Most Talented Lyricist of out time?

Johnny Cash always struck me as a good lyricist, not because of the content per se but because it seemed like he could just talk in song if he wanted to. He just seemed to be that comfortable with playing guitar and writing songs. I mean the guy had like 500 albums and played guitar till he died.
 
Ehh, these aren't really what i think are the best, but my personal favorites.

Reznor
Manyard
Zakk Wylde sometimes
James Hetfield,(mid 80s to early 90's are when his best lyrics came from) mostly because the way he writes most of his lyrics. He will come up with the how the song goes, and how it should be sung, sing with it for a demo doing simple la/da whatever to fill it, to see how it sounRAB with the music, and fill in the worRAB after he figures out how he wants his vocals to come off with the music. Very hard to explain, but if you heard/saw it, you would know what I'm talking about.
Eminem as well

Again, these are just my personal favs.
 
Draw this darkness out like poison
Stab, retrieve, again decline
Help me drive the dagger deeper
Trace with me explicit line
Take this blade, a test of faith,
And strike me deep and true
I put all my trust in you

Refine hate and love
Fall afresh on me
End this crisis of
Identity

This is my voice, all shadows stayed this is my heart, upon the altar laid
Please take all else away, hear my cry, I beg, I plead, I pray
I'll walk into the flame, a calculated risk to further bless your name
So strike me deep and true, and in your strength I will live and die both unto you.

-"Identity Crisis" by Thrice
 
Ranking things like this is so arbitrary. This kind of elitist musical culture is destroying music. Not as badly as shitty pre-fabricated cookie cutter pop music is destroying it, but still its not a good thing.
 
I just wanted to leave a reminder:
Tom Waits was great, Bob Dylan was great, but Neil Diamond is still by far the best of anybody mentioned in this thread.
 
my list:
maynard (tool, APC, you know the rest)
ben gibbard (death cab, postal service, all-time quarterback)
cedric bixler (TMV)



lyrics are the most important factor for me when listening to music...
 
Start trouble, spread pain
Piss and venom in your veins
Talk nasty, breathe fire
Smell rotten your a liar!
Sweat liquor, breathe snot
Eat garbage spit blood
Diseased health hazard
Scumbag, filthy bastard
Greasy face, teeth decay
Hair matted drunk all day
Abcess, sunken veins
Rotten guts, scrambled brains...
 
You, Sir, are an idiot. Megadeath is not a lyrical band. As much as I like good thrash metal, lyrics are NOT the strong point. There isn't even a real sentance in that whole string of random crap. Come on now, you can do better than that.
 
Sorry, automatic disqualification for overuse of "f**k". A talented lyricist can convey emotion without being vulgar.

And those lyrics suck anyway.
 
Expressing ideas and trading opinions is the glory of art. To you, Tracer, I give one hardy !
May you someday learn that arguing about music and the validity of such is what makes music so many people's art/drug of choice.
 
Elliott Smith

i'll fake it through the day
with some help from johnny walker red
send the poison rain down the drain
to put bad thoughts in my head
your two tickets torn in half
and a lot of nothing to do
do you miss me, miss misery
like you say you do?
a man in the park
read the lines in my hand
told me i'm strong
hardly ever wrong i said man you mean
you had plans for both of us
that involved a trip out of town
to a place i've seen in a magazine
that you left lying around
i don't have you with me but
i keep a good attitude
do you miss me, miss misery
like you say you do?
i know you'd rather see me gone
than to see me the way that i am
but i am in the life anyway
next door the tv's flashing
blue frames on the wall
it's a comedy of errors, you see
it's about taking a fall
to vanish into oblivion
is easy to do
and i try to be but you know me
i come back when you want me to
do you miss me miss misery
like you say you do?
 
To All Credits of Cedric Bixler as a great lyricist, Omar Rodriguez writes a majority of all the lyrics, as well as the instrumental music. Although it is still looked upon as a "Rodriguez, Bixler" like "Lennon, McCartney".

I'd have to say the greatest lyricist is Syd Barrett tied with Roger Waters. Yes yes.
 
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