The Best Lyrics Of All Time

Some Of The Best Lyrics In Music History

To some, a song’s words are secondary, something to carry the melody. To others, the lyrics are personal, opening up a world within the song. Here are some of the best lyrics in music history.

Nirvana, “All Apologies”

One of the changes Nirvana brought to the music of the 1990s was a unique introspection not common in (at least in the top 40) music of the time. Recorded six months before taking his own life, Kurt Cobain’s words reflect on his wife and his baby daughter, expressing both his love and his despair: “I wish I was like you/ Easily amused/ Find my nest of salt/ Everything’s my fault”.

Paul Bergen, Getty Images

Nine Inch Nails, “Hurt”

For many, Johnny Cash’s reading of this Nine Inch Nails song is definitive but, in both versions, the words convey a resignation to self-destruction: “And you could have it all/ My empire of dirt/ I will let you down/ I will make you hurt”.

aliina s., CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons

Joy Division, “Love Will Tear Us Apart”

Joy Division’s lyrics, written by singer Ian Curtis, are always dark and filled with despair. The title is a grim pun on the bright pop of the Captain and Tennille’s hit “Love Will Keep Us Together”, these words about Curtis’ failing marriage were penned and recorded shortly before Curtis took his own life. “Why is the bedroom so cold turned away on your side?/ Is my timing that flawed, our respect run so dry?”

Rob Verhorst, Getty Images

Arcade Fire, “Sprawl II Mountains Beyond Mountains”

Suburban ennui is conveyed in the words of this song, and the frustrations of conformity are contrasted with the longing for something better: “They heard me singing and they told me to stop/ Quit these pretentious things and just punch the clock”.

Rama, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons

Beyoncé, “Formation”

Beyoncé foregrounds her politics in this song, speaking of her identity as a Black woman. Where women are expected to be humble, Black women more so, Beyoncé owns her success in a declaration of her power: “I like my baby hair, with baby hair and afros/ I like my negro nose with Jackson Five nostrils/ Earned all this money but they never take the country out me/ I got a hot sauce in my bag, swag”.

Raph_PH, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons

Laura Marling, “Ghosts”

Teenage angst is a mainstay of lyrics with many musicians’ first efforts coming at the tail end of their teens. Laura Marling was 16 when she wrote these words of heartache that seemed more mature than her years: “Lover, please do not/ Fall to your knees/ It’s not like I believe in/ Everlasting love”.

Bryan Ledgard, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons

LCD Soundsystem, “Losing My Edge”

We all age and if we’re lucky, we come to terms with who we are and who we will become as we grow old. This is a song about finding that peace with who you are. “I’m losing my edge/ To all the kids in Tokyo and Berlin/ I’m losing my edge to the art-school Brooklynites in little jackets and borrowed nostalgia for the unremembered eighties”.

Tore Sætre, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

Leonard Cohen, “So Long, Marianne”

Leonard Cohen was a poet and a songwriter and of course, virtually anything he wrote would have been appropriate here. This early work captures Cohen as he was still young enough to convey hope but old enough to know that hope had to be tempered with heartache. “Well, you know that I love to live with you/ but you make me forget so very much/ I forget to pray for the angels/ and then the angels forget to pray for us”.

Baggio, CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons

The Libertines, “Can’t Stand Me Now”

This is a song of love, not about lovers but rather friends who love each other. It chronicles the end of a friendship and is as impactful as any end-of-romance song: “An end fitting for the start/ You twist and tore our love apart”.

Raph_PH, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons

Kate Bush, “Cloudbusting”

This is a song about psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich and his son, Peter, written from Peter’s point of view. Kate Bush has a unique capability to seek inspiration from arcane sources. “You’re like my yo-yo/ That glowed in the dark/ What made it special/ Made it dangerous/ So I bury it/ And forget”.

Guido Harari; Distributed by EMI America, Wikimedia Commons

Nick Cave, “Into My Arms”

Nick Cave’s songs are dark, drawing from sources in literature and music throughout history. This song stands out as a love song, plainly sung. “I don’t believe in an interventionist God/ But I know, darling, that you do/ But if I did, I would kneel down and ask Him/ Not to intervene when it came to you”.

Raph_PH, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons

Sisters Of Mercy, “This Corrosion”

A 1980s club hit, “This Corrosion” was an iconic Gothic song with a dance beat. Both stream-of-conscious and dark, the song stays with you long after the final beat. “On days like this/ In times like these/I feel an animal deep inside/ Heel to haunch on bended knees”.

djidji.perroto, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons

Sultans Of Ping FC, “Where’s Me Jumper?”

A bit of a novelty in 1992, the lyrics are both playful and filled with angst. The humor was unusual for the shoegazer genre, but the surface story of a missing sweater belies something deeper. “It’s alright to say things can only get better/ You haven’t lost your brand-new sweater/ Pure new wool, and perfect stitches/ Not the type of jumper that makes you itches”.

Kieran Frost, Getty Images

The Smiths, “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out”

Singer Morrissey’s lyrics are as quotable as guitarist Johnny Marr’s music is memorable. For a brief five years, the Smiths were the most important band in the UK. Morrissey’s real talent, at least when he was in the Smiths, was the mixture of darkness with humor, wit with torment. “Take me out tonight/ Take me anywhere, I don’t care/ I don’t care, I don’t care”.

Paul Cox; Distributed by Sire Records, Wikimedia Commons

Bruce Springsteen, “I’m On Fire”

Springsteen’s lyrics feel down-home, like old folk tunes updated for suburban life. Even with a topic like forbidden love, Springsteen conveys those feelings with a creaky back porch coziness.

“At night I wake up with the sheets soaking wet/ And a freight train running through the/ Middle of my head / Only you can cool my desire”.

Raph_PH, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons

Tori Amos, “Father Lucifer”

Coming from an upbringing as the daughter of a Baptist minister, Amos conveys the longing for rebellion and darkness: “He says he reckons I’m a watercolor stain/ He says I run and then I run from him and then I run/ He didn’t see me watching from the aeroplane/ He wiped a tear and then he threw away our apple seed”.

Justin Higuchi, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons

Public Enemy, “Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos”

The urgency found in the music of Public Enemy is at the foreground of all their work. In-your-face politics about the reality of Black life in the United States is conveyed in works like “Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos”: “I got a letter from the government/ The other day/ I opened and read it/ It said they were suckers/ They wanted me for their army or whatever/ Picture me given’ a damn, I said never”.

Mika Väisänen, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons

Kendrick Lamar, “Swimming Pool (Drank)”

Lamar as a lyricist is celebrated as one of the greats in hip hop. Speaking of the poverty and addictions that scarred his childhood, he also warns of the destructive allure of easy fame and fortune: “First you get a swimming pool full of liquor, then you dive in it/ Pool full of liquor, then you dive in it/ I wave a few bottles, then I watch ‘em all flock”.

Adam McCullough, Shutterstock

Prince, “Sign O’ The Times”

The lyrics on the surface seem to come second to the music when it comes to Prince. More often than not, Prince stayed away from political issues, but the reality of Reagan’s America is foregrounded in Prince’s most political work from 1987: “A skinny man died of a big disease with a little name/ By chance his girlfriend came across a needle and soon she did the same”.

Warner Bros., Wikimedia Commons

Rolling Stones, “Gimme Shelter”

The Summer of Love, mostly a media fabrication, was over quickly as the reality of violence came into focus. Even British bands were talking about what was going on in the United States, and the largely apolitical Rolling Stones expressed the violence of the times well in this late-1960s classic. “War, children, it’s just a shot away/ It’s just a shot away”.

Raph_PH, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons

David Bowie, “Station To Station”

David Bowie’s lyrics run the gamut from spacey and drug-fueled, to hard-edged funk, and to the literate and worldly. Recorded at the end of his drug-fueled phase in the United States, this song speaks of what he left behind and points to his next phase in Berlin. “Once there were mountains on mountains/ And once there were sun birds to soar with/ And once I could never be down/ Got to keep searching and searching”.

Express, Getty Images

Underworld, “Born Slippy”

1990s Britpop took on many forms, often conveying an endless party, sometimes depicting the inevitable comedown. Immortalized in the most 90s of films, Trainspotting, “Born Slippy” tells us that the rave must end sometime: “You had chemicals boy/ I’ve grown so close to you/ Boy and you just groan boy”.

Torrensmike, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

Fleetwood Mac, “Landslide”

The third lineup of Fleetwood Mac was also its most commercially successful and that was in no small part because of the interpersonal drama among the band members. Stevie Nicks’ “Landslide” was about coming to terms with change and growth, as painful as it might be. “And I saw my reflection in the snow-covered hills/ Till the landslide brought me down”.

Warner Bros. Records, Wikimedia Commons

Sharon Van Etten, “Every Time The Sun Comes Up”

This is a portrait of a 10-year relationship, told in all its gritty glory. “People say I’m a one-hit wonder/ But what happens when I have two?/ I washed your dishes, but I s--t in your bathroom”.

Weekly Dig, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons

Patti Smith, “Gloria”

Smith retooled the garage classic “Gloria” (written by Van Morrison) adding her own words to this punk classic: “Jesus died for somebody’s sins but not mine/ Meltin’ in a pot of thieves/ Wild card up my sleeve/ Thick heart of stone/ My sins my own/ They belong to me”.

Klaus Hiltscher, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons

Eagles, “Hotel California”

The decadence of the 1970s was conveyed in countless ways, both celebratory and as warnings. In this song, the Eagles manage to give us both. “There she stood in the doorway/I heard the mission bell/ And I was thinking to myself/ This could be Heaven or this could be Hell”.

Steve Alexander, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons

Thin Lizzy, “The Boys Are Back In Town”

This is a party song but it’s also about being true to your roots. Based on Phil Lynott’s childhood memories, the song talks about the criminals who populated Lynott’s Manchester neighborhood. “Guess who just got back today/ Them wild-eyed boys that had been away/ Haven’t changed that much to say/ But man, I still think them cats are crazy”.

Harry Potts, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons

Nina Simone, “Four Women”

Nina Simone depicts four characters, four women, in this song about self-definition and finding power in being yourself: “I’ll kill the first mother I see/ My life has been too rough/ I’m awfully bitter these days/ Because my parents were slaves”.

Roland Godefroy, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons

St Vincent, “Digital Witness”

A song about the Internet, “Digital Witness” speaks of the intimacy, both illusory and real, that comes from developing online relationships. St Vincent (AKA Annie Clark) warns of the narcissism that comes with social media. “Digital witnesses/ What’s the point of even sleeping?/ If I can’t show it, if you can’t see me/ What’s the point of doing anything?”

Moses, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons

Frank Ocean, “Pink + White”

Simply put, “Pink + White” is about the druglike highs of relationships and comedowns that are both inevitable and possibly necessary in order to move on. “Up for air from the swimming pool/ You kneel down to the dry land/ Kiss the Earth that birthed you/ Gave you tools just to stay alive/ And make it up when the sun is ruined”.

david_hwang, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons

Rufus Wainwright, “Dinner At Eight”

This is a song about abandonment and resentment, directed mainly at Rufus Wainwright’s father Louden Wainwright III, who walked out on his family when Rufus was a child. It’s also about his father’s own resentment, in this case, because of his son’s greater success. “If I want to see the tears in your eyes/Then I know it had to be/Long ago, actually in the drifting white snow/You loved me”.

Oliver Mark, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

Bob Dylan, “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)”

Early Bob Dylan was political, often earnestly so. By the mid-1960s, his words became more personal, if sardonic, and would often eschew the directly political for the critical. “Pointed threats, they bluff with scorn/ Suicide remarks are torn/ From the fool’s gold mouthpiece/ The hollow horn plays wasted words/ Proves to warn that he not busy being born/ Is busy dying”.

Chris Hakkens, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons

ABBA, “The Winner Takes It All”

Like late-1970s Fleetwood Mac, ABBA was also a bit of a mess, with two couples, none of whom were faithful. This song is written by Björn Ulvaeus about his divorce from Agnetha Fältskog, one of the two singers in ABBA. That Fältskog is singing the words written about her by her former husband, makes the whole thing a bit ironically poignant. “I don’t wanna talk/ About the things we’ve gone through/ Though it’s hurting me/ Now it’s history”.

AVRO, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons

The Stone Roses, “I Wanna Be Adored”

The opening track to their debut album and in a way the opening track to the Britpop 90s, “I Wanna Be Adored” is a tongue-in-cheek bit of narcissism—or is it? It’s also self-deprecating, suggesting the singer is not at all adored. “I don’t have to sell my soul/ He’s already in me/ I don’t need to sell my soul/ He’s already in me”.

mari, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons

Nas, “The World Is Yours”

This is a song about convincing yourself that you are on the right track. The listener is told that all you need to do is follow the signs as they appear. “I’m the mild, money-getting style, rolling foul/ The versatile, honey-sticking wild golden child/ Dwelling in the Rotten Apple, you get tackled/ Or caught by the devil’s lasso, s*** is a hassle”.

All-Pro Reels, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons

The Beatles, “When I’m Sixty-Four”

Written by Paul McCartney when he was 16, “When I’m Sixty-Four” is a cheeky homage to settling down. Sung in a characteristically old-fashioned manner, with a few touches of psychedelia added here and there, the track is whimsical but with an undercurrent of lament. “When I get older losing my hair/ Many years from now/ Will you still be sending me a Valentine/ Birthday greetings bottle of wine?”

David Redfern, Getty Images

Beck, “Loser”

This became an anthem in the early 90s, conveying a slacker worldview where nothing goes right but it doesn’t matter. Sort of a flipside to Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” (“With the lights out, it's less dangerous/Here we are now, entertain us”), “Loser” speaks for the Gen X ethos of not caring too much: “In the time of chimpanzees, I was a monkey/ Butane in my veins so I’m out to cut the junkie”.

Raph_PH, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons

Paul Simon, “Graceland”

Paul Simon had a career resurgence in the mid-1980s, and it was his Graceland album that brought him back to the spotlight. The song “Graceland,” chronicling the breakup of his marriage, was a perfect contrast between words and the world music Simon was experimenting with at that time. “She comes back to tell me she’s gone/ As if I didn’t know that/ As if I didn’t know my own bed”.

Fun Fact: The Graceland album ignited a storm of controversy when people found out that Simon had recorded some of the tracks in South Africa—during apartheid. Simon wanted to work with some of South Africa's Black artists, and didn't care that there was a cultural boycott of the country. Supporting the musicians was his goal as, in his view, artists were bound to get the short end of the stick regardless of which government was in power. 

Miho, CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons