top song lyrics of all time according to a website

[Theglasshouse]

https://www.thetoptens.com/songs/

I imagine there will be many agreements and disagreements with this list. What do you agree with it for starters?
1) Bohemian rhapsody
2) stairway to heaven
3) imagine
4) smells like teen spirit
5) one (metallica)
6) hotel california
7) comfortably numb
8 ) hey jude
9) sweet child of mine
10) lose yourself

What songs did you discover if any that you might have not perusing this list if you did a search?
If you are so inclined make your own small list. Not surprisingly I like hotel California, imagine, and hey Jude.

I thought this was a fun exercise and is a regular staple on the topics on music boards I think.

[Irwin]

I don't think I'd include any of those songs in my top 10. I mean, Metallica? Give me a break. And how could Bob Dylan or Leonard Cohen not be in the list?

I'll try to come up with my top 10 later today.

[mrmustard615]

Well, I'll include Bob Dylan in mine


In chronological order, this is what I came up with.


In My Room- The Beach Boys (This is poignant as it charted at about the same time of the Kennedy assassination)
Subterranean Homesick Blues- Bob Dylan (Arguably Dylan's best and certainly among his most abstract)
I Ain't Marchin Anymore- Phil Ochs (A strong anti-war anthem that questions our violent nature.)
Waitin For the Man- Velvet Underground (Lou Reed's gritty description of a drug deal essentially.)
Imagine- John Lennon (I'm with Glasshouse on this one. Lennon's vision of Utopia.)
Living For the City- Stevie Wonder (Wonder's brilliant take on the difficulties of ghetto life)
Dancing Barefoot- Patti Smith ( A poet by trade, this may be the best of Patti Smith's many great essays)
Everybody Hurts- REM ( A simple song about hope essentially)
Karma Police- Radiohead ( Thom Yorke's somewhat bitter diatribe- This is what you get... )
Do You Realize- Flaming Lips (This may be my favorite of the ten lyrics wise. One of those truly soul searching tunes)


And that's Musty's top ten- for the moment

[Theglasshouse]

I do like to listen to lists of songs that are considered to have the best lyrics. I did this a while ago and discovered some music this way. Waterloo sunset for example of the kinks is such a song. Procol harum's most well known song is frequently listed in the top 50 song lyrics of all time for the song A Whiter Shade of Pale. But there's a curious fact which is it's really a poem that was written many years ago. That was written by some obscure poet. Thanks Mustard for giving your own version of what you considered the best of the list you created. I will listen to every song posted in this thread that I don't know.

[escorial]

I bought a cd with Elizabethan singing music because I wanted to expand my musical taste but really it was just being to Arty farty because it was crap...but so many love it but it never appears on any lists...

[KenTR]

Oh, internet.....so eager to please without putting forth the slightest bit of effort.

They're all great songs, though. The only one I might agree with is "Imagine", but then again I'm largely unfamiliar with Mr. Lennon's body of work.

But "Comfortably Numb"? No way. Decide for yourself:

Comfortably Numb by Roger Waters
Hello? Is there anybody in there?
Just nod if you can hear me
Is there anyone at home?
Come on now
I hear you're feeling down
Well I can ease your pain
Get you on your feet again
Relax
I'll need some information first
Just the basic facts
Can you show me where it hurts?

There is no pain you are receding
A distant ship smoke on the horizon
You are only coming through in waves
Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying
When I was a child I had a fever
My hands felt just like two balloons
Now I've got that feeling once again
I can't explain you would not understand
This is not how I am
I have become comfortably numb

Okay
Just a little pinprick
There'll be no more, ah
But you may feel a little sick
Can you stand up?
I do believe it's working, good
That'll keep you going through the show
Come on it's time to go

There is no pain you are receding
A distant ship, smoke on the horizon
You are only coming through in waves
Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying
When I was a child
I caught a fleeting glimpse
Out of the corner of my eye
I turned to look but it was gone
I cannot put my finger on it now
The child is grown
The dream is gone
I have become comfortably numb

Wish You Were Here by Roger Waters

So, so you think you can tell
Heaven from hell
Blue skies from pain
Can you tell a green field
From a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?
Did they get you to trade
Your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
Did you exchange
A walk on part in the war
For a lead role in a cage?

How I wish, how I wish you were here
We're just two lost souls
Swimming in a fish bowl
Year after year
Running over the same old ground
And how we found
The same old fears
Wish you were here

[ArrowInTheBowOfTheLord]

I can say with certainty that none of those would make my top ten ... but I also recognize there's a subjective aspect here. Still, Smells Like Teen Spirit? I mean, I like the song, but there's nothing particularly special about the lyrics. Also, unpopular opinion: Imagine's lyrics are vapid and lame.

some of my [current] favorites (in terms of the impact on me, personally, not by some kind of objective standard. in no particular order):

- Ancient Enemy of Death - A Hill to Die Upon
- Someone to Hate - Demon Hunter (hilariously 'cause the song itself is not that great)
- O Come O Come Immanuel
- Monolith - Drottnar
- The Future - Leonard Cohen
- Great is Artemis of the Ephesians - A Hill to Die Upon
- How Many Times? - Barry McGuire
- You've Heard His Voice - Barry McGuire
- the ENTIRE Holy Despair album (A Hill to Die Upon), but especially A Jester Arrayed in Burning Gold and Nekyia
- Awesome God - Rich Mullins (unironically--"When he rolls up his sleeves, he ain't just puttin' on the ritz"--lol but also dorkily cool)

also gotta mention Heka Primus and Darkness That Can be Felt, also by A Hill to Die Upon ...noticing a theme here?

[ArrowInTheBowOfTheLord]

And how could...Leonard Cohen not be in the list?

I know, right? By the Rivers Dark, The Future, Dance Me to the End of Love ...

[Sycamore]

First of all, I gotta complain a bit about that pathetic top ten list. The lyrics to Bohemian Rhapsody are so general, anyone could attach their own meaning to it; the same thing is going on with Hey Jude. The opening line is enough to leave me utterly confused-- "Hey Jude, don't make it bad; take a sad song and make it better." Uh, what? I'm not even gonna touch on One, that's just ridiculous. The only lyrically coherent song on this list is Sweet Child O' Mine, but it's not genius at all. . . not even close.
As for my own list, I really don't know. The best lyricist I know is probably Leonard Cohen, next David Allan Coe. I guess I can scrounge up a list with what I have.
1.) Ode to Billie Joe- Bobbie Gentry
2.) Anthem- Leonard Cohen
3.) Field of Stone- David Allan Coe
4.) Precious Angel- Bob Dylan
5.) Surf's Up- The Beach Boys
6.)The Master's Call- Marty Robbins
7.) Something's Coming- Leonard Bernstein

Uh, yeah, that's all I got on the fly. (I don't care if musicals don't count).

[TL Murphy]

1. Sounds of Silence - Simon and Garfunkel
2. Fire and Rain - James Taylor
3. Here Comes the Son - George Harrison
4. Blowin in the Wind - Bob Dylan
5. All Along the Watchtower - Jimi Hendrix
6. Me and Bobbi McGee - Janis Joplin
7 Rambling On - Led Zepplin
8 Hallelujah - Leonard Cohen
9 Into the Mystic - Van Morrision
10 Riders on the Storm - The Doors