Mick has written some great lyrics over the years but rarely if ever gets any credit for being a good lyricist. Why is that? Songs that immediately come to mind are "Jumpin' Jack Flash", "Midnight Rambler" and "Brown Sugar. My favorite line of all time I think is "I was crowned with a spike right through my head. I guess that's not your typical love song lyric though.

I ain't stupid, I'm just guitarded.

I'll break big in New Orleans
And I'll overspill in Caroline

I was making love last night
To a dancer friend of mine
I cant seem to stay in step
'Cause she comes everytime
That she pirouettes-over me

The sunshine bores the daylights outta me

Did you ever wake up to find
A day that broke up your mind
Destroyed your notion of circular time

I'm having an affair with a random computer

Yeah when you call my name
I salivate like a Pavlov dog

Dietrich movies, close up boogies,
Kissing @#$%& in Cannes

You've been starring in my dreams

And there will always be a space in my parking lot
When you need a little coke and sympathy

Well, I hope we're not too messianic
Or a trifle too satanic
We love to play the blues

Made a rag pile of my shiny clothes

Lonely hearts
They're just made to break

She shoots colors all around
Like a sunset going down

If I ever get back to Fun City, girl
I'm gonna make you scream all night

'Cause all you women is low down gamblers,
Cheatin' like I don't know how

ROCKMAN

Mick was an above average lyricist up 'til 'Tattoo You.'

"Dietrich movies, close up boogies,
Kissing @#$%& in Cannes"

Kissing cut in cans. I know it 'coz I own the 'Exile' songbook.

"The wonder of Jimi Hendrix was that he could stand up at all he was so pumped full of drugs." Patsy, Patsy Stone

MJ has written so many great lyrics. If you went line by line there are just too many, don't forget Keith either.....people forget he wrote the lyrics to Angie, Wild Horses, Before They Make Me Run, and Happy to name a few.

Milo, NYC
There ain't a dry eye in the house

I have the Exile songbook, too. Bought it many years ago
before I raached the age of reason.
Is that what he says in Casino Boogie?
I always thought it was as it was in the book,
"Kissing cut in Cannes." Ha HA!
I always thought the lyrics to Tie You Up were quite good
unil he got to that x-rated lyric "feel the hot XBXBX...."
which I think is one of the worst lines he ever wrote.
Mick trying to be Prince...
Every time he tries to be "hip and happening", he fails miserably.

According to all those songbooks he also is saying "You're a starbucker starbucker..." and in Dandelion "so you're holding out now ity's all the same..."

I think Jagger is an absolutely excellent lyricist. Allthrough his career. Some of the best stuff he wroye is on Aftermath and Buttons. I mean how can you beat "I see a red door and I want to paint it black!" ??
Also the stuff on soloalbums like Goddess and Spirit is great. When he says exactly what he wants to say like on "Brand New Set". Where he SUCKS incredibly is when he tries way too heard to be socially conscious or historically accurate and use a bunch of metaphors.
Clunkers are
Blinded by Love" with all that supposed historic jive.
Spraks Will Fly" with that forced sexed up junk.
"Hold Back" with those awkward clunky pseudo plitical comparisons.
"Terryfying" with that animal vs Jagger parallel.
She's the Boss and Primitive Cool - Everything about it.

But he more than outweighs it with all his good stuff. "Exile" alone should have eraned him a Pulitzer.

micks lyrics were great,and still are.listen to the lyrics in to far gone from godess,or title track,or don't call me up.

john scialfa

tomk Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have the Exile songbook, too. Bought it many
> years ago
> before I raached the age of reason.
> Is that what he says in Casino Boogie?
> I always thought it was as it was in the book,
> "Kissing cut in Cannes." Ha HA!


Those lyric books are heavily censored...it's "kissing cúnt in Cannes" (you'd hardly kiss a 'cut', would you? Unless you're a vampire). "Star Star", "Rocks Off" and other songs have ludicrous re-writes which bear little or no relation to what the proepr lyrics are.

Starbucker must be the best

where I come from and when I was growing up, "bucking" was actually a kid's definition of the act of sexual intercourse. However, when you got to about 12, you usually replaced the first letter with an 'f'.

So it's kind of strange to see that word used in a lyric sheet.Its as if the song was written by some innocent child.

Milo - Keith wrote lyrics to Wild Horses (or Angie)? Really? I always thought he just came up with the line in the chorus. Always considered WH as one of Mick's greatest lyrics ever.

And I don't agree with RankOutsider that Mick "rarely if ever gets any credit for being a good lyricist." He is incredibly excellent at times. Nobody else could have ever written Sympathy for the Devil. I also love the killer line "I was crowned with a spike right through my head." Midnight Rambler is a killer, not only on the stage, the lyrics are a masterpiece.
Jagger definitely wrote (one of) the best sophisticated, lascivious, love song lyrics ever. He's had it all.

Like Chelsea, I also see too far-fetched lyrics on the socially conscious songs like Blinded by Rainbows or Indian Girl, or Rock and A Hard Place...better stop; but then again, at least Street Fighting Man was nice.

I allways loved the lyrics off Some Girls and @#$%&.
There so funny and it's arogant to sing it that it's absolutely great!

Cheers,
Wuudy

"Mick was an above average lyricist up 'til 'Tattoo You.' "

He also made good lyrics after. fx: "Blinded by rainbows" - some good stuff on Undercover as well

I've always found him to be very clever and unpredictable. I believe his lyrics are really adriving factor to what set the Stones apart from other bands. His lyrics aren't transparent. They are somewhat more sophisticated than most of his contemporaries.
I don't think he gets the credit he desreves becuase It's Only Rock and Roll............no one really pays attention to lyrics. It's about the beat. How many of us think he's singing one thing and then we read the lyric is completely different? The above post about Rocks Off and Casion Boogie purely illustrates that for me.

Keith of course is completely straight

i love the lyrics of sweet virginia

Since I´m neither an educated literature scholar nor trained lyrics-reader/listener (but - I did interpret J Morrisons work once... ).
No matter if his good or not. Jagger/Richards are ranked far above all others earthly creatures in combining lyrics & music; especially the former, I´d say.
The parade example is "Shine A Light", where the sung melody, phrasing, harmonies, arrangement... Everything! is so goddamn perfect until the last vibr*to by Taylor... But you can trace this back to 1965 and the earliest of their songwriting: How the song melody line sort of pulls the song like a fast locomotive. And theirs no boundary between lyrics and music - it´s all One. On Exile the recording is so On, so f*cking right as well!
... Yeah! Now we´re talking. The holy duet, the Glimmer Twins, these two blokes. It proves that 1+1 not always is 2 och 3; but ... Rock 'n' Roll. The Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Band In The World. And soon we are all gonna see them!

Jiving Sister Fanny (Jagger/Richards) [straight from SFJ]

Jivin' Sister Fanny, told her man from Philadelphia, PA
Uh, huh, huh, huh
He saw us down the station said she didn't like the way we played
Uh, huh, huh, huh
--- If you got a favourite guy, get you babe, real no why
Man from you down inside, got it feathered by the while
Ooh, child, you got me walkin' down the broad highway
Uh, huh, huh, huh
--- Now, Jivin' Sister Fanny got the brain of a dinosaur
Uh, huh, huh, huh
Well, she hocked my fancy mother and she hocked my electric guitar
Then she's waitin' in the store, tell her to wait, er, waitin' for
Glad she's on the waiting good
By Charles oh watch 'er, you wait good
Ooh, child, you got me walkin' down the broad highway
See what I mean? The mans voice is like piano keys pressed in the way Nicky, Billy or sooner Stu would have pressed´em.

Undercover and Dirty Work have great lyrics, too.

These are GOOD:

"It's Do or Dare........to the Banks of the Delaware"

("Climbing a Tree of Promises....")

"The Fields of Eden.......are Full of Trash"

"The elephant's in the bathroom, throwing all his weight around......"

"There's a monkey living on on my back.........I can feel my spine begin to crack".

"You fell out of the sheer blue sky....to the Darkness below........the Smell of your Flesh Excites me....my Blood starts to Flow......So Help Me God!"

"I'm a whisper, I'm a shadow and I'm standing up to sing"


These are CRAP:

"Love is strong and you're so sweet and some day babe we've got to meet"!

"Just anywhere, out in the park, out on the street and in the dark"!

Most songs on VL are culprits - stupid obsession with simple RHYME - so damn trite. Forced. Parody. Charade.


All of "Don't Stop".

Ya, but the song "Love Is Strong" is so STRONG who cares! That song should have been a radio hit, I often wonder why it was not? I have this little two song cassette with "Love Is Strong" on one side and "The Storm" on the other. Man, you listen to that song and you realize that NOBODY sounds like these guys, NOBODY can play rock 'n' roll the way they do. Anyway I'm ranting now.

I ain't stupid, I'm just guitarded.

There are many, many, many (too many to mention) classic lyrics from Mick...a great writer.



Classic lyrics from Get Off My Cloud:



The telephone is ringing
I say, "Hi, it's me. Who is it there on the line?"
A voice says, "Hi, hello, how are you
Well, I guess I'm doin' fine"
He says, "It's three a.m., there's too much noise
Don't you people ever wanna go to bed?
Just 'cause you feel so good, do you have
To drive me out of my head?"



One more fine example from 19th Nervous Breakdown:


You're the kind of person
You meet at certain dismal dull affairs.
Center of a crowd, talking much too loud
Running up and down the stairs.
Well, it seems to me that you have seen too much in too few years.
And though you've tried you just can't hide
Your eyes are edged with tears.

You better stop
Look around
Here it comes, here it comes, here it comes, here it comes
Here comes your nine-teenth nervous breakdown.

Hi deidre, like your style.
Thing about LIS, I think the words in this very song are almost negligible. It's one of those tunes where the lyrix are part of the beat and the music groove. The more nonsense and pedantic thoughts, the better.
I totally agree with what you say about VL in general. The mindless obsession to rhyme. True that.
On the other hand (eg Dirty Work) I have noticed some songs where one can sense that Jagger is making a point, almost too strongly, to NOT rhyme. Or to go outside the meter.
What about Jagger's glam-era lyrics?
IORR, and Black and Blue? No one does it better. Fingerprint File, Luxury, Dance Lil Sister ( the 'real' Jiving Sister Fanny), If you can't rock me, Memory Motel!!!, Hand of Fate (great story). Black and Blue has some awesome lyrics.

I just remembered I had the IORR songbook, too.
Short and Curlies went
"she's got you by the boards."
Hey, I was 12 or 13 years old at the time.
I thought that's what they were saying.
"It's in the music book! See?"
Turns out that when I got older,
I could see what they were really talking about.

Well I'd vote for the lyrics on "Dead flowers" as one of the best lyricsheets Mick come up with, it's poetry oc rock and roll!

HJofSweden

Please take the favors I grant
Curtsy and look nonchalant, just for me

She shivers, by the light she is hidden
She flickers like a lamp lady vision

It read, "Darlin', I'm sorry to hurt you.
But I have no courage to speak to your face.
But I'm down in Virginia with your cousin Lou
There be no wedding today."

ROCKMAN

LOL I had that songbook too about the "boards". I could for the life of me not figure out what the thing about the boards was.

I've been thinking about this thread and I think that "Sympathy For The Devil " may be Jaggers crowning work so far. Any thoughts? I mean it's WAYYYYYY beyond the typical rock 'n' roll lyric, it's historical in content, and, the subject matter itself was considered VERY risque for it's day. I mean only those "dirty", "nasty" Rolling Stones would sing about having Sympathy for the Devil, honey grab the kids and lets get out of here!

I ain't stupid, I'm just guitarded.

Good.
Not that it does matter; the implications of Sympathy is far beyond lyric-talk. I´m sure Mick (a) regrets his devil-flirting period circa 1968-69, (b) Laughing all the way to the bank for the 37th year in a row.

Heres some gems (my list, valid only today) :

1. Gimme Shelter
2. Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)
3. Sister Morphine *
4. Paint It Black
5. Wild Horses **
6. Dead Flowers (I could go on with some 50 more, but I doubt anyone
would care to read it & I got stuff to do)
7. Bitter Sweet Symphony ***
8. Dandelion
9. 2, 000 Light Years From Home (written at Brixton Prison, the myth says)
10. Blue Turns To Grey

* Often judged as Mariannes´ lyrics; probably ol´ Mick had his hands on it.
** A mythology exits around the creation of this. Too complicated for the space.
*** Don´t know how much of this lyrics that comes from Jagger. Officially
the Verve

And, accordingly to my discussion above on lyrics+melody/harmony/music=
Huge Unity (mainly poetically judged)

1. Shine A Light
2. Jivin Sister Fanny
3. She´s A Rainbow
4. Get Off My Cloud
5. Heart Of Stone
6. Tops
7. Lovin Cup
8. Neighbors
9. Satisfaction
10.You Cant Always Get What You Want

Mick is a terrific lyricist. Why he hasn't get recognized is maybe cause he is better when he's cynical than writing about love and feelings.

Well, being a history fan, my all-time favorite MJ lyrics are those in "Sympathy For The Devil"--I used one line as a signature on a wargaming forum: "I rode a tank, held a general's rank, when the blitzkrieg raged, and the bodies stank".

It isn't Shakespeare (or even Dylan), but the man does have a way with words, as does Keith. Some folks are turned off when a rock star expresses some knowledge of anything resembling intellectualism or emotional depth (see Sting or Brian Wilson ), but I can appreciate the songwriters' attempts to get beyond cars & girls--others just don't want to know.

Bass; As you can see on my first list I also prefer the kind of songs
that has at least some meaning within them.
...But I gets the shiver when I sense the Satanism of late 60´s
& associations to the dressing-up in Nazi uniforms etc by Brian & Keef pop-up.
I once heard a speech by a satanist at a University Students "Frat"
& that scared the sh*t off me (mostly because what he said were too similar to what average politician use to say).
But - anyway - I understand why you & many more do like Sympathy.