re: Greatest lyricists of all time

quote:

---

The thing I appreciate most about Springsteen's lyric is the attention to detail. He is so particular with his choice of words. He uses words like a painter uses paintbrushes.

Here is an example of what I mean from Jungleland.

---

I love Jungleland and you're right. Atlantic City is one of my favorite lyrical songs, and it nails the nuance of being young, poor and taking a desperate way out.

Look, I'll go to bat for Born in the USA having a tremendous amount of lyrical detail and depth for a pop song.

"Down in the shadow of the penitentiary
Out by the gas fires of the refinery
I'm ten years burning down the road
Nowhere to run, ain't got nowhere to go"

That's significantly above average for what he pretty explicitly did as a pop album. It's great imagery of a Nam vet down on his luck.