knew.
But these finks don't walk too well
A bad sense of direction
And so they stumble round in threes
Such a strange collection.

Oh you headless chicken
Can those poor teeth take so much kicking?
You're always so charming
As you peck your way up there.

And these finks don't dress too well
No discrimination
To be a zombie all the time
Requires such dedication.

Oh please, sir will you let it go by
'Cause I failed both tests with my legs both tied
In my place the stuff is all there
I've been ever so sad for a very long time
My my they wanted the works can you this and that
I never got a letter back
More fool me bless my soul
More fool me bless my soul.

Oh perfect masters
They thrive on disasters
They all look so harmless
Till they find there way up there.

But dead finks don't talk too well
They've got a shaky sense of diction
It's not so much a living hell
It's just a dying fiction."
 
I could quote any number of lyrics from The Hold Steady:

Here's the best opening line ever:

Stuck Between Stations
There are nights when I think Sal Paradise was right.
Boys and girls in America have such a sad time together.

She was a really cool kisser and she wasn't all that strict of a Christian.
She was a damn good dancer but she wasn't all that great of a girlfriend.
 
Randy Newman - one of the greats

Texas Girl At The Funeral Of Her Father
Here I am lost in the wind
'Round in circles sailing
Like a ship that never comes in
Standing by myself

Sing a sad song for a good man
Sing a sad song for me
Sing a sad song for the sailor
A thousand miles from the sea

Here I am alone on the plain
Sun's going down
It's starting to rain
Papa we'll go sailing
 
Joni Mitchell....

The Hissing Of Summer Lawns
He bought her a diamond for her throat
He put her in a ranch house on a hill
She could see the valley barbecues
From her window sill
See the blue pools in the squinting sun
Hear the hissing of summer lawns

He put up a barbed wire fence
To keep out the unknown
And on every metal thorn
Just a little blood of his own
She patrols that fence of his
To a latin drum
And the hissing of summer lawns

He gave her his darkness to regret
And good reason to quit him
He gave her a roomful of Chippendale
That nobody sits in
Still she stays with a love of some kind
It's the lady's choice
The hissing of summer lawns
 
Sarah Bareilles - Basket Case

I don't want to talk about it to you
I'm not an open book that you can rifle through
The cold hard truth that you'll see right to
I'm just a basket case without you

He's not a magic man or a perfect fit
But had a steady hand and I got used to it
And a glass cage heart and invited me in
And now I'm just a basket case without him

I don't say much and it'll stay that way
You got a steel train touch and I'm just a track you lay
So I'll stay right here underneath you
I'm just a basket case .... that's what we do
 
without a doubt Larry Norman [ my avatar ]



Mamma killed the chicken
She thought it was a duck
She put it on the table
With its legs sticking up
Papa broke his glasses
When he fell down drunk
Tried to drown the kitty cat
Turned out to be a skunk
You gotta watch what you're doing
Didn't you know
You gotta watch what you're doing
Didn't you know
Little Joe Billy
Went fishing for trout
Played hooky from school
'Til the cops found out
Didn't have a father
Was an only child
And his momma never beat him
So he grew up wild
You gotta watch what you're doing
Yeah
I knew a girl
Sweet as could be
But she fell for men
Like a chain sawed tree
She listened to their lies
Was fooled by their charms
Now she's sitting
With a baby in her arms
You gotta watch what you're doing
Didn't you know
You gotta watch what you're doing
You oughta know that
You gotta watch out
Watch out
 
Probably Springsteen for me. He seems to have the knack of bringing out my emotional side that I don’t get with anybody else. Want to see me cry, just play Independence Day.

Now I don't know what it always was with us
We chose the words, and yeah, we drew the lines
There was just no way this house could hold the two of us
I guess that we were just too much of the same kind

guaranteed to get me blubbing.

The River too. For me, from start to finish, the perfect lyric (also guaranteed to start some ocular leaking)
 
No Richard Thompson? Up there with the best imho. Guitar playing ain’t too shabby either

Says Red Molly, to James, "Well that's a fine motorbike.
A girl could feel special on any such like."
Says James, to Red Molly, "My hat's off to you.
It's a Vincent Black Lightning, 1952.
And I've seen you on the corners and cafes, it seems.
Red hair and black leather, my favorite color scheme."
And he pulled her on behind,
And down to Boxhill,
They'd Ride.
Says James, to Red Molly, "Here's a ring for your right hand.
But I'll tell you in earnest I'm a dangerous man;
For I've fought with the law since I was seventeen.
I've robbed many a man to get my Vincent machine.
And now I'm twenty-one years, I might make twenty-two.
And I don't mind dyin' but for the love of you.
But if fate should break my stride, then I'll give you my Vincent, To Ride."
"Come down Red Molly, " called Sargent McQuade.
"For they've taken young James Aidee for Armed Robbery.
Shotgun blast hit his chest, left nothing inside.
Oh, come down, Red Molly, to his dying bedside."
When she came to the hospital, there wasn't much left.
He was runnin' out of road. He was runnin' out of breath.
But he smiled, to see her cry.
And said, "I'll give you my Vincent.
To Ride."
Said James, "In my opinion, there's nothing in this world
Beats a '52 Vincent and a Redheaded girl.
Now Nortons and Indians and Greavses won't do.
Oh, they don't have a Soul like a Vincent '52."
Well he reached for her hand and he slipped her the keys.
He said, "I've got no further use...for these.
I see Angels on Ariels in leather and chrome,
Swoopin' down from Heaven to carry me home."
And he gave her one last kiss and died.
And he gave her his Vincent.
To Ride.
 
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