What are some of your guys favorite lyricists? Name some of them and list a lyric that you like and a little snippet about why you like them.

Lou Reed

The myriad choices of his fate
Set themselves out upon a plate
For him to choose
What had he to lose

Not a ghost bloodied country
All covered with sleep
Where the black angel did weep
Not an old city street in the east
Gone to choose

Probably my all time favorite, he broke allot of barriers with his songwriting in the 60s and on top of writing about hookers and drugs he could write some heartfelt love songs.

Curt Kirkwood

down in the valley
there's an animal kingdom
you can't even see it
till the sun goes down
up in the mountains
there's beautiful rings
on fingers that dance
to invisible sound
up in my head
there's an animal kingdom
I am the king
of the animals there
up in the mountains
I'm a beautiful singer
to birds that dance
on invisible air

Surrealism at its finest. I'd also like to clear up that HE wrote Plateau, Lake Of Fire, and Oh Me. Too many people give that credit to Cobain.

Frank Black

got hips like cinderella
must be having a good shame
talking sweet about nothing
cookie i think you're
tame

i'm making good friends with you
when you're shaking your good frame
fall on your face in those bad shoes
lying there like you're tame

Could write some meaningful and sometimes perverted lyrics, maybe wouldn't have been as awesome if they weren't sung by his unique voice.

Zack De La Rocha
Jared Leto
Maynard James Kenan

Lupe Fiasco
Crooked I
Robert Plant

Chorus:
Slip sliding away, slip sliding away
You know the nearer your destination, the more you slip sliding away

I know a man, he came from my hometown
He wore his passion for his woman like a thorny crown
He said "Delores, I live in fear
My love for you's so overpowering, I'm afraid that I will disappear"

Chorus

I know a woman, became a wife
These are the very words she uses to describe her life
She said a good day ain't got no rain
She said a bad day is when I lie in the bed
And I think of things that might have been

Chorus

And I know a father who had a son
He longed to tell him all the reasons for the things he'd done
He came a long way just to explain
He kissed his boy as he lay sleeping
Then he turned around and he headed home again

Chorus

God only knows, God makes his plan
The information's unavailable to the mortal man
We're workin' our jobs, collect our pay
Believe we're gliding down the highway, when in fact we're slip sliding away


Paul Simon-Slip Slidin Away

-Billy Bragg

-Jesse Michaels of Operation Ivy and Common Rider

-Blake Schwarzenbach of Jawbreaker and Jets To Brazil

Chuck Schuldiner

Anyone who knows him needs no justification of posted lyric.

Walter Brecker and Donald Fagen, a.k.a. Steely Dan!

Heres the chorus to "Deacon Blues":

Learn to work the saxophone
I play just what I feel
Drink Scotch whisky
All night Long
And I die behind the wheel

They got a name for the winners in the world
I want a name when I lose
They call Alabama the Crimson Tide
You can call me Deacon Blues

Great great chorus. I like their lyrics especially because though all of his songs are concept songs, they vary in whether or not they strictly tell a story in narrative form, or whether they are a little more vague. And of course they range anywhere in between as well. As for their style, their metaphors and lyrical ideas use obscure pop culture references rather than more traditional lyrics. Anything from 19th century opera singers, expressionist German artists from the 1920s, to specific restaurants that only people who had been to some particular side on town in some particular city would have heard of.

Heres another favorite, a song called "Kid Charlemagne" which loosely tells the story of famous 1960s LSD chemist and dealer Owsley Stanley, who was eventually caught when he wasn't able to run from the police anymore after running out of gas (references in the last verse). Here are just the verses to the song:

While the music played you worked by candlelight
Those San Francisco nights
You were the best in town
Just by chance you crossed the diamond with the pearl
You turned it on the world
That's when you turned the world around
Did you feel like Jesus
Did you realize
That you were a champion in their eyes
On the hill the stuff was laced with kerosene
But yours was kitchen clean
Everyone stopped to stare at your technicolor motor home
Every A-Frame had your number on the wall
You must have had it all
You'd go to L.A. on a dare
And you'd go it alone
Could you live forever
Could you see the day
Could you feel your whole world fall apart and fade away


Now your patrons have all left you in the red
Your low rent friends are dead
This life can be very strange
All those dayglow freaks who used to paint the face
They've joined the human race
Some things will never change
Son you were mistaken
You are obsolete
Look at all the white men on the street


Clean this mess up else we'll all end up in jail
Those test tubes and the scale
Just get them all out of here
Is there gas in the car
Yes, there's gas in the car
I think the people down the hall
Know who you are

Careful what you carry
'Cause the man is wise
You are still an outlaw in their eyes

Heres one last song. Its just a simple story song, on verse tells the story of a man who is to be hanger for murder like something in a Western but is spared when their is a problem with the hangman, another verse tells the story of a two timing woman who cheats on their narrator with his best friend, and yet another person tells the story of a gambler in Las Vegas who loses most of his money. And all of these stories have the same general idea, even though you know you shouldn't, you're still going to go out and do the same thing the next day. Be it losing all your money in a card game, going back to a two timing woman, or being quick to the trigger when things don't go your way. But its cool. Who else writes songs that could be the plot of a modern style Western? Not anyone else I can think of. If you like the dark stories found in country music, but prefer rock music... Steely Dan is a great band to check out. Here are the lyrics from their hit "Do It Again":

In the mornin you go gunnin'
For the man who stole your water
And you fire till he is done in
But they catch you at the border
And the mourners are all singin'
As they drag you by your feet
But the hangman isn't hangin'
And they put you on the street

CHORUS:
You go back Jack do it again
Wheel turnin' 'round and 'round
You go back Jack do it again

When you know she's no high climber
Then you find your only friend
In a room with your two timer
And you're sure you're near the end
Then you love a little wild one
And she brings you only sorrow
All the time you know she's smilin'
You'll be on your knees tomorrow

CHORUS

Now you swear and kick and beg us
That you're not a gamblin' man
Then you find you're back in Vegas
With a handle in your hand
Your black cards can make you money
So you hide them when you're able
In the land of milk and honey
You must put them on the table

CHORUS

^^^^^
any band that got their name from a strap-on dildo in a William S. Burroughs novel gets my vote.

-Slick Rick- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGF7C...eature=related

-Big L- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVZo6FRONGs

-Gang Starr- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lH3hrtp1T84

-Naughty by nature- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaaSbgXZBh0

-Del Funky Homosapien- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkMvO...eature=related lotssss more......

In no particular order :

Trent Reznor
John Lennon
David Bowie
Jerry Cantrell/Layne Staley

Ah, fuck it. Noel Gallagher because Oasis is one of my guilty pleasures. Augh.