Lindsey's best lyrics?

[wondergirl9847]

Does SYW showcase his best lyrics yet? I mean, if you read over all the lyrics to his songs on SYW, they are PHENOMINAL!! Of course, like Carne says, there is beauty in simplicity (ala Family Man), but when he writes things like "Saw your face yesterday, thinkin' on the days of old, and the price that we paid, for a love we couldn't hold" or "All the saints and sinners, they pay handsomely, MSCAE, they make the weapons and they run the prisons and they sell the justice, cuz, cuz bein' guilty is just good business.." to quote a couple, it makes you go "WOAH, he's writing something STRONG here!!" I mean, GYOW is a CLASSIC song, and it's powerful lyrically, but this group of songs KNOCK you OUT!!

Red Rover's lyrics just absolutely KILL ME too!! There's SOOO many different interps on this song, so many facets to it...it is EXQUISITE!!

[Cristian]

I can quite safely say that Say You Will does feature some of Lindsey's best lyrics ever. "Red Rover", "Murrow", "Say Goodbye", "Peacekeeper"... we are talking about great songwriting going on there.


Song of the moment - Wish You Were Here

[jeffles]

I think its pretty fair to say that this is his best batch of lyrics on any album.
I never really cared for his lyrics as much as the actual playing. I just didn't think he was a great lyricst, or even cared much about lyrics, and I don't think its a case of being a mimimalist. I've always viewed his lyrics as sketches.
His lyrics started to get more introspective on Out Of The Cradle, and continues on Say You Will.

[LindseyChick]

Anything prior to OOTC, which would include every Mac album he played on, "Fleetwood Mac" and "Rumours", he wrote some great songs, things people still want to hear. "Tusk", every Lindsey song on that album is angry, I think, and the anger is directed, and that's okay. 'scuse the pun..."I don't mind..." "Mirage" and "Tango..." I never really cared for "Empire State" or "Family Man" or that like. I think he and the whole band were busy doing other things during that period and his songwriting suffered because of that. The song "Tango in the Night", however, was a beginning. the words that grabbed me.. "try to sleep, sleep won't come..just as I begin to fade, then I remember..." WOW, who hasn't been there? He was no longer writing "Empire State" or "Not that Funny". He was WRITING.

OOTC, it's a crying shame in that it's only us that have heard it.
The OOTC album, though it sold supposedly few copies, is pefect and insightive and inspired. I've often wished I could get more people to listen to it, but then I'm reminded that really it's only us, his fans, that would appreciate it.

SYW, please tell me they're not singing to and about each other. Beyond that, "Murrow.." and "PK" and "What's the World Coming To?" Better than any other album as far as Lindsey's lyrical contributions. "Come", I think, is the best song on the album...him screaming, "nobody else is doin' it.." but when he talks about putting God away, that "she's" been here a while...well, what who is SHE? Then, that he's slept in an enemy bed.... is it just me, or is the enemy pretty obvious?

I got side tracked there. SYW is Lindsey's best Mac album. He's always been the one to shape every song. I read that someone (from like "Alice in Chains") said that while he was never flashy, he always played the exact right thing. And again on SYW, he always plays the "exact right thing". And the bonus here is that a lot of the songs are his.

God, I love him. I've been dragged into this obsession again. He is my boy.

Peace and love,
Sharon

Originally posted by jeffles
I think its pretty fair to say that this is his best batch of lyrics on any album.
I never really cared for his lyrics as much as the actual playing. I just didn't think he was a great lyricst, or even cared much about lyrics, and I don't think its a case of being a mimimalist. I've always viewed his lyrics as sketches.
His lyrics started to get more introspective on Out Of The Cradle, and continues on Say You Will.

[seteca]

Originally posted by Sharon L
"Come", I think, is the best song on the album...him screaming, "nobody else is doin' it.." but when he talks about putting God away, that "she's" been here a while...well, what who is SHE? Then, that he's slept in an enemy bed.... is it just me, or is the enemy pretty obvious?

I totally agree, "Come" is definitely the best song on the album, and after hearing (yet to see though!) it live, it's become one of my fav. LB songs ever. The lyrics, despite their appearance at first glance, are truly amazing: a song about the continuously conflicting, sometimes benevolent, sometimes malevolent, thoughts that run through a guy's head after a break up. Ingeniously done by panning the vocal tracks from left to right to center, to represent different voices/thoughts.....amazing stuff!

[cliffdweller]

Even though Lindsey's lyrics on Tusk are "angry" they are still beautiful, take for instance, "Save me a Place" or "I Know I'm Not Wrong" I love those songs, his lyrics are simple yet really bittersweet and poignant. On SYW, I just love TSYHA,-- more of the poignant and bittersweet variety. But for lyrical complexity I would have to say that Murrow is a very astute song. Lindsey's sense of metaphors in the songs on SYW are excellent, what a songwriter he's evolved into!

[jeffles]

It was Jerry Cantrell, the guitar player from Alice in Chains, who made that comment. He has always said one of his biggest influences was LB, mostly for that reason-about being not flashy and playing what needs to be played.
Interesting enough, there are plenty of moments on SYW where LB is flashy and plays excessive guitar solos--but that could also be partly to make up for the loss of CM.
His lyrics, which, to me, have always seemed to be his weakness, have gotten much better. Lyrically, I wouldn't put him up there with Springsteen or Jackson Browne, but he's certainly had more to say than in his early work.

[CarneVaca]

Save me a Place is the epitome of beauty in simplicity. I've said it before, and some folks thought I was crazy, but I'll repeat it: I'll put that song up against any of Stevie's best work from the early days.

[macmar71]

Shadow of the West
Surrender The Rain
Save Me A Place
Say GoodBye
Soul Drifter


I just noticed I seem to love the lyrics to his songs that all begin with the letter S.
Maybe because when he sings words with an S, he has that sexy hiss in his voice

[Cammie]

~~~~Christa~~~~

We are in complete agreement...Lindsey
does do something Sexy with his S's!
Your list is just right!I like his hiss too!Sky

[strandinthewind]

I would put the lyrics of "Say Goodbye" at the top for this record and perhaps for all LB's stuff. Sheer beauty to me. It is also quite powerful live as it is slower and they face each other while singing most of the song. I am also pretty sure LB hads tears in the Atlanta show at the end of it. I did.

I also like "Miranda" but the lyrics are not as accessible as the former because they seem to be written about one person. However and in my opinion, I can read the lyrics of "Miranda" to apply to many things not necessarily related to the perhaps fictional Miranda. For example, I often feel like taking the stars down to have little something to call my own - in other words, I want to take something beautiful and/or seemingly eternal like a star and have it for myself even if just for a little while. Even if that is not what he is talking about, it still works for me; that is one of the great things about this song. I also love that LB waxed romantic and perhaps dangerously in Stevie level romanticism in this song.

The chorus of Murrow and Red Rover are just brilliant.

Finally, even with the grammatical error of "Pretending that she don't miss me," I love "Bleed to Love Her."

All in all, I think LB is perhaps at his all time best in Say You Will.