Songwriters who are great with melodies but not so good with lyrics

I think I'm following, but some examples would help - none of the Guess Who lyrics I can think of fit this description.

 

Steve Miller

“Billy Mack is a detective down in Texas,
You know he knows just exactly what the facts is,
He ain’t gonna let those two escape justice,
He makes his livin’ off of the people’s taxes.”

 

Not so sure I'd say Miller was great with melodies either.

 

I recall spending a lot of time checking in with the Yahoo Group dedicated to the band before Burton showed up, and there were constant helpful translations of his iconography, from Don the Emperor to Old Mark Mars to Kathy-was-a-man to Garry living with Rosie (hint: not a woman...); it's just that Cummings put a lot of oddball references into his non-single-bound "filler" songs that seemed to be more about entertaining close friends than telling coherent stories to people who weren't in the know.

 

Neil Diamond, at times.

 

Klaatu

 

Bruce Hornsby

 

I wasn't aware that he wrote any lyrics.

 

paul mccartney is far and away number one.

just listen to the 5+ minutes of 'let em in'.

 

Try Into White !! Trouble ,his part of Morning has broken ...no you couldn't write that

 

Maybe but. then again, no....

 

The Gibb Brothers. Particularly pre-disco era, their genuinely good lyrics are outnumbered by reams of incomprehensible pseudo-psychedelic GIBBerish, some of which is great. though largely by accident.

 

That's sheer poetry compared to :
" One two three four five / let's go for a drive.. "

 

Probably Dean Ween. Gene's a fantastic lyricist and makes some good melodies, but man Deaner's lyrics are almost especially dumb, even for Ween standards. Dean's got some fantastic melodies too, just kinda junk lyrics.

"In the rain and snow when it's 20 below
For the exercise man
He'll ride that stupid bike as far as he can
He's the exercise man

He's got sponsors on the jersey he wears on his back
He'll die at 57 of a heart attack
But he'll ride that ****in’ bike as far as he can
He's the exercise man"

very quick edit: to give him some credit, he's not primarily a song writer, but he wrote at the very least 3 albums worth of songs

 

Right.
“Penny Lane”, “You Never Give Me Your Money”, “Fixing a Hole”.....etc. etc.....
.....very lazy......


(sarcasm)

 

Most hilarious thing I read today

 

No offense but you’re out of your mind.



I nominate Jim James of My Morning Jacket, a band I otherwise absolutely love.

 

Roger Taylor from Queen, though in The Cross, his much ignored side project band, the melodies were dismal too.

 

I'm a big fan of the 60s Bee Gees and you couldn't be more right!

 

I actually love how concise of a story song that is. He tells a story in under three minutes.

 

Jon Anderson is one of my favorites ,yet his lyrics make some cringe ,and they totally lose out on some of best Rock ever produced

how many guys that write good Lyrics and can't play and can't sing to boot

 

The first thing I thought of when I read this was Albert Flasher. I always thought it was a fun song with goofy lyrics, but when you think about it, wth was he talking about anyway?

 

My friends and I used to have this inside running joke. Whenever a new Yes album came out we would say OK, will “Sharp Distance” be in the lyrics this time? He did use it 2 or 3 times...

 

Chris Martin. Coldplay have great melody but his lyrics fell off a cliff after the second album.

Noel Gallagher. Has the odd decent lyrical twist, but too many ‘shines’ for my liking. He has a great ear for a melody though, one of the best since McCartney in my opinion.

 

Macca wins thread.