does anyone else think kurt cobain is one of the best writers in history? i think he seconds to Lennon with sincere sarcastic lines like "forever, in debt to your priceless advice or "i will never bother you, i will never promise to, never say a word again
Is one or was one... Grunge, how i miss you so much! (though id hate to see it come back, not that it ever will) Wouldnt put him in my top 100 though. A lot of his classics were just re-makes of older ones
I had cause recently to think about who I would consider to be truly great lyricists. I am afraid to say that Kurt Cobain was not among those I named.
There's something about Nirvana a lot of people enjoy, but I cant say it's the stunning music or the lyrics --they were a punk / grunge / whatever band. Just that certain something. Kurt Cobain definitely had a way with words, but I cant say that his lyrics were particularly brilliant, though they were often profound... some of them came off as inadequete to me. --They were definitely one of a kind, however, and I liked them. I do know that Cobain was known for writing lyrics in the car on the way to the studio to record the very song. He was good at working under pressure and making magic quickly, but I think that if he put more time into it, he would be a fabulous lyricist. A lyricist I would consider brilliant would be somewhere along the lines of John Petrucci (Dream Theater guitarist).
Without doubt some of the grestest lyric writers of all time.. Anthony field, Murrey Cook, Greg Page, Jeff Fatt and Phillip Witcher!
He certainly isn't my favorite, but I do love lyrics... " So on the bench I watched his left hand crossing While doubling entendres with the voicings He said "oh darling, you're charming, please don't find it alarming If I pull this stop out to free up a hand for heavy petting" " - "Lonesome Organist Rapes Page Turner" Dresden Dolls Whole songs like Rasputina's "Hunter's Kiss" and Voltaire's (singer, not the writer... though, I suppose he is a writer as well ) "God Thinks" come to mind. Ludo's weird little "Broken Bride" rock opera about a time traveler has been rocking my world lately too.
I think how good of a lyricist someone is is really subjective, more so than poetry or anything. For me, good lyrics are inseparable from the music, they do not stand alone the way poetry does. I've enjoyed Kurt Cobain's lyrics but I don't know what about them is exceptional. My favorite lyrics of his are in the song "Milk It".
I definitely think that some songs have lyrics that are heightened ten-fold by the music, I also think that the vocalist can sometimes change the way they are interpreted purely by technique used. (i.e. Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse of the Heart was - for me - an average song. Sung by Tori Amos, however and, it's an entirely different beast. Same with her interpretation of Eminem's '97 Bonnie and Clyde and even Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit). I also think that occasionally, some lyrics are not done as much justice as they deserve when put to music. When I think of great lyricists, I think of words from songs that have an effect on me when I both hear them via song and read them on paper. An actual list of mine could go on for a bit, but a couple of favourites of mine are Tori Amos (bet you didn't see that coming) and Don Walker (phenomenal storyteller from 80's pub-rock band Cold Chisel). Ooh... And Joss Whedon's dad.
Tori Amos' album Strange Little Girls is such a good example of how most lyrics are nothing outside of the context of the music, and how the words are sung, the emotion and tones of voice that you can hear, makes all the difference.
I definitely agree when it comes to that particular album, her interpretations are - as always - so unique and she made each one her own. I have a habit of reading the lyrics to songs before hearing them (usually, when I buy a new CD, I'll spend the bus ride home doing so, when possible). So I've read a fair amount of song lyrics without being able to put them into the context of the song at all. I think it's true that most of the time, the two (music and lyrics) complement each other to a degree that it seems weird to separate them, but I do often find lyrics that stand alone as pure poetry.
