«Today’s Lyrics Are Pathetically Bad» Rick Beato

The 60's & 70's gave us: Walter Becker & Donald Fagen - Leonard Cohen - Ray Davies - Bob Dylan - Joni Mitchell & Al Stewart.

The 80's & 90's gave us: Lloyd Cole - Rodney Crowell - Matt Johnson (The The) - Paddy MacAloon (Prefab Sprout) - Morrissey (Smiths) & Paul Westerberg (Replacements).

As for the 21st century, I'm hard pressed to think of anyone who deserves to be mentioned or compared to any of the above songwriters. 

Throughout history, all art forms (acting - music - painting - writing) and sports go through periods of drought when it comes to someone achieving true and/or transcendent greatness. In those unfortunate times, what tends to happen is that the "very good" will probably get elevated to greatness by default.

Which makes for lively debate; and, this thread has certainly achieved that! So, kudos to all that have participated.

My # 1 criteria for good lyrics is: "Does it impress me on any and/or multiple levels?"

I forgot to mention Billy Bragg in my initial post. I submit the following examples, which all come from the same song ("Accident Waiting To Happen"):

Goodbye and good luck to all the rubbish that you've spoken - Goodbye and good luck to all the promises you've broken - Your life has lost its dignity, its beauty and its passion - You're an accident waiting to happen.

One of these nights you're gonna get caught - It'll give you pregnant pause for thought - You're a dedicated swallower of fascism (KINKS reference)

Time up and time out for all the liberties you've taken - Time up and time out for all the friends that you've forsaken - If you choose to waste away like death is back in fashion - You're an accident waiting to happen.

And my sins are so unoriginal - I have all the self-loathing of a wolf in sheep's clothing - In this carnival of carnivores, Heaven help me.