Uh oh. Blender's "The 40 Worst Lyricists In Rock".

[sloop_john_b]

http://www.blender.com/guide/articles.aspx?ID=2882

Well, I was relieved to find that the names Dylan, Springsteen, Oberst, and other personal favorites missing from the list. I was also glad to see Jim Morrison near the top. But there's some listed here that forumites are most certainly going to take umbridge to. Including:

02 • Neil Peart
An ace on the rototoms, a train wreck on the typewriter.

Drummers are good at many things: exploding, drowning in their own vomit, drumming. But the Rush skinsman proved they should never write lyrics—or read books. Peart opuses like “Cygnus X-1” are richly awful tapestries of fantasy and science fiction, steeped in an eighth-grade understanding of Western philosophy. 2112, Rush’s 1976 concept album based on individualist thinker Ayn Rand’s novella Anthem, remains an awe-inspiring low point in the sordid relationship between rock and ideas. Worst lyric: “I stand atop a spiral stair/An oracle confronts me there/He leads me on light years away/Through astral nights, galactic days” (“Oracle: The Dream”)

and...

17 • Jon Anderson
Lyrics so bad they almost broke up the band.

Rush had dumb lyrics written by their drummer; fellow prog-rock legends Yes had lyrics so dumb they allegedly provoked drummer Bill Bruford to quit the band. Mystically inclined lyricist Jon Anderson left school at age 15, leaving little formal education to hem in his interests in nature, space travel, Russian literature and sun worship. Anderson’s imagination was so fecund a mere footnote in a book of Hindu spiritualism inspired an entire double album, 1974’s Tales From Topographic Oceans.
Worst lyric: “A seasoned witch could call you from the depths of your disgrace/And rearrange your liver to the solid mental grace.” (“Close to the Edge: The Solid Time of Change”)

[lyle_from_minneapolis]

Okay, I'll admit it: I really hate these kinds of lists. I always picture some pinched-faced little wretch in a designer shirt, annoyed by the temperature of his pinot grigio and giving flack to the waitress while he pens his snarky little diatribes about all the people he secretly adores who actually approached some form of greatness.

That smug twerp will never come any closer to touching the pantheon of stars upon whom he casts his mighty judgment.

[sir_andrew_of_left_coast]

I would think most would take "umbridge" with Paul McCartney's name being on the list. Maybe not.

I disagree about Jim Morrison... but, as Lyle aptly put it, the list was probably composed by a group of smug twerps.

[johnallg]

Yawn.....

It is easy to trash someone else's work. I'd like to see what they have penned, other than these "opinions" of other's work.

[gray]

Okay, I'll admit it: I really hate these kinds of lists. I always picture some pinched-faced little wretch in a designer shirt, annoyed by the temperature of his pinot grigio and giving flack to the waitress while he pens his snarky little diatribes about all the people he secretly adores who actually approached some form of greatness.

That smug twerp will never come any closer to touching the pantheon of stars upon whom he casts his mighty judgment.

Yup. S'true.

[charlyg]

I disagree with most of that chaps opinions. As an aside, this would make my list of most obscure...


We skipped the light fandango
turned cartwheels 'cross the floor
I was feeling kinda seasick
but the crowd called out for more
The room was humming harder
as the ceiling flew away
When we called out for another drink
the waiter brought a tray

And so it was that later
as the miller told his tale
that her face, at first just ghostly,
turned a whiter shade of pale

She said, 'There is no reason
and the truth is plain to see.'
But I wandered through my playing cards
and would not let her be
one of sixteen vestal virgins
who were leaving for the coast
and although my eyes were open
they might have just as well've been closed

[longboard_ric]

It's easy to criticise others work when you have little to offer.

Anyway, aren't all lyrics subject to the listeners interpretation ?

[rictified]

I thought Jim Morrison was one of the most talented theatrical rock writers and performers ever, but then again you may have to have grown up in that era to appreciate him. Many lyrics have to be taken as art; open to interpretation, even Dylan was pretty obscure much of the time.

[charlyg]

I'm not sure I fall into the open to interpretation camp. The writer had to have something in mind while writing. If we interpret it differently, that is not usually the desired outcome. They sometimes have fun with how the public misinterprets their lyrics, but I have never heard someone say they wanted us to react differently than they intended, on purpose.

[phlemmy]

JESUS H CHRIST PEOPLE. you take things way too seriously sometimes.

That list was awesome, no matter if I agreed with it or not.

[charlyg]

I guess awesomeness is in the eye of the beholder.

[lyle_from_minneapolis]

Dylan? Obscure? Nahh...

I was in a lively debate the other day on a songwriting forum. I noticed all the lyric critics kept insisting on absolute clarity and explanations of every lyric... way off-base, IMO. Certainly clarity is a good thing, but after a lot of round and round, I left them with one of the most beautiful lines ever set to pen: The answer my friend is blowing in the wind.

(They would have insisted he name what's blowing in the wind! Clarity, clarity, clarity! What is the answer?! Why is it in the wind??)

[charlyg]

I am interested in what posessed the writer to use the words "he" did. The answer is blowing in the wind fits the theme of the song. It is really open to only one or two interpretations IMHO.
1. no one knows the answer and it is as hard to grasp (grab hold of) as the wind
2.the answer is actually blowing in the wind (attainable) and we have to keep grasping after "the answer" until we find it.

It was never his intention to actually answer the question, or have us answer it "correctly".

[lyle_from_minneapolis]

What was the Douglas Adams take....

Q: How many roads must a man walk down?
A: 43.

[nattiep]

Ah, another critic who has not heard a Rush album in the past 25 years. I love how they always make fun of the 70's stuff, but never take into account anything after that. Neil has written some great stuff from the 80's til today. He's amazing, but when someone says "Rush" to a critic they have to go "OMG Prog rock and science fiction!" People are stupid. And they make fun of Neil for bein the writer. What if he didn't write the stuff? We'd get stuck with 30 years of "Hey baby it's a quarter to eight/I feel I'm in the mood"

Now with Jon Anderson.. I have no idea wtf he's talking about at all.
For example : Don't surround yourself with yourself/move on back to squares/send an instant karma to me/initial it with loving care
Again, WTF?!
Find me a Yes song that fully makes sense and I'll give ya $5.