Tonight is my last night at home for the next several weeks, as tomorrow begins a new work cycle that will last until October 13th. I had a nice end-of-Summer hike yesterday, to the top of The Slide at Santa Susana, but then this morning was no fun, as I awoke with the worst set of mosquito bites I've ever had. Ten of 'em, all up and down my left arm and hand, and they were big (still are as I write). I don't know what it is about the Skeeters this year, but they must be on steroids because this is the second time this Summer I've gotten these Industrial Strength bites, and en masse, too. Used to be, you'd get a mosquito bite, maybe even three or four, and they'd itch a bit, maybe be the size of a dime, and then you'd forget about them. This is something entirely different. The bites I've gotten this year are the size of a half dollar - they're yoooge! - and both times there's been a ton of them, and worst of all - the itching sensation has been freaking godawful. It felt like my arm was on fire. I put some Witch Hazel on the bites, which after a while reduced the itching to a prickly heat, but I am here to tell you - to testify! - that, whatever you do, you must avoid the mosquitos this year. Forget the Murder Hornets; they've got nuthin' on the Nuclear Powered Itch of the 2020 Skeets.
Well, writing about Black Sabbath the other night got me to thinking about Geezer Butler, the band's chief lyricist. A lot of fans know that he wrote all the words, but a good many others may not be aware of it. After all, quite often in rock 'n roll the lyrics are written by the singer, and because Ozzy has such an identifiable sound - meaning that his voice is perfectly suited to Sabbath's music (the words and his vocal inflection go hand in hand) - a lot of folks probably assume he writes the words himself : scary words, scary voice. But no, it's always been Geezer (and in Ozzy's band it was Bob Daisley for a long time).
That got me to thinking again, because we all know Geezer Butler as a great bass player, but do we know him as a great lyricist? First of all, is he a great lyricist? I think so, and as I considered the matter last night, I became convinced of it. I mean, yeah, he wrote some tossed-off stuff like "Fairies Wear Boots", or cliche stuff like "Warning" off the first album ("I was born to love you, baby"), but he also wrote a lot of very serious, very topical and heavy duty words to songs like "Spiral Architect", "Killing Yourself To Live", "Hole In The Sky", "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" and "Symptom of the Universe", just to name a few, not to mention the hey-politicians-in-your-face "War Pigs". While it's true that Neil Peart is the most famous (and deservedly so), non-singing and non-guitar playing lyricist in rock, Geezer Butler is no slouch himself and should be similarly regarded. He's really good, but he's such a low key guy that he's gone under the radar all these years. I think it's time to include him among the great lyricists in the history of rock, even though he doesn't specialise in love songs or typical rock fare.
Considering Geezer Butler got me to thinking even further, and I thought, "y'know, everyone talks about their favorite bands, favorite singers or favorite instrumentalists, but you don't often see lists of people's favorite lyricists". Of course, when asked, many famous musicians will cite Bob Dylan or John Lennon, or Leonard Cohen, but when you get past the usual suspects, it's not normally a topic of discussion.
But because we love lists here at the blog, and because we utilize them when we have nothing else to write about, we will tonight make a short list of favorite lyricists. or wordsmiths if you will. Please keep in mind that I am not ranking them in the way I would guitar players or keyboardists. A guitar solo moves me in a different way than words do, and - for me at least - it's easier to enumerate "favorite guitar players" than it is to do so for lyric writers. Guitar has always hit me right in the gut, whereas words I have to think about (at least the more thoughtful lyrics), so at any rate, without further blathering, here are some of my favorite lyricists, in no particular order.
Neil Peart
Jon Anderson (who could ever come up with his stuff?)
Geezer Butler
Bryan Ferry (listen to "Song For Europe")
Alice Cooper
Peter Gabriel (with Genesis)
David Bowie
Nick Drake
Todd Rundgren
Jimmy Webb (classic pop songwriter of the '60s)
Joni Mitchell (just recently appreciated)
Pye Hastings (Caravan)
Polly Samson (David Gilmour's wife, who wrote the words to "The Division Bell")
The team of Holland/Dozier/Holland (who wrote all The Supremes songs)
Phil Mogg of UFO (he wrote miniature stories in a hard rock context, pretty unique)
Bill Nelson
Ron Mael
Rob Halford
Doug Pinnick
and of course John and Paul.
Having mentioned them, it's important not to forget the famous National Lampoon headline, circa 1978 :
"John Paul named Pope; George Ringo miffed".
But yeah, so there's a sampling of some of my favorite lyricists. It's just off the top of my head, and I no doubt forgot some great ones, but a guy like Peter Hammil is always at the forefront of my brain when I think about great lyric writers.
Who are some of your favorites? Take a few minutes to think about it. Of course, there are many writers who've written a handful of great songs, but did not have a prolific output. Consider David Coverdale, who wrote the words to "Burn" by Deep Purple, which to my mind is the quintessential hard rock song. Those are great lyrics in that context. Then he wrote the classic DP ballad "Soldier of Fortune". But after that, he kinda went the cliche route with Whitesnake.
We could get into singer/songwriters like Paul Simon (Simon and Garfunkel only, not his solo work), or Gordon Lightfoot, or Don McClean. Or how about Carole King, who was a great songwriter in general, even before she became a solo artist. How about Laura Nyro? I was only eight years old when "Wedding Bell Blues" was a hit, but I've always remembered the words.
So there you have it. What words strike you in a lasting way? It could be anything from the simplest pop to the most philosophical folk music. And there's a lot of great music with great words, but they go right by you because the music is leading the way. That is the case with some metal music. Tom G. writes some great words, but because his accent is nearly indecipherable and because his music is so dramatically heavy, his words kind of get lost in the mix.
Anyhow, think about lyrics, and how important they are. If you're just writing a typical rock song, maybe all they have to do is rhyme and fit in rhythmically. And that can be good too. But think about the lyrics that take you deeper..................what are the songs (and writers) that do that for you?
That's all for tonight. Elizabeth, I hope you had a nice weekend. I'm thinking about you as always.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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