re: Is Cat Stevens the best lyricist ever?

Les Claypool

quote:

---

but Bernie Taupin was mediocre at best

---

The guy was brilliant, I mean you can't judge a songwriter based on several below average songs. Every great songwriter has mediocre or bad songs.

If you do the math on how many Elton-Bernie collaborations on Elton's albums, we are talking over a couple of hundreds of songs. It requires a special kind of imagination to write so many good songs.

When I think of Bernie, I think of an abstract painting. Lots of his songs are in a figurative or metaphorical style of writing, which makes it even more interesting.

There's a song on the GYBR album called "Grey Seal", beautiful melody and rhythm. There's an interview which Elton was asked what the song meant and he said that he did not understand the meaning of it and should be a type of song for the listener to interpret what it means.

Bernie was quoted of saying:
"I haven't got a clue what I was writing about. It was just images." (Source: Song Meanings).

"Bernie Taupin has always had a fascination with the occult and sacred/secret knowledge and has even published a book of his poems titled "The Devil At High Noon". The song is riddled with a number of Occult (Which Simply Means Hidden Meaning) allegories and symbolism.

The Grey Seal is likely not a cute sea mammal but an Old (Grey) Seal (Symbol) and probably the Egyptian Eye Of Horus which is tens of thousands/millions of years old if not more. Students of occult knowledge use this symbol to meditate and ponder it's many meanings and the actual information it contains much like the back of the US dollar bill." (Source: Song Meanings).

So, in conclusion, Bernie is far from being mediocre. The guy is (was) at another level of songwriting. I would call him a genius of his generation. And Elton another genius for putting those lyrics into music.