Poetry& Lyrics of Rock's blog

Exploring the Poetry and Lyrics of Rock

Poetry of Rocks

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Welcome to this new blog. Not quite sure how this will work out yet, but hopefully it will provide an opportunity to discuss the poetry and lyrics of rock etc. possibly from various angles - structure, content, issues, techniques, music - maybe even as a stimulus to write your own lyrics on a similar issue. I will probably include lyrics that have influenced my own writing or I think are particularly good or portray an issue but suggestions are welcome. I will probably try and cover lyrics from different decades and musical styles as it goes on. I ran a Poetry of Rock Course for Leeds University Adult Education and it was interesting to hear different perceptions or questions that came up. Sometimes this was quite different to the authors perception. We all bring our own meanings to creative work depending on our experience and personality. It's often interesting to share those perceptions. Someone might throw light on a certain line that someone else didn't understand or sometimes there are mutliple meanings to lines. I will throw in my thoughts on the lyric and any information I have and put a link to where it can be found on Amazon or a performance on You Tube. It could be argued that rock poetry (in the widest sense) is more reflective of modern culture than mainstream poetry. Obviously some of their power acruses to the music and performance but poetry started in this way as an oral tradition often linked with music. The word Lyric meant a poem accompanied by the lyre and many of the poetic forms Rondo, Ballad reflect its roots in music and dance and ritual. Students have often been amazed when they've looked at the lyric without the music - a common comment was 'I've been listening to htis track for 15 years and I didn't realise there was so much in it". Some lyrics are just fillers for a musical riff or make a simple statement - they all have their place. In the main lyrics that do a bit more than the basics will be looked at here. Feel free to comment and share your thoughts etc.

FEEL FREE TO ADD YOUR OWN THOUGHTS, COMMENTS, OBSERVATIONS

Click an index title to go straight to a lyric - No need to scroll down now!! Newest entries at top.

 

Timescapes - Rock Quotes NEW

Countryscapes - Rock Quotes NEW

Modern Love Pt 1 - Rock Quotes
Painting with words - Rock Quotes 2
Seascapes - Rock lyric quotes
Deliver the Word (Articles on Lyricists like Pete Brown, Bernie Taupin, Pete Sinfield)
Something in the way she moves
It Ain't me Babe
Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now - The Smiths

Song and Dance Man III: The Art of Bob Dylan

Michael Gray

Nightporter - Japan
Ramona - Bob Dylan
Nathan La Franeer (Joni Mitchell)
It's Alright Ma (Dylan)
Islands - (Pete Sinfield) King Crimson
Golden Brown - The Stranglers
Julia Dreams (Syd Barrett) Pink Floyd
Love Minus Zero / No Limit- Bob Dylan
London Calling (Joe Stummer) Clash
Waterloo Sunset (Ray Davies) Kinks
White Room - Creame (Pete Brown)
I Hate the White Man - Roy Harper
Heartbreak Hotel
Granchester Medows - Pink Floyd / Rupert Brooke
Where is the Love? - Black Eyed Peas
Dangling Conversation  -  Simon and Garfunkle
Louisiana Blues
Building Blocks and Structure of a Song + Only a Northern Song
Mr Businessman - Ray Stevens

 

 

 

Timescapes - Rock Quotes

Time time time, see what's become of me

While I looked around

for my possibilities

I was so hard to please.

A Hazy Shade of Winter - Paul Simon

 

Sundown, yellow moon, I replay the past

I know every scene by heart, they all went by so fast.

If you see her say hello - Bob Dylan 1974

 

She was born in spring, I was born too late,

Blame it on a simple twist of fate.

Simple Twist of Fate - Bob Dylan 1974

 

Winds of the future, storms of the past

Children of Rarn - Tyrannosaurus Rex

 

Time is a jet plane, it moves too fast

You're a big girl now - Bob Dylan 1974

 

All the people we used to know

They're an illusion to me now.

Some are mathematicians

Some are carpenters wives.

Tangled up in Blue - Bob Dylan 1974

 

Scenes from your past spread before the flaming dawn

Life's an Elevator - T Rex

 

And the season go round and round

and the painted ponies go up and down

We're captive on the carousel of time

We can't return, we can only look behind

from where we come.

Circle Game - Joni Mitchell 1970

 

In the foggy web of destiny

You can have what's left of me.

Born in Time - Bob Dylan 1990

 

Trapped by no track of hours for they hanged suspended

Chimes fo Freedom - Bob Dylan 1964

 

Time is an enemy

Up to me - Bob Dylan 1974

 

Well it's a different walk of life

That I've come to know

Because at every port of call

Come a time to go

My New Career - Japan

 

Everybody's got something

They had to leave behind

One regret from yesterday

That just seems to grow with time.

Never had a dream come true - S Club 7

 

Her private thoughts were both old and new

Scenesof - Tyrannosaurus Rex

 

Fossilised photos of my life

Dinosaur - King Crimson  (Thrak)

 

Frozen days, the old extended plays

Of Elvis Presley and that funky old Hound Dog.

Faded pictures and misty twisted kicks

Spell 'Love' - I'm Love-drunk

Love Drunk - T. Rex

 

When I look back on the past

It's a wonder I'm not extinct

All the mistakes and bad judgements I made

Nearly pushed me to the brink.

Dinosaur - King Crimson - (Thrak)

 

Seasons change with the scenery

Weaving time in a tapestry

won't you stop and remember me

at any convienient time

A Hazy Shade of Winter - Paul Simon

 

Funny how my memory skips

while rearranging manuscripts

of unpublished rhyme.

A Hazy Shade of Winter - Paul Simon

 

Old friends

Winter companions

the old men

Lost in their overcoats

waiting for the sunset.

The sounds of the city

shifting through trees

settle like dust

on the shoulders

of the old friends.

Old Friends - Paul Simon

 

There are places I'll remember

all my life

though some have changed

some forever. not for better

some have gone and some remain.

All these places had their moment

with lovers and friends

I still can recall

Some are dead and some are living.

In my life, I've loved them all.

In My Life - The Beatles.

 

 

 

Countryscapes - Rock Quotes

The Woodlands and the grasslands and badlands 'cross the river

Sistowbell Lane - Joni Mitchell 1968

 

Hark the lark and harken to the barkin' of the dogfish gone to ground

See the splashing of the Kingfisher flashing tot he water

And a river of green is sliding unseen beneath the trees.

Granchester Medows (Roger Waters) - Pink Floyd 1969

 

Watching the buttercups cup the light

Flaming - Syd Barrett - Pink Floyd 1967

 

The gardener plants an evergreen

While trampling a flower

The Court of the Crimson King - King Crimson (Pete Sinfield) 1969

 

The silent scriptures of the trees

Upon a Hill - T.Rex

 

Fields arched with orchards

Wind Cheetah - Tyrannosaurus Rex

 

Sweet well water and pickling jars

Sistowbell Lane - Joni Mitchell 1968

 

Twilight on the frozen lake

North wind about to break

Never Say Goodbye - Bob Dylan 1974

 

Hills that spread around you chamber

Afgan Woman - Tyrannosaurus Rex 1969

 

The black and white scarecrow as everyone knows

Stood with a bird on his hat and straw everywhere

The Scarecrow (Syd Barrett) - Pink Floyd 1967

 

O the throat of winter is upon us

The barren barley fields refuse to sway

Before the husky hag of early darkness

In her hood of snowy grey.

The Throat of Winter - Tyrannosaurus Rex

 

Autumn has come to a rest

In her garden

Come to paint the tears with emptiness

And no pardon

Inner Garden 1 - King Crimson (Thrak)

 

The bushland burns in this southern heart

Like an open fire.

Still Life in Mobile Homes - Japan

 

We're pushing through these farming towns

We worked hard ploughing over ground

Red army calls you, he called to the ground.

Cantonese Boy - Japan.

 

 

 

 

Modern Love Pt1 - Rock Quotes

Rock lyrics don't have to be bland or clichéd. Here's some inspiration on Modern Love - The biggest subject of literature in general - you would have thought someone would have got board - run of of ways to say 'I Love You' ' I miss you' 'Love hurts' - but no - we continue to reinvent the ways of expressing all this. Here are some examples for Rock poets.

Letters from across the sea
Roses dipped in ceiling wax
Valentines and maple leaves
Tucked into a paper back.
Tin Angel - Joni Mitchell

He reached past the wine for my hand to hold
The Priest - Joni Mitchell

Not everything in this magical world is quite what it seems.
Turn off the Light - Nelly Furtado

Sliding mystified on the wine of the tide
Cadence and Cascade - Pete Sinfield - King Crimson

Lucky that lips not only mumble
They spill kisses like a fountain
Lucky that my breasts are small and humble
So you don't confuse them with mountains.
Whenever - Whereever - Shakira

Gazelle girl striding through your palace
Afgan Woman - Tyrannosaurus Rex

Saw the Fortune Teller, had my fortune read
She sent me to the Doctor who sent me straight to bed
He said I'm lonesome and I'm lovesick. I've got my mind on lipstick.
I Gotta Know (Evans - Williams) Elvis Presley.

You're every bridge I should have burned
Every lesson I've unlearned
In this smoke-filled waiting room
with incarcerated love-sick fool
I will wait for you to cut me loose.
Letters from the Wasteland - the Wallflowers

You're the other half of what I am
You're the missing piece
Wedding Song - Bob Dylan

Ain't it strange how a moment can play a part in the story of your heart
Ain't it funny - Jennifer Lopaz

Holy smoke and saints alive
I never thought this could happen to me
I Got Stung - (Schroeder and Hall) Elvis Presley.

You're cracked country lips, I still wish to kiss
as to be under the strength of your skin.
Ramona - Bob Dylan

She gently put her finger on her lips
To let him know she understood
Louise - Human League

She was born to be my unicorn
Robed head of ferns
Cat child, tutored by the learned
She was born to be my Unicorn - Tyrannosaurus Rex

I barely know you somehow I know what you're about
A deeper love I've found you and I no longer doubt
Ain't it Funny - Jennifer Lopaz

Woke up this morning feelin' fine
I felt like the world was my Valentine
Something tells me I'm into something good
Something Good - Herman's Hermits

She puts on her make up and brushes her long blond hair
And then asks me 'Do I look alright' and I say
'You look wonderful tonight'
Wonderful Tonight - Eric Clapton

Sometimes in the evening
he would read to her
Roll her in his arms
and give his seed to her
Blue Boy - Joni Mitchell

I got you under my skin
(Title) - Frankie Vallie

Drinking scented tea with someone on my knee
Jasmin - Tyrannosaurus Rex

Just being next to you is a natural thing for me
Wedding Song - Bob Dylan

As long as I'm with you
It doesn't matter what we do
I'm Real - Jennifer Lopaz

You don't like crazy music, you don't like rockin' bands
You just wanna go to a movie show
and sit there holding hands
You're so square - Baby I don't care.
Baby I Don't Care (Lieber and Stoller) Elvis Presley

Nothing she wants is denied her
You better take my advice
Tokyo Girl - Ace of Base

Lucky you were born that far away
We can both make fun of distances
Whenever, Whereever - Shakira

I'm wearing my heart like a crown
Pretending you are still around
The Great Pretender - The Inkblots

All my days are leafy blue
because I'm not with you
All my words are ragged steel
When I'm not with you
Dove - Tyrannosaurus Rex

Grass in your hair, stretched like a Lion in the sun
Lady of the Dancing Water - King Crimson

Weeping willow woman
Ladled on the arm
of the Misty coast of Albany
with its charm
pining pillow of the wild willow's end
womanly waiting for
your manly friend
The Misty Coast of Albany - Tyrannosaurus Rex

We go inside, the place is a mess
She says my name's the 'liquid Poetess'
She unties her mouth
and her buckskin dress
She drinks from a  bottle
labelled 'Tenderness'
One Inch Rock - Tyrannosaurus Rex

Baby I would climb the Andes solely
To count the freckles on your body
Never could imagine there only
Ten million ways to love somebody
Whenever, Whereever - Shakira

On the cliffs of your wildcat charms I'm riding
Spanish Harlem Incident - Bob Dylan

Let our bodies be twisted but never our minds
Is This Love - Alyson Moyet

A well a bless my soul a what's wrong with me
I'm itchin' like a man on a fuzzy tree
My friends say I'm acting as queer as a bug
I'm in love - I'm All Shook Up
All Shook Up (Blackwell) Elvis Presley

There she goes again, racing through my brain
And I can't contain this feeling that remains
There She Goes - The La's

Foxey
You know you're a cute little heartbreaker
Foxey Yeah
And I know you're a sweet little lovemaker
Foxey Lady - Jimi Hendrix

Picked up a pencil and wrote 'I Love you'
in my finest hand.
Wanted to send it
But I don't know where I stand
I Don't know where I Stand - Joni Mitchell

Oh Deborah, you look like a Zebra
Your sunken face is like a galleon
Clawed with mysteries of the Spanish Main
Oh Deborah
Deborah - Tyrannosaurus Rex

I've only known careless love
This time 'round it's more correct
Right on target, so direct
You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go

You don't have to be a victim of ego
No you don't have to be self-centred or deceitful
You'll make it happen if you're beautiful inside
Beautiful Inside - Louise.

Marcie's faucet needs a plumber
Marcie's sorrow needs a man
Marcie - Joni Mitchell

Clowns to the right, jokers to the left
Here am I - Stuck in the Middle with you.
Stuck in the Middle with You - Stealer's Wheel - Louise

Now you could spare a kiss or two and still have plenty left
Now I ain't greedy baby - all I want is all you got.
A Big Hunk 'O Love - (Wische & Schreoder) Elvis Presley

They might fill spoons full of diamonds
They might fill spoons full of gold
Just a little spoon of your precious love
Satisfy my soul
Spoonful - Willie Dixon

My life's a shadowless horse if I can't get across to you
Mambo Sun - Tyrannosaurus Rex

Could I ever explain
This feeling of love, it just lingers on
The fear in my heart that keeps telling me which way to turn
Night Porter - Japan

I thought you'd never say hello she said
You look like the silent type
Tangled Up In Blue - Bob Dylan

Come dowsed in mud, soaked in bleach
As I want you to be
As a trend, as a friend, as an old memory
Come as you are

There's the one who writers her letters in his facts and figures scrawl
Cactus Tree - Joni Mitchell

In a fleeting moment of a restless day
Driven to distraction, I was captured by the game
Is This Love - Alyson Moyet

Painting with Words - Rock Quotes

Beyond the rock clichés there's real beauty in the words -

In the misty crystal glitter of the wild and windward spray.
The Grand Coulee Dam - Woody Guthrie

Crickets call, courtin' their ladies in star-dappled green
I Don't know Where I stand - Joni Mitchell

Feel so bad
Like a ball game on a rainy day
Feel So Bad (Chuck Willis) by Elvis Presley

Call her Moonchild
Dancing in the shallows of a river
Moonchild - pete Sinfield - King Crimson

Like magazines in dusty grey attics
Marcie - Joni Mitchell

There's oil in the puddles in Taffeta patterns
Michael from the Mountains - Joni Mitchell

In my white room with black curtains near the station
Black roofed country, no gold pavement, tired starlings
Silver horses run down moonbeams in your dark eyes.
Dawnlight smiles on your leaving my contentment.
White Room - Pete Brown - Cream

I'll stay with you to my seas are dried up...
In the Sunshine of your love.
Sunshine of your Love - Pete Brown - Cream

Playing hide and seek with the ghosts of dawn
Moonchild - Pete Sinfield - King Crimson

My love she speaks like silence
without ideals or violence
she doesn't have to say she's faithful
yet she's true like ice,like fire.
Love minus Zero / No Limit - Bob Dylan

Take me disappearin' throught the smoke rings of my mind
Down the foggy ruins of time, far past the frozen leaves,
The haunted frightened trees, out to the windy beach,
far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow.
Mr. Tambourine Man - Bob Dylan

When the night is cold and the land is dark
And the moon is the only light we see.
Stand by Me - Ben E King

Floating down, the sound resound
Around the icy waters underground.
Astronomy Domini - Pink Floyd.

Silk and diamond gilded gauntlet
Intersteller Soul - March Bolan - T. Rex

My sandled feet are fleet like water
Elemental Child - T. Rex

Hot chilli peppers in the blistering sun
Romance in Durango - Bob Dylan (with Jacques Levy)

Freeze dried romance
Drops of Jupiter - Train

No that she's back in the atmosphere
with drops of Jupiter in her hair
She acts like summer and walks like rain
Reminds me that there's time to change...
She listens like Spring and she talks like June.
Drops of Jupiter - Train

The width of a room that can hold so much pleasure inside
Night Porter - Japan

Still life in mobile homes
Still Life in Mobile Homes - Japan

My dawn bride's veil, damp and pale
Islands - Pete Sinfield - King Crimson

Well he threw a Readers' Digest at my head and I did run
Motorpsycho Nightmare - Bob Dylan

With your mercury mouth in the missionary times
And your eyes like smoke and your prayers like rhymes
and your silver cross and your voice like chimes.
Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands - Bob Dylan

Sunlight bright upon my pillow
Lighter than an eiderdown
Will she let the weeping willow
Wind his branches round
Julia Dream, dreamboat queen, queen of all my dreams
Julia Dreams - Syd Barrett - Pink Floyd

Her hair of floating sky is shimmering, glimmering,
In the sun.
Julia - John Lennon - Beatles

She's well acquainted with the touch of the velvet hand
Like a lizard on a window pane.
Happiness is a Warm Gun - The Beatles

Semolina Pilchard, climbing up the Eiffel Tower.
Elementary penguin singing Hare Krishna.
Man, you should have seen them kicking Edgar Allan Poe.
I Am the Walrus - The Beatles

;

Its a still life water colour,
Of a now late afternoon,
As the sun shines through the curtained lace
And shadows wash the room.
The Dangling Conversation - Paul Simon - Simon and Garfunkle

Taking to the trees of the cobwebbed strange
Moonchild - Pete Sinfield - King Crimson

When the sun turns traitor cold
The Urge for Going - Joni Mitchell

Darkly ghostish host
Haggard vizer of the moats
Seeks the sandled shores of Gods
Baby of the moors
She was Born to be my Unicorn - Tyrannosaurus Rex

Night stood erect with broken haunches
Salamander Palaganda - Tyrannosaurus Rex

A mesh of jade I shyly laid
Root of Star - T. Rex

Saw a face in a conical of lace
Strange Orchestra - T. Rex

A broken god from a rusty world
Teenage Dream - T. Rex

I chased the wind of a prism ship
To taste the sweet and sour.
The Court of the Crimson King - Pete Sinfield - King Crimson

Charted seas of your skin
Like a White Star, tangled and far you are -
Tyrannosaurus Rex

Dropping circle stones on a sundial
Moonchild - Pete Sinfield - King Crimson

It's another Tequila Sunrise
Starin' slowly 'cross the sky
Said Goodbye
Tequila Sunrise - The Eagles

Let tears of joy baptise the crowd
Crying in the Discotheque - Alcazas

The purple piper plays his tune
The Court of the Crimson King - Pete Sinfield - King Crimson

Rock Lyric quotes - Seascapes

How do rock poets describe the sea or the ocean? How do they use the imagery? Often it's as metaphor, describing the waves of love and hate, sometimes it's a land of dreams and wishes and much more. Here are some cool ones I've collected.

You are an ocean wave my love
crashing at the bow
I am a galley slave my love
If only I could find
The way to sail to you
Maybe I'll just stow away.
Martha's Harbour - All About Eve 1988

Houses iced in whitewash guard a pale shore line
Cornered by the cactus and the pine
Here I wander where sweet sage and strange herbs grow
Down a sun-baked crumpled stony road.
Formentara Lady - Lyrics by Pete Sinfield performed by King Crimson

Silver surfer sorcerer of spray
Wind Quartets - Marc Bolan - Tyrannosaurus Rex

Gaunt granite climbs where gulls wheel and glide
Islands - Peter Sinfield - King Crimson

Every time just like the last
On her ship tied to the mast
To distant lands
Takes both my hands
Never a frown with golden brown
Golden Brown - The Stranglers

All along the ocean beaches, stares up empty at the sea.
Marcie - Joni Mitchell

In the breaking and the breathing of the water weeds
Cactus Tree - Joni Mitchell

Mermaids live in colonies
All his seadreams come to me
The Dawntreader - Joni Mitchell

Snuff brown walls where Spanish lizards run
Formentara Lady - Pete Sinfield - King Crimson

The seal of the seasons moved with grace, love
upon the Orkney ocean's face.
The Seal of the Season's - Marc Bolan - Tyrannosaurus Rex

A salty shimmered shell of foam
The Seal of the Season's - Marc Bolan - Tyrannosaurus Rex

Talking Islands in Africa
Watch the low boat hit and run
Talkin' Islands in Africa - Japan

Islands join hands 'neath heaven's sea
Islands - Peter Sinfield - King Crimson

Earth stream and tree encircled by sea
Waves sweep the sand from my Island
My sunsets fade
Field and glade wait only for rain
Grain after grain love my
High weathered walls which fend off the tide
cradle the wind.
Islands - Pete Sinfield - King Crimson

She dances for the sailors
In a smoky cabaret bar underground
Down in a cellar in a harbour town
The Pirates of Penzance - Joni Mitchell

I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay
Watching the tide roll away
I'm just sitting' on the dock of the bay.
The Dock of the Bay - Otis Redding

'All hands on deck, we've run afloat!' I heard the captain cry
'Explore the ship, replace the cook: let no one leave alive!'
Across the straits, around the Horn: how far can sailors fly?
A Salty Dog - Procol Harum

The roll of the harbour wake
The song tht the rigging makes
The taste of the spray he takes.
The Dawntreader - Joni Mitchell

We fired the gun, and burnt the mast, and rowed from ship to shore
A Salty Dog - Procol Harum

A song will lift
as the mainsail shifts
and the boat drifts on to the shoreline.
And the sun will respect
Everyface on the deck
The hour that the ship comes in.
When the Ship Comes in - Bob Dylan

Silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands
with all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves.,
Let me forget about today until tomorrow
Mr Tambourine Man - Bob Dylan

Where are the footprints that danced on these beaches?
Song to a Seagull - Joni Mitchell

One day she came like a seagull woman
One day she came.
Seagull Woman - Marc Bolan - Tyrannosaurus Rex

Lamplights glow on old guitars the travellers strum
Incense children dance to an Indian drum
Here Odysseus charmed for dark Circe fell
Still her perfume lingers, still her spell.
Formentara Lady - Pete Sinfield - King Crimson

A salty dog, this seaman's log: your witness my own hand
A Salty Dog - Procol Harum

We sailed for parts unknown to man, where ships come home to die
A Salty Dog - Procol Harum

I was going confiscate your lace
and wrap it up in a sailor's knot
and hide it in your case..
This Wheel's on Fire - Bob Dylan

The sea beasts scull the water
The Seabeasts - Marc Bolan - Tyrannosaurus Rex

As a babe of the spray
Like a White Star, tangled and far, You are - Marc Bolan - Tyrannosaurus Rex

Dark Harbour quays like fingers of stone
Hungrily reach from my island
Islands - Pete Sinfield - King Crimson

Below me sleepy rooftops of the harbour
I think I understand - Joni Mitchell

How many seas must a white dove sail
before she sleeps in the sand?
Blowin' in the Wind - Bob Dylan

The ocean wild like an organ played
The seaweed's wove its strands
The crashin' waves like cymbals clashed
Against the rocks and sands
Lay Down Your Weary Tune - Bob Dylan

Well I got back
and took the parkin' ticket off the mast
I was ripping it to shreds
when this coastguard boat went past
Bob Dylan's 115th Dream - Bob Dylan

I asked the Captain what his name was
and how come he didn't drive a truck
He said his name was Columbus
I just said 'Good Luck'
Bob Dylan's 115th Dream - Bob Dylan

All your seasick sailors they are rowing home
It's All Over Now Baby Blue - Bob Dylan

The beauty parlour is filled with sailors
The circus is in town
Desolation Row - Bob Dylan

Thrown like a star in my vast sleep
I open my eyes to take a peep
To find that I was by the sea
Gazing with tranquillity
Hurdy Gurdy Man - Donovan

We would be warm below the storm
In our little hideaway beneath the waves
Resting our head on the sea bed
In an octopus' garden near a cave
An Octopus's Garden - the Beatles

So we sailed on to the sun,
Till we found a sea of green,
And we lived beneath the waves,
In our yellow submarine,
Yellow Submarine - The Beatles

Standing on the cast iron shore-yeah
Glass Onion - The Beatles

DELIVER THE WORD - Focus on Lyricists (Melody Maker 1973)

Dec15th 1973 Melody Maker published a series of articles on lyricists such as Pete Brown (who wrote lyrics for Cream and Jack Bruce), Pete Sinfield (who wrote lyrics for King Crimson, ELP, PFM), Bernie Taupin (who wrote with Elton John), Keith Reid who wrote for Procul Harum), Clive James and Larry Beckett.

The Introduction read -

DELIVER THE WORD - Melody Maker Dec 15th 1973

Bernie Taupin

The sheer musicality of pop has broadened and deepened so much in the past decade that it's focused most of the critical attention upon itself to the comparative exclusion of the lyric.

Considering the number of books multiplying each year on the pre-rock and roll writers like Ira Gershwin, Lorenz Hart and Johnny Mercer, it's surprising that the pop lyric hasn't come in for more examination.

Of course, there was a time when an evaluation of rock and roll lyric would be based on the somewhat flip belief that "it's so bad it must be good"

This campy notion still holds true for much of pop, whose inherent instincts are for the instant and disposable, but the change in attitudes to the lyric has nevertheless vastly altered in ten years.

Lyricists, especially Robbie Robertson, have tried to unfuse an awareness of tradition and cultural

Pete Brown

values outside pop have begun to appear, and the general appraoch among writers intersted in craft is to make lyrics more concious.

Whether pop lyrics are art is a moot point. Pop has always been at its most critically vulnerable when it's self-concious, largely because its writers aren't usually equipped to craft these new ambitions onto a form that's dependent on commerialism when it gets right down to it.

But Dylan, who opened up these possibilities, has been the forerunner of a whole clutch of contemporary lyricists anxious to graft new sensibilities, vocabularies and themes onto pop.

The MM spoke to 6 of these writers, whose commercial success has been of varying degrees, and whose approach to lyric writing and lyrics in general is radically different.

Pete Sinfield

We choose them specifically because their primary role is as a lyricist, and they work with one or more melodists. It's significant of the change in pop that a few years ago such writers wouldn't have existed

Larry Beckett

.

Keith Reid

Clive James

Something in the Way She Moves - James Taylor

Something in the way she moves

Theres something in the way she moves,
Or looks my way, or calls my name,
That seems to leave this troubled world behind.
If Im feeling down and blue,
Or troubled by some foolish game,
She always seems to make me change my mind.

Chorus:
(and) I feel fine anytime shes around me now,
Shes around me now
Almost all the time.
(and) if I'm well you can tell that shes been with me now,

James Taylor - Something In the Way She Moves - Live Concert

(and) shes been with me now
Quite a long, long time
And I feel fine.___________

Every now and then the things I lean on lose their meaning,
And I find myself careening
Into places where I should not let me go.
-- she has the power to go where no one else can find me,
Yes, and to silently remind me
Of the happiness and good times that I know, you know.
Well I said I just got to know that:

It isnt what shes got to say
Or how she thinks or where shes been.
To me, the words are nice, the way they sound.
I like to hear them best that way -
It doesnt much matter what they mean,
Weh (when/well? ) she says them mostly just to calm me down.

Chorus:
n(and) I feel fine anytime shes around me now,
A-shes around me now
Almost all the time.
If Im well you can tell that shes been with me now,
And shes been with me now
Quite a long,
Long
Time -
Yes, and I feel fine.___________

 

One of the most Beautiful love songs by James Taylor which influenced George Harrison's song Something

It Ain't Me Babe

This song is apparently a parody of the Beatles She Love You Yeah Yeah Yeah with its retort of It Ain't me Babe No No No -

IT AIN'T ME BABE - DYLAN

Bob Dylan - It Ain't Me Babe

Go 'way from my window,
Leave at your own chosen speed.
I'm not the one you want, babe,
I'm not the one you need.
You say you're lookin' for someone
Never weak but always strong,
To protect you an' defend you
Whether you are right or wrong,
Someone to open each and every door,
But it ain't me, babe,
No, no, no, it ain't me, babe,
It ain't me you're lookin' for, babe.

Go lightly from the ledge, babe,
Go lightly on the ground.
I'm not the one you want, babe,
I will only let you down.
You say you're lookin' for someone

The Beatles - She Loves You (Manchester '63)

Who will promise never to part,
Someone to close his eyes for you,
Someone to close his heart,
Someone who will die for you an' more,
But it ain't me, babe,
No, no, no, it ain't me, babe,
It ain't me you're lookin' for, babe.

Go melt back into the night, babe,
Everything inside is made of stone.
There's nothing in here moving
An' anyway I'm not alone.
You say you're looking for someone
Who'll pick you up each time you fall,
To gather flowers constantly
An' to come each time you call,
A lover for your life an' nothing more,
But it ain't me, babe,
No, no, no, it ain't me, babe,
It ain't me you're lookin' for, babe.

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Which Side Can You Be On suggests that this is an obvious parody of She Loves You - structured around a 'Go between' - 'She said she loves you and you know that can't be bad'. Dylan's song, although one of his 'personal' songs is revolutionary and as much a 'protest song' as Master's Of War. His song breaks with the precepts of Courtly love that still permeates most pop love songs today. The tradition where the male protagonist is expected to be 'strong' and defend the female 'whether she is right or wrong', 'to gather flowers constantly' etc. His revolutionary (for the time) song juxtaposes a strong sense of indviduality, anticipates the free love relationships of the 60's and even feminist sensibilites. He challenges the stereotypes of bourgeois sensibilities. Dylan's protagonist is clearly not going to play the game. His finger points not at the woman but the conventions which dictate romantic behaviour. The song is structured around a folk song but transforms it into a powerful new and assertive statement.

Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now _ The Smiths

I seem to remember reading that Morrissey wrote this from overheard converstion while waiting in the Supermarket que. The title is taken from Sandie Shaw's former hit Heaven Knows I'm Missing Him Now. Again a bit Zen like in that starts with a positive and ends with the opposite -two sides of the same coin.

HEAVEN KNOWS I'M MISERABLE NOW - The Smiths

The Smiths - Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now - Video

I was happy in the haze of a drunken hour
But heaven knows I'm miserable now

I was looking for a job, and then I found a job
And heaven knows I'm miserable now

In my life
Why do I give valuable time
To people who don't care if I live or die ?

Two lovers entwined pass me by
And heaven knows I'm miserable now

I was looking for a job, and then I found a job 

Sandie Shaw & The Smiths - Hand in Glove

And heaven knows I'm miserable now

In my life
Oh, why do I give valuable time
To people who don't care if I live or die ?

What she asked of me at the end of the day
Caligula would have blushed

"You've been in the house too long" she said
And I (naturally) fled

In my life
Why do I smile
At people who I'd much rather kick in the eye ?

I was happy in the haze of a drunken hour
But heaven knows I'm miserable now

"You've been in the house too long" she said
And I (naturally) fled

In my life
Why do I give valuable time
To people who don't care if I live or die ?