Who are the most literary songwriters in the history of pop music?

Momus

also Grouper and David Byrne

>reads oscar wilde once

>Patti Smith, Nick Cave, Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, Joni Mitchell, Nick Drake, Lou Reed
I request you supply an example song for each of them if it's not too much trouble

What? No love for Dylan? lol

not really a good contest

adam drucker
aes

Mark E. Smith and Captain Beefheart.

Veeky Forums has had a hate boner for dylan since he won the nobel

Pop has been mostly covered, so here are some indie suggestions: David Berman, John Darnielle (who's also a moderately acclaimed novelist), Craig Finn, Sufjan Stevens.

The guitarist, Johnny marr wrote a lot of the songs. Twice the musician Morrissey is, he just isn't a pompous poofter

The don't understand why the smiths are edgy and gay cunt uni students plug them. They are popular as fuck in England

Different guy, but
Leonard Cohen: Take this Waltz, Closing Time
Tom Waits: Emotional Weather Report, On a Foggy Night

Darnielle's novels are tedious and his songs are pretentious.

Stephin Merritt, Dylan, Matthew/Eleanor Friedberger, Elliott Smith, Townes Van Zandt and Phil Elverum

GREAT answer

good answers

no

not OP but

Songs of Leonard Cohen is a masterpiece in songwriting and music as literature
youtube.com/watch?v=cZI6EdnvH-8

Drake's Pink Moon is simple and folk-y, yet psychedelic lyric-wise
youtube.com/watch?v=Q2JjJPDz3EE

Murder Ballads is probably my favorite of Caves' lyric-wise
youtube.com/watch?v=chF244LWWqg

Blue is a good place to start for Mitchell
youtube.com/watch?v=GpFudDAYqxY

The Murder Mystery or The Gift for Lou Reed (though Cale may have wrote either)
youtube.com/watch?v=mI-YiaWDgB4

Waits' most acclaimed is his Rain Dogs and prior material, but he has plenty of good stuff after (like Blood Money, his most underrated imo)
youtube.com/watch?v=4XrFpubOSfE

also just
rateyourmusic.com/customchart?page=1&chart_type=top&type=album&year=alltime&genre_include=1&genres=Singer/Songwriter&include_child_genres=t&include=both&limit=none&countries=
is a good place to look

some more recs from stuff I listed above
youtube.com/watch?v=sk8vs1pKW5A
youtube.com/watch?v=_9RpCoaEnzQ
youtube.com/watch?v=rdvK9TDnf-Q
youtube.com/watch?v=UWf2oFoF-B4 (fav)
youtube.com/watch?v=zByllUw7Cfo

some extras
youtube.com/watch?v=m-b76yiqO1E
youtube.com/watch?v=4ech6pZoBJ4
youtube.com/watch?v=jKl4Wpu75W0
youtube.com/watch?v=2GHyLhbdzN0

lots of folk/indie music but that's where you'll find the most "literary" stuff in music that doesn't start to venture into spoken-word.

holy shit

why no love for Morrissey? :(

Should be noted: There's a lot more to songwriting than just lyricism but these are my favs just from a lyrical standpoint.

he's a fine lyricist imo, just very overrated and only good like less than half the time without being insufferable. I also don't care for his solo stuff and Marr is most of what made the Smiths appealing to me.

I can't stress enough how much Stephin Merritt destroys pretty much every lyricist ever, at least for pop/rock music:

youtube.com/watch?v=MQvWVPkV5Sw
youtube.com/watch?v=fllQTBPDalk
youtube.com/watch?v=DE5lsoXeQDg
youtube.com/watch?v=jkjXr9SrzQE (yes he wrote the song used in the Scrubs' finale)
youtube.com/watch?v=LAkYGV2Ymdc
>rhyming "closure," "kosher," and "Dozier"
fucking madman. Also, there's just too few baritone voices in pop music but 69 Love Songs balances it out with about 1/3 of songs being Claudia's vocals. Please listen to 69 Love Songs if you're interested in music as literature.

Go to bed, Claudia.

TOWNES VAN ZANDT

Also Jason Molina if you're into being fucking sad

youtube.com/watch?v=wxAaf16xXRk
youtube.com/watch?v=D93xc7p_yKw
youtube.com/watch?v=J-eJouWWrgQ

also MF DOOM
youtube.com/watch?v=rpaonSDPw7Y
youtube.com/watch?v=lRMyYP3T0NE
>one for the money two for the green 3 4 methylenedioxymethamphetamine

>:|

yeah

Yep. End thread.

no but for real do people not like Claudia's voice? I haven't been on /mu/ in years.

Some of their best early songs have Claudia's voice for godsake
youtube.com/watch?v=lHkAqWa9gW0

nvm that's Susan's voice my b

It's fine with some reverb on it.

thank you king. I'd probably have listed Heroin or something from his solo career for Reed because I'm pretty sure both of those TVU songs are Cale lmao

Sister Ray a best tho

havent heard the rest of them but the most poetic song i know is song for a warrior by swans

Merritt is more clever than pretty much anyone, I agree, but I've always felt like there's something missing from some of his songwriting.

Like stuff like "I don't want to get over you" (which is still fantastic) seems to be more concerned with being a super clever song about a break up than actually having an emotional core, or transmitting some kind of feeling.

I think the best way to put is that for me, Merritt's songs lack 'urgency.'

In songs as literature, I tend to prefer stuff which maybe don't have as strong rhymes or individual lines, but add up to something that feels urgent or important.

For example: Craig Finn- God in Chicago youtube.com/watch?v=IfZt4JRKtN0

John Darnielle- Pale Green Things: youtube.com/watch?v=GFm_jjcnrXg

Leonard Cohen- Famous Blue Raincoat: youtube.com/watch?v=kkSERbdl39Q

Paul Simon ruled
youtu.be/OoFBQ7O3YBk
youtu.be/UVDg8fVC4EQ

I certainly see what you mean, but I think in the context of music what works as say straight-up poetry or lyricism isn't necessarily what makes great songs, and Merritt is at least a master of that aspect as a songwriter and maybe not exclusively a lyricist.

A strong argument is made by some though that what's clever isn't necessarily good (see: Ulysses)

Mountain Goats and Cohen are great choices btw

Patti Smith, Leonard Cohen, Jim Morrison (he was more poet than anything).

This thread is embarrassingly basic

not that i have much more to add
robert wyatt
roy harper
ROME

are good

Magnetic fields and blaze foley are good too

SUCKING ON MY DING-DONG!!1!

J cole

Kendrick

Eminem

Prove me wrong

That song so beautiful in the context of the entire album, a safehaven from all the tumult and darkness

No, you're right.

dan bejar, spencer krug, carey mercer

god you're fucking boring

Lana Del Rey

"There are violets in your eyes
There are guns that blaze around you
There are roses in between my thighs
And a fire that surrounds you
It’s no wonder every man in town
Had neither fought nor found you
Everything you do is elusive
To even your honey dew"

Aesop Rock

hard to pick one song but this one has a few lines that i have been obsessed with recently
youtube.com/watch?v=fIv9Oi6msXk

I agree. He's something else. Morrissey and Stephen Merritt are great lyricists. I'd say Elliott Smith and Jason Molina are up there too.

Born for love and nothing more
Given away cause we was poor
Will you wait, will you wait for me?
My hair was black and my eyes was bright
Never catch up to my parents' side
Will you wait, will you wait for me?

Robbie Basho

Oh Mother, I can feel the soil falling over my head
And as I climb into an empty bed
Oh well. Enough said.
I know it's over - still I cling
I don't know where else I can go
Oh...

Oh Mother, I can feel the soil falling over my head
See, the sea wants to take me
The knife wants to slit me
Do you think you can help me?

Sad veiled bride, please be happy
Handsome groom, give her room
Loud, loutish lover, treat her kindly
(Though she needs you
More than she loves you)
And I know it's over - still I cling
I don't know where else I can go
Over and over and over and over
Over and over, la...

I know it's over
And it never really began
But in my heart it was so real
And you even spoke to me, and said :
"If you're so funny
Then why are you on your own tonight ?
And if you're so clever
Then why are you on your own tonight ?
If you're so very entertaining
Then why are you on your own tonight ?
If you're so very good-looking
Why do you sleep alone tonight ?
I know...

'Cause tonight is just like any other night
That's why you're on your own tonight
With your triumphs and your charms
While they're in each other's arms..."
It's so easy to laugh
It's so easy to hate
It takes strength to be gentle and kind
Over, over, over, over

It's so easy to laugh
It's so easy to hate
It takes guts to be gentle and kind
Over, over
Love is natural and real
But not for you, my love
Not tonight, my love
Love is natural and real
But not for such as you and I, my love

Oh Mother, I can feel the soil falling over my head
Oh Mother, I can feel the soil falling over my head
Oh Mother, I can feel the soil falling over my head
Oh Mother, I can feel the soil falling over my ...
Oh Mother, I can feel the soil falling over my head
Oh Mother, I can even feel the soil falling over my head
Oh Mother, I can feel the soil falling over my head
Oh Mother, I can feel the soil falling over my...

Moz is the one.

passionsjustlikemine.com/influence-liter.htm

He has very good taste too.

>seems to be more concerned with being a super clever song about a break up than actually having an emotional core, or transmitting some kind of feeling.

Yeah that's what he does best. Stephin Merritt is a giant asshole with no love in his heart and most of his songs are tongue in cheek, especially so on 69 Love Songs. The whole album was meant to be a goofy thing that poked fun at popular music's conceptions of love and sadness.

For all my Southside niggas that know me best
I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex
Why? I made that bitch famous (Goddamn)
I made that bitch famous
For all the girls that got dick from Kanye West
If you see 'em in the streets give 'em Kanye's best
Why? They mad they ain't famous (Goddamn)
They mad they still nameless (Talk that talk, man)
Her man in the store tryna try his best
But he just can't seem to get Kanye fresh
But we still hood famous (Goddamn)
Yeah we still hood famous

Kanye West, a true top IQ lyrical genius

Bruce Springsteen

MARK E SMITH

Smog has some excellent word play
youtube.com/watch?v=2IBIbl1LzIw

"I was raised in a pit of snakes
Blink your eyes I was raised on cake
I couldn't memorize a century of slang
Or learn to tell the same story again and again and again, o"

Brel and Brassens

There are many videos of Brel subtitled on YouTube but if you don't know French it doesn't really convey well. But there were some great translators in the seventies:

Jacques Brel's "The Statue," performed by Joe Masiell
youtube.com/watch?v=QcDsGH_9wnw
Jackie by Scott Walker
youtube.com/watch?v=eKtZf62BQzM
And you probably know David Bowie's Amsterdam

Is there any Veeky Forums approved hiphop?

A dreaded sunny day
So I meet you at the cemetry gates
Keats and Yeats are on your side
A dreaded sunny day
So I meet you at the cemetry gates
Keats and Yeats are on your side
While Wilde is on mine

So we go inside and we gravely read the stones
All those people, all those lives
Where are they now?
With loves, and hates
And passions just like mine
They were born
And then they lived
And then they died
It seems so unfair
I want to cry

You say : "'Ere thrice the sun done salutation to the dawn"
And you claim these words as your own
But I've read well, and I've heard them said
A hundred times (maybe less, maybe more)
If you must write prose/poems
The words you use should be your own
Don't plagiarise or take "on loan"
'Cause there's always someone, somewhere
With a big nose, who knows
And who trips you up and laughs
When you fall
Who'll trip you up and laugh
When you fall

You say : "'Ere long done do does did"
Words which could only be your own
And then produce the text
From whence was ripped
(Some dizzy whore, 1804)

A dreaded sunny day
So let's go where we're happy
And I meet you at the cemetry gates
Oh, Keats and Yeats are on your side
A dreaded sunny day
So let's go where we're wanted
And I meet you at the cemetry gates
Keats and Yeats are on your side
But you lose
'Cause weird lover Wilde is on mine

There's a strange sort of irony in this:

>At this, Eliza and Ezra rolled together into one giggling snowball of full-figured copulation, screaming and shouting as they playfully bit and pulled at each other in a dangerous and clamorous rollercoaster coil of sexually violent rotation with Eliza’s breasts barrel-rolled across Ezra’s howling mouth and the pained frenzy of his bulbous salutation extenuating his excitement as it whacked and smacked its way into every muscle of Eliza’s body except for the otherwise central zone.

youtube.com/watch?v=k2iNfbnr1hA

i like wyatt's lyrics but his music is pretty overrated.

Harper has only one good album and literally nothing else worthwhile

rome is good tho

no

maybe

no

yeah but I'm right.

Name some better lyricists why don't you?

no

probably objectively the best hip hop lyricist but man I just don't like the guy's music

callahan underrated

I love brel but I also don't speak french

fucking quit

>these fucking edgy-ass tumblr lyrics
lmao c'mon

Literally the only right answer

This.

>No mention of Van Morrison
Bunch of plebs the lot of you

Is that you, Reddit? Is this me?

Chico Buarque

Don't play with big boy words you don't know

What

You gotta syphon the spinach, you gotta cream the corn
Sperm scrambles the eggs and a meal is born
Cooking like a beginner, but I'm going up in her
I had Fritos for lunch I'm having bush for dinner
Chef Boyardee and the Three Muskateers
Shove Charleston Chews in their rears like queers
"Holy moly, guacamole!" said my Chips Ahoy
I'm gonna pinch a ravioli on the Pillsbury dough boy

Eminem and Chief Keef

This. Moz rules.
>Allowing Tumblr to dictate your tastes
Sad desu. Those fat cunts have no say in what I like to listen to.

not pop music per se but still:
Joanna Newsom
youtube.com/watch?v=ky9Ro9pP2gc

Pretty sure Bowie incorporates nadsat into a song
I think Iron Maiden was meant to have artistic references in their lyrics, but I don't think that can be counted as pop at all.

morrisey's a psued

Ian Curtis. The guy was well read and reading books was the only thing he liked doing offstage.

Kendrick Lamar
Yes, definitely.

Also, Woody Guthrie, Johnny Cash, Serj Tankian, Roger Waters and... More but this is off the top.

Kendrick definitely as much of literary value as any pop artist could be. I'm sorry but anyone who can slip
>Warriors and Conans hope euphoria can slow dance with society
Into a platinum single is definitely pop music literature. Also GKMC is a modern retelling of the prodigal son set in the projects.
Yes MF Doom!

Oh shit I forgot Nas!

Bump!

No love for Newsom?

For me it's the McChicken. The best fast food sandwich.

Blaze Foley

Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin, Kendrick Lamar

I'm just poppin off names

Nice dubs, but Kendrick is a fag

no one checks em on Veeky Forums
and cmon man. section 80, Good KIID MAAD City, and to Pimp a Butterfly are really lyrical (exclude party songs). I wasn't crazy about DAMN. though

The yam brought it outta Richard Pryor
Manipulated bill Clinton with desire

>3 days and nobody said Isaac Brock.
Sad
Also Josh T Pearson of Lift to Experience

The absolute state of this board.
No wonder you are so absolutely illiterate.

youtube.com/watch?v=1E2MyRsApm0

youtube.com/watch?v=SQe88ybEIe8

You know you love me, I know you care
Just shout whenever and I'll be there
You are my love, you are my heart
And we will never, ever, ever be apart

Are we an item? Girl quit playin'
We're just friends, what are you sayin'
Said there's another, look right in my eyes
My first love, broke my heart for the first time

And I was like baby, baby, baby oh
Like baby, baby, baby no
Like baby, baby, baby oh
I thought you'd always be mine (mine)
Baby, baby, baby oh
Like baby, baby, baby no
Like baby, baby, baby ooh
I thought you'd always be mine

Oh for you, I would have done whatever
And I just can't believe we ain't together
And I wanna play it cool
But I'm losin' you
I'll buy you anything
I'll buy you any ring
And I'm in pieces, baby fix me
And just shake me, 'til you wake me from this bad dream
I'm goin' down, down, down, down
And I can't just believe my first love won't be around

And I'm like baby, baby, baby oh
Like baby, baby, baby no
Like baby, baby, baby oh
I thought you'd always be mine (mine)
Baby, baby, baby oh
Like baby, baby, baby no
Like baby, baby, baby ooh
I thought you'd always be mine

Luda, when I was thirteen, I had my first love
There was nobody that compared to my baby
And nobody came between us no one could ever come above
She had me goin' crazy
Oh, I was starstruck
She woke me up daily
Don't need no Starbucks
She made my heart pound
And skip a beat when I see her in the street and
At school on the playground
But I really wanna see her on the weekend
She know she got me dazin'
'Cause she was so amazin'
And now my heart is breakin'
But I just keep on sayin'

Baby, baby, baby oh
Like baby, baby, baby no
Like baby, baby, baby oh
I thought you'd always be mine (mine)
Baby, baby, baby oh
Like baby, baby, baby no
Like baby, baby, baby ooh
I thought you'd always be mine

Does it get more Veeky Forums than this?

youtube.com/watch?v=sb5ZCr3YkM8

ooo, we have the pinnacle of english literature here.

Do you eat lobster for every fucking meal? Do you listen to classical music only? Hope you see the implication

I agree entirely

There are maybe ten (10) rappers whose lyrics are worth serious critical analysis.
Kendrick is not one of them.
If you think Kendrick is one of them, you are either retarded or you don't spend enough time reading.

>you listen to classical music only?
Not always. Sometimes I listen to jazz when I want to turn off my brain and just have some dumb fun.

This