Your favorite lyricists of rock

Although I'd like to post my own list up here, I've got to say that LedZepStu and Big3 have mostly summed it up for me (although I disagree with 'Metallica' and Ian Brown as being amongst the very best).

Also, I'd have to add into the mix, representing the UK:
Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys
Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand

The first because, however over-hyped it may be at the moment, he's already produced some brilliant lines ('dancing to electro-pop like a robot from 1984' still makes me smile, however many times it blares out). The second mainly because of the "I'm gonna make somebody love me and somebody is you, ooh, lucky, lucky, you're so lucky", which is just great, however much I dislike most of the accompanying music...
 
No mention of Joe Strummer or Patti Smith? Primal Scream had some good lyrics too.

Fell from grace, I lost my faith
My heart feels like a stone
I’m payin’ the price of of a drunken night
I’m wastin’ in the twilight zone

Broke the spell, I hate myself
The light of love don’t shine
A woman’s touch can cost so much
I’ve lost my pearl messin’ with swine

Fly me home on a big jet plane
Fly me home through the thunder and rain
Fly me home to the healin’ hanRAB
Fly me home to the promised land
 
lets see... alphabetically:

Ani DiFranco
Bjork
Bob Dylan
Brandon Boyd (Incubus)
Bruce Springsteen
Cat Power
Damien Rice
Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam)
Eric Clapton
Fiona Apple
Jeff Buckley
Jewel (ok, a different style and latetly she
 
Jerry Jones
Billy Werner
Drew Speziale/Kathy Coppola
Brandon Evans/Kevin Longendyke
Jacob Bannon
Johnny Whitney/Jordan Blilie
Geoff Rickly
Frank Turner
 
Most people i know consider him a horrible lyricist, but then again, these people's opinions are to be taken with a grain of salt.

That and they fear everything they don't understand, for example, if they don't understand prog lyrics they will call the whole genre "pretentious crap" and if they don't understand Kurt Cobains lyrics they go on about "how untalented he was" and how they're glad he's dead blah blah blah blah.
 
dylan, young, cobain, hendrix would all be on my list. adam duritz (counting crows) would definitely be on my list, good songs in terms of lyrics by them, off the top of my head: round here, black and blue. clapton had some amazing lyrics too.
 
I was going to use Crusher666.

But, I settled for jr.


Anyway, as far as songwriting goes, I've always enjoyed early Aerosmith. Steven Tyler wrote some wickedly innuendo-laden stuff. Before MTV came along and he turned into a pop writing parody of himself.
 
Oh dear? im simply giving my opinion, no harm done, not like im bashing a bunch of people, just their opinions, and i thought i was rather nice about it.
 
lets see....

james hetfield
howard jones
corey taylor
who ever writes for nightwish
eminem (may not be rock but he has sweet lyrics)
serj
mushroomhead
jim from pennywise
shadows fall
breaking benjamin
chad from mudvayne
moto grater


.....tons more, too many to name
 
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