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Oh, Lord, here we go again. Once again the comedy that is the MTV corporation have distilled decades of popular mainstream music into some sort of allegedly all-encompassing list of the best things ever. This time it's lyrical passages - not complete songs, but just snippets. Naturally, with the nature of a snippet, it loses most of its context. And, of course, with it being backed by VH1, it also will focus on lyrics that are from major label, mainstream songs exclusively.

I can riff on the idiocy of "top x" lists more if you want, but I'd prefer to just post the ones I have. Haven't found a list of all 100 (with lyrics) yet, but feel free to post one if you do. Or submit songs that have great lyrical passages but never would have made the VH1 list.

The top 10 lyrics:
1 One "One life, with each other, sisters, brothers"
U2

2 How Soon Is Now "So you go, and you stand on your own, and you leave on your own, and you go home, and you cry, and you want to die"
The Smiths

3 Smells Like Teen Spirit "I feel stupid and contagious, here we are now, entertain us"
Nirvana

4 Redemption Song "Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds, have no fear for atomic energy, cause none of them can stop the time"
Bob Marley

5 Yellow "Look at the stars, look how they shine for you"
Coldplay

6 Lose Yourself "Look, if you had one shot or one opportunity, to seize everything you ever wanted, one moment, would you capture it or just let it slip?"
Eminem

7 Angels "And through it all she offers me protection, a lot of love and affection, whether I'm right or wrong"
Robbie Williams

8 My Generation "Hope I die before I get old"
The Who

9 Creep "I'm a creep, I'm a weirdo, what the hell am I doing here? I don't belong here"
Radiohead

10 What's Going On "Father, father, we don't need to escalate, you see, war is not the answer, for only love can conquer hate"
Marvin Gaye

Or find the top 100 without lyrics.

I love both U2 and Coldplay, and have for years. But neither of those two songs should be in the top 5. I'd swap "What's Going On" for either of those two in a heartbeat. And giving Robbie Williams anything? What was this poll of, 14 year old British girls?

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

There are some excellent artists represented there, but I think the only songs on that top ten that I'd even consider for the top ten are are Redemption Song (Bob Marley is just too good at songwriting), and maybe Eminem for an obligatory hip-hop song, as Lose Yourself has some pretty good words to it. Still, putting an Eminem song in the top ten of such a list is an extreme reach.

But yeah, I am of the opinion that Bob Marley, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, and Prince are the four greatest lyricist of all time. Mostly mainstream, I know, but still - the fact that those last two are nowhere in the top 100 is a travesty.

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this is a blog mostly about comics and videogames
END SPOILER

I think I want to hang myself after reading this, I mean...
Smells Like Teen Spirit? Ummmm k, no thanks. Even Nirvana had much better lyrics than that. That's just way too out of hand. Basically, they're just trying to appeal to a bunch of artists' fanbases and trick them into more t.v. view time/publicity.

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Okay, but there was a goat!

Well, the fact that sympathy for the devil isn't in the top ten and The Who's lick was beat out by Coldplay (!?) pretty much invalidates this even with the mainstream pipe they took. But I rarely listen to rock music for the lyrics anyway.

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Arts

Farts

Twarts

I think they should also consider non-commercial bands and singers as well. (Yes, I'm talking about Dream Theater, but not only them.) There are some lyrics that are true masterpieces.

I'd like to post a Dream Theater lyrics here, but I'm not sure that's what Rangers51 wants The song's called "Disappear" (it's in the album "Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence - Disc One"), so if you can listen it, I recommend it.

This post has been edited by Artiles on 21st April 2006 17:14

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"But he's the sort of man who can't know anyone intimately, least of all a woman. He doesn't know what a woman is. He wants you for a possesion, something to look at, like a painting or an ivory box. He doesn't want you to be real, or to think or to live. He doesn't love you..."

Alejandro Artiles
AKA The Death Knight

Hey, I'm an ardent US Robbie Williams fanboy. Lots of his songs have powerful meaning

But seriously, though Angels is one of his more popular songs, that snippet doesn't deserve top ten status. In the list, yes, but not top ten. I can think of a couple off the top of my head that are more appealing than that:

from 'Let Love Be Your Energy"
"Why don't you love your brother? Are you out of your mind?"

from 'Phoenix from the Flames'
"Only you can see the darkness in the Northern Lights."

Here's a list of songs that should've made it.

White Summer, Green Bicycle, Red Hair, and Black Guitar
"It was innocence, I only tried to stretch the season a little longer, white summer and green bicycle, red hair and black guitar."

Sono Mirai wa Ima
"I opened my eyes and I knew that dream. That future is now."

Little Busters
"Just waiting for the Little Busters, oh yeah..."

Hybrid Rainbow
"Can you feel that hybrid rainbow?"

Carnival
"When I opened my eyes, the night wind pierced so sharply it hurt. We kissed and fell to pieces laughing"

TRIP DANCER
"A sky like the sea upside-down, even if I drown while wearing my raincoat"

-the pillows

the pillows FTW. The list could really go on for pages, I definitely left out some good ones for time's sake.

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I find your lack of faith disturbing...

I've been tuning into this occasionally, and I've gotta say, like all the top 10/50/100's that MTV oh-so-frequently churns out, it's pretty awful, and extremely predictable. I mean, really, you could replace 'top 100 lyrics' with top 100 anything, and the songs and artists mentioned would still make for passable, typical VH1 programming. There are some little gems on that list (nice to see Robert Wyatt get a mention), I'll admit, and some genuinely good lyrics, but the sheer amount of crap on there completely overrides all that.
I understand that as it's voted for by VH1 viewers that it's going to rely heavily on the sort of anthemic lyrics that everybody knows, but even amongst such lyrics, there are far better things than Smells Like Teen Spirit. In all honesty, I don't think the majority of voters paid attention to what the list was actually about, neglecting to mention even The Doors in favour of bands like Arctic Monkeys - what the hell is that about?
I'd also like to express how outraged I am that Missy Eliott's 'Get Ur Freak On' and Kylie Minogue's 'I Should Be So Lucky' even make that list, let alone rank higher than admittedly predictable but far superior Beatles and Elvis lyrics.

I'm glad the majority of the artists represented were legitimate lyricists, and this is one of the more interesting "Top ___" lists to come along in awhile. But, like usual, there is some gross exaggerations, like putting a bunch of Eminem, Arctic Monkeys, Outkast, Scissor Sisters. Fifty Cent even made it on there, for god sake. Not as much of a travesty since it's pretty dang good, but it's just odd that the list would be offset with some dumb interjections like those (and not because of the genre -- they're just not as good as their peers, IMO).

I was happy that "No Surprises" made it on there, though, as that's my absolute favorite Radiohead song ever. Number ninety-seven ain't so bad if you're in the top hundred ever.

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It's gonna be a glorious day
I feel my luck can change

I have never ever ever taken any Top-x countdown seriously, and that especially goes into this one. How could they have possibly heard every lyric ever recorded? I take this list with a grain of salt- no, with a whole heaping bag of salt.

And yet, even at that, I am still shocked and apalled at the lack of Led Zeppelin. Ridiculous.

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"When I turn the page
The corner bends into the perfect dog ear
As if the words knew I'd need them again
But at the time, I didn't see it."

~"This Ain't a Surfin' Movie" - Minus the Bear

Wow, this is very disapointing. "I feel stupid and contagious, here we are now, entertain us" is not that good a lyric at all, and to have it at #3 all time is clearly just trying to appeal to the fanbase. Lame, very lame.


"I've got 99 problems but a b*tch ain't one"? Are you kidding me? And then you see Outkast, and they've had so many good lyrics, and yet it's their most pointless crap song ever "Hey ya". DF hit it right on the head. They just picked popular groups/songs from each genre and randomly threw them in a top 100 list.

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The clouds ran away, opened up the sky
And one by one I watched every constellation die
And there I was frozen, standing in my backyard
Face to face, eye to eye, staring at the last star
I should've known, walked all the way home
To find that she wasn't here, I'm still all alone

-Atmosphere "Always Coming Back Home to You"

I’m sure there are tons of mistakes on this list, as is to be expected with a VH1 top whatever list (the VH1 top 50 hip-hop artists included MC Hammer and Coolio, while omitting Common and Pharcyde.) But, still, there are some pretty bad choices on here from the hip-hop end of things, that I’m going to spend a lot more time analyzing than this list deserves.

Eminem- Lose Yourself. This is one of the few I have no problem with. I have mixed feelings about Eminem overall, but when he’s rhyming without trying to say stuff just for shock value, he’s one of the best lyricists out there, and Lose Yourself is one of those songs.

Tupac- California Love. If we’re rating songs for profound, intelligent lyrics, Tupac should be all over this list, but not for California Love. Easily one of the most radio-friendly, non-introspective songs Tupac made, it just reaffirms how much this list was influenced by Billboard charts. I wonder what lyric they picked?
“Out on bail fresh out of jail, California dreamin
Soon as I step on the scene, I'm hearin hoochies screamin”
That’s pretty much the sentiments of the whole song. How about
“Don't wanna make excuses, cause this is how it is
What's the use unless we're shootin no one notices the youth”- Me Against the World

Eminem- Stan. Again, probably a good choice. I’m glad they chose these two and not, say, The Real Slim Shady.

Jay-Z- 99 Problems. Great. This list was probably voted on by people who’ve never heard a Jay-Z song before 2001. I guess there are worse songs they could have chose from that time period (assuming the lyric they chose isn’t, in fact, “I got 99 problems but a b**** ain’t one.”) But there are intelligent lyrics in the second verse, like:
“So I, pull over to the side of the road
"Son do you know why I'm stoppin you for?"
Cause I'm young and I'm black and my hat's real low
Or do I look like a mindreader sir? I don't know
Am I under arrest or should I guess some mo'?”
But it would have been nice to see something from the days when he was really trying, like from Reasonable Doubt:
“You ain't havin it? Good, me either
Let's, get together and make this whole world believe us huh?
At my arraignment, screamin
all us blacks got is sports and entertainment, until we even”- Can’t Knock the Hustle

Snoop- Gin N Juice. Here’s the obligatory VH1 Snoop reference. Seriously, what profound lyric could they possibly have chosen?
“I got b*****s in the living room gettin it on
and, they ain't leavin til six in the morning”
Or maybe:
“Now, that, I got me some Seagram's gin
Everybody got they cups, but they ain't chipped in
Now this types of s***, happens all the time
You got to get yours but fool I gotta get mine”
I have no better example for Snoop, really.

Public Enemy- Fight the Power. This song does deserve to be there, but I feel like it’s only there because of it’s connection with Do the Right Thing, and not because they actually liked the lyrics.

50 Cent- 21 Questions. Ah, 50 Cent has never written an intelligent lyric in his life, but we have to put him on the list somewhere, since he’s just so darn popular. Hundreds of rappers have made this song before, and most have made it a lot more interesting.

Grandmaster Flash- The Message I can’t believe they got this one right. I mean, it’s a no-brainer, but this is VH1 we’re talking about.

NWA- Straight Outta Compton. Contrary to popular belief, NWA isn’t really the first group to have an adversarial relationship to the police. I guess since they made it popular to hate the man, they put them on the list.

I’m not going to go into the lyrics I think should be included, since that would take me all night, but overall, I’ll just say VH1 botched it up pretty bad.




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Hip-Hop QOTW:

"Yeah, where I'ma start it at, look I'ma part of that
Downtown Philly where it's realer than a heart attack
It wasn't really that ill until the start of crack
Now it's a body caught every night on the Almanac"

"Game Theory"
The Roots

I'd just like to chip in and mention something that I'm not sure is really being taken into account (though I'm sorry if everyone's already aware of this) - that this countdown was alledgedly voted for by VH1 viewers, and not arranged by MTV themselves. If anything, it's the British public's fault. Therefore, as I mentioned earlier, it is for the most part gonna rely on the sort of anthemic lyrics that everybody knows, but still - for shame. I'm kind of inclined to believe that amongst all the promotion, VH1 fabricated that top 10 somewhat. Maybe I'm paranoid, but I just have more faith in mankind than this.

This post has been edited by Mimic on 23rd April 2006 12:24

Quote (Gears @ 23rd April 2006 00:26)

Snoop- Gin N Juice. Here’s the obligatory VH1 Snoop reference. Seriously, what profound lyric could they possibly have chosen?
“I got b*****s in the living room gettin it on
and, they ain't leavin til six in the morning”
Or maybe:
“Now, that, I got me some Seagram's gin
Everybody got they cups, but they ain't chipped in
Now this types of s***, happens all the time
You got to get yours but fool I gotta get mine”
I have no better example for Snoop, really.

Lol, oh man, I've always been in tears the past 2 minutes after reading that.

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The clouds ran away, opened up the sky
And one by one I watched every constellation die
And there I was frozen, standing in my backyard
Face to face, eye to eye, staring at the last star
I should've known, walked all the way home
To find that she wasn't here, I'm still all alone

-Atmosphere "Always Coming Back Home to You"

Quote

1 One "One life, with each other, sisters, brothers"
U2

Proof yet again that Top-X countdowns/lists whatever have no real basis of fact
U2 come on, U2 fans can like U2 for whatever reason they want. But the lyrics don't have an impactful meaning at all. There are many songs with more meaning.

The fact that U2 was #1 proves this wasn't a consesus.

Although I stopped believing in "top-x" countdowns since Britney Spears was in the top 10 of the 100 hottest hotties while Carmen Electra was somewhere around the twenties and thirties.



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"Have you ever seen a baby do that before?"

The worst part about this list is that they picked some genuine artists that have songs with great lyrics, but picked the worst one just because it was popular anyway. Pink Floyd, Nirvana, Radiohead. And where the hell is "Black" by pearl jam?

This post has been edited by Rangers51 on 5th May 2006 19:25

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"We're not tools of the government or anyone else. Fighting... fighting was the only thing I was ever good at, but at least I always fought for what I believed in." - Frank Yeager (a.k.a. Grey Fox)

Marvin Gaye should be at number one. Yellow? Hmm, I don't see it.

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Lou: There's a couple of guys fighting down at the aquarium, Chief.
Wiggum: Do they still sell those frozen bananas?
Lou: I think so.
Wiggum: Let's roll.

First of all, the whole concept is stupid, pointless, and flawed. I mean, how in the world do you count the "greatest lyric" of all time? What was the criteria? Was it most clever, most inspiring, longivity, soical commentary, uplifting or other, metaphorical, allusioning?
Yes, I know this was voted by the general public (which in itself lies a great flaw) but still, how do you come up with this?

And of course, wtf with Nirvana, w(where)tf is "American Pie" and "One" (Metallica) etc etc

This post has been edited by Sherick on 15th May 2006 23:05

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I fear my heart and fear my soul
Life goes on, it surely will,
Without me and I wonder:
Will I ever see light again?

Life goes on...