The greatest lyricist?

As evidence I submit this:

Cole Porter wrote "Brush Up Your Shakespeare" for the musical "Kiss Me Kate," but some of the lyrics were removed as being too racy for the Broadway stage in 1948. I believe this below is the original set of lyrics.


The girls today in society go for classical poetry
So to win their hearts one must quote with ease
Aeschylus and Euripides
One must know Homer, and believe me, Beau
Sophocles, also Sappho-ho
Unless you know Shelley and Keats and Pope
Dainty Debbies will call you a dope

But the poet of them all
Who will start 'em simply ravin'
Is the poet people call
The Bard of Stratford on Avon

{Refrain}

Brush up your Shakespeare
Start quoting him now
Brush up your Shakespeare
And the women you will wow

Just declaim a few lines from Othella
And they'll think you're a hell of a fella
If your blonde won't respond when you flatter 'er
Tell her what Tony told Cleopatterer

If she fights when her clothes you are mussing
What are clothes? Much ado about nussing
Brush up your Shakespeare
And they'll all kow-tow

{Refrain}

With the wife of the British ambassida
Try a crack out of Troilus and Cressida
If she says she won't buy it or like it
Make her tike it, what's more As You Like It

If she says your behavior is heinous
Kick her right in the Coriolanus
Brush up your Shakespeare
And they'll all kow-tow

{Refrain}

If you can't be a ham and do Hamlet
They will not give a damn or a damlet
Just recite an occasional sonnet
And your lap'll have honey upon it

When your baby is pleading for pleasure
Let her sample your Measure for Measure
Brush up your Shakespeare
And they'll all kow-tow - Forsooth
And they'll all kow-tow
And they'll all kow-tow

{Refrain}

Better mention "The Merchant Of Venice"
When her sweet pound o' flesh you would menace
If her virtue, at first, she defends---well
Just remind her that "All's Well That Ends Well"

And if still she won't give you a bonus
You know what Venus got from Adonis
Brush up your Shakespeare
And they'll all kow-tow - Thinkst thou?
And they'll all kow-tow - Odds bodkins
And they'll all kow-tow

{Refrain}

If your goil is a Washington Heights dream
Treat the kid to "A Midsummer Night's Dream"
If she then wants an all-by-herself night
Let her rest ev'ry 'leventh or "Twelfth Night"

If because of your heat she gets huffy
Simply play on and "Lay on, Macduffy!"
Brush up your Shakespeare
And they'll all kow-tow - Forsooth
And they'll all kow-tow - Thinkst thou?
And they'll all kow-tow - We trou'
And they'll all kow-tow

My vote would have to be
Gordon Lightfoot.


River Of Light

Headin’ off on a river at peace, in the cool of an evening
Headin’off on a river of light, be a part of a river at night
Nice to be on a river sometimes, like a junebug travellin’
Headin’ off on a ribbon of song, been away from the river too long
Good to be on a river somewhere, like a milkweed travellin’
Headin’ off on a ribbon of dreams, be a part of a river it seems
Can you tell me how long... must I travel on

I won’t be lookin’ up old friends
I won’t be lookin’ up old friends...
Ever again

I spent ma life takin’ ma time, and I can’t change anything
Take a look at my river of light, be a part of a river at night
Nice t’ be on a river at peace, like a junebug travellin’
Headin’ off on a river at last, my tears will be all in the past
Good to be on a river somewhere, like a milkweed travellin’
Headin’ down where the water runs deep
Down deep where the fish are asleep now
Can you tell me how long... must I travel on

I won’t be lookin’ up old friends,
I won’t be lookin’ up old friends...
Ever again

Trouble don’t mean nothin’ to me, an’ ah had my share of it
Headin’ off on a river of light, be a part of a river at night
Nice to be on a river at peace, in the cool of an evening
Headin’ off on the silver moon light, maybe love’ll find me tonight
Good to be on a river somwhere, like a milkweed travellin’
Headin’ off on a ribbon of dreams, be a part of a river it seems
Can you tell me how long... must I travel on

I won’t be lookin’ up old friends
I won’t be lookin’ up old friends...
Ever again...
Ever again...
Ever again

From his masterpiece, "Devotion + Doubt":

Lil Wallet Picture:

underspent
and too young too
i stumbled onto a picture of you
you wild bitter tale
all cherry oak and tears
as the branches looked in
the summer is done
and we are too, dear
pull back the drape
and let the silent light in
soon i'll be on that highway

and damn this stretch of 99
that takes so many lives
one of them was mine

hand me that lil wallet picture
1985
one more time

the lights of the street
where i'd walk to you at night
were so blindly lit
yeah, there were four little flames
his, mine, and yours,
and the torch in the attic
i woke up late
and kissed you awake
and as you packed up your load,
there was one last look
and then the uhaul broke free
now the ditches are flooded over the backroads

and damn this stretch of 99 that takes so many lives
one of them was mine

hand me that lil wallet picture
1985
one more time
underspent
and too young too
i stumbled onto a picture of you....

4AM:

It’s a bruised and a fallen sky
Pressed all up against us
And it’s just as true so far away
But I can be there by breakfast

If just drive on through to you
So as the past goes breaking by
Where are you tonight?

It’s 4 AM, and I’m awake again
And not quite high enough
I’ll be back, you know when

Should I lie a little and dream away
I’m just lying here anyway
With a chill a little heat
Could kill on sight
But where are you tonight?

Wasted and well spent
Taken and once wrecked
Oh, you’re better than this and that
I thought I was cured of any last chance
Unfastened and floored
And now all I want is just a little
Nothing more

I looked inside the ring we wear
And I read myself to sleep
I caught myself so captured there
Deep inside those cavern eyes

Oh my one, my one,
You’ve broken me
At the vow below the vine
But where are you tonight?

Where are you tonight?
Where are you tonight?

***

http://backyard-dusk.blogspot.com/

Pass me da green, i need some weed with my hennessy
Pass me da green, i need some weed with my hennessy
Pass me da green, i need some weed with my hennessy
Pass me da green, i need some weed with my hennessy
Pass me da green, i need some weed with my hennessy
Pass me da green, i need some weed with my hennessy
Pass me da green, i need some weed with my hennessy
Pass me da green, i need some weed with my hennessy

Eyes selling red, got my dank from the Bahamas
Went to see my girl smoke some green with her mama.
Jumped in my Cutlass on the way to the liquor store.
Picked up some blunts, got ten on the 2-0.
Fix these palm trees wit some green leaves
Got a nigga's head spinning like the seven seas.
Puff, puff, pass, nigga that's what Simon say
Fools that hog the green or da weed gonna get carried away.
Fingernails burnt, lookin like a tweeker
Ears steadily poppin, but not from the speakers
Green got me hungry, feindin' for them munchies
cause real smokers dont blow no fuckin green on empty stomachs

Pass me da green, i need some weed with my hennessy
Pass me da green, i need some weed with my hennessy
Pass me da green, i need some weed with my hennessy
Pass me da green, I need some weed with my hennessy

Green trees pack wood, make cabbage
I like to get high but it aint a bad habit.
??????? with that weed smoke comin out my lac
Got a hootie in the front and one in the back
Blowin shotguns to me and my homie
I feel like this weed make a young nigga horny
I stopped the fuckin lac at Holiday Inn
I aint even trippin, told the girls to come in
Laid her down steady cause she know im ready
Choppin up weed like muthafuckin spaghetti
Hoes down south must know voodoo
cause every time i hit the weed im lookin for Isuzus

Pass me da green, i need some weed with my hennessy
Pass me da green, i need some weed with my hennessy
Pass me da green, i need some weed with my hennessy
Pass me da green, i need some weed with my hennessy
Pass me da green, i need some weed with my hennessy

Y'all high yet?

Pass me da green, i need some weed with my hennessy
Pass me da green, i need some weed with my hennessy
Pass me da green, I need some weed with my hennessy

Damn nigga, y'all chokin, get the fuck out of here nigga.

Pass me da green, i need some weed with my hennessy

Nigga I said are y'all high yet?

Pass me da green, i need some weed with my hennessy
Pass me da green, i need some weed with my hennessy
Pass me da green, i need some weed with my hennessy

There's lots of great lyricists, but no one can touch Dylan.
Or ever will...

Dylan was the greatest lyricist ever, and possibly one of the greatest rock legends.

Dylan's in a class of his own.

"They wind up wounded,
and not even dead,
tonight in Jungland

His songs are like little movies about every day stuff. the life I have lived.

Some of his songs are among the best I ahve ver heard.

"Mama, mama, many worlds I've come since I first left home"

"Don't lend a hand
to raise no flag
atop no ship of fools"

If my words did glow with the gold of sunshine
And my tunes were played on the harp unstrung,
Would you hear my voice come thru the music,
Would you hold it near as it were your own?

Its a hand-me-down, the thoughts are broken,
Perhaps theyre better left unsung.
I dont know, dont really care
Let there be songs to fill the air.

Ripple in still water,
When there is no pebble tossed,
Nor wind to blow.

Reach out your hand if your cup be empty,
If your cup is full may it be again,
Let it be known there is a fountain,
That was not made by the hands of men.

There is a road, no simple highway,
Between the dawn and the dark of night,
And if you go no one may follow,
That path is for your steps alone.

Ripple in still water,
When there is no pebble tossed,
Nor wind to blow.

But if you fall you fall alone,
If you should stand then whos to guide you?
If I knew the way I would take you home.

La dee da da da, la da da da da, da da da, da da, da da da da da
La da da da, la da da, da da, la da da da, la da, da da.

and Aimee Mann

Songs written by Bernie Taupin
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This is a list of songs Bernie Taupin has written:

10 Soldater
12
1965
A Little Peace
A Love That Will Never Grow Old
A Minute of Your Life
A New Clear Morning
A Woman's Needs
A Word in Spanish
Accents
Across the River Thames
Act of War
Adult Music
Aftermath
Ain't We Bad in the Big City
All Across the Havens
All Or Nothing
All Quiet on the Western Front
All That I'm Allowed (I'm Thankful)
All the Girls Love Alice
All the Nasties
Amazes Me
American Triangle
Amoreena
Amy
...And the House Fell Down
Angeline
Anitta
Answer in the Sky
Approaching Armageddon
Are You Alright?
Backbone
Bad News Baby Darling
Bad Side of the Moon
Ball
Ballad of a Well Known Gun
Ballad of the Boy in Red Shoes
Barstool
Beautiful (I Don't Want to Be)
Bed of Nails
Belfast
Believe
Bennie and the Jets
Better off Dead
Between Seventeen and Twenty
Big Man in a Little Suit
Billie and the Kids
Billy Bones and the White Bird
Billy Fury
Birds
Birth
Bite Your Lip (Get Up and Dance)
Bitter Fingers
Black Cat Crossing the Road
Blessed
Blitz Babies
Blood in the Dust
Blue Avenue
Blues For Baby and Me
Blues Never Fade Away
Bobbie on the Backburner
Bone of Contention
Bonnie's Gone Away
Boogie Pilgrim
Border Song
Born on the 4th of July
Breaking Hearts (Ain't What it Used to Be)
Bring Back the Magic
Broken Woman
Brothers Together Again
Burn Down the Mission
Burning Buildings
Burn This Bed
But then Again
Cage the Songbird
Calling it Christmas
Caminaga Ella Tan Linda
Can I Put You On?
Candle in the Wind
Candle in the Wind 1997
Candy By the Pound
Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy
Chameleon
Chasing the Crown
Cherokee D.J
Child
Chiquita
Cinderella '67
Citizen Jane
Closer to the Edge
Club At the End of the Street
Cold
Cold As Christmas (In the Middle of the Year)
Cold Highway
Color Bar
Come Down in Time
Conclusion
Conquistador
Corrugated Iron
Country Comfort
Cowboy
Crazy Water
Crocodile Rock
Cry to Heaven
Cry Willow Cry
Crystal
Culture Shock/Counter Clock
Curtains
Damn My Eyes
Dance With Life
Dan Dare (Pilot of the Future)
Dancing in the End Zone
Daniel
Dark Diamond
Deal For Life
Desperation Train
Diamonds Won't Do it (But I Will)
Did Anybody Sleep with Joan of Arc?
Did He Shoot Her?
Dip Your Wings
Dirty Little Girl
Dixie Lily
Donner Pour Donner
Don't Be the Last to Know
Don't Go Breaking My Heart
Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me
Du Far Ej Fa
Du Far Ej Ga
Dub Till You Drop
Dup Songs
Durban Deep
Easier to Walk Away
Ego
Elderberry Wine
Emery Green
Emily
Empty Garden (Hey, Hey Johnny)
Empty Sky
En Sorgsen Sang
End of a Day
Fascist Faces
Fat Boys and Ugly Girls
Feed Me
First Episode At Hienton
First Verse
Flatters (A Beginning)
Fly on the Wall
Fools in Fashion
(For the) Working Girl
For Veronica's Sake
Freaks in Love
Friend of the Flag
Friends
From the Inside
Giardino Dell 'Amore
Ginseng Woman
Go it Alone
God Never Came Here
Goin' North
Going Blind
Goodbye
Goodbye Marlon Brando
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
(Gotta Get A) Meal Ticket
Guess I'll Always Love You
Grey Seal
Grimsby
Grow Some Funk of Your Own
Gulliver
Gypsy Heart
Hard Luck Story
Harmony
Have Mercy on the Criminal
Healing Hands
Heartache All Over the World
Heart of an Angel
Heart of Every Girl
Heart of Glass
Heavy Traffic
Heels of the Wind
Hercules
Hey Papa Legba
Hey Ricky (You're a Low Down Heel)
High Flyin' Bird
Ho Ho Ho (Who'd Be a Turkey At Christmas?)
Hold Back the Night
Holiday Inn
Honey Roll
Honky Cat
Hoop of Fire
House
House of Cards
How Long Lord (Before the Night Is Over?)
How You Gonna See Me Now?
How's Tomorrow
Hungry Eyes
Hymn 2000
I Am Not the Enemy
I Am the Hunter
I Am Your Robot
I Came to Dance
I Can't Keep This From You
I Can't Steer My Heart Clear of You
I Cry At Night
I Don't Wanna Go on With You Like That
I Engineer
I Fall Apart
I Feel Like a Bullet (In the Gun of Robert Ford)
I Guess That's Why they Call it the Blues
I Hypnotise
I Know Why I'm in Love
I Must Have Lost It on the Wind
I Need You to Turn To
I Never Knew Her Name
I Still Can't Believe That You're Gone
I Stop and I Breathe
I Swear I Heard the Night Talkin'
I Think I'm Gonna Kill Myself
I Want Love
I Wish I Were Born in Beverly Hills
Idol
If I Was a Country
If I Weren't So Romantic
If the River Can Bend
If there's a God in Heaven (What's He Waiting For?)
I'm a Working Man
I'm Going to Be a Teenage Idol
I'm Still Standing
In Neon
In Paradise
Indian Sunset
Inmates (We're All Crazy)
Into the Heartland
Into the Old Man's Shoes
Island Girl
It's Getting Dark in Here
It's Me that You Need
It's Only Rain
It's Your Game
I've Seen that Movie Too
I've Seen the Saucers
Jack Rabbit
Jacknife Johnny
Jamaica Jerk-Off
January
Japanese Hands
Jazz Girl
Josephine
Julie
Just Like Belgium
Just Like Noah's Ark
Just Like Strange Rain
Keep It a Mystery
Keep Me
Kiss the Bride
La Petite Marionette
Lady Samantha
Lady, What's Tomorrow?
Last Stand in Open Country
Latitude
Le Dernier Mot
Leather Jackets
Leaving At Midnight
Leaving the Fair
Let Me Be Your Car
Levon
Lies
Light in Your Heart
Like Summer Tempests
Little Casanova
Little Quick Draw
Li'l 'Frigerator
Live Like Horses
Llora Al Cielo
Lonely School Year
Long-Legged Women
Long Way From Happiness
Lonnie and Josie
Look At What We've Done
Look Ma No Hands
Lord of the Flies
Love
Love (The Barren Desert)
Love and Greed
Love Cuts Like a Dangerous Blade
Love Her Like Me
Love Is a Cannibal
Love Lies Bleeding
Love Rusts
Love So Cold
Love Touch
Love's Got A Lot to Answer For
Lover Come Back to Me
Lover's Cros
Lovers Leap
Lovesick
Made For Me
Made in England
Man
Madman Across the Water
Make Me As You Are
Mansfield
Manslide
Me & My Friends
Medicine Man
Medley (Yell Help/Wednesday Night/Ugly)
Mellow
Mexicana Fire
Michelle's Song
(Midnight) Midlife Crisis
Midnight Creeper
Millie and Billie
Minha Vida Sem Voce
Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters
Mona Lisa and Mad Hatters (Part II)
Monkey in My Dreams
Monkey on My Back (The Last Run)
Monkeys in the Jungle
Muniquita
My Elusive Drug
My Father's Gun
My Side of the River
Never Give Up on a Dream
Never Gonna Break Your Heart
New Morning
Nice and Slow
Nikita
No Shoe Strings on Louise
No Tricks
No Valentines
Nona Gita
Non-Existente
Nothin' Left But Ashes (After the Fire Has Gone Out)
Nurse Rozetta
Old '67
On Dark Street
On This Rock
One Horse Town
One More Arrow
Onetime, Sometime Or Never
Only a Boy
Original Sin
Out of My Hands
Pain
Pandora's Swing
Paris
Passengers
Pay Dirt
Pearl River
Peter's Song
Philadelphia Freedom
Pinky
Planes
Please
Poor Cow
Porch Swing in Tupelo
Postcards from Richard Nixon
Pretty Bombs
Prime of My Life
Proof of Paradise
Quantrill
Quelques Mots Essentiels
Ratcatcher
Razor Face
Reach Out
Recover Your Soul
Red
Religion
Remember
Restless
Ridin' Free
Rock and Roll Madonna
Rocket Man (I Think It's Going to Be a Long, Long Time)
Rock Me When He's Gone
Rope Around a Fool
Rosa
Rotten Peaches
Rough Justice
Rowston Manor
Roy Rogers
Rubber Guns
Runaway Train
Rusted Love
Sacrifice
Sad Songs (Say So Much)
Sails
Sail Me Away
Saint
Salvation
Satellite
Saturday Night's Alright (For Fighting)
Satisfied
Savage
Savannah
Screw You
Seasons
Season of the Rain
Serious
Seven-Four-Seven
Sexy on the Inside
Shadows in Charge
Shameless
Shane
She Sends Shivers
Shoot Down the Moon
Shoulder Holster
Show Us Your Ghosts
Sick City
Sign of the Cross
Simple Life
Since God Invented Girls
Sisters of the Cross
Sixty Years On
Skyline Pigeon
Slave
Sleeping Through the Weekend
Sleeping With the Past
Slice of Life
Slow Down Georgie (She's Poison)
Slow Rivers
Slow the Dogs Down
Slummin'
Sneakin' Out the Backway
Snookeroo
Snow Queen
So Jenny Rocks
So Much Love
So Sad the Renegade
Social Disease
Solar Prestige a Gammon
Solitude
Somebody Special
Someone Saved My Life Tonight
Someone's Final Song
Something About the Way You Look Tonight
Son of Your Father
Sonny
Sorrow Is Not For Me
Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word
Soul Glove
Spiteful Child
Stallion Road
Step Into Christmas
Stinker
Stones Throw From Hurtin'
Storm Days
Street Kids
Strength of His Kiss
Sugar and Fire
Suit of Wolves
Supercool
Susie (Dramas)
Sweat it Out
Sweet Painted Lady
Switchblade Years
Take Me to the Pilot
Talk About You
Talking Old Soldiers
Teacher I Need You
Tell Me What the Papers Say
Tell Me When the Whistle Blows
Texan Love Song
Thank You For All of Your Loving
The Ace of Hearts and the Jack of Spades
The Ballad of Danny Bailey (1909-1934)
The Ballad of Dennis Hopper & Harry Dean
The Ballad of Zero and the Tramp
The Big Picture
The Bitch Is Back
The Bridge
The Cage
The Captain and the Kid
The Crack in the Sky
The Camera Never Lies
The Eastern Bloc
The Emperor's New Clothes
The End Will Come
The Fox
The Greatest Discovery
The Heart of an Angel
The Heart of Every Girl
The Kids Are Loose
The King Must Die
The Last Good Man in My Life
The Last Motel
The Last Ride of Charlie Fury
The Last Song
The Man Who Loved to Dance
The New Lone Ranger
The North
The North Star
The One
The Power
The Price of Lightning
The Quiet Room
The Rage
The Retreat
The Rumour
The Scaffold
The Visitor
The Wasteland
The Whores of Paris
The Wide-Eyed and Laughing
These Dreams
They Call Her the Cat
Thin Ice of Love
Things Only Get Better with Love
This Song Has No Title
This Town
This Train Don't Stop There Anymore
Ticking
Tinderbox
Tiny Dancer
To a Grandfather
To Die With My Boots On
Today's Hero
Toni Loved the Rain
Tonight
Too Low For Zero
Too Many Tears
Too Young
Tortured
Touch the Fire
Tower of Babel
Town of Plenty
Turn the Lights Out When You Leave
Two-Armed Bandit
Two Rooms At the End of the World
Una Fletcha Mots
Uncool (written with and performed by Courtney Love)
Under Fire
Understanding Women
Union Jack
Until You Come Back to Me
Up Up (Over the Berlin Wall)
Val-Hala
Valley Nights
Venezuela
Waitress in a Roadhouse
Water Kills Fire
We All Fall in Love Sometimes
We Are Romantics (R.U.1.2)
We Built This City
We Need Us
Weight of the World
Western Ford Gateway
When a Woman Doesn't Want You
When the Heron Wakes
When the Phone Stops Ringing
Whenever You're Ready (We'll Go Steady Again)
Where Have All the Good Times Gone
Where to Now St. Peter?
Where's the Shoorah?
Whipping Boy
Whispers
White Boys in Chains
White Lady White Powder
White Man Danger
White Rose
Whitewash County
Who Wears these Shoes?
Wicked Dreams
Witches (Get Burned)
Wouldn't Have You Any Other Way (NYC)
Wounded Knee
Wrap Her Up
Writing
You Can Make History (Young Again)
You Gotta Love Someone
Young Lust
Your Sister Can't Twist (But She Can Rock 'N' Roll)
Your Song
You're So Static
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songs_written_by_Bernie_Taupin"

a tie for me