100 Greatest Lyrical Albums

Deany · **Posted:** Fri Jun 03, 2011 4:33 am

Quote:

1. Blood On The Tracks - Bob Dylan
2. Born To Run - Bruce Springsteen
3. Songs Of Leonard Cohen - Leonard Cohen
4. Late For The Sky - Jackson Browne
5. On The Beach - Neil Young
6. Dark Side Of The Moon - Roger Waters (Pink Floyd)
7. Highway 61 Revisited - Bob Dylan
8. Who's Next - Pete Townshend (The Who)
9. The Doors - Jim Morrison (The Doors)
10. Imagine - John Lennon
11. Bringing It All Back Home - Bob Dylan
12. Blue - Joni Mitchell
13. Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme - Paul Simon (Simon & Garfunkel)
14. Rubber Soul - John Lennon/Paul McCartney (The Beatles)
15. Songs Of Love & Hate - Leonard Cohen
16. Darkness On The Edge Of Town - Bruce Springsteen
17. Armed Forces - Elvis Costello
19. Blonde On Blonde - Bob Dylan
20. Astral Weeks - Van Morrison

Love the new edit, Hendrix, but you don't have a #18. Blonde on Blonde looks too low. And where's Graceland? Highway 61 should be higher than DSOTM. Songs Of Leonard Cohen is great for the top 3, good call. Overall, this top 20 looks great.

Suggestions for the next ten, in no particular order:
Jackson Browne
For Everyman
After The Gold Rush
Rust Never Sleeps
Abbey Road
Revolver
Quadrophenia
The Wild, The Innocent, And The E Street Shuffle
Bridge Over Troubled Water
John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (Could be in the thirtysomethings)

Hendrix · **Joined:** Sat Oct 16, 2010 7:55 am **Posts:** 396

Ups, the #18 was supposed to be Rust Never Sleeps... About Graceland, that may be a wrong call from me, but i thought that while The Boy In The Bubble and Graceland are among his most briliant lyrical works (BitB is probably my favorite Simon lyric) i felt PSRT was more complete overall, with great lyrics all over album... I felt that Graceland fell a bit after YCCMA... As said, that may have been wrong of me... And i have been thinking of further expanding the list, and practically all of the ones you mentioned will be included at least somewherein the top 50 :smile:

And well, i'm glad you like it :biggrin:

Negative Creep · **Joined:** Tue Oct 12, 2010 5:21 pm **Posts:** 12268

Hendrix wrote:

Dylan shouldn't dominate the list too much. Obvisously he'll dominate it more than any other lyricist, but space should be made for as many lyricists as possible, seeing that the limited amount of objectiveness available for such a list means that the list will never be near "perfect" anyway... 2 top 3 albums seems a bit much...

A rough sketch i'd say something like:

1. Blood On The Tracks - Bob Dylan
2. Born To Run - Bruce Springsteen
3. Songs Of Leonard Cohen - Leonard Cohen
4. Late For The Sky - Jackson Browne
5. On The Beach - Neil Young
6. Highway 61 Revisited - Bob Dylan
7. Dark Side Of The Moon - Roger Waters (Pink Floyd)
8. Who's Next - Pete Townshend (The Who)
9. The Doors - Jim Morrison (The Doors)
10. Imagine - John Lennon
11. Bringing It All Back Home - Bob Dylan
12. Blue - Joni Mitchell
13. Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme - Paul Simon (Simon & Garfunkel)
14. Songs Of Love & Hate - Leonard Cohen
15. Darkness On The Edge Of Town - Bruce Springsteen
16. Blonde On Blonde - Bob Dylan
17. Armed Forces - Elvis Costello
18. Rust Never Sleeps - Neil Young
19. Rubber Soul - John Lennon/Paul McCartney (The Beatles)
20. Astral Weeks - Van Morrison

Strange Days for Morrison's highest. The debut is awesome but also has a few lyrical duds, like Back Door Man, I Looked At You, and Alabama Song.
Strange Days is just dark and surreal from start to finish, and no blues covers or cutesy love songs.

And for Waters, how in the world is Dark Side better than The Wall, in any conceivable way?

I would've thought Quad would be Townshend's #1, without question.

:eh:

Hendrix · **Joined:** Sat Oct 16, 2010 7:55 am **Posts:** 396

About Waters, I think The Wall is the weakest lyrical piece of that, Dark Side, Wish You Were Here and Animals... It's filled with small filler tracks, and honestly, songs like Comfortably Numb and Hey You, which are probably the most recognized lyrics on the album, isn't on a level near to Time, Dogs, Eclipse, Sheep, Wish You Were Here, Crazy Diamond, Echoes... Well, lots of other songs of his, in a retorical, metaphocrical or vocabularistic sense...

I dunno for the Morrison thing, since he was never really my man... Mainly put it on there for The End and Crystal Ship... If other people agree i'll let it go...

For Townshend, i agree that Quadrophenia is definitely his lyrical master piece, i just thought that Won't Get Fooled Again, Baba O'Reily and Behind Blue Eyes made up for a lot of his most acclaimed performances, while the songs on Quadrophenia has never been as recognized, mainly due to the album being less celebrated... Not that i know why not...

Negative Creep · **Joined:** Tue Oct 12, 2010 5:21 pm **Posts:** 12268

Quote:

About Waters, I think The Wall is the weakest lyrical piece of that, Dark Side, Wish You Were Here and Animals... It's filled with small filler tracks, and honestly, songs like Comfortably Numb and Hey You, which are probably the most recognized lyrics on the album, isn't on a level near to Time, Dogs, Eclipse, Sheep, Wish You Were Here, Crazy Diamond, Echoes... Well, lots of other songs of his, in a retorical, metaphocrical or vocabularistic sense...

Maybe. But The Wall also has The Thin Ice, Goodbye Blue Sky, Dont Leave Me Now, One Of My Turns, these are all awesome and imo easily stand up to anything on those older albums. But yah I agree there's a little too much filler on there.

Quote:

For Townshend, i agree that Quadrophenia is definitely his lyrical master piece, i just thought that Won't Get Fooled Again, Baba O'Reily and Behind Blue Eyes made up for a lot of his most acclaimed performances, while the songs on Quadrophenia has never been as recognized, mainly due to the album being less celebrated... Not that i know why not...

Quad is a DOUBLE album, and the lyrics never get boring or uninteresting during the whole thing. Plus, it's effectively telling a story.

The Man · **Posted:** Sat Jun 25, 2011 6:38 pm

Dark Side is without a doubt Roger's greatest (and maybe best?) lyrical work. It should stay where it is.

I do agree about Quadrophenia being Townshend's greatest. Who's Next has three or four great lyrical songs: Baba, Behind blue Eyes, and WGFA, but besides that it's pretty lackluster, at least lyrically.

Deany · **Posted:** Sat Jun 25, 2011 8:51 pm

Who's Next in the top 10 feels wrong. I'd definitely replace it with either BiABH or Blue, both much more influential, culturally impactful, and better lyrically. BiABH is probably the most lyrically influential album of the electric trilogy. It showcased Dylan's brilliantly surreal lyrics better than any other album, except maybe H61R. While Highway 61 represented a paradigm shift in the way songs were presented lyrically, BiABH is where it all began. Its songs influenced genres ranging from folk-rock to rap(Subterrainean Homesick Blues, apparently). Dylan had his first (and, in his opinion, best) lyrical opus in "It's Alright Ma", one of the greatest lyrics ever written. It's just...huge.

Blue, meanwhile, is Mitchell's masterwork. Its lyrics are a template for singer-songwriter albums. It's often heralded as one of the greatest lyrical albums of all time. Mitchell uses every lyrical trick in the book, from narratives (TLTISR) to symbolic elegies (the title track) to pure rollicking, but meaningful, tunes (Carey; California) to Christmas songs (River).

Pick any. Who's Next doesn't belong in the top 10.

The Man · **Posted:** Sat Jun 25, 2011 10:28 pm

How about Quadrophenia? I feel like Townshend should be represented, and lyrically Quad is easily his strongest work (followed by The Who By Numbers, in my opinion).

Negative Creep · **Joined:** Tue Oct 12, 2010 5:21 pm **Posts:** 12268

Do you guys agree with Strange Days being Morrison's highest, for the reasons I stated?
I think there can be no other choice.

Negative Creep · **Joined:** Tue Oct 12, 2010 5:21 pm **Posts:** 12268

Negative Creep · **Joined:** Tue Oct 12, 2010 5:21 pm **Posts:** 12268

1. Blood On The Tracks - Bob Dylan
2. Born To Run - Bruce Springsteen
3. Songs Of Leonard Cohen - Leonard Cohen
4. Late For The Sky - Jackson Browne
5. On The Beach - Neil Young
6. Highway 61 Revisited - Bob Dylan
7. Dark Side Of The Moon - Roger Waters (Pink Floyd)
8. Who's Next - Pete Townshend (The Who)
9. Strange Days - Jim Morrison (The Doors)
10. Imagine - John Lennon
11. Bringing It All Back Home - Bob Dylan
12. Blue - Joni Mitchell
13. Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme - Paul Simon (Simon & Garfunkel)
14. Songs Of Love & Hate - Leonard Cohen
15. Darkness On The Edge Of Town - Bruce Springsteen
16. Blonde On Blonde - Bob Dylan
17. Armed Forces - Elvis Costello
18. Rust Never Sleeps - Neil Young
19. Rubber Soul - John Lennon/Paul McCartney (The Beatles)
20. Astral Weeks - Van Morrison

Negative Creep · **Joined:** Tue Oct 12, 2010 5:21 pm **Posts:** 12268

So we're abandoning this already?

The Man · **Posted:** Thu Jun 30, 2011 4:29 pm

Sorry, Neg. I think either way you can't go wrong. Those are his two best lyrically and either one of them represent his trademark style very well.

Deany · **Posted:** Fri Jul 01, 2011 8:23 am

I don't think either Strange Days or the debut or even Quadrophenia belong in the top 10, at least not two of them at the same time. At least one of those spots needs to be Bringing It All Back Home. I'll give up Blue if someone can give me a legit argument for Imagine>Blue, because that's probably me being a bit biased, but BiABH belongs in the top 10. I don't care if we have three Dylan albums in the top 10, he's great enough to deserve it.

Other than that little issue, I think the top 20 looks pretty spot on right now.

The Man · **Posted:** Fri Jul 01, 2011 11:47 am

Let's take out Who's Next and move Strange Days to number eight, then. BIABH can be put in the number nine spot.

The only complaint I would register about the top twenty is the lack of Quadrophenia.

100 Greatest Lyrical Albums

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