A Song That I Know All The Words To

Good lyrics are pretty low down on my list of what makes a good record (hook comes top, with the closely-related melody second, groove and performance coming next (sometimes those are difficult to separate out)). But lyrics are very high on my list of what makes a great record. I’m not on about anything profound or clever, and it’s not important for every line to be a zinger or even to be intelligible (Song Two, No Woman No Cry, Wooly Bully being fine examples of songs with some great catchy lyrics but for which you couldn’t work out the majority of words without sitting down and listening very hard indeed). I’m on about words that perfect match the mood of the song, for which the lyric drapes itself across the melody with unerring sympathy, and which has a personality of its own.

There are millions of songs that I know all the words to. So for the sake of being able to include a song on here that I adore, here’s The Cookies, with Don’t Say Nothing Bad About My Baby:

I won’t bother writing them all out, or analysing them. But suffice to say, the middle 8 contains one of my favourite lyrics of any song ever:

Everyone says he’s lazy
But he’s not when he’s kissing me
Everyone says he’s crazy
Sure he’s crazy, crazy about me!