Greatest Broadway Lyricist?- Page 2

[Jon]

Posted: 10/9/08 at 10:16pm

Sondheim, Hart, Hammerstein, Ira G.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 10/10/08 at 12:56am

Sondheim and Porter are both music and lyrics and the absolute best in their times.
as just a lyricist, (i think of Carol Channing)
Here's Hart's first Hit:

There's a small hotel
With a wishing well
I wish that we were there
together
There's a bridal suite
one room bright and neat
Complete
for us to share
together
Looking through the window
you can see a distant steeple
not a sign of people
Who needs people?
When the steeple's bell
says goodnight, sleep well
We'll thank our small hotel
We'll creep in our little shell
And we will thank the small hotel
together


that's so sexy and I know that character.
Updated On: 10/10/08 at 12:56 AM

[H.Higgins]

Posted: 10/10/08 at 1:04am

I don't think there is one, single "greatest."

The best and brilliant to me, though, are:

Sondheim, Hammerstein, Hart, Porter, and Lerner.

[bwaylvsong]

Posted: 10/10/08 at 1:54am

I forgot to mention David Zippel's amazing lyrics for CITY OF ANGELS.

"Your fertile eyes don't fertilize"

[Timmer]

Posted: 10/10/08 at 11:04am

"Your fertile eyes don't fertilize" sounds Hart-like.

"I'm wild again,
Beguiled again,
A simpering, whimpering child again..."

And who else could use a word like "unphotographable" in a credible way in a good song?
Updated On: 11/1/08 at 11:04 AM

[Jon]

Posted: 10/10/08 at 12:20pm

my favorite Hart lyric:

When love congeals
It soon reveals
The faint aroma of performing seals
The double crossing of a pair of heels
I wish I were in love again

[jasonf]

Posted: 10/10/08 at 12:31pm

bwaylvsong - you took my answer. While over all Sondheim is my favorite, my single favorite show for lyrics is City of Angels - just so much brilliance there (and you chose my favorite song as the example also!).

Have to give runner up over-all credit to Ebb, Hammerstein, Porter, and Lerner.

[Timmer]

Posted: 10/10/08 at 1:12pm

While Oscar Hammerstein wrote excellent character songs, for the most part I find his lyrics pedestrian.

[Paul W. Thompson]

Posted: 10/10/08 at 3:48pm

I'm going on memory here, but which parts of this are pedestrian? I'm just sayin'......

Many a bright lad may kiss and fly--
A kiss gone by is bygone.
Never have I asked an August sky,
"Where has last July gone?"
Never have I wander'd through the rye
Wondering, "Where has some guy gone?"

Many a blue moon will rise,
Many a red sun will set,
Many a new day will dawn before I do.
Updated On: 10/10/08 at 03:48 PM

[jv92]

Posted: 10/11/08 at 4:10pm

There are many wonderful Larry Hart lyrics, but I am the only one besides Stephen Sondheim that finds him very sloppy?

[Timmer]

Posted: 11/1/08 at 11:57am

"When love congeals
It soon reveals
The faint aroma of performing seals
The double crossing of a pair of heels
I wish I were in love again"

Brilliant, and wonderfully, typically Hart.

Sondheim does a similar turning of the lyric in "Being Alive" but it's not as intricate.

[Timmer]

Posted: 9/6/14 at 12:57pm

Many have mentioned Ira Gershwin. An excellent choice as well.

[mjohnson2]

Posted: 9/6/14 at 1:14pm

Fred Ebb, Cole Porter, and Jerry Herman

[madlibrarian]

Posted: 9/6/14 at 1:32pm

Let us not forget John Latouche.

[Timmer]

Posted: 9/6/14 at 2:36pm

We'd be remiss if we didn't give Frank Loesser a mention.

[dreaming]

Posted: 9/6/14 at 4:43pm

Sondheim for me, followed closely by Hammerstein.

Sigh. I wish there were more women here...

[adam.peterson44]

Posted: 9/6/14 at 5:36pm

For me, Hammerstein is by far the best, and Sondheim follows next. Also would put Harnick, Lerner, and Loesser in the upper group, along with (although it is still early in the career) Yorkey. And i completely agree with what has been said above regarding City of Angels and It Needs Work in particular - i think David Zippel's lyrics and the jazz score of that show are brilliant.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 9/6/14 at 9:43pm

"Your fertile eyes don't fertilize"

That may well be the worst lyric ever heard on Broadway. And how do we know it's "fertile eyes" and not "fertile I's"? Actually, I think it might be "fertile lies", which makes slightly more sense. See the problem?

But Zippel has several lyrics in CITY that could be contenders:

"Familiarity
And in your case we both know what that breeds"

It's not rocket science, but by the time the listener has reversed the words to produce "familiarity breeds contempt", s/he has missed the next two lines of the lyric.

***

As for best, the only answer is Sondheim. He not only writes brilliantly for himself, he can successfully imitate all the others mentioned here.

(But I love Hart, too, the occasional awkwardness notwithstanding.)


Updated On: 9/6/14 at 09:43 PM

[adam.peterson44]

Posted: 9/6/14 at 9:53pm

^ But that isn't the lyric. It's "Your fertile lies don't fertilize", i.e. the fertile (plentiful) lies being discussed in the song, despite being figurative B.S. (a literal fertilizer), don't fertilize the metaphorical garden that the song is singing about. It works well in context even if it does not stand alone well when lifted out of the song.
Here is where it fits:


...and come to think of it,
your writing always mirrors our relationship.
With dangers cropping up,
and sweet young strangers popping up like weeds.

So if you wish official pardoning
you'd better do a little gardening,
you know you needn't be so generous with your seed.
Your fertile lies don't fertilize -
it needs work.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 9/7/14 at 8:41pm

Adam, I SAID it was "fertile lies", as that is the only choice that makes sense, the point being that the OP was praising a lyric he didn't even hear correctly.

But your analysis doesn't change the problem that in a song at that tempo, the listener may hear "fertilize" (twice), "fertile eyes", "fertile I's" or "fertile lies" as the words fly past.

This is true of most of CITY OF ANGELS. The lyrics may be very clever when heard multiple times on the recording, but most of the puns and jokes are missed in performance. That's just bad craft.

Fortunately, the Cy Coleman music is delightful.

Updated On: 9/7/14 at 08:41 PM

[david_fick]

Posted: 9/7/14 at 10:08pm

"By right she should be taken out and hung" should be enough to disqualify Lerner from the title fight, but there are many other examples where his lyrics falter too. His name can be struck from the list.