I'm torn between 'Eight Miles High', 'Suzanne', and 'Wonderful'. the two Dylan lyrics are great, but they don't look so impressive on the printed page, imho. it's interesting how the author favors lyricists who are generally considered lightweight in 2015. did rock fans regard John Sebastian and John Phillips as serious 'song-poets' in 1969? I don't necessarily disagree with his assessment (relative to some of his other inclusions, at least), but they definitely haven't been mythologized to the same extent as Dylan and Morrison.
― stoomcursus rockisme (unregistered), Sunday, 5 July 2015 20:19 (eight years ago) link
One thing I know for sure, it's not "Motorcycle Irene" by Moby Grape.
― holger sharkey (Tom D.), Sunday, 5 July 2015 20:20 (eight years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Sunday, 12 July 2015 00:01 (eight years ago) link
Funny, I just loaned this book to a friend a few weeks ago in advance of a podcast he did with Goldstein (quite good, as it turned out; Goldstein has some amazing stories, like the Velvet Underground playing his wedding after-party in exchange for--long-gone, I think--liner notes he wrote for the first album). As I flipped through the book before the loan, I started thinking that back then, with no internet, Goldstein probably had to sit down and transcribe all the lyrics by hand.
I was wrong. When I glanced at the intro, he got most of them from sheet music courtesy of the record labels.
― clemenza, Sunday, 12 July 2015 00:07 (eight years ago) link
In answer to the question...I'm not very good at detaching lyrics from the song itself. My favourite songs here are "Substitute," "Desolation Row" (but not "Sad-Eyed Lady"), "Eight Miles High," "Norwegian Wood," "Darling, Be Home Soon," "Feelin' Groovy," and, from the omissions, "Almost Grown." So one of those. I think "Norwegian Wood" is very poetic.
― clemenza, Sunday, 12 July 2015 00:12 (eight years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Monday, 13 July 2015 00:01 (eight years ago) link
Think the topic got more replies than votes.
― austinato (Austin), Monday, 13 July 2015 00:15 (eight years ago) link
Today's rock partisan - plugged into a stereophonic nirvana - is more likely to arch his eyebrows than his pelvis. He may casually remark, with a gleam in his hookah, "I empathize with it. It has truth and beauty. Besides, my kids say it's psychedelic."
― My Body's Made of Crushed Little Evening Stars (Sund4r), Tuesday, 14 March 2017 03:38 (seven years ago) link