Joni Mitchell makes my dick hard. Growl!

UGH! That poem was worse than the melancholy garabage produced by broken hearted whining co-eds that ever crossed my desk as the editor of a college literary magazine. I can usually tolerate literature that is less than stellar but bad poetry aggravates me.

Kanye is a clumsy lyricist, and has been since before he produced his way to the top. Don't get me wrong, I like his music, but I have to roll my eyes every time I pay attention to his vapid and self-loving/hating lyrics.

I think Kanye's capable of singular moments of lyrical brilliance, which are all over the first two records.

I agree, but it's not consistent enough to keep me all that interested.

Dave, imagine Joni circa 1970 actually *singing* those lyrics...would it still make you wretch? Methinks you'd be more forgiving...

kayne's opinion of himself is much higher than anyone else's.

Yeah, @6, the poem reads terribly, but I can imagine her singing it and it maybe coming off ok. It should not have been put down in print though.

#7: Yeah, I think his ego leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Re: 7 & 9: Totally, and it leaves fans like me very little room to be on his side, or root for him. He's doing it so effusively for himself by himself he doesn't need anyone else.

At least Muhammed Ali was a dazzlingly hilarious egotistical prick superman.

(Too bad, because I think Kanye's a world-historic talent...)

Seems every musician I consider brilliant has at least a few hideously bad lyrics. Sometimes entire songs. I think to make great art you need the confidence to not question yourself too closely, and that can result in some serious boners too.
Also, some crappy lyricists are so bad they're good. Trent Reznor's entire career is built on high school poetry. But it's such a universal (and childish) feeling he describes that it's hard not to relate and/or dig, from time to time.
Speaking of crappy lyrics, my crappy writing is killing me. I end this now. Laters all.
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Oh good..now I know which Joni album to buy next.

Joni's does seem more like lyrics than a poem. I am trying to imagine her singing it.

I smell a collaberation, but who will feature who?

Ah, thought of another so-bad-it's-good artist: ODB! Old Dirty had plenty of misses, but his stuff from Enter the Wu-tang can't be beat. It's also totally fucking retarded.
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#11: Word.

BUT, it seems like Kanye thinks he can wipe his ass on a track and it'll go platinum. I mean, at least try to be good mayne!

kanye west has some of the most embarassingly bad lyrics in contemporary hip-hop, which is saying quite a mouthful. his production acumen is his single saving grace.

In Vidal's recently published last installment of his memoirs he mentions that his long-time editor died in '06 and boy was it ever apparent. Reading that book was like watching the slow death of a lion.

That Joni poem sounds cobbled together from several of the worst songs on her last two or three albums (plus her old number "Paprika Plains"). But I do kind of like the repeated line, "Bad Dreams are good/In the Great Plan."

Kanye West can suck my balls.

Apparently the New Yorker poem is actually a song from Joni's new album coming out in a couple of weeks:
http://jonimitchell.com/musician/album.cfm?id=28

Only Jewel is allowed to publish lyrics as poetry.

Hahaha, I loved Jewel's awesomely bad poetry/lyrics when I was a starry eyed adolescent girl. I think I still have the book lying around somewhere.

I am a woman of heart and mind with time on my hands, no child to raise, but the blond in the bleachers, she flips her hair for you, above the loudspeakers you start to fall.

Oh well, it's the judgment of the moon and the stars - your solitary path.

Joni's new CD is out Oct 2, I believe.

And has anyone heard Annie Lennox's new one, "Dark Road?" The vid is available on youtube.

Joni and Annie both seem to be espousing a dark future.

You realize Kanye had ghostwriters working for him on his first two albums, right?