It has to be said, it was a bit easier coming up with good ’80s lyrics than it was to come up with crap ones. I could probably have chosen three or four crackers from many of the artists featured below, but space permits only one.
Maybe it’s not surprising that it was a great decade for lyricists when it was surely one of the most ‘literary’ musical decades to date – it would have to be with people like Bob Dylan, Morrissey, Paddy McAloon, Andy Partridge, Green Gartside, Tracey Thorn, Lloyd Cole, Joni Mitchell, Peter Gabriel and Springsteen around.
So here’s just a sprinkling of my favourites from the ’80s. Let me know yours.
PET SHOP BOYS: ‘Rent’
‘I love you/You pay my rent‘
EVERYTHING BUT THE GIRL: ‘Each And Every One’
‘If you ever feel the time/
To drop me a loving line/
Maybe you should just think twice/
I don’t wait around on your advice’
THOMAS DOLBY: ‘Hot Sauce’ (lyrics by George Clinton)
Brother in the codpiece/I’ve seen him on the TV
I think he likes his ladies all sweet and sugary
I’m partial to a pudding/But that’s for second course
The main meal and the hors d’oeuvres must be smothered in hot sauce’
LLOYD COLE AND THE COMMOTIONS: ‘Forest Fire’
‘I believe in love/
I’ll believe in anything/
That’s gonna get me what I want/
And get me off my knees’
ELVIS COSTELLO: ‘I Want You’
‘I want you/
It’s the stupid details that my heart is breaking for/
It’s the way your shoulders shake and what they’re shaking for’.
RANDY NEWMAN: ‘Mikey’s’
‘Hey Mikey/
Whatever happened to the f***in’ “Duke Of Earl”?’
JONI MITCHELL: ‘The Reoccurring Dream’
‘If you had that house, car, bottle, jar/
Your lovers would look like movie stars’
TALKING HEADS: ‘Crosseyed And Painless’
‘Lost my shape/
Trying to act casual/
Can’t stop/
I might end up in the hospital’
DANNY WILSON: ‘Never Gonna Be The Same’
‘Once there was an angel/
An angel and some friends/
Who flew around from song to song/
Making up the ends’
THE SMITHS: ‘Panic’
‘Burn down the disco/
Hang the blessed DJ’
DIRE STRAITS: ‘Brothers In Arms’
‘Now the moon’s gone to hell/
And the sun’s riding high/
I must bid you farewell/
Every man has to die/
But it’s written in the starlight/
And every line in your palm/
We are fools to make war/
On our brothers in arms’
DON HENLEY: ‘Boys Of Summer’
‘Out on the road today/
I saw a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac/
A little voice inside my head said/
Don’t look back, you can never look back…’
PREFAB SPROUT: ‘Horsechimes’
‘Hello Johnson/
Your mother once gave me a lift back from school/
There’s no reason to get so excited/
I’d been playing football with the youngsters/
Johnson says don’t dramatise/
And you can’t even spell salacious’
KING CRIMSON: ‘Indiscipline’
‘I repeat myself when under stress/
I repeat myself when under stress/
I repeat…’
PETER GABRIEL: ‘Family Snapshot’
‘Come back Mum and Dad/
You’re growing apart/
You know that I’m growing up sad/
I need some attention/
I shoot into the light’
XTC: ‘Love On A Farmboy’s Wages’
‘People say that I’m no good/
Painting pictures and carving wood/
Be a rich man if I could/
But the only job I do well is here on the farm/
And it’s breaking my back’
DAVID BOWIE: ‘When The Wind Blows’
‘So long, child/
It’s awful dark’
THE POGUES/KIRSTY MACCOLL: ‘Fairytale Of New York’
‘I could have been someone/
Well, so could anyone’
