Quote:
Originally Posted by Janszoon
I have to say, I’ve never understood why Dylan’s lyrics get so much praise. I’m not saying they’re bad necessarily, but I’ve never heard anything by him that I thought was very impressive. I’m with you Leonard Cohen though.
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Yep, Cohen has some great lyrics - very carefully worked out of course. You've probably heard the story about how Bob and Leonard once compared notes about lyric writing: Leonard, sometimes two or three months: Bob, sometimes two or three hours.
Perhaps Dylan's reputation rests on not just what he wrote, but when: he gets bonus points for innovation at various stages of his songwriting life. Some highlights to me:-
Blowin' In The Wind: very effective use of questions and simple images to make us wonder about life, maturity, freedom etc.
Like A Rolling Stone: a jarring outburst of spite of a kind not really heard before afaik
Blood On The Tracks: an album-full of story songs, packed with drama, but with charming little details worked into the fabric of the songs too:
"She was thinking about her father, whom she very rarely saw" and a line that Cohen might have liked,
"I kissed goodbye to the howling beast on the borderline that separated you from me."
Well, that's just a couple of examples - as you might have seen, I have a whole book-full !