I've been thinking about this for the last week or so after rediscovering how much of a masterpiece immortality is lyrically! My question, what do you think Ed's best and worst songs are lyrically?...This is hard because there are so many great ones but what are some of the very best?

there are a lot. Eddie writes well, even with an occasional clunker line.

Personal favorites

Even Flow, Black, Small Town, RVM, Indifference, last exit, corduroy, tremor christ, nothingman, corduroy, betterman, immortality, red mosquito, do the evolution, given to fly, grievance, insignificance, life wasted, severed hand, and marker in the sand are all at the top for me

But this ignores the fact that certain songs have fantastic individual lyrics even if the rest of the song is not that amazing. The chorus in jeremy is brilliant, and my three favorite individual lyrics are in not for you,leash, and breath and those songs aren't even on the list above

if you do a search for lyrics (also include lyric) you'll find a ton of slightly more specific threads on the same topic

best ....alive

worst...big wave

Best - Tremor Christ, Black, Present Tense, Given To Fly, Wash, Garden...

Worst - Inside Job, You (U), Evacuation...

inside job was written by mcready

the chorus blows, but the other lyrics arent that bad

I thought we were talking PJ in general? Oh, well, Inside Job is pretty bad...

Ed's worst has to be You, not that it was meant to be anything more than a short song. Still just annoys me...

I like these

Inside Job is patchy - where it's good it's very, very good - there's a certain directness that communicates very effectively, but I don't think it's quite so bad lyrically as, say, Bu$hleaguer or Dissident.

I don't like the opening line to Marker in the Sand.

Big Wave is all right .It's not great.

best: corduroy, wishlist, black, grievance, indifference

worst: sometimes, deep, spin the black circle, arc

Glorified G has terrible lyrics.

Best: Marker in the Sand
Worst: U

This is how I feel.

I think it's important to differentiate between lyrics that are just straight up bad and lyrics that aren't meant to be particularly deep. Animal and Glorified G are two examples where they suit the song and serve their purpose well. Save You probably as well.

But for bad lyrics, I would say that Who You Are is probably Eddie's worst lyrical effort. "That's the moss from the aforementioned verse" is pretty bad.

Stone and Matt are OK lyricists, I don't think they're terrible, but nothing is really that great. Jeff actually is a pretty good lyricist. I like most of the lyrics he's written.

As for the best lyrics, Stip, once again, I must say that I agree with your choices. Look at that-- 6 Vitalogy songs. There's no doubt that Vitalogy is by far their strongest record lyrically

even songs like U and leatherman were not supposed to fall into the serious category. I don't think eddie's ever really failed completely as a lyricist, but he's very inconsistent. the who you are verse is a great example of that, as is the 'nothing for to say' line in WWS. He just has these awkward lines every now and then that kill the flow of a song.

I would add Light Years, Sleight of Hand and Parting Ways to Stip's list, making Binaural just as strong as Vitalogy lyrically.

Personally, I think Binaural is better, with Vitalogy just below.

binaural's got its NAIS, evacuation, breakerfalls, thin airs, of the girls, etc to bring it down though.

breakerfall is often overlooked. Not spectacular, but often tossed aside. I think Stone's effort on a new relationship with Thin Air is pretty good.

I like breakerfall and it has some nice lines, but Eddie's rarely written a dud. And even if you like thin air, is it as good as nothingman?


Hell, satan's bed, whipping, and not for you didn't even make my great lyrics list and those are all well written song. Satan's Bed really should have been in my original post.

Thin Air and Nothingman are different songs, and since no Stone song can be as good as an Ed song - ok, Fatal ranks high, then, of course, Nothingman is better

Not For You should have been in your post.
Vitalogy is outsanding lyrically, I just give Binaural the nod.

Removing STBC from vitalogy you have

Last Exit
NFY
Tremor Christ
Nothingman
Whipping
Corduroy
Satan's Bed
Betterman
Immortality

compared to

breakerfall
Evacuation
Light Years
Insignificance
Grievance
Sleight of Hand
Soon Forget
Parting ways

you can add in thin air, rival, NAIS, god's dice, or of a girl for your ninth, but to me it isn't even close. Can the high spots on rival match the high spots on vitalogy--sure, why not (I'm not sure I agree but that isn't crazy), but in terms of depth it isn't even close.