Reading Lyrics: More Than 1,000 of the Century's Finest Lyrics--a Celebration of Our Greatest Songwriters, a Rediscovery of Forgotten Masters, and an Appreciation of an | 
 enlarge | Authors: Robert Gottlieb, Robert Kimball
Publisher: Pantheon
Category: Book
List Price: $39.50
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Avg. Customer Rating:  17 reviews
Sales Rank: 57191
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 736
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.4
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.6
ISBN: 0375400818
Dewey Decimal Number: 782.421640268
EAN: 9780375400810
ASIN: 0375400818
Publication Date: November 21, 2000
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| Customer Reviews: Read 12 more reviews...
 "Reading Lyrics" Lives up to its billing May 15, 2007
Excellent collection of non-rock pop music from 1900 to 1975, after which the authors say the kind of music they have collected has pretty well disappeared. They feature a short bio of each writer or team of writers,interesting, but nothing you couldn't find with a quick internet search.
They do not include country, rock, folk or "world" lyrics--strictly pop Americana, heavy on musicals, show tunes, cabaret and torch songs, songs that went with the big-band swing era, etc.
It can be a little hard to find songs in the book--they are arranged in roughly chronological order by author--and the index contains first lines, but no "trademark" phrases that might help you track down a song whenyou have a fragment of a lyric caroming about in your head.
It gives the lyric that we usually remember, but also includes the short preludes that these songs usually featured. "Stardust," for example, starts out with "And now the purple dusk of twilight time. . .etc." that precedes "Sometimes I wonder. . . etc."
fun to read,just to get a fix on the various eras of American musical pop culture. Occasionally it makes you wish that more of our current lyricists had the skills that the Cole Porters and Yip Harburgs posessed.
This is so great, that I am ordering another copy March 10, 2007
I bought this as a gift for a friend who enjoys knowing all the lyrics of songs. In this book, he discovered some intros and verses he hadn't known.
He has enjoyed the book so much that I am going to buy one for myself.
Lyrics, oh, the lyrics February 15, 2007
It is usual that books cover the music side of those classic songs. This one, instead, focus on the lyricists, that's the way it is organized. Chronologically, but in the writers order. A thousand songs! It covers almost the whole 20th century but,of course, mainly the 30s and 40s, the classical years for American Popular Songs. It is beautiful to follow those wonderful verses - keeping in mind always the melodies that come behind. What a powerful combination.
One more thing: if you, like me, loves books as much as music, this one has a particularity: it smells divine! try it!
It's Delovely! November 9, 2006
Highbrow collection of the best lyrics. Creme de la creme! My 3rd copy.
 ... to 1975? Not quite. November 2, 2005
2 out of 6 found this review helpful
This is an excellent compilation, as every other reviewer has said (and with more eloquence than I can muster). Yet, I came to the book, apparently, with an entirely different set of expectations--reading this book, you'd think the 50s and 60s and even early 70s didn't happen. Bob Dylan, not included. The Doors, not included. Joni Mitchell, not included. Marvin Gaye, Paul Simon, Bob Marley ... The Beatles?? Not included. And I'm only scratching the surface. The list of omissions begins here and goes on and on--if, that is, you think these musicians are great lyricists/songwriters (and I do). Admittedly: this should come as little surprise. The introduction states that in the process of editing, "A more painful decision was to limit the field to the song as we know it from shows, movies, and pre-rock pop. Partly this was a matter of logistics: No single volume could stretch to include folk, country, blues, and rock. And though a collection of lyrics that excludes, say, Bob Dylan or Hank Williams is obviously one that is far from complete, their stories are not the stories we can tell here (or are equipped to tell)." Fair enough. But, given the room these editors give to some more obscure songs and songwriters, it's clear that a single volume could successfully stretch to include other genres. That single volume would be outsized, but it would be invaluable.
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