Are Songwriters Low-Key the Best Poets?
Or, why everyone has that *one* karaoke song.
Little over a month ago, I was sunbathing beside a sad apartment complex pool in South Carolina, having an excruciating time finding my chill. The nearby highway was a groan in the background, like someone who refused to wake up no matter how much you shook them. To dull the sound, I popped in my headphones and listened to the new, self-titled Zach Bryan album. I really didn’t know what to expect, but it certainly wasn't listening to a poem for the opening track. Maybe it was the wheezing last days of summer, the familiar brush with faded youth felt when I’m in S.C., or just an old-fashioned bad day, but dang if tears didn’t spring into my eyes like spigots.
Then I played it again.
It felt familiar. Something in the cadence. The defiant pursuit of presence. Bryan’s wonder in mundanity seemed like a prayer, though at what altar is up for interpretation — one of the fundamental aspects of a successful poem (or song).
This got me thinking about all the songwriters who have put pen to paper, layered in instruments and bent poetry to sound for songs that stick with you always. That get played at weddings and funerals and when you’re stuck in rush hour traffic. That commemorate a new year and holidays and broken hearts and girls night out. We get lyrics tattooed and transcribe them in our senior yearbooks. We mortar them into our identities.
Music is accessible and memorable and can include damn good writing. Just listen to *almost* any album by Bob Dylan, Patti Smith, Prince, or Dolly Parton (you won’t change my mind that “9-5” isn’t pure poetic genius!) if you need convincing. It’s for these reasons that I rank top songwriters up there with the likes of Walt Whitman and Mary Oliver. Songwriters create work that’s so intimately poignant that certain songs get wedged into our subconsciousnesses for the rest of our lives. We’ve all been transported to a time or place when one of those songs comes on the radio. I’ve never had a Spotify playlist summon a line of William Blake into my consciousness.
I’d wager that this is why so many folks have a go-to karaoke song. Yes, the picks are usually fun and easy to sing after a few drinks, but isn’t there also something about them that harkens to a time we want to revisit? Or perhaps there’s something in the lyrics we wish to inhabit. Either way, no one is asking to cue up Sylvia Plath at their local watering hole. Good lyrics can be lighthearted or sappy or provocative and meaningful. And that’s what qualifies good lyrics as noteworthy poetry. At least in my opinion.
This isn’t to say that enjoying or seeking out poetry is a fool’s errand — quite the contrary. The lift is simply greater. Each modality can serve a purpose without eroding the integrity of the other, despite what some critics would rather you believe.
This week, I’m giving credit where credit is due and listing books of lyrics from all different types of musicians and genres. I think you’ll find that, without the accompanying chords, you’re left with storytelling that can stand shoulder to shoulder with other greats (no off-key attempts at harmonizing required).
19 Books of Lyrics From Top Musicians
Backing tracks not included.
“The Lyrics: 1956 to Present” - Paul McCartney
“Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics” - Dolly Parton
“Promise That You Will Sing About Me: The Power and Poetry of Kendrick Lamar” - Miles Marshall Lewis
“The Flame: Poems Notebooks Lyrics Drawings” - Leonard Cohen
“The Breakbeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop” - Edited by Kevin Coval, Quraysh Ali Lansana, Nate Marshall
“‘Til Wrong Feels Right: Lyrics and More” - Iggy Pop
“Patti Smith Collected Lyrics, 1970-2015” - Patti Smith
“The Very Best of Prince Lyrics” - Nancy Coogan
“The Lyrics: 1961-2020” - Bob Dylan
“Useless Magic: Lyrics and Poetry” - Florence Welch
“The Blues Line: Blues Lyrics from Leadbelly to Muddy Waters” - Edited by Eric Comp Sackheim
“Johnny Cash: The Life in Lyrics” - Johnny Cash
“How to Be Invisible: Lyrics” - Kate Bush
“I Am the Wolf: Lyrics and Writings” - Mark Lanegan
“Tears for Water: Poetry and Lyrics” - Alicia Keys
“I’ll Be Your Mirror: The Collected Lyrics” - Lou Reed
“Country’s Greatest Lines: Lyrics, Stories and Sketches from American Classics” - Bobby Braddock
“The Collected Works of Jim Morrison: Poetry, Journals, Transcripts, and Lyrics” - Jim Morrison
“Morning Glory on the Vine: Early Songs and Drawings” - Joni Mitchell