The Greatest Prog Lyricist - Progressive Rock Music Forum

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Kashmir75

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Posted: June 10 2010 at 17:14

Rocktopus wrote:

^Steven Wilson is possibly the worst lyricist of our time.

Hello, mirror. So glad to see you, my friend. It's been a while...

Catcher10

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Posted: June 10 2010 at 17:32

The Greatest Prog Lyricist.....hmmmm

Who cares!!!!

Ok I'll play...

Neil Peart, James LaBrie, Steven Wilson, Mike Portnoy, Ian Anderson, Phil Collins, Michael Jackson, Benny Hill, Richard Pryor, Elvis Presley......and GOD.

DisgruntledPorcupine View Drop Down

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Posted: June 10 2010 at 17:49

Catcher10 wrote:

The Greatest Prog Lyricist.....hmmmm

Who cares!!!!

Ok I'll play...

Neil Peart, James LaBrie, Steven Wilson, Mike Portnoy, Ian Anderson, Phil Collins, Michael Jackson, Benny Hill, Richard Pryor, Elvis Presley......and GOD.

JLB really isn't a big songwriter in DT.

J-Man

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Posted: June 10 2010 at 18:14

Daniel Gildenlöw - I don't agree with many of his political standpoints, but his stories and psychological conceptual albums are fantastic!

Fish - His stuff with Marillion has some of the finest lyrics I've ever heard. Pure genius!

Peter Gabriel - Supper's Ready, Get 'Em Out By Friday, Cinema Show, The Musical Box, Watcher of the Skies, and countless others are simply lyrical masterpieces.

Neal Morse - Call them cheesy and whatever else you may want, but I love his narrative approach to lyrics. I don't consider myself to be a Christian anymore, but his lyrics are very personal and I can always relate to, and appreciate, his Christian-oriented approach.

Check out my YouTube channel! http://www.youtube.com/user/demiseoftime

enigma

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Posted: June 10 2010 at 18:36

Roger W
Peter H
Fish

Geizao

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Posted: June 11 2010 at 02:53

Roger Waters
Peter Sinfield
Peter Hamill
Peter Gabriel
Jon Anderson

Sean Trane View Drop Down

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Posted: June 11 2010 at 03:42

Rocktopus wrote:

I don't know how great any of the french, italian, german etc... lyrics out there are, so only english suggestions:

Good point Christer

We've only talked so far about English-written lyrics.

I won't speak about German texts, because iften the written lyrics are absent and I don't have sufficient knowledge of the language to judge

For the French texts (excluding the Kbaian dialect

), I really liked Ripaille's sole album.... but the greatest lyricist are Jacques Brel, Claude Nougaro and Georges Brassens (Jean Ferrat is also good), but I wouldn't qualify their works a proggy. For prog and rock groups, I must say that only Noir Desir's Bertrand Cantat's are quite above the pack

For Italian texts, I get a good idea (via my Frech) of the lyrics when they are available (plus Andrea"s reviews are very helpful in that regard) and I'd say Banco and Jumbo's lyrics are above the rest.

Bizarrely enough, despitea good written knowledge of Spanish, I haven't ^paid much attention to Spanish texts since the rock group of Heroes Del Silencio. I'll have to investigate why I haven't.

let's just stay above the moral melee
prefer the sink to the gutter
keep our sand-castle virtues
content to be a doer
as well as a thinker,
prefer lifting our pen
rather than un-sheath our sword

Catcher10

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Posted: June 11 2010 at 09:53

DT-PT wrote:

Catcher10 wrote:

The Greatest Prog Lyricist.....hmmmm

Who cares!!!!

Ok I'll play...

Neil Peart, James LaBrie, Steven Wilson, Mike Portnoy, Ian Anderson, Phil Collins, Michael Jackson, Benny Hill, Richard Pryor, Elvis Presley......and GOD.

JLB really isn't a big songwriter in DT.

Go to page one...Jake Kobrin is who I was playing along with. He mentioned LaBrie.......albeit maybe his name does not get "printed" on their albums as writer..but I guarantee you he has much input on lyrics. Portnoy's ego gets in the way and his name appears on everything.

IMHO

nahnite

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Posted: July 05 2010 at 15:49

Topping my list would be Peart.

But there's also:

2/Jon Anderson

3/Ian Anderson

4/Peter Gabriel

5/Peter Sinfield

6/Mikael Akerfeldt

AND

7/James LaBrie (if he wrote more, I might like DT more.)

sydbarrett2010 View Drop Down

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Posted: August 09 2010 at 04:42

roger waters

sydbarrett2010 View Drop Down

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Posted: September 15 2010 at 06:14

peter sinfield

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Posted: September 16 2010 at 11:30

fuxi wrote:

NecronCommander wrote:

Jason Byron (it's more like poetry than lyrics, but whatever)

Erm - who else wouldst thou call more like poets?

He's right, though. Smile

"Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and cannot remain silent" - Victor Hugo

Lark the Starless View Drop Down

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Posted: September 16 2010 at 11:42

Hammill would be my top lyricist, but I also enjoy Peter Gabriel, Neil Peart, and recently, Fish.

Formentera Lady View Drop Down

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Posted: September 16 2010 at 17:19

I like the lyrics of Fish (with Marillion, his solo works I do not know good enough).
Also some of the lyrics of Davies/Hodgson touch me (if it is not "Breakfast in America").
And of course Richard Palmer-James: "Cigarettes, ice cream, figurines of the Virgin Mary" - what else do you want?
Probably Adrian Belew gives the answer: "sex sleep eat drink dream..."
Big smile

The T

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Posted: September 16 2010 at 17:28

The guys in canvas solaris are great lyricists.

So are the ones in liquid tension experiment.

uduwudu

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Posted: September 16 2010 at 17:59

Jam Carrot, oops I mean Djam Karet have the sort of lyrics I like. Wink

Exactly what is a prog rock lyric? I shall now sit down and compose a lyric in the progressive rock style. LOL

So maybe Christain Vander with his Kobaian themed albums that is also incomprehensible (unless one is fluent in Kobaian - and it has been known...) means he is the greatest.

Yeah, Adrian Belew's ideas... Oh yes, that reminds me, anyone remember when his anti abortion mention in the great disasters of the 20th C lyric divided the KC cKommunity and meant Lark's 4 coda was performed instrumentally.

DisgruntledPorcupine View Drop Down

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Posted: September 16 2010 at 20:52

nahnite wrote:

7/James LaBrie (if he wrote more, I might like DT more.)

I actually think LaBries lyrics are usually way too bland. Except Blind Faith, those lyrics are up there with my favourite DT lyrics.

Catcher10

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Posted: September 16 2010 at 21:12

The T wrote:

The guys in canvas solaris are great lyricists.

So are the ones in liquid tension experiment.

I agree....end of topic

Harry Hood View Drop Down

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Posted: September 16 2010 at 22:25

Peter Hammill. The OP got it right for once. Leagues ahead of any native english speaking lyricist.

Runners up:

John Darnielle (of the Mountain Goats)

Peter Nichols (of IQ)

Roger Waters (For Amused to Death, The Final Cut and Animals, everything else he did is just kind of okay)

Formentera Lady wrote:

And of course Richard Palmer-James: "Cigarettes, ice cream, figurines of the Virgin Mary" - what else do you want?
Big smile

That was actually a Robert Fripp lyric, and the only lyric Fripp contributed to King Crimson. And it's far better than anything Richard Palmer James wrote. Dead

Edited by Harry Hood - September 16 2010 at 22:46

Formentera Lady View Drop Down

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Posted: September 17 2010 at 07:36

Harry Hood wrote:

Formentera Lady wrote:

And of course Richard Palmer-James: "Cigarettes, ice cream, figurines of the Virgin Mary" - what else do you want?
Big smile

That was actually a Robert Fripp lyric, and the only lyric Fripp contributed to King Crimson. And it's far better than anything Richard Palmer James wrote. Dead

Yes, you are right, I just found out, that it is the only line that Robert Fripp wrote. But I like the comment on commercial activities, that is written around it.

Edited by Formentera Lady - September 17 2010 at 07:37

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