10 poetic songs that stand alone
The worlds of poetry and music are so close that they often fall into orbit to bring the very best out of both. Beyond “la, la, la’s,” interminable refrains and repeated choruses, lyrics can often be read as stand-alone poetic expressions. In the days before pop writing and the literary distortion of the Beat Generation, poetry and music would invariably introduce a tangible narrative deeply imbued with imagery, double entendres and metaphors.
Indeed, at school, we’re taught that orthodox poems should contain rhymes, alliteration and a pretentious degree of romantic allusion. However, the 20th century brought changes to both music and literature that blurred the lines of convention. Principally, Beat writers like Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs revolutionised poetry and directly influenced many songwriters from the rock ‘n’ roll explosion and beyond.
The former became a close friend of Bob Dylan’s in the mid-1960s and deeply impacted his approach to songwriting. Concurrently, Dylan inspired Ginsberg to sing some of his poetic arrangements. Elsewhere, Burroughs popularised the famous “cut-up technique,” which injected poetry and songwriting with a new level of opaque appeal. This avant-garde approach has been famously employed by The Beatles, David Bowie, Thom Yorke and Kurt Cobain, among many other top-flight entertainers, since its proliferation in 1950s literature.
In celebration of the UNESCO World Poetry Day, below is a selection of the greatest literary offerings in music.
10 poetic songs that stand alone:
The Velvet Underground – ‘The Gift’
Following their 1967 debut LP, The Velvet Underground & Nico, the Velvets opted to mix things up a little. Having shaken off Andy Warhol and Nico, Lou Reed and John Cale led the band towards an even less radio-friendly sound.
The 1968 follow-up, White Light/White Heat, was home to very few songs people would describe as pop, with the 17-minute’ Sister Ray’ and John Cale’s strange narration, ‘The Gift’, woven into proceedings. Below, you can hear ‘The Gift’, a comically morbid short story Reed wrote for a creative writing class, without the instrumentals. It certainly stands alone.
Leonard Cohen – ‘Famous Blue Raincoat’
Alongside Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen was undoubtedly one of the most talented wordsmiths of 20th-century music. Before the Canadian set his mind on a musical career in New York City, he had pursued the notoriously difficult career path of poetry. Cohen was recognised for his talent as a student and won the Chester MacNaghten Literary Competition for his poetry entry in 1951.
After having several poetry books published through his 20s, Cohen decided he needed the vehicle of music for his words to permeate beyond the borders of Canada. Of all Cohen’s marvellous albums, 1971’s Songs of Love and Hate marks his pinnacle musically and poetically, and ‘Famous Blue Raincoat’ surely contains some of the greatest lyrics ever heard. Musically, it’s a gem, but written in letter style, the immersive plot stands alone.
Bob Dylan – ‘Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts’
In 2016, Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his unrivalled lyrical contributions to music. This award is a testament to the intensely poetic songwriting style Dylan wields. While most of Dylan’s work could have ended up on this list, this nine-minute epic from 1975’s Blood On The Tracks had a particularly memorable and absorbing narrative.
The song seems to centre around the Jack of Hearts, a charming robber who seduces two women, Lily and Rosemary, both of whom are romantically attached to Big Jim, the wealthiest, greediest man in town. Big Jim is ultimately murdered by Rosemary, who is then hung for her crime. Meanwhile, the Jack of Hearts escapes into the night, having accomplished his robbery, leaving poor Lily alone to ponder the events that have taken place. Dylan has never disclosed anything further about the meaning of the chaotic story, instead leaving it up for speculation, as any true artist should.
Pulp – ‘Common People’
After struggling to garner much attention throughout the 1980s, Sheffield’s Pulp broke out with a run of coherent pop-rock hits in the ’90s. Joining the Britpop fray, the frontman Jarvis Cocker revealed his unique lyrical genius centred on clear narrative, humour and sociopolitical observation.
Many of Cocker’s creations could have appeared on this list, but ‘Common People’, Pulp’s biggest hit from their 1995 masterpiece Different Class, reads particularly well. The lyrics begin, “She came from Greece she had a thirst for knowledge / She studied sculpture at Saint Martin’s College”. Cocker then rips into the story of a woman who tries in vain to “live like common people.”
Joni Mitchell – ‘River’
Joni Mitchell surfaced as one of the greatest singer-songwriters in North America during the late ’60s and early ’70s. After achieving success besides the likes of Bob Dylan and Joan Baez at the Newport Folk Festival, Mitchell launched a highly successful solo recording career. An early peak came in 1971 with Blue, her fourth studio LP and home to her classic anti-Christmas hit, ‘River’.
Following the breakup of her two-year relationship with fellow musician Graham Nash, Mitchell left North America for Crete (skating away on a river to “quit this crazy scene”). The lyrics expose feelings of regret and self-loathing as she explains: “I’m so hard to handle, I’m selfish, and I’m sad, now I’ve gone and lost the best baby that I ever had”. Whether listened to or read, the lyrics carry barrow-loads of emotion to unpack.
Joy Division – ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’
The early punk scene was known for its simple, punchy and often politically conscious lyrics, but as the sound developed into post-punk in the late ’70s, proceedings became increasingly poetic. Though Patti Smith and John Cooper Clarke are more commonly associated with the title, Ian Curtis and Howard Devoto were also cut from the punk-poet cloth.
Before his tragic suicide in 1980, Curtis contributed some of the most poetic lyrical musings to the burgeoning Manchester punk scene. Joy Division’s most famous single, ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ reads particularly well as a stand-alone poem, reflecting the writer’s personal struggle with his wife, Deborah Curtis.
Neil Young – ‘On The Beach’
Throughout his illustrious career, Neil Young has impressively mastered the realms of folk, country, blues, and rock and even pioneered the sound of grunge. In 1972, Young achieved widespread acclaim with his country/folk album Harvest. Over the next two years, he released a live album and a film score before returning to the studio for a follow-up for his solo canon.
What materialised in these sessions was a more blues-centric collection of folk tracks. One of its proudest moments was ‘On The Beach’, a song boasting powerful and memorable lyrics that reflected Young’s struggle with fame and anxiety. “The world is turnin’ I hope it don’t turn away/ I need a crowd of people/ But I can’t face them day to day,” Young sings between the first and second verses.
Magazine – ‘A Song From Under The Floorboards’
“I am angry, I am ill and I’m as ugly as sin / My irritability keeps me alive and kicking / I know the meaning of life, it doesn’t help me a bit / I know beauty and I know a good thing when I see it”. These lines are perhaps some of the strongest to ever introduce a rock track: they’re unsettling, comical and enticing.
‘A Song From Under The Floorboards’ arrived in 1980 on Magazine’s third studio album, The Correct Use of Soap and marked the peak of Howard Devoto’s lyrical genius. After taking the opening line from Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel Notes From The Underground, Devoto brings intense anxiety and obscurity to a fine platter of words.
David Bowie – ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide’
The shape-shifting Starman explored a range of musical styles throughout his career, which demanded varying lyrical styles. For this reason, I could have chosen a whole host of Bowie songs for this list. However, some of his greatest narrative lyric-writing came in 1972 with the glam masterpiece, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.
Frankly, I wanted to include most of the album in this entry since it’s a concept album, but the album’s book-ending tracks, ‘Five Years’, and ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide’ read best without their music. I ultimately side with the latter because, though it’s two minutes shorter, it’s lyrically more memorable and poignant. The opening line, “Time takes a cigarette, puts it in your mouth,” says it all.
John Cooper Clarke – ‘I Wanna Be Yours’
As a performance poet – or “punk-poet,” as he’s more commonly known – it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to discover that John Cooper Clarke values words above all else. For this Salford-born lyricist, music is secondary. Naturally, Clarke’s written verse always reads well without music, but that doesn’t stop him from giving the fans what they want. He can often be seen on stage reading from sheaves of paper while his backing band play.
Over the past 45 years, Clarke has racked up quite the portfolio, but his 1982 poem, ‘I Wanna Be Yours’, stands out among his defining work. Alex Turner has frequently spoken of Clarke’s vital influence on the Arctic Monkeys. In 2013, Turner adapted ‘I Wanna Be Yours’ for the lyrics of the AM song of the same name, bringing the Salford wordsmith’s genius to a wider audience.
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