I have compiled a short list of songs which I think have incredible lyrics. As my musical taste is fairly diverse and dips into the obscure fairly often, you may not have heard all of these.
Richard Thompson - 1952 Vincent Black Lightning
This song could be a movie.
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Robyn Hitchcock - Linctus House
This song balances Hitchcock's ability to be silly and his ability to write heartbreakingly raw material. This song pulses through your veins.
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Andy Prieboy - Who Do You Think We're Coming For?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8qlhEEgF3o
The one Prieboy song that people usually know is Tomorrow Wendy, even though most people know the Concrete Blonde cover. This taps a little more into his ability to create a theatrical arrangement around very thought provoking lyrics. This could be a production number, hell it could be an entire musical.
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Lucinda Williams - Ventura
I could put up Lucinda Williams' entire catalogue, everything she writes is amazing. Her songs have this habit of putting words to feelings which are often too deep for words.
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Michael Nesmith - Harmony Constant
This is a beautiful song, I've just always liked it. I like to play it with a capo halfway up the neck of my guitar so that it sounds like a ukelele. A lot of people don't realize that after The Monkees ended, Mike Nesmith moved on to do several country rock albums which were all really solid. He sells them off of his website http://www.videoranch.com/ so if you buy them from him, you know he is getting your green.
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The Smiths - There is a Light That Never Goes Out
The anthem of the 80's/90's gothy gloom-cookie. I've always found that Morrissey is a very gifted songwriter. He delivers concepts and sentiments in ways which most people wouldn't even think to. My understanding has always been that he's an unusual sort of guy, which is good for me because I enjoy his unusual sort of songs.
I'm sure after I hit "Publish Post" I will think of more.
