Lyrics - a Forgotten Art?

‘As long as I gaze on Waterloo sunset

I am in paradise’

Amazing how some lyrics can transport you to another place.  In this well known case you can see the setting sun glinting on the Thames as a chill wind whips through the concrete arches, yet it gives you a warm comfortable feeling.  Ray Davies was always at his best when conjuring images of old England – a place we’d all like to visit but never will as it only exists in our imagination.

I’ve always felt that a song is basically about the music and that whilst important, lyrics are secondary to a good tune but when the two come together the effect can be sublime.  In the hands of the best writers, it only takes a few words to create an image and some of them are quite strange.  One of my favourites is:

‘And the three men I admire most

The Father, Son and the Holy Ghost

They caught the last train for the coast’

Taken from Don McLean’s epic ‘American Pie’ this concept always makes me smile.  It’s the mixture of the celestial and the mundane that intrigues.  Were they strap hanging in a crowded carriage?  Did the Holy Ghost have an argument with the ticket inspector for not having a valid travel pass?  The possibilities are endless.

But if you want realism, look no further than a lyricist with a flair for kitchen sink drama - The Smiths’ Morrissey, whose ability to sum up teenage angst was legendary.  Try this;

‘Boy afraid

Prudence never pays

And everything she wants costs money’

Or this:

‘I was looking for a job and then I found a job

And heaven knows I’m miserable now’

Morrissey’s acute observation and black humour always makes me laugh.  He is one of the most humorous writers around yet has a reputation for being a miserable old sod.  Perhaps he is, but he’s a funny, miserable old sod.

My final example is a bit of a cheat as it is not a lyric at all but a piece of genuine poetry.  In the middle of Curved Air’s 12 minute prog masterpiece, ‘Piece of Mind’, Sonja Kristina recites the following over a rippling piano and violin theme:

The river sweats
Oil and tar
The barges drift
With the turning tide
Red sails
Wide
To leeward, swing on the heavy spar.
The barges wash
Drifting logs
Down Greenwich reach
Past the Isle of Dogs.

It comes from T S Eliot’s ‘Wasteland’ and it sends shivers down my spine even today.  There is something about the imagery (the Thames again) and Curved Air’s classical rock musical hybrid that just works in this instance.  Of course this is a vast subject, I haven’t even started on Joni Mitchell or Jim Morrison, so I may return to it in the future.

In the final analysis a great lyric cannot save a poor song but it sure as hell elevates a good one.