The First Lyrics You Remember Being Grabbed By

DG: The Len Barry Combo - 1-2-3 

I like voices first. Lyrics are nice if they have some energy as well, but the delivery is everything. So first lyrics I probably heard are from the song 1-2-3 by The Len Barry Combo - but it’s a perfect piece of music with the beat and the voice really stretching to get the notes. That or Puff the Magic Dragon by Peter Paul and Mary.

CM: Beatles - Fool On The Hill (As Performed By Sergio Mendez & Brasil 66)

It was all about the Beatles vs Stones when I was a very small child. I have to say that I was a Rolling Stones girl for sure. I Wanna Hold Your Hand seeming a little naff to me, compared to The Stones I Wanna be your Man... even though Lennon and McCartney wrote both songs!

The cut through often depends on your view of the singer/band. I have noticed since that I’ve come around to appreciating many Beatles songs more, mainly through the cover versions by artists like The Fifth Dimension and Sergio Mendez & Brasil 66 and their fabulous version of Fool on The Hill.

A Lyric You Wish You'd Written

DG: Pere Ubu - My Dark Ages

Amazing long-running US band. This song rang so true of my dank teen years when I first heard it. “I don’t get around – I don’t fall in love much.” Could have as easily been this or their rock n roll classic Final Solution.

CM: Anything by Jimmy Webb

Taking into account that he wrote By The Time I get to Phoenix, Wichita Lineman, Up, Up And Away, Galveston and his incredible albums collaborating with the actor Richard Harris that included songs like Macarthur Park and The Yard Went On Forever BEFORE he turned 23 years of age. Showing an amazing maturity, knowledge and great skill at such a young age.

A Favourite Lyric From Your New Album

DG: Dave Graney & Clare Moore - Everything Was Funny

It's all good! It's all my favourite. There’s a clip for this one. The title track. It's funny. I’m funny. Music is funny. Everything was funny. What does “funny” mean?

CM: Dave Graney & Clare Moore - The Anita Effect

The album IS all good! For me, Dave's lyric in The Anita Effect is a haunting story of a highly influential woman (women) who moves through a scene leaving her mark ,without seeming to touch anything. Often these women are referred to as “Muses“ when in fact they could be the true artists.

A Lyric You Think Is Perfect

DG: Television - Little Johnny Jewel

Greatest debut single of all time? Again, the music setting with a three note bass line and skittish jazz feel on the drums and the two guitars doing things no one else had ever put down in a pop song. Originally a 7” single with Parts 1 and 2 on each side. that also made it unique. 

CM: Jodi Phillis - Mama Told Me A Secret

In this song Jodi tells the most moving story about her mother, her beautiful nature and the kindness she expressed to all around her. Jodi’s vocal performance along with her soft acoustic guitar picking are perfect. She is a songwriter, composer, performer at the pinnacle of her abilities.

A Lyric That Makes You Happy

DG: Kid Creole and the Coconuts - I'm A Wonderful Thing, Baby

A master songwriter and producer. It has great interplay with the chorus or backing singers and is part of a great show he built up full of street characters all hanging around himself, the shadiest of them all. Amazingly sophisticated pop artist. I love this as much for the bass sound as well.

CM: Pretty much everything by Mental as Anything

the greatest pop band Australia has produced! If You Leave Can I Come Too? is a favourite. Martin Plaza's lyric here is so sweet, even when dealing with a relationship breakup he manages to turn it all around.

A Lyric That Makes You Sad 

DG: Margret RoadKnight - Girls In Our Town

Written by Bob Hudson from the times when there were songwriters and also singers. Before The Beatles - or Buddy Holly - the singers got their songs from somebody else. Incredibly desolate Australian song that also incredibly was played on radio and became a pop hit. Margret RoadKnight is still a brilliant performer.

CM: Sandy Denny - Who Knows Where the Time Goes

Initially there is a feeling of nostalgia and opportunities lost in this lyric, but by the end of the song the singer finds that she has everything she needs around her. A great turn around - its not really a sad song after all. 

The Most 'Underrated' Lyrics

DG: Steely Dan - Rikki Don’t Lose that Number

They never dumbed down. Brilliant lyrics and music. I love their songwriting the way other people talk of Bob Dylan or Tom Waits or Leonard Cohen. Steely Dan are much better – for me – than any of those acts. I like the musical settings and the drama.

They bring up these odd characters and impenetrable lyrical flow with great grooves and melody. And they had massive pop hits. This song, starts with a  lick from a Horace Silver track called Song For My Father then it s a story of an older man trying to groom ? or pick up a younger person? A boy or a girl? 

CM: Robyn Hitchcock - 1974

Robyn Hitchcock who is an English singer songwriter and led the band The Soft Boys in the ’70’s is a brilliant lyricist... Serpent at the Gates of Wisdom, Madonna of the Wasps, Railway Shoes, One Long Pair of Eyes, The Cheese Alarm, No I Don’t Remember Gulidford - his is a vast collection of work. He has just released a book of lyrics and illustrations called Somewhere Apart. 

A Lyric You Think Everyone Should Know 

DG: The Isley Brothers - Harvest For The World

The musical groove for this song is irresistible. Guitar strumming and then a backbeat and handclaps. Beautiful vocal tone and harmonies. But the chords are so jazz and R&B informed. The sentiment in the lyric is beautiful and unarguable. "When will there be a harvest for the world?"

CM: Elvis - If I Can Dream

At this juncture I think the world would do well learning these uplifting Rev Martin Luther King-inspired lyrics by Walter Earl Brown from the master of course - ELVIS PRESLEY.

Everything Was Funny from Dave Graney & Clare Moore is out now.