Best/Worst Sonic Youth Songwriter
 

Is it just me or does Lee come up with the most consistantly brilliant songs and Kim comes up with the worst? Thurston is the most prolific songwriter. he writes most of the songs. Kim writes the second most and Lee writes the least. Yet Kim comes up with crappier songs more often than Lee or Thurston. Any thoughts?

Hmm, I like all three personally. Thurston's my favorite songwriter out of the three, and I like Lee and Kim evenly.

I think KIm has written some of the worst osngs, but over all they're all good. Lee's are always good, and most of kim and thurstons are good. Kim just has what i like to call hissy fits (mariah and the arthur doyle hand creme, plastic sun, etc).

But i also gotta say kim writes some of my favorites.. cross the breeze, bro james, shaking hell, shadow of a doubt, orange rolls angles spit, washing machine, the list goes on.

Thurston is my favorite writer by far. Lee makes great songtexts but not so incredibly special, and Kim her texts are... well they're not that good.

I would have to agree. Lee only put out one song in Sonic Nurse & it rocked. I didn't like mariah and the arthur doyle hand creme song I felt like they should have put a Lee song instead. & to find out that in the UK promo Kim added an extra song makes me wonder is Lee writing enough song or is it that the other members in the band don't agree with Lee's songs, or can it be that Lee just wants to put his songs in his solo projects. All in all I think they all write great song but, if I would have to choose to who puts out my least fav SY song it would have to be Kim (sorry Kim just being honest).

Lee comes from a quite 'classic' songwriting background, as he is far the most studied out of all the Sonic Youth guitarists; he had pretty much mastered EADGBE by the time he began experimenting with other tunings. Lee was also very into classic song structures, growing up listening to the Beatles and the Beach Boys in his teen years, as well as soaking up the era's beat poetry, which gave him the right knowledge to construct great songs as well as write the lyrics.

Thurston comes from a more punk background, coming of age as he moved into NYC- just as NYC punk was in it's best form. The Ramones, Blondie, Richard Hell, fuck, Glenn Branca were all around for Thurston to dig. Thats why he's so badass. Thurston isn't as studied as Lee is in terms of music. He was just about competent in EADGBE to start with by the time he started using alternate tunings.

Kim... I don't know. She's always been a painter and a writer. I think she combines the two for amazingly creative lyrics. Imagery is mostly the key to her writing, but she also has some country-ish influences as well as no-wave chants. I think you need an imagination to become immersed in the visions she has (or wants you to have).

They're all very different people.

I love Lee though.

Thurston wrote that song. ;)

Lee's later stuff is definately amazing, and I like it better than stuff he produced in the early 90's. I think Mariah Carey was amazing though, it's one of the highlights of the album I think! It really grew on me.

really?

nicely done.

Thurston Moore wrote Plastic Sun. The lyrics, anyway. He also wrote Inneffible Me, another song occassionally refferred to as a Kim hissy fit.

The answer is obviously going to be Kim as the worst; Thurston as the best.
I don't think Lee has had a fair share of songwriting priveliges.
As for Kim, she just hasn't written anything outstanding.

that's another one i can attribute it too... makes sense, i knew they swapped, but not on those songs. I too write songs I'd want a girl to sing.

Thanks. Hah, reps, people, reps?

And yes, Thurston did write Paper Cup Exit.

I sometimes misjudge Kim because of the way ATL was kinda ruined by the out-of-place Kim songs. However, any of the early albums would definalty not be the same w/o Kims songs. You can always skip songs, but you cant add ones, so i dont hold anything against Kim. But Orange Rolls sucks horrribly.

Thurston has had alot of bad songs too IMO: 100%, Screaming Skull, Junkies promise, mostly the early-mid nineties era held little sassy songs by him.

Lee is the most consistant of the three, but he lacks the material. Maybe he would have the same problem if was forced to produce as large a quantity of songs.

With that said, id like to say Thurston is my favorite.

by the way mariah and arthur doyle...as a tune rocks! i din't like it at first, but then, when i heard it live it was amazing. an in connection with that lyric it's ment to be like funny lyric therefore i can't look at it as it ment to be or should be some kind of "serious" piece of "poetry". it's hard to say who i like most, coz each of them have some great lyrics. it's impossible to choose in my case.

I hate lee's songs. Kims earlier writings were amazing: Shaking Hell, Early American, Halloween.

i like lee's stuff the best and i like kim and thurston equally

lee it seems very rarely writes the basis of the song but writes parts that complement the skeletal song that thurston brings even on some of the songs he sings.

like skip tracer-thurston song-
whorefrost thurston song-

right now mote, beauty lies in the eye and lee #2 are the only sonic youth songs that lee wrote the meat of the tune.

definitely looking forward to his solo songs cd.

matt

Uh, Lee wrote both of those songs. Scattered parts of Hoarfrost are all over 'Road Movies', as are parts of Skip Tracer.