As many of you know I wrote lyrics for a band called Dear John Letters another lifetime ago. For many people that seemed like a weird arrangement. One person wrote the words, the other wrote the song to those words. To a lot of writers that seemed backwards as a good majority of musicians write words to fit melodies already written. Our songs were written to the tune of my poetry. This gave them their own special sound.
These days I don't so much write for anyone but myself and I find a lot of joy in reading lyrics of amazing songs by talented songwriters. I could care less what genre a song lives or if the songwriter or band is considered one of the "cool kids". I like what I like and I hold on tight to those things that resonate within me. It is as simple as that.
I love songs that I don't know anything about, only what they mean to me. It is like they were written for me. I think a successful writer writes something that makes the listener feel as though they visited your head and heart and they know all of your secrets and your deepest most guarded feelings. Sometimes it actually ruins a song to me when I read an interview where the writer tells what the song was about word for word. I need the vague breakdown or none at all. I don't want my opinion colored by their experience. Call me selfish, I don't care.
Some of my favorite lyrics off the top of my head:
In My Life- The Beatles
Hallelujah- Jeff Buckley
Cemetery Song- Jon Auer
Tiny Vessels- Death cab for Cutie
Atlanta (I think that is what it is called) -Capillaries
Jack The Lion- Harvey Danger
Positively 4th street- Bob Dylan
Cold Booded Old Times- Smog
Above you Below me- Badley Drawn Boy
Hurt a Fly- Built To Spill
I May Hate You Sometimes- The Posies
Mental- Eels
Between the Bars- Elliot Smith
I Want You- Elvis Costello
Think (Let Tomorrow Be) - Sebadoh
Legendary & Puzzle- Lou Barlow
Kathy's Song- Simon & Garfunkel
Somebody- Depeche Mode
Love Song- the Cure
Afraid of Women- Dar Williams
Baby Bitch- Ween
and the list goes on and on and on.....
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