/lit/ - Literature

I just want to add inb4 Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, S&G, I already know them and I guess they are going to show up here at some point, but I'd like to hear about less-known songwriters.

yeah, i only discovered phil ochs a year and a half ago.

he's great

Leonard Cohen
David Berman (Silver Jews) - My personal favorite
Nick Drake
David Bixby

Townes van Zandt
John Hiatt

>>3713531
He has some godawful drug addled dreck but Lou Reed has had flashes of brilliance as well.

And Nick Cave's later stuff

>>3713531
1. Daniel Johnston
2. Jeff Mangum
3. Alex Chilton
4. Robert Pollard
5. Kim Deal
6. Cocteau Twins (look up their Heaven or Las Vegas album)
7. Connie Converse

I think Beck is the most interesting lyricist in contemporary music. His writing is extremely versatile: ranging from conscious attempts to invoke French symbolism (especially Jules LaForge) to unabashed silliness.

Runners-up are Bill Callahan - who writes like a world-weary Emerson - and Leonard Cohen.

Sixto Rodriguez

documentary about him came out last year, Searching For Sugar Man

Joanna Newsom for sure

>listening to music

>there are people who seriously say Jeff Mangum.

>>3715142
Gotta second that one, reminds me a lot of Dylan.

The documentary was pretty cool too, considering I've been listening to him since I was a kid.

"Woke up this moming with an ache in my head
Splashed on my clothes as I spilled out of bed
Opened the window to listen to the news
But all I heard was the Establishment's Blues."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSurzeGvPrQ

>>3715169
Stay on the edge

>>3715143
Came to post her.

>>3713531

Modest Mouse is an incredible group IMO, and their lyrics are a huge part of that. You can't exactly separate their lyrics from their music, though. They only really work through a musical medium, like literature that can't be expressed well in film.

>>3715215

post something, anything, god-tier she's written

i'll wait.

>>3715221
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LnYLF_E1NU

definitely god tier in my opinion.

>>3715221
To pick on from each of her three novels, my favorite songs lyrically from her are 'Inflammatory Writ', 'Only Skin' and 'Go Long'.

>>3715131
I kinda like Cave's early stuff better... From Her to Eternity, Tender Prey, Henry's dream. That's some great stuff.

>>3715113
Have you heard this? A Berman poem backed by The Avalanches, real subtle (for what they normally do) but great. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XTrz0yvxe0

I'm getting real comfortable with Stuart Murdoch's songs right now (Belle and Sebastian)

>>3715232
>To pick on from each of her three novels
Christ I'm sleep deprived.
>To pick one* from each of her three albums*

Nick Drake

but i wish his studio albums were all acoustic like pink moon

and i wish his work with The Perfumed Gardeners was available

>>3715166
the neckbeard in the picture needs to kill himself now

>>3715219
who are you?
i must know


i've listened to nothing but modest mouse (literally) for about a year and a half

>>3715238
The strings on Five Leaves Left are great though, they're so heavy. They sound like depression feels.

Came here to post this. Kate Bush is a very literary songwriter, her lyrical themes are so fascinating and multilayered. As are her compositions.

>>3715232
I'd say In California, Autumn, and Sawdust & Diamonds.

>popular music

>>3715250
>folk music
>popular music
One of these things is not like the other

>>3715259

who is Mumford and Sons

Warren Zevon hasn't been mentioned.

>>3715271
Pop classical can exist just like pop folk can. Mumford and Sons has as little to do with Bert Jansch or Richard Thompson as the opera shit they sell to middle aged women has as little with Handel or Mozart.

>>3715288

that's funny, because the opera shit they sell to middle aged women IS Handel and Mozart

Robert Hunter.

>>3715288
what the fuck is 'pop classical' please give examples.

>mfw /lit/arded folk try to discuss music and sound even more ignorant than /mu/

>>3715259
He recorded and released albums, he's a popular music artist.

Truthfully I think the tripartite is a bit useless and only serves to encourage misplaced elitism as well as create confusion, e.g. 'What defines art music?' Although I should probably leave it up to the academics to justify or oppose the division.

>>3715295
I'm talking this real pop opera shit. I don't know if you have it in America or wherever you're from, but in Britain we have this cunt called Alfie Boe who middle aged, middle class women cream themselves over.

>>3715301
Look, up Lucia micharelli (might be misspelled)

John Darnielle
Colin Meloy
Justin Vernon

>>3715301
Pavarotti. I hate Nessun Dorma so fucking much.

>>3715324

Paul Pott's Nessun Dorma makes me cry evry time.

I'm not even kidding.

It's always great to see someone mention one of our most under-recognized national treasures. Probably the best folk singer we've ever had. I love his satirical songs. Outside of a Small Circle of Friends, Love Me I'm a Liberal, Draft Dodger Rag, etc are all fucking great. Gunfight at Carnegie Hall is my favorite live album of all time. If you haven't listened to it yet, you should.

The Antlers have some brilliant lyrics as well, especially on Hospice. Not sure how they haven't been mentioned yet.

>>3715327
See its that shit I'm talking about.

>>3715242
I am not joking that is literally the exact amount of time I've been listening to them. Discovered them last winter. I'm fuckin hooked, haven't been able to listen to anything else since. If they don't put out the new album soon....

>>3715334

I'm an extreme pleb when it comes to music, despite knowing a little bit about it. I have awful taste and I'm proud of it.

I am disturbed by the lack of Tom Waits.

>>3715358
But what does he wait for?

>>3715321
They should get together with Sam Beam and make an Indie Folk Wu-Tang Clan

why the fuck isn't tomas kalnoky in this thread yet?

"Hey there Salinger, What did you do?
Just when the world was looking at you
To write anything, that meant anything
You told us you were through
And it's been years since you passed away
but I see no plaque, and I see no grave.
And I can't help believing, you wanted it that way.

Vincent Van Gogh, Why do you weep?
You were on your way to heaven, but the road was steep
And who was there to break your fall?
We're guilty, One and All

And I don't know much, but I do know this
With a golden heart, comes a rebel fist"

this man is fucking beautiful

>>3715874
I can't help agreeing with those who would not quit <3

I'm mad for Streetlight, excellent taste anon

>>3715364
Tom Waits for no mouse

Bright Eyes
Mountain Goats
Vampire Weekend

Aaron Weiss

Shoot me- I like a lot of the folk singers mentioned here. Anymore that I should know about?

>>3715998
Mountain Goats

>>3715939

Thank you, sir. They are simply fantastic. I hope you have a beautiful evening.

Patrick Stickles of Titus Andronicus.

>>3715131
"Choo chee choo. Choo chee chee."

Very insightful, Lou.

>>3715209
Did they seriously put country guitars over an 808?

>>3715209

This is, objectively, the worst song I've ever heard.

>>3716034
HAHAHAHA

even after The Monitor? pls bitch

Who are you to wave your finger?
Ya' must have been out your head.
Eye hole deep in muddy waters.
You practically raised the dead.

Rob the grave, to snow the cradle.
Then burn the evidence down.
Soapbox, house of cards, and glass,
So don't go tossin' your stones around.

>>3716073
>the Monitor
>one of the best albums of this millennium

Pick two.

>>3716082
Come on dude. That's really pushing it.

>>3716087
At the very least it is one of the best albums of this decade.

>>3715132
A+. Lost it at Cocteau Twins.

>>3716140
Are you joking? Their lyrics are purposefully nonsensical.

Jimmy Dean's Big John: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnnHprUGKF0

>>3716145
The Kim Deal bit was also choice, btw.

Ivor Cutler is my favourite lyricist. I'm kind of cheating because half of his stuff is spoken word, and when there is music it's normally the just droning of his harmonium, but still.

Nobody does the naive sincerity shtick close to as well. I'm not going to try to explain his style any more than that, but give these a listen!

two 'songs'
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0x9OVIuboy4
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NwJ8p2sfdo

and a spoken word track
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8Gt_GpGd4A

>>>/mu/

Don McLean's American Pie is probably the best example of lyrical genius I've ever come across. Beats hands-down everything I've seen so far in this thread.

Read this if you disagree:
http://music.yahoo.com/blogs/stop-the-presses/don-mclean-american-pie-20-things-might-not-212950674.html

>>3716261
Also this is an in-depth analysis of a few verses:
http://www.rareexception.com/Garden/Pie.php

>>3716261
yeah he ryhmes 'out of luck'
with 'pick up truck'
Someone should really exolore nostalgia for 50's rock and roll and the resultant pop-culture of the Bab

This guy.

Mainstream garbage.

She was one of the greatest lyricists ever.

This is Torben Wendt, from the band Diorama.
He's better than all the shit you've posted here.

>>3716339

>I don't listen to much music, please be gentle.

Dorothy was a waitress on the promenade
She worked the night shift
Dishwater blonde, tall and fine
She got a lot of tips

Well, earlier I'd been talkin' stuff in a violent room
Fightin' with lover's past
I needed someone with a quicker wit than mine
Dorothy was fast

Well, I ordered - "Yeah, let me get a fruit cocktail, I ain't 2 hungry"
Dorothy laughed
She said - "It sound like a real man 2 me (U're kinda cute)
U're kinda cute, U wanna take a bath?" (Do U wanna, do U wanna?) ... Bath?

Oh, I said - "Cool, but I'm leavin' my pants on (What U say?)
Cuz I'm kinda goin' with someone"
She said - "Sound like a real man 2 me
Mind if I turn on the radio?"

"Oh, my favorite song," she said
And it was Joni singing, "Help me, I think I'm falling"
(Drring) The phone rang and she said
"Whoever's calling can't be as cute as U"
Right then and there I knew I was through (Dorothy Parker was cool)

Well

My pants were wet, they came off
But she didn't see the movie cuz she hadn't read the book first

Instead she pretended she was blind
An affliction brought on by a witch's curse
Dorothy made me laugh (ha ha, ha ha)
I felt much better so I went back 2 the violent room
(Tell us what U did, what U did) Let me tell U what I did

I took another bubble bath with my pants on
All the fighting stopped
Next time I'll do it sooner
This is the ballad of Dorothy Parker

>>3716366
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Xi8A5OFhUI

it's amazing prince wrote a song about dorothy parker

>>3715321
Throwing my support behind Darnielle

>>3715321
>putting those other 2 in the same class as John Darnielle

Pleeease

>>3715143
She's the best.
Have you ever read the ys booklet leisurely?

the guy from underworld. i like the song "cups". i think the lyrics are nice even though i can't understand most of them. it's like they're "barely out of reach" because of the vocoder and i think that makes them nice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKMHAiXBkSs

Leonard Cohen
Jim Croce
Don McLean
Peter, Paul, and Mary
Gordon Lightfoot

Most of what they have written is excellent from a song writing persepective. Croces guitar skill is likewise phenomenal

>>3715166
Anyone ever posted this on /mu/ yet?

>>3716521
I saw it there the day it was first posted here.

>ctrl+f Morrissey
>0 results

>>3716510
Jim Croce is breddy gud.

Robbie Basho and John Prine are similar and also breddu gud

Mark Hollis is a brilliant songwriter and lyricist. Check out his work on the Talk Talk albums Spirit of Eden and especially Laughing Stock.

>>3716595
hey i like mark hollis too. i tend to have a penchant for singers whose lyrics are difficult to discern.

have you listened to an 'o' rang?

"The Future"

Give me back my broken night
my mirrored room, my secret life
it's lonely here,
there's no one left to torture
Give me absolute control
over every living soul
And lie beside me, baby,
that's an order!
Give me crack and anal sex
Take the only tree that's left
and stuff it up the hole
in your culture
Give me back the Berlin wall
give me Stalin and St Paul
I've seen the future, brother:
it is murder.

Things are going to slide, slide in all directions
Won't be nothing
Nothing you can measure anymore
The blizzard, the blizzard of the world
has crossed the threshold
and it has overturned
the order of the soul
When they said REPENT REPENT
I wonder what they meant
When they said REPENT REPENT
I wonder what they meant
When they said REPENT REPENT
I wonder what they meant

You don't know me from the wind
you never will, you never did
I'm the little jew
who wrote the Bible
I've seen the nations rise and fall
I've heard their stories, heard them all
but love's the only engine of survival
Your servant here, he has been told
to say it clear, to say it cold:
It's over, it ain't going
any further
And now the wheels of heaven stop
you feel the devil's riding crop
Get ready for the future:
it is murder

Things are going to slide ...

There'll be the breaking of the ancient
western code
Your private life will suddenly explode
There'll be phantoms
There'll be fires on the road
and the white man dancing
You'll see a woman
hanging upside down
her features covered by her fallen gown
and all the lousy little poets
coming round
tryin' to sound like Charlie Manson
and the white man dancin'

Give me back the Berlin wall
Give me Stalin and St Paul
Give me Christ
or give me Hiroshima
Destroy another fetus now
We don't like children anyhow
I've seen the future, baby:
it is murder

Things are going to slide ...

When they said REPENT REPENT ...

Always thought Modest Mouse had the best lyrics. Who else could work non-Euclidean geometry into a catchy chorus in a non-pretentious way? "The universe is shaped exactly like the Earth. / If you go straight long enough, you'll end up where you were." Don't know. I just dig the smart and folksy thing.

>>3716635
Modest Mouse suck and their fans are cunts

>>3716640
That's nice.

>>3716641
No it's not. He was being quite rude.

>>3716635
I'm going up to Alaska, I'm going to get ice for scott fucking free

//

Everyone's afraid of their own life.
If you could be anything you want I bet you'd be disappointed.
Am I right?

check out the lyrics in the nephasth album conceived by inhuman blood

bleeding mortal laments ftw

>>3716702
>>>/b/

>>3715113
I love Silver Jews. American Water is one of my all time favorites. I also like some of Pavement's lyrics but mostly because of the way they are sung.

>>3715232
"Emily", "Only Skin" and "Occident" if I had to pick three. But she is consistently amazing.

>>3716206
This one understands.

>>3716333
She thought that parks where "tree museums" and didn't understand the mechanics of busking.

>>3716738
Holy shit, I love Emily. It's my official relaxation song. Was driving to Boston once (shipping up to Boston? Huh? Huh? Anyone? ... okay), and finally got there after 14 damn hours of driving, only to get completely lost in the city trying to find the apartment of my friend I was going there to meet. If it wasn't for that song, I'm not sure my sanity would have remained intact.

Also, the Jack Daniels I drank after we decided to just meet up at the restaurant where she worked. Did you know you can't get a double-shot in Boston? What's up with that? Nevermind I was in grungy attire, road-whipped, and walked into an upscale restaurant/bar asking for a double shot of Jack. I certainly didn't expect to be met with that kind of bizarre puritanism.

Have you tried Nick Drake?

Time has told me
You're a rare rare find
A troubled cure
For a troubled mind.

And time has told me
Not to ask for more
Someday our ocean
Will find its shore.

So I`ll leave the ways that are making me be
What I really don't want to be
Leave the ways that are making me love
What I really don't want to love.

Time has told me
You came with the dawn
A soul with no footprint
A rose with no thorn.

Your tears they tell me
There's really no way
Of ending your troubles
With things you can say.

And time will tell you
To stay by my side
To keep on trying
'til there's no more to hide.

So leave the ways that are making you be
What you really don't want to be
Leave the ways that are making you love
What you really don't want to love.

Time has told me
You're a rare rare find
A troubled cure
For a troubled mind.

And time has told me
Not to ask for more
For some day our ocean
Will find its shore.

>ctrl-f "Elvis Costello"
What?
Some grow just like their dads
And some grow up too tall
Some go drinking with the lads
Some don't grow up at all

>>3716748
>Nevermind I was in grungy attire, road-whipped, and walked into an upscale restaurant/bar asking for a double shot of Jack

I like your style.

I couldn't pull that off.

Phil Elverum (the microphones, mount eerie)
Dan Barrett (have a nice life, giles correy)
John Darnielle (the mountain goats)
Wingnut Dishwasher
Jeff Mangum (neutral milk hotel)
Joanna Newsom
Liz Harris (grouper)
Sean Bonnette (andrew jackson jihad)
Avey Tare
Jordaan Mason

Phil Ochs is amazing though- really one of my favorite musicians. Pleasures of the Harbour is still the only album that can physically make me lose my breath. Its so sad he never knew how appreciated his own music as much as some people do today.

I like bands that have really eerie/mystical sounding lyrics.

Swans
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH3-Koc0QHQ&hd=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQJ8GDnRP7g&hd=1

Dead Can Dance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9GrM20UenA&hd=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Uk3sExKtao&hd=1

Current 93
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVGQ5zokDDE&hd=1


When we touch the world
Just to fall apart
And our mother lies in state
And the broken pitcher glistens
And the snow is at the window
Making neither sign nor symbol
And the earth covers earth
And the mud lies in pools

Where the sand-dunes stretch unbroken
And the dry wind bends and sighs
And the geese are running harmless
And our desires are running wild
When we're looking at the smoke
That's rising from the incense
Neither coming here nor going
Neither heaven here nor hell
Neither borning here nor birthing
Neither dying here nor death

>>3716977
And we're wrapped inside our troubles
And we're wrapped inside our pain
And wracked with fires with longing
And our eyes are blind with night
With our fingers clutching coins
And our thoughts burning with 'I'
And our eyes cannot be sated
With the world and its nightmares
With the world and its dreams
Though later they'll be filled
With a small handful of dust
And the gods appear on altars
And we recognise their face
It's a face that we have carved there
And it's full of fear and longing
And promises and threats
But they neither stoop to conquer
Nor do they stoop to praise
And the mines are void of diamonds
That we carry in our rags

And all the world seems
A sadness song
All the world seems
A sad sadness song

>>3716979
Alternate version of the song from the same album here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lH5buXUvxw&hd=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IB_VYh2jrYc

i came to hear the music, I came to the hear the sound
i came to hear the music,god knows it brings me down
a long, long road, from now to then
i know your songs, sing it again
because theres so many things i dont believe i understand
why the days turn into weeks, turn into months
do the years become a moment in the ever changing sands
did god make time to keep it all from happening at once

>>3716306
>>3715358
>smart people

>>3716977

No 'Rome'?

'We Who Fell In Love With The Sea' is a great track. So is most of their stuff, actually.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1Rh7aY3cII