What makes a great song lyric? And does an excellent lyric elevate an otherwise okay song into greatness?
Some songs need great lyrics. It’s probably fair to say that people love Bob Dylan for his lyrics before anything else. Conversely, some music doesn’t require amazing lyrics: Led Zeppelin's more ‘Lord of the Rings’ lyrical moments don’t detract from their incredible music. So I suppose context is important, but where’s no mistaking an excellent lyric when it appears in a song.
Today, I want to gather as many great lyrics together as I can, and place them right here for everyone to enjoy. Not whole songs, just killer lines that stop you in your tracks. The lines that you memorise and remember forever.
Which lyrics do that for you? I can tell you that Dylan will obviously feature, as will Lennon , Cohen, Morrissey and Cave, but I’ll include great lyrics from as many places as I can find them. I hope to include your favourites here, and maybe even introduce you to some things that you haven’t heard yet. I haven’t ranked them in any sort of order, because these lyrics are great in all manner of different ways, so how can they be judged against each other?
Give me 5 minutes now, and indulge some of the most finely crafted phrases in popular music!
The BEST Song Lyrics Ever
“I get up, and nothing gets me down” - Van Halen - Jump
“I don’t believe in an interventionist god, but darling, I know that you do. But if I did, I would kneel down and ask him not to intervene when it came to you” - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Into My Arms
“Take me out tonight, take me anywhere, I don’t care, I don’t care. And if a ten tonne truck kills the both of us, to die by your side, well, the pleasure, the privilege is mine” - The Smiths - There is a Light That Never Goes Out
“I’d trade all of my tomorrows for one single yesterday” and “Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose” - Kris Kristofferson - Me and Bobby McGee
“And then one day you find, ten years have got behind you, no one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun” - Pink Floyd - Time
“Daddy's rifle in my hand felt reassurin', He told me ‘Red means run, son, numbers add up to nothin' But when the first shot hit the dock, I saw it comin'” - Neil Young - Powderfinger
“You’re such an inspiration for the ways that I will never, ever choose to be” - A Perfect Circle - Judith
“Take the highway to the end of the night” - The Doors - End of the Night
“Maybe there’s a God above, but all I ever learned from love was how to shoot somebody who outdrew you” - Leonard Cohen - Hallelujah
“This gasoline has met its match, any uprising will be smashed” - Mischief Brew - Paris Warlike
“Love dares you to care for all the people on the edge of the night” - David Bowie and Queen - Under Pressure
“I got a bulletproof heart, she got a hollowpoint smile” - My Chemical Romance - Bulletproof Heart
“I’ve traveled here and there and back again, but in the same old haunts I still find my friends, mysteries not ready to reveal, sympathies I’m ready to return. I’ll make the effort, love can last forever” - Smashing Pumpkins - Thirty Three
“It's never over, my kingdom for a kiss upon her shoulder” - Jeff Buckley - Lover, You Should’ve Come Over
“Real G’s move in silence like lasagna” - Lil Wayne - 6 Foot 7 Foot
“It’s so hard to love when love was your great disappointment” - Lloyd Cole - Rattlesnakes
“The day I tried to live, I stole a thousand beggars’ change and gave it to the rich” - Soundgarden - They Day I Tried to Live
“I want you more than I need you, and I need you for all time” - Glen Campbell - Wichita Lineman
“Just got paid today, got me a pocket full of change” - ZZ Top - Just Got Paid
“When my life’s through and the angels ask me to recall the thrill of it all, then I will tell them I remember you” - Frank Ifield - I Remember You
“In the blur of serenity, where did everything get lost? The flowers of naivete, buried in a layer of frost” - Nine Inch Nails - I’m Looking Forward to Joining You, Finally
“You, you are so special, You have the talent to make me feel like dirt, And you, you use your talent to dig me under, And cover me with dirt” - Alice in Chains - Dirt
“Nightswimming, remembering that night. September's coming soon, I'm pining for the moon. And what if there were two side by side in orbit around the fairest sun? The bright tide forever drawn could not describe nightswimming” - R.E.M. - Nightswimming
“Old man wanna be rich, rich man wanna be king, and a king ain’t satisfied ‘till he rules everything” - Bruce Springsteen - Badlands
“Lost in a Roman wilderness of pain” - The Doors - The End
“Oh, how I wish, how I wish you were here. We’re just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl year after year” - Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
Many of these artists deserve multiple entries (some have had!) but there are a couple who really just need their own section…
Greatest Bob Dylan Lyrics
“Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son? Oh, where have you been, my darling young one? I’ve walked and I’ve crawled on six crooked highways, I’ve been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard” - A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall
“How many roads must a man go down before you can call him a man?” - Blowing in the Wind
“No, there’s nothin’ you can send me, my own true love, there’s nothin’ I wish to be ownin’, just carry yourself back to me unspoiled, from across that lonesome ocean” - Boots of Spanish Leather
“I’m a-leavin’ tomorrow, but I could leave today” - Song to Woody
“Idiot wind, Blowing every time you move your mouth, Blowing down the back roads headin' south, Idiot wind, Blowing every time you move your teeth, You're an idiot, babe, It's a wonder that you still know how to breathe” - Idiot Wind
“I might look like Robert Ford but I feel just like Jesse James” - Outlaw Blues
“It’s alright, ma. It’s life and life only” - Life and Life Only
“To live outside the law you must be honest” - Absolutely Sweet Marie
“I gave into the doorway of temptation’s angry flame. And every time I pass that way, I always hear my name” - Every Grain of Sand
“Time is an ocean, but it ends at the shore” - Oh, Sister
Greatest Tom Waits Lyrics
“So if you find someone, someone to have, someone to hold, Don't trade it for silver, oh, don't trade it for gold, 'Cause I have all of life's treasures, And they're fine and they're good, They remind me houses are just made of wood, What makes a house grand, oh it ain't the roof or the doors, If there's love in a house, it's a palace for sure” - House Where Nobody Lives
“Don’t you know there aint no Devil, just god when he’s drunk” - Heartattack and Vine
“I’ve lost my equilibrium, my car keys and my pride” - The One that Got Away
“The jukebox has to take a leak, And the carpet needs a haircut, And the spotlight looks like a prison break, Cause the telephone’s out of cigarettes. And you can't find your waitress with a Geiger counter, And she hates you and your friends and you just can't get served without her, And the box office is drooling, And the bar stools are on fire, And the newspapers were fooling, And the ash-trays have retired, 'Cause the piano has been drinking, not me, not me, not me” - The Piano Has Been Drinking
“I cross my wooden leg and swear on my glass eye” - That Feel
“Now I lost my Saint Christopher now that I kissed her” - Tom Traubert’s Blues
“His rifle, his boots full of rocks, Oh and this one is for bravery, Oh and this one is for me, And everything’s a dollar in this box.” - Soldier’s Things
“It’s got to be more than flesh and bone, all that you’ve loved Is all you own” - Take it With Me
Greatest Ever Beatles Lyrics
“Words are flowing out, like endless rain into a paper cup” - Lennon, Across the Universe
“Blackbird singing in the dead of night, take these broken wings and learn to fly, all your life, you were only waiting for this moment to arise” - McCartney - Blackbird
“Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see” - Lennon, Strawberry Fields Forever
“And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make” - McCartney - The End
“Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away. Now it looks as though they’re here to stay. Oh, I believe in yesterday” - McCartney, Yesterday
“And when the brokenhearted people living in the world agree, there will be an answer, let it be” - McCartney - Let it Be
“All you need is love, love is all you need” - Lennon - All You Need is Love
The Greatest Lyrics EVER!
What did you think of that list? It’s impossible to include every great lyric, but I hope that at least some of your favourites showed up! The truth is, I keep thinking of new ones to add as I type this up, so I get a feeling this isn’t the end of the subject. But until the inevitable update, I hope you’ve enjoyed this collection, and maybe even discovered some new music!
Until next time!
