Some Songs with a Near Literary Feel

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Pink Floyd, with Roger Waters third from left. (Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images.)

I’ve written about songs that include references to literature, but what about songs that almost have a literary feel even when not necessarily mentioning fictional works?

One person who accomplished this in at least some songs is of course Bob Dylan, who immediately comes to mind partly for the simple reason that he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016. I didn’t agree with the judges on that; Dylan has often been a great lyricist, but I think literary prizes are best left to novelists, short-story writers, and the like.

Among the other lyricists in rock, pop, rap, and folk music penning some songs with literary or near-literary heft are Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, Smokey Robinson, Patti Smith, Taylor Swift, Gordon Lightfoot, Neil Young, John Lennon, Carole King, Leonard Cohen, Kendrick Lamar, Tupac Shakur, Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Phil Ochs, Victor Jara, Roger Waters (also the bassist for Pink Floyd), Neil Peart (also the drummer for Rush), Bono (also the lead singer for U2), Joe Strummer (also a guitarist for The Clash), Amy Lee (also the lead singer and keyboardist for Evanescence), Natalie Merchant (also the lead singer for 10,000 Maniacs before becoming a solo artist), Don Henley (also the drummer for The Eagles as well as a solo artist), Bernie Taupin (lyricist for Elton John), Keith Reid (lyricist for Procol Harum but not a performer in the band), and Betty Thatcher (lyricist for Renaissance but not a performer in the band).

The above incomplete list is of course subjective to some extent, but among the criteria that make lyricists literary-leaning is how their words could stand alone — or almost stand alone — without the music. They skillfully use language and/or tell stories (with perhaps a focus on a character or the unfolding of a plot) and/or create narrative tension and/or paint images and/or evoke strong emotions, etc.

Here are links to songs written by some of the lyricists I mentioned:

Coyote, Joni Mitchell:

The Boxer, Simon & Garfunkel:

Tracks of My Tears, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles:

Love Story, Taylor Swift:

If You Could Read My Mind, Gordon Lightfoot:

Wish You Were Here, Pink Floyd:

London Calling, The Clash:

My Immortal, Evanescence:

Stockton Gala Days, 10,000 Maniacs:

Your Song, Elton John:

A Whiter Shade of Pale, Procol Harum:

Your thoughts on this topic or the songs I posted? Other songs or lyricists with literary chops you’d like to mention? I know I left out many.

My literary-trivia book is described and can be purchased here: Fascinating Facts About Famous Fiction Authors and the Greatest Novels of All Time.

In addition to this weekly blog, I write the 2003-started/award-winning “Montclairvoyant” topical-humor column for Baristanet.com every Thursday. The latest piece — about my town’s high school graduation and more — is here.

255 thoughts on “Some Songs with a Near Literary Feel”

  1. Late to the party, but a big shout-out to you, Dave, for putting Keith Reid on your list. Such an incredible lyricist, and it’s not just “Whiter Shade of Pale.” The entirety of the “A Salty Dog” is like a book of poems. In college I posted lines of his all over my dorm walls. I’d also include Lou Reed — his “Perfect Day” and “Coney Island Baby” are faves — and Ian Hunter (“All the Young Dudes,” “All the Way from Memphis,” “One Bitten, Twice Shy” and my favorite, “All American Alien Boy.”)

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    • Thank you, bigzav! I agree that Keith Reid is a superb lyricist, and not just on “A Whiter Shade of Pale.” I’ve only heard “A Salty Dog” from the album of the same name, but it is quite a song lyrically (and musically). And I appreciate the mentions of Ian Hunter and Lou Reed. In Reed’s case, I’m more a fan of his amazing Velvet Underground work than his solo work, but the latter was pretty darn good, too.

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  2. You might have left out one of my favorite literary songs. Brown-eyed Women (and Red Grenadine) by Robert Hunter, performed by the Grateful Dead. An absolute gem. A few historical references stuck in there, as well, regarding Prohibition and the Wall Street Crash of ’29.

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      • I’m not either. Other than a few of their concerts I took in during the 70s, I know very little about them. I just love that song. Ripple is another good one, if you can find the studio version. Most of their live stuff is, as the British say—pure rubbish. In my opinion of course.

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        • Interesting! I listened to a number of Grateful Dead songs years ago to try to see what all the excitement was about; just couldn’t get into them. But I did like “Brown Eyed Woman” a lot, which I had never heard until you posted the link.

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  4. After first reading this I thought of several songs that IMO tell stories in an artful way: They Can’t Take That Away From Me, Walk Away Renee, Ode to Billie Joe, Panther in Michigan. While I was also surprised that Dylan won the Nobel for literature, my mind has started spinning after reading this post; didn’t story-telling begin as oral recitation, which became song when sound effects were added? What changes did written texts add to this? What are the differences in oral storytelling, theatre, songs, and literature? I for sure can’t answer any of this. All I know is that works which convey characters and stories seem to have the most impact.

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  5. I looked up Cole Porter’s lyrics on the web and one of his songs, “Brush Up Your Shakespeare” (which I have never heard of before) mentioned Aeschylus and Euripides (ancient Greek playwrights) and the little known Shakespeare play “Troilus and Cressida”. One doesn’t expect these references to occur in a pop song.

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  11. Here’s an all-time favorite of mine, by an all-time favorite of mine:

    NOTHING IN RAMBLING by Memphis Minnie Douglas

    I was born in Louisiana, I was raised in Algiers
    And everywhere I been, the peoples all say

    Ain’t nothing in rambling either running around
    Well, I believe I’ll marry, o Lord, and settle down

    I first left home, I stopped in Tennessee
    The peoples all begging, “Come and stay with me”
    ‘Cause ain’t nothing in rambling, either running around

    Well, I believe I’ll get me a good man, o Lord, and settle down

    I was walking through the alley with my hand in my coat
    The police start to shoot me, thought it was something I stole

    You know it ain’t nothing in rambling, either running around
    Well, I believe I’ll marry, o Lord, and settle down

    The peoples on the highway is walking and crying
    Some is starving, some is dying

    You know it ain’t nothing in rambling, either running around
    Well, I believe I’ll get a good man, o Lord, and settle down

    You may go to Hollywood and try to get on screen
    But I’m gonna stay right here and eat these old charity beans

    ‘Cause it ain’t nothing in rambling, either running around
    Well, I believe I’ll marry, o Lord, and settle down

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    • Thank you, jhNY! Intense, powerful, truth-telling lyrics. You spurred me to look at a Wikipedia bio of Memphis Minnie Douglas. I read, among other things, that Led Zeppelin reworked the 1929 song “When the Levee Breaks” she co-recorded with Kansas Joe McCoy.

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      • Memphis Minnie is one of the best blues guitarists, male or female, who ever lived– and wrote quite a few great songs. “In My Girlish Days”, “Bumblebee Blues”, “Tricks Ain’t Walking”– I could go on…

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        • That Zep cover is similar in lyric more than accompaniment and melody. Still, it’s a gateway to Minnie Douglas. She and Joe McCoy were married for several years and made a few dozen recordings together. Great!

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  12. Dave Fathers Day was just a couple of weeks ago, here is the Father Daughter Concert , as with all the music lovers in here I don`t need to give any introduction ih here

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  14. Paranoia Poesy with a Bill Burroughs bent:

    An excerpt from David Bowie’s “We Are the Dead” (1974)

    But now
    We’re today’s scrambled creatures
    Locked in tomorrow’s double feature
    Heaven’s on the pillow, its silence competes with hell
    It’s a twenty-four hour service, guaranteed to make you tell
    And the streets are full of pressmen
    Bent on getting hung and buried
    And the legendary curtains are drawn ’round Baby Bankrupt
    Who sucks you while you’re sleeping
    It’s the theatre of financiers
    Count them, fifteen ’round a table
    White and dressed to kill
    Oh, caress yourself, my juicy
    For my hands have all but withered

    Oh, dress yourself my urchin one, for I hear them on the stairs
    Because of all we’ve seen, because of all we’ve said
    We are the dead
    We are the dead

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  16. Fab topic, Dave. Although I feel many got away from the idea of “literature” and have presented their fave bands and messages that are loved.

    For once I can say I know every artist and every song you have cited, as opposed to not knowing many writers and books you cite.

    As for literature in music I offer the person who went to jail because she withheld the share of her taxes hat would go to support the Vietnam war.
    Of course Joan Baez is the singer and writer of: “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wanJQC5KAfo

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    • Thank you, Resa! Glad you recognized all the songs, and that you mentioned Joan Baez! She wrote her own songs as well as sang the songs of others — eloquently in both cases. And I greatly admire her lifelong political activism.

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        • As you know as a blogger and clothing designer, Resa, it’s nice to change things up here and there. 🙂 I happened to be listening to a lot of Pink Floyd lately (most of their music has aged quite well), which gave me the idea for the post because that band’s lyrics are often pretty deep.

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          • Pink Floyd’s body of work stands the test of time. Yes, they have some amazing lyrics.

            I find many music artists of the late 60’s into the 70’s messaged, and many eloquently.
            This era of music may have begun with Vietnam war protest songs, then continued evolving.
            Disco was a pivot.
            Then, well …..
            I have a more difficult time finding meaning in Hip Hop and Rap, however, I’m a different demographic. There is a message(s) whether we like it or not, in much of that music.Thank goodness younger people continue to turn me on to their world of music.
            I’m smitten by a rapper “Future”. 🙂
            Youth continue to change it up!

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            • Yes, Resa, social conditions in the latter 1960s and early ’70s were conducive to musical creativity. Plus the music biz wasn’t quite as corporate as it became, and artists were given a few years to develop. Heck, Pink Floyd’s 1967-1972 albums were not huge sellers, and the music was spotty — some great songs, some not so great. Then it all paid off in 1973 with “Dark Side of the Moon.” If PF had started several decades later, they probably would have been dropped from their label in a couple of years.

              I’m also not as enamored with recent music as with music of decades ago, though, like you, I enjoy some current stuff. Part of it is that we get into musical habits while younger. Also, rock music was a lot newer in the ’60s and ’70s, so every idea hadn’t been done to death yet. 🙂 Meaning earlier musicians had some advantages over musicians today.

              Disco was indeed a ’70s pivot, as was punk. I did enjoy Pink Floyd’s incorporation of some disco riffs in “Run Like Hell” and “Another Brick in the Wall, Part Two” on 1979’s “The Wall” album. 🙂

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              • Like many, PF tried to stay relevant after the disco craze. Lol! Even the Stones did “Miss You”.

                When I worked on “Hendrix”, I went to the director one morning. I just wanted to know if he preferred one shirt over another shirt, for the scene. He looked at me in a haze and said – …… Jimi would have never survived disco.
                I’ve often wondered about that.

                Yes, “musical habits while younger”. I thought classic music was for the birds. I’ve listened to the violin solo for “Scheherazade” about 6 times today, all different soloists. I love it!

                Don’t laugh, but from this post I found myself wondering…. Has anyone ever sang a book… to music?
                I know there are audio books, but people read them.

                Anyway, sounds like you are a big PF fan. Yahoo!!!! They are fab. 🎼✨

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                • Yes! Bands try to adapt with the times; sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. I think Canada’s Rush was one of the most successful at that — going from prog-rock in the ’70s to shorter songs in the punk era, to more synth-sounding songs in the ’80s, to grunge-influenced stuff in the early ’90s, etc. — all while maintaining their own sound.

                  Fascinating anecdote about Jimi Hendrix! I think he was talented enough to have survived anything, except drugs. 😦

                  You’re right that different kinds of music might be more appealing (or less appealing) as we get older.

                  Hmm…singing a book to music…interesting idea! I imagine that’s been done, but I can’t think of an example. Of course, some books were turned into musicals, but that’s different.

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  19. Hi Dave,

    I know this isn’t what you’re talking about this week, but as for music in literature, there were lots of songs and a little bit of dancing and even a trip to a record shop in TJ Klune’s “The House in the Cerulean Sea”.

    But no, that’s kind of backwards. What about Jeff Wayne’s musical version of “The War of the Worlds”? It technically fits, though I guess it’s cheating a bit, as it’s obviously based on an existing piece of literature.

    Ok, if I have to think of songs that tell stories, it’s hard to go past the long epic ones like “American Pie”, especially if they also come with a memorable video like “November Rain”. And of course the entire “The Wall” album by Pink Floyd is quite literary. Mmm, what else? How about The Beatles “Eleanor Rigby”? Actually, there might be quite a few Beatles songs if I think about it for a bit. I might do that and then come back later

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    • Thank you, Susan! When I was at the library yesterday I looked for “The House in the Cerulean Sea,” but it unfortunately wasn’t there. Maybe next time…

      “American Pie” is a great mention! That song definitely has VERY memorable words! I also love Don McLean’s poignant “Vincent,” about Vincent van Gogh, of course. I saw McLean in concert when I was a college student. 🙂

      And thanks for the other mentions! Yes — “Eleanor Rigby,” almost all of “The Wall,” etc. On “The Wall,” my favorite is “Comfortably Numb,” which ends with what I think is the greatest guitar solo ever (at least when David Gilmour plays it live, such as at the 1994 Pulse concert and 2016 Pompeii concert). And “Run Like Hell” from “The Wall” is really catchy; almost a disco song in part.

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    • Thank you, lulabelle! That IS a terrific song — and so ahead of its time with what we would now call an LGBTQ+ theme. Ray Davies of the Kinks is an excellent lyricist. Including his “A Well Respected Man,” which is so sardonic. 🙂

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  21. A brilliant post, Dave, and a superb follow-up discussion. The first name that came to mind was Huddie William Ledbetter – Leadbelly.

    Leadbelly was an influential American folk and blues musician who inspired many artists. One of the most notable musicians who was influenced by Leadbelly was Bob Dylan. Dylan has cited Leadbelly as a major influence on his music and has covered several of his songs, including “Goodnight, Irene” and “The Midnight Special.”

    Another musician who was influenced by Leadbelly was Kurt Cobain. He was a fan of Leadbelly’s music and even covered his song “Where Did You Sleep Last Night” during Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged performance in 1993.

    Leadbelly’s influence can also be seen in the work of contemporary folk musician, Rhiannon Giddens. Giddens has cited Leadbelly as a major influence on her music and has covered several of his songs in her performances.

    Where Did You Sleep Last Night (now in public domain)

    My girl, my girl, don’t lie to me
    Tell me where did you sleep last night
    In the pines, in the pines
    Where the sun don’t ever shine
    I would shiver the whole night through

    My girl, my girl, where will you go
    I’m going where the cold wind blows
    In the pines, in the pines
    Where the sun don’t ever shine
    I would shiver the whole night through

    My girl, my girl, don’t lie to me
    Tell me where did you sleep last night
    In the pines, in the pines
    Where the sun don’t ever shine
    I would shiver the whole night through

    Her husband, was a hard working man
    Just about a mile from here
    His head was found in a driving wheel
    But his body never was found

    My girl, my girl, don’t lie to me
    Tell me where did you sleep last night
    In the pines, in the pines
    Where the sun don’t ever shine
    I would shiver the whole night through

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    • Thank you, Rebecca! Very glad you mentioned Leadbelly, who was indeed an outstanding and extremely influential songwriter — including on three great artists you mentioned. And of course The Weavers (which included Pete Seeger) also covered “Goodnight, Irene.” Yes, a terrific discussion this week. 🙂

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          • Yes. He also covered ‘These Foolish Things.’ Seen him live in Dundee a few times. The first time was when there was a semi riot after he called off ten mins before he was due to start. The second was his Dylanesque tour where the punters duly mouthed of re the fact they had no ‘pyed ah this money tae hear him singing thon…’ unrepeatable words here.. ‘Dylan.’ But maybe ‘Thon’ was as opposed to Ron, or indeed Bob Dylan? Who knows. He still did a damned good show. I now need to go hear the 10,00) maniacs, hoping it wasn’t those ready to take the Cairdie apart that first tour I mentioned.

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            • Very nice that you saw Bryan Ferry live a few times, Shehanne! And I enjoyed your descriptive memories of that. 🙂

              Regretfully, I don’t go to as many concerts as I’d like, but have managed to get to some starting in the ’70s — Yes, The Moody Blues, The Clash, the Stones, U2, 10,000 Maniacs, Renaissance, Neil Young, Gordon Lightfoot, Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor, Peter Tosh, Patti LaBelle, etc.

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              • You’ve been to see giants Dave. Lol, I msut livea sheltered life here. I’ve seen Ferry. Elton John when he hand’t long been going, got his autograph, Tom Paxton who walked unrecognised past the queue waiting to get in, with his guitar. Neil Diamond, whos topped the whole concert at the o2 to sort the sound, the Proclaimers. a few times, once in the standing bit– one of the first times the Caird Hall did that and danced 500 Miles, Deacon Blue afew times cos way back we were pals with the lead and his then wife. But now we prefer like smaller venues and festivals.

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                • I’ve had the advantage of living near New York City, where many bands end up playing at some point. 🙂 Seeing Elton John early in his career — very exciting! And a great Tom Paxton anecdote! Reminds me that I also saw Pete Seeger in concert a couple times, and he was so unassuming walking to the stage with his guitar draped on his shoulder. I also prefer smaller venues and festivals, especially now that I’m older. I saw a U2 concert a few years ago at a stadium with 80,000 people in attendance, and it was a bit much.

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                    • True on both counts, Shehanne! I often watched the screens at the few big-stadium concerts I attended. And, yes, those tickets prices. The U2 concert I mentioned cost me and my older daughter around 250 U.S. dollars apiece, and the seats were VERY far away.

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                    • I know. Here in Dundee we don’t have a big big venue. The Caird Hall only holds a certain amount . There is Slessor Gardens which is open air and pretty big but that has only been up and running a shortish time. So like that you then end up also paying accomodation elsewhere and travel. Also biggies play Hamden here. It is a football stadium and it was seeing a biggie there, after my friend went and booked tickets thnking we all coud go that finished me for big events.

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                    • A relatively intimate concert can be such a nice experience! As can open-air ones. 🙂

                      One other thing about big stadiums — it takes a LONG time to get out of the parking lot amid a scrum of departing cars. It was almost an hour after the U2 concert in a New Jersey football stadium that we got to the parking lot exit. Then I drove my daughter back to her New York City apartment, and drove back to my apartment in New Jersey. About 2 a.m. by then. 🙂

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    • Ledbetter was probably, overall, more of a song collector than a writer– for which we should be grateful,since through him the nation came to know songs we otherwise would have lost. Uncle Dave Macon, a white country songster has made similar contributions– though both did write too. I have somewhere around my vast repository a 78 rpm album titled Leadbelly Sinful Songs, which features “It’s a Bourgeois Town”, a song he wrote describing his experiences in the nation’s capital.

      A living legend, who had a deep scar at the base of his throat from an attempted murder by razor, and a man who literally serenaded the governor of Texas (Pat Neff, I think) for a pardon– and got one!

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  23. What a topic for this week! So much different than I was expecting haha. I’m afraid I’m not very versed on the more contemporary and popular musicians, because I primarily listen to very old music and film scores, which of course aid in telling stories. Perhaps not in a literary sense, maybe more of a visual sense, but I often use the scores and images they invoke as inspiration in my own writing! 🙂 I’m not sure this falls entirely under your category, but it did come to my mind. I also appreciate the Pink Floyd and Bernie Taupin mentions, as I do appreciate the uniqueness and abstract nature of some of their lyrics.

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    • Thank you, M.B.! I think it’s great that we all listen to different kinds (and eras) of music, just as with books. 🙂 And, yes, music can be inspirational — for writing and more. And, yes again, the lyrics of Pink Floyd and Bernie Taupin can be abstract and feature other qualities; their facility with words is certainly way above average. Some of Roger Waters’ Pink Floyd lyrics were clearly influenced by his father being killed during World War II, when Waters was of course VERY young.

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  24. Hello, Dave. I didn’t know all the songs you gave as examples, but you had me with “The Boxer,” which I have loved since the first time I heard it in 1970 on the “Bridge over Troubled Water” album. Lots of fun reading all the other comments, as well, and great that people added their favorite literary songs. You definitely made a lot of us happy with this post!

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    • Thank you, Kim! “The Boxer” and “Bridge Over Troubled Water” were transcendent songs. I’m pretty sure I have the 45 rpm “single” of “Bridge” stashed away somewhere from when I was a kid. I’ve been greatly enjoying the comments, too!

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  27. Songs as different as “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”, “Ol’ Man River”, and “The Sound of Silence” have a somewhat literary feel. Also the lyrics of Cole Porter would probably qualify.

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  28. Enjoyed the music clips, especially “The Boxer” by Simon & Garfunkel and “Your Song” by Elton John. I also thought of Elton John but my choice would be “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.” The first song that came to mind that takes me to a time and place is “Sunday Morning Coming Down” by Johnny Cash. “Another Day in Paradise” by Phil Collins was my second choice.

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    • Thank you, Rosaliene! Excellent mentions!

      The Elton John/Bernie Taupin catalog has a lot of candidates for VERY well-written songs. “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” is definitely one of them, as is “Sacrifice,” “Madman Across the Water,” “Daniel,” etc. 🙂

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    • Sunday Morning Coming Down was written by Kris Kristofferson– but Cash was brave and wise enough to cover it back when Nashville wasn’t sure it was ready for the realism within.

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  29. Thank you for the multi media, Dave. Paul Simon was part of Jane Pauley and CBS Sunday, worth a watch, he rarely gives interviews. Simon and Garfunkel songs,many from the 1960’s still relevant,have different interpretation as time progressing, still relevant and thought provoking. Some lines of songs bring tears to my eyes, one is Elton John’s song ” That’s Why They Call It The Blues,” that being I simply love you more than I love life itself. Thanks to Bernie Taupin. Yes of course Natalie Merchant is brilliant. Too many to list,her lyrics are poetry.
    Listen to Noah’s Dove, so beautiful. One example,so many! You have a favorite Stockton Gala Days,can feel the warmth, now its summer, but,truly all year long. You’ve got all generations covered, I think some of Taylor Swift’s songs are also poetic, too.

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    • Thank you, Michele! You’re right — Paul Simon’s songwriting has aged very well! And of course Art Garfunkel’s voice was beautiful.

      The Bernie Taupin (lyrics) and Elton John (music) partnership was quite something.

      I’ve heard “Noah’s Dove”; it does indeed contain some of Natalie Merchant’s most poetic lyrics.

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  32. I like your list, Dave. I also like your criteria for the Nobel Prize, but Dylan did write a great collection of songs. Joni Mitchell is my favorite in your list. She brought a complete package to the listener. I was thinking of Arlo Guthrie and Rosanne Cash, but I think they are singers who tell stories, but I’m not sure how many of their songs they wrote themselves. One I would add is Steve Winwood (Traffic, Blind Faith, Alan Parsons and a great solo career).

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    • Thank you, Dan! A number of great mentions! I think Arlo Guthrie and Rosanne Cash wrote a good deal of their own material. One of my favorites by the latter is her song “The Summer I Read Colette” — quite literary. 🙂

      Your mention of Alan Parsons reminded me that he produced (or helped produce) Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” album — which is of course full of outstanding lyrics.

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  33. If you could read my mind, love, what a tale my thoughts would tell..Just like a paperback novel… the kind the drugstores sell….
    Always feels like a short story hearing that song!

    This one has always felt like a story to me, don’t know about you…

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    • Thank you, Gretchen! Pleased that you like the post, and are partial to the songs mentioned. 🙂 Yes, many a country has a great music scene that’s more known in that particular country than worldwide. But of course some Australian performers had or have global fame — The Seekers, AC/DC, Olivia Newton-John, Helen Reddy, etc. Oh, and The Wiggles. 🙂

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    • I agree about the brilliance 🙂 I had to think about it for a while, but came up with two potential additions, one a song, one lyricists.

      The song would be Pink Floyd’s Time. You mentioned Pink Floyd, but not this specific song, probably because it’s so difficult to pick just one, but if you read/listen to the lyrics, I think you’ll be enchanted:

      The lyricists would be Mick Jagger/Keith Richards. I’m not sure which one of them had a bigger hand in writing their songs, but if you listen to the words, and are ok with a somewhat sly bend, there are some words of wisdom that will stay with you.

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      • Thank you, Endless Weekend! I love Pink Floyd’s “Time,” and the whole “Dark Side of the Moon” album it’s from. It was one of the PF songs I was considering for this post; you’re right — so many to choose from, also including “Us and Them,” “Brain Damage,” “Eclipse,” “Shine on You Crazy Diamond,” “Dogs,” “Comfortably Numb” and other songs from “The Wall,” etc., etc. Even some early PF songs from the Syd Barrett days — such as “Arnold Layne.”

        I’m not a huge fan of the Rolling Stones, but, yes, some of their songs were quite memorable lyrically.

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        • Glad to hear you’re as big a fan as I am of Time!

          Tbh, The Rolling Stones were never one of my favorite bands, but their lyrics (and riffs) still had a real influence on the bands that followed them, and, well, you got most of the other ones 😀

          Speaking of others: what do you think about the lyrics of David Bowie?

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            • Again, not one of my top favorites, but certainly one I respect. There are few people who are so talented on both the creative and the business side. And some of his lyrics have surprising depth. Take a song like Changes, an sticky and enjoyable tune withm

              Ch-ch-changes look out you rock ‘n rollers
              Ch-ch-changes turn and face the strange
              Ch-ch-changes, pretty soon now you’re gonna get older

              Or just read the “look out you rock ‘n rollers” “pretty soon now you’re gonna get older”, words that all too many recognize all too late (if at all)?

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        • “Ruby Tuesday” aspires to poetry, I think. And the recorders were played by Brian Jones, as was the cello– though he was no cellist. He used chalk to mark the neck where his fingers needed to go, and for a few minutes, he was a cellist.

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      • ‘The above incomplete list is of course subjective to some extent, but among the criteria that make lyricists literary-leaning is how their words could stand alone — or almost stand alone — without the music. They skillfully use language and/or tell stories (with perhaps a focus on a character or the unfolding of a plot) and/or create narrative tension and/or paint images and/or evoke strong emotions, etc’ Okay, Lol… it’s jsut getting ones you’ve not covered BUT, I do think that what you say here really opens the field cos last night I was leaning towards ‘ballads,’ and these don’t have to be slow. And I thought of the wonderful pictures painted in the song The Irish Rover, by the Dubliners and the Pogues but I thought…kind of ballady. But having come back and reread, what you say, I thought yeah. Johnny Cash’s ‘One Piece at a Time,’ a grand story of how Mr Ordinary can still get something ‘grand’, even if it’s maybe no. In Dundee we had a singer/composer Michael Marra who wrote a great comparison of comparng Dundee to Africa, called if Dundee was Africa, where he takes each bit of Dundee and sets it against Africa and also the world. In fact a lot of his music was ‘literary’ timecapsules, including General Grant’s Visit to Dundee, yes that is Grant as in Ulysses S. His ‘Happed In Mist’ was inspired by Sunset Song and sets the business of these young men who were shot at dawn in WW1 centre stage in terms of painting a picture through the eyes of of one of these men. You have the Beatles’ Eleanor Rigby. Down Like Silver’s ‘Broken Coastline, these are but afew that coulds tand as words on their own because of the story they tell. Now I will shut up, or I will still be here tomorrow.

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  36. Almost all Moody Blues songs tell a story. Re lyricists like Joan Armatrading, Phoebe Snow, Jackson Browne, Fleetwood Mac, and, of course, Leonard Cohen. So many more *sigh* But I must say I really love Fleet Foxes–https://youtu.be/3u7rtZVEaJE
    Nice post Dave. Susi

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  37. I would add Ian Anderson, the master mind of Jethro Tull, multi-instrumentalist and maniacal performer. His voice is damaged and he’s not what he used to be as a performer but even his newest album, ‘Rokflote’, is a somewhat ambitious concept album as it updates the gods of Norse mythology. It doesn’t really succeed but he certainly deserves credit for the effort.
    In his prime, i.e. the 1970’s, he did two major concept albums back to back, ‘Thick as a Brick’ and ‘A Passion Play’. Both were essentially one song spread over two sides of an LP (the vinyl technology of the day which many of us thought was dead but is alive and well, if a lot more expensive). Anyway, I think I included those long ‘poems’ in the comment field of one of your earlier literary posts. Ian is perhaps the most articulate singer/songwriter/musician in the world of popular music and he can still turn a phrase that, for the most part, is still meaningful.

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    • Thank you, Brian! Ian Anderson definitely deserves a mention, and you described why very well! I unfortunately wasn’t a close listener to him/Jethro Tull back in the day, but I know he’s talented — and I’m glad he’s still around.

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