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Best Song Lyrics And My Choice For The Greatest Song Lyrics Of All Time

I am a songwriter and a poet. In this post, I share some of the best song lyrics from the most popular songs ever. These are songs by great musicians with world-class poetry. There are also songs I’ve translated from poets and songwriters from different cultures and languages. And if you can indulge me, I also share lyrics from some of the songs I’ve written too. 

If you like this post, you might also enjoy my post with a collection of the most poetic songs although many of those songs are also in this list. 

Greatest Song Lyrics Of Any Song Ever: Bob Dylan’s Mr Tamborine Man

Here is a full, line-by-line poetry analysis of Mr. Tambourine Man. This song is incredibly creative. It seems to take place in a dreamland world. It’s about a drug trip, but the way it’s written is magical, mysterious, inviting, and at times haunting. Here are some dreamy lyrics in this song:

And take me disappearing through the smoke rings of my mind
Down the foggy ruins of time
Far past the frozen leaves
The haunted frightened trees
Out to the windy beach
Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow

Also this:

Take me on a trip upon your magic swirling ship

Here is one of the best and most haunting lyrics of this song:

And take me disappearing through the smoke rings of my mind
Down the foggy ruins of time
Far past the frozen leaves
The haunted frightened trees
Out to the windy beach
Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow.

Here is the song, so you can listen to it:

 
I may be biased because the poet singer-songwriter genre of the 1960s is one of my favorite genres of all of music, but even when trying to be as objective as possible, I still choose this song as the one with the greatest lyrics, and absolutely magical storytelling. This song is also one of the best of all times because it inspires so much emotion. 

The Best Lyrics In A Romantic Song: Oh Michelangelo

The most interesting lyric I’ve ever written was in a song called “Oh Michelangelo” in which I take Michelangelo’s famous Sistine Chapel painting called “The Birth Of Adam” which depicts a sensitive touch between two hands, and reimagine it as a moment of lovers connecting in a magical touch. In the second verse of the song, there is a line that I think is my best ever:

“Our eyes close as my fingers track new Sistine Chapels along your back.”

Here is that full verse:

My fingers gliding along your silhouette,

You’re breathing with me – our souls have met. 

Our eyes close as my fingers track

New Sistine Chapels along your back.

Picture caressing a woman’s back so gently that it’s almost like painting something beautiful along her back, and not something simply beautiful but Sistine Chapels. As a writer, I am happiest with how this line came out more than any other line I’ve written. There is a perfect amount of metaphor, imagination, and sweetness packed into just a few words. 

Here is the full song:

 

In the same song there is also a line:

“You’re breathing with me, our souls have met.”

As a writer, the lyric “our souls have met” is quite satisfying. It took me weeks to put the magic of that touch into words. For me, this song has deep and meaningful lyrics. As the author of this song, I am happy how the lyrics came out. To me, this is a deep song with meaning. 

If you like romantic songs, here is my blog post with analysis of some of the most poetic love songs ever.

Best Song Lyrics: Stairway To Heaven By Led Zeppelin

Arguably, the line “There is a lady who thinks that all that glitters is gold, and she’s building a stairway to heaven.” is a line in all of music that’s stayed with me the most. It’s a song with a lot of meaning and a meaningful message. It’s been impactful to my life and enriching to my soul. The imagery of a stairway to heaven is very creative yet easy to imagine and almost see. Such imagery inspires a lot of emotion.

Best Song Lyrics: When Shakespeare’s Lines Are In The Song

One of my proudest moments of writing was when I was able to take some of Shakespeare’s best quotes and use them in an original song. In this “Shakespeare song” for lack of a better song title, I took four of Shakespeare’s most famous quotes and sprinkled them throughout the lyrics of an original song. The song has two versions. Here is the acoustic, unplugged version with mostly my vocal and guitar:

 

If you want to guess which lyrics in the song are by Shakespeare, go ahead. If you just want to know the answer, these are the lyrics:

“Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs.” – Shakespeare

“You have witchcraft on your lips.” – Shakespeare

“In your heart of hearts” – Shakespeare

“Good night, good night. Parting is such sweet sorrow that I shall say goodnight til it be morrow.” – Shakespeare

In addition to Shakespeare’s lyrics, there are a couple I am proud of that are mine:

“It was us in his new tale of love. Fifty years we’ll dance with stars above, on Romeo and Juliet’s balcony….”

The line itself is just OK, but in the song, when it’s highlighted and elevated by music, the image of you and your partner dancing on Romeo and Juliet’s balcony is quite a powerful visual.

Best Song Lyrics: More Songs With Shakespeare’s Lines 

Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 is regarded as one of the greatest poems of all time, and I couldn’t resist but borrow one of his lines to put in my song. The famous line from that poem is:

Shall I compare you to a Summer’s Day? You are more lovely in every way.

I placed that line in the chorus of this song and made it extra catchy and upbeat. It makes it easy to remember and fun to sing along to.

The reason such writing is great poetry is the potency of its imagery. As soon as you imagine how lovely a person might be to be more lovely than a Summer’s day, all you want is to be with that person. It’s a sweet image, a sweet description of someone, and a sweet thing to dream about. With two songs that use Shakespeare’s writing, I may be creating my own genre! Just kidding!

Here is my full song incorporating these lyrics:

Best Song Lyrics From 90s Bands: Pearl Jam

Pearl Jam is one of the most iconic bands of the 1990s with many meaningful and heartfelt songs and many amazing albums. Here is one of their most lovely song lyrics:

I know someday you’ll have a beautiful

I know you’ll be a star

In somebody else’s sky

But why, why can’t it be mine?

Here is the full video:

WIND OF SIGHS – Song Inspired By Shakespeare And Socrates

This song asks the question: what is beauty? This question was first explored by Socrates in one of his dialogs. My answer in the song is that “beauty is that which inspires.” It is an abstract definition of beauty, but simple and direct definitions don’t work to define such an abstract concept. Personally, I feel like it’s the kind of a song that can make listeners feel a lot of emotions and have their minds drift away as the song is playing. I try to make my music very dreamy.

The rhythm and feel of this song feels very soulful.

The title of this song “Wind of Sighs” is inspired by Shakespeare’s quote: “Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs.”

What Makes Some Of Best Music Lyrics

Songs are poems, but only kind of. It’s not a 100% overlap. Song lyrics are quite different than poetry lyrics in that song lyrics get a lot of their power from their musicality and how they work with the overall musical arrangement, and the melody of the song.

The goal of poetry and music writing is to create relatable imagery in a person’s mind. If the lyrics can create an image, that image will evoke an emotional response. In music, the emotional response can come from additional sources like the way the singer sings, the music that’s played, or their combination. Music just has more elements at work that create a more powerful effect when they all work at their peak potential.

Best Song Lyrics: When They Are A Slice Of Life

Here is a war song that starts out as a farewell song about naive cadets who seek adventure and don’t know what’s coming. That’s common and can be found in many songs and poems. But there is a “lightning strike” moment just past the middle point of the song where the cadets are going off to fight while the lyrics are “…while another man comforts your lady.” Since this is a translation from a Russian song, when I play it to live English-speaking audiences who hear that lyric for the first time, there are often gasps in the audience. Here is the full song:

Most Meaningful Song Lyrics

While there are many great meaningful songs, I had to choose Halleluja by Leonard Cohen. The song is so unique. It blends imagination, religion, history, and a contemporary love story. It’s just beautiful, and one of the great masterpieces of our time. It was the first song I learned to play on guitar and sing, through which I spent a lot of intimate time with the lyrics and ideas of this song. And after years of deliberation and mulling over this song, like a great piece of art, it seems better and better the more I come back to it.

I believe that Leonard Cohen is the absolute best poet singer-songwriter in all American music, leaving Bob Dylan in second place. Thank you Leonard for inspiring me. Your music is soulful, creative, and inspiring. Cohen is a true artist and a genius. 

WHO BY FIRE by Leonard Cohen – Example Of Best Intense Song Lyrics

Below is a cover song of Leonard Cohen’s incredible song Who By Fire. This song explores how each of us will die, and of course, with that asks what are we like while we are alive.

This is one of Leonard Cohen’s poetic masterpieces, and in this cover of it I attempted to add a darker and more intense tone to the music and the vocal performance.

 

Best Song Lyrics In A Song For My Daughter Or Any Newborn

When my daughter was born, I held her, looked her in the eyes, and wondered about how her life will go. Of course, there are no answers in that moment so I imagined the answers in a song.  There are many nice lines throughout the verses of this song, but my favorite line is from the chorus:

“You’ll face the world before long, and flowers will bloom as you skip along.”

I wanted to paint the picture of flowers blooming wherever she goes in life, and have that image be a gift to her. This is something most new parents can relate to so I was hoping that this song would be a nice Father’s Day or Mother’s Day song. Here is the full song:

BITTERSWEET MIRAGE – Best Song Lyrics Inspired By Friedrich Nietzsche

This is a song about chasing dreams, and failing to reach them. In a way, it’s a sad and a bitter song, but it’s also a song that doesn’t seem to have lost all hope.

The interesting lyric inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche is paraphrased from the original, and reads something similar to:

You’ll go through great suffering if you find meaning in it.

This just means that if you find a hope or a goal that inspires you, you’ll go through great challenges and suffering if you think there will be some meaningful reward at the end, although there often isn’t. Here is the link to the full page about this song with song lyrics.

Another simple, but great lyric in this song is found in verse two:

Life never ties up in a bow.

 

Best Rap Song Lyrics

People may debate the poetic value of rap songs. While there are many interesting lyrics in the rap genre, there also tends to be much of the same “I have more money than you” and “I am tougher than you” for the taste of real poets. But there is one line in all rap music that stands out as poetry to me. It’s a song by DMX called “X Gon Give It To Ya.” To me, this line is where DMX shows us that he is a true artist.

The line is:

Wana fight me? Fight these tears!

Here is the full song for reference: 

Best New Music Song Lyrics

If you have favorite songs that you find meaningful, please send me a link to your song, and I might add it to this list. Thank you for reading. If I was to suggest some best music lyrics from modern songs, I’d (surprisingly to myself) choose the song by Miley Cirus “I Can Buy Myself Flowers.” It’s a nice piece of poetry in a genre and an era where the lyrics in songs are almost disregarded.

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