Talking to a bass bud yesterday I spilled that I’ve always thought NIN’s Only was cleverly written. So I’ll start with that. In fact, it will be impossible for me to avoid covering this one soon.
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(in case you are not aware: this is a song by an italian artist made of gibberish words meant to sound like USA English)
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E-40, Dumb Hyphy.
Classic east bay style
To add context, this song is continued from side one. If you had a record player, you flip the record and get “Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends”
Had fun with this one
Runner up is How I Wish You Were Here by Floyd. It’s almost a spiritual experience to sing that song with 100,000 people in a stadium drowning out the band. Floyd played at a seriously low volume. But did that twice.
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The Giger artwork always seemed out of place in an ELP album to me.
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If Wiki is to be trusted, the origin story of the cover is interesting
This one has great lyrics but as David Byrne himself said, “too many.”
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A few off the top of my head.
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Paul Simon - You Can Call Me Al
Great bass on this too!
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Bob Dylan - Subterranean Homesick Blues
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Everlong by Foo Fighters;
“Breathe out, so I can breathe you in” just a fantastic line!
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(I still use Brainwashing Government Lackey as my job description)
“Wond’ring Again”
There’s the stillness of death on a deathly unliving sea,
and the motor car magical world long since ceased to be,
when the Eve-bitten apple returned to destroy the tree.
Incestuous ancestry’s charabanc ride,
spawning new millions throws the world on its side.
Supporting their far-flung illusion, the national curse,
and those with no sandwiches please get off the bus.
The excrement bubbles,
the century’s slime decays
and the brainwashing government lackeys
would have us say
it’s under control and we’ll soon be on our way
to a grand year for babies and quiz panel games
of the hot hungry millions you’ll be sure to remain.
The natural resources are dwindling and no one grows old,
and those with no homes to go to, please dig yourself holes.
We wandered through quiet lands, felt the first breath of snow.
Searched for the last pigeon, slate grey I’ve been told.
Stumbled on a daffodil which she crushed in the rush, heard it sigh,
and left it to die.
At once felt remorse and were touched by the loss of our own,
held its poor broken head in her hands,
dropped soft tears in the snow,
and it’s only the taking that makes you what you are.
Wond’ring aloud will a son one day be born
to share in our infancy
in the child’s path we’ve worn.
In the aging seclusion of this earth that our birth did surprise
we’ll open his eyes.
How one reacts to lyrics is super-personal and super-dependent on when you read those lyrics (or, actually hear them properly for the first time). Or, perhaps, they trigger a powerful memory, some association with the song and an important event in your life…
I like a lot of Sting’s wordsmithing. Sure, some sounds (on first listen) like something you might have written yourself, 50 years ago, when a classmate asked you to write something in their little booklet to jot down memories, wise or smart-ass citations and the like.
But, then, perhaps that same classmate/friend from long ago is diagnosed with cancer and suddenly some lyrics hit you really hard.
I like these four lines from Sting’s “Consider Me Gone”, where he spans wide with few words and reminds us of the constant duality of good and bad, love and hate, beauty and ugliness all around us all the time:
Roses have thorns, shiny waters mud
Cancer lurks deep in the sweetest bud
Clouds and eclipses stain the moon and the sun
And history reeks of the wrongs we have done
EDIT: ah, while googling the lyrics to check my memory, it appears that Sting has “lifted” most of this off a Shakespeare sonnet…
Well, my submission to this thread is then “Shakespeare Sonnet 35” with music by Sting 
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so much this. It’s part of why I haven’t posted a serious entry in this thread yet. There’s “perfect” lyrics for me that would mean little to others, that range from erudite, to hilarious, to excruciating as an icy knife into my chest.
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Here’s one I find myself singing over and over. Very deep lyrics.
…and, you can learn other languages! Bonus
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Misery’s forgotten chords
I strum in vain to please the Lord
But he has never answered me
My faith has waned eternally
In empty men who pass along
The woes of all religion’s wrong
Now the shadowed veil it falls
Heed the clarion call
So pray to music, build a shrine
Worship in these desperate times
Fill your heart with every note
Cherish it and cast afloat
'Cause God is in these clef and tone
Salvation is found alone
Haunted by its melody
Music, it will set you free
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Aquemini by OutKast. Most of their songs and any feature with Andre 3000 is great (checkout killer Mike song scientist and engineers.). But when it comes to best lyrics this verse always pops up first for me:
My mind warps and bends floats the wind count to ten
Meet the twin Andre Ben welcome to the lion′s den
Original skin many men comprehend
I extend myself so you go out and tell a friend
Sin all depends on what you believing in and
Faith is what you make it, that’s the hardest shit since MC Ren
Alien can blend right on in with yo kin
Look again 'cause I swear I spot one every now and then
It′s happening again wish I could tell you when
Andre this is Andre y′all just gon’ have to make amends
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Of course that’s all true, but we all know that, and this is ALL about you sharing what lyrics you really like, personally. : )
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Oh I know, and I plan to, just want to consider examples for a bit.