who's your favorite lyricist?

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Glen Phillips of Toad the Wet Sprocket

Throw it All Away-
Take your cautionary tales
And take your incremental gain
And all the sycophantic games
And throw 'em all away
Burn your TV in your yard
And gather 'round it with your friends
And warm your hands upon the fire
And start again

Take the story you've been sold
The lies that justify the pain
The guilt that weighs upon your soul
And throw 'em all away
Tear up the calendar you bought
And throw the pieces to the sky
Confetti falling down like rain
Like a parade to usher in your life

Take the dreams that should've died
The ones that kept you lying awake
When you should've been all right
And throw 'em all away
With the time I waste on the life I never had
I could've turned myself into a better man

There is nothing you can buy
And there is nothing you can save
To fill the hole inside your heart
So throw it all away

Help me to empty this house
The wool i've gathered all these days
And thought I couldn't do without
And throw it all away


Elvis Costello

Suit of Lights

While Nat King Cole sings "Welcome To My World"
You request some song you hate you sentimental fool
And it's the force of habit
If it moves then you fuck it
If it doesn't move you stab it

And I thought I heard "The Working Man's Blues"
He went out to work that night and wasted his breath
Outside there was a public execution
Inside he died a thousand deaths

And they pulled him out of the cold cold ground
And they pulled him out of the cold cold ground
And they pulled him out of the cold cold ground
And they put him in a suit of lights

In the perforated first editions
Where they advocate the hangman's noose
Then tell the sorry tale of the spent Princess
Her uncouth escort looking down her dress

Anyway they say that she wears the trousers
And learnt everything that she does
And doesn't know if she should tell him yes
Or let him go

And they pulled him out of the cold cold ground
And they pulled him out of the cold cold ground
And they pulled him out of the cold cold ground
And they put him in a suit of lights

Well it's a dog's life in a rope leash or a diamond collar
It's enough to make you think right now
But you don't bother
For goodness sake as you cry and shake
Let's keep you face down in the dirt where you belong
And think of all the pleasure that it brings
Though you know that it's wrong

And there's still life in your body
But most of it's leaving
Can't you give us all a break
Can't you stop breathing

And I thought I heard "The Working Man's Blues"
I went to work that night and wasted my breath
Outside they're painting tar on somebody
It's the closest to a work of art that they will ever be

And they pulled him out of the cold cold ground
And they pulled him out of the cold cold ground
And they pulled him out of the cold cold ground
And they put him in a suit of lights
And they put him in a suit of lights


Bruce Springsteen

Land of Hopes and Dreams

Grab your ticket and your suitcase
Thunder's rolling down the tracks
You don't know where you're goin'
But you know younwon't be back
Well darlin' if you're weary
Lay your head upon my chest
We'll take what we can carry
And we'll leave behind the rest

Big Wheels rolling through fields
Where sunlight streams
Meet me in a land of hope and dreams

Well, I will provide for you
Yeah, and I will stand by your side
You'll need a good companion, darlin'
For this part of the ride
You leave behind your sorrows
Yeah, this day will be the last
Tomorrow they'll be sunny skies
And all this darkness past

Big Wheels rolling through fields
Where sunlight streams
Meet me in a land of hope and dreams

This train
Carries saints and sinners
This train
Carries losers and winners
This Train
Carries whores and gamblers
This Train
Carries midnight ramblers
This Train
Carries broken-hearted
This Train
Carries souls departed
This Train
Dreams will not be thwarted
This Train
Faith will be rewarded
This Train
Carries fools and kings
This Train
Hear the big wheels singing
This Train
Bells of freedom ringing


Billy Joel

We Didn't Start the Fire

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnny Ray
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio

Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, Television
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe

Rosenbergs, H Bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom
Brando, The King And I, and The Catcher In The Rye

Eisenhower, Vaccine, England's got a new queen
Maciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Joseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev
Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc

Roy Cohn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, Dancron
Dien Bien Phu Falls, Rock Around the Clock

Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team
Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland

Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Khrushchev
Princess Grace, Peyton Place, Trouble in the Suez

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac
Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, Bridge On The River Kwai

Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California baseball
Starkwether, Homicide, Children of Thalidomide
Buddy Holly, Ben Hur, Space Monkey, Mafia
Hula Hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go

U2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy
Chubby Checker, Psycho, Belgians in the Congo

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Hemingway, Eichman, Stranger in a Strange Land
Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs invasion

Lawrence of Arabia, British Beatlemania
Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson

Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British Politician sex
J.F.K. blown away, what else do I have to say

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again
Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock
Begin, Reagan, Palestine, Terror on the airline
Ayatollah's in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan

Wheel of Fortune, Sally Ride, heavy metal, suicide
Foreign debts, homeless Vets, AIDS, Crack, Bernie Goetz
Hypodermics on the shores, China's under martial law
Rock and Roller cola wars, I can't take it anymore

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it
 
I'm not really a lyrics person; I always pay more attention to the music and singing. But I absolutely love Nick Cave's lyrics; I've got a real weakness for the dark, rich gothic imagery he conjures.

And the mercy seat is awaiting,
And I think my head is burning
And in a way I'm hoping to be done
With all this measuring of proof
A life for a life and a tooth for a tooth
But in the end I've told the truth
And I'm not afraid to die.
 
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