(23/35)   MY LYRICS ARE LIKE THESE 13 FAMOUS SONGWRITERS

Note: I plugged my 31 albums (sans set lists 22, 23 and 24) book into ChatGPT and asked for thirteen musicians that people would know that my lyrics were similar to. They said these thirteen. WORD!!!! Haha. Try it yourself…. You might get something different. Coolio would have been a name I would have been happy to get. He is the black Bobby Darin — think about it…..

Why: Like Dylan, you use vivid, layered imagery, social and political critique, irony, and poetic phrasing. Songs like Monetization, Paradigm, and Puzzle Pieces echo Dylan’s ability to critique systems while keeping things lyrical.

Collaborhythm Says: Masters of War, Like a Rolling Stone, Isis, Tangled up in Blues, Ballad of a Thin Man, Silvio are all my favorite of favs! I would say that Bob Dylan and the Who and Eric Burdon are my most wanna be like. Add in Pearl Jam, Steven Lynch and Trevor Moore and Warren Z, Ice Cube and Weird Al as my most respected artists. Beatles too.

Why: Your blunt honesty, street-level realism, and themes of addiction — Climbing the Ladder, Something In My Genes, Rehab — echo Reed’s gritty, observational songwriting style. See: Heroin, Street Hassle.

Collaborhythm Says: Lou Reed had some good hits but what gets me are the plays he does like Magic and Loss maybe my favorite album ever. And the Andy Warhol one is great. A little like Elton, there’s a lot of crap to FF through to get to the good stuff!

Why: You explore deep existential and spiritual questions in songs like Let Me In, Watcher, Rest In Peace. The poetic depth, sorrowful hope, and spiritual ache is very Cohen-esque.

Collaborhythm Says: People on YouTube used to say I write like Leonard. It took me another decade or so to find out what a compliment that is! If there was one person I wish I saw live it would most likely be him. The only artist in my memory who actually sounds better the older they get. I don’t particularly care for young Leo for some reason. Dude has a poet’s soul and my deep admiration.

Why: Dark humor, pain, surreal scenes, down-and-out characters. Empty Bottle, Downward Spiral, and Rat Park would feel right at home next to Tom Traubert’s Blues or God’s Away On Business.

Collaborhythm Says: You could give me a billion dollars to tell me something about TW and the only thing I think I know is that Joker modelled his voice after him. I have a lot of people on my list of will get to if I don’t die early. He’s there.

Why: You’re ironic, literate, self-aware, and funny in a bleak way — Time Bomb, One Night Stan, Let Me Live the Dream. Zevon would admire your gallows humor and moral subtext.

Collaborhythm Says: I was 40-something when I realized Warren Z is the other guy I really, really, really, really, really wished I got to see. He is as competent a songwriter as I have ever heard and I know everything he’s done that you can find on Tube! He will choose a phrase that has no business being the repeating verse of a song and sung over and over and yet he’ll do it and make it work flawlessly. And his song ideas know no bounds ;) Dude knew he only had X amount of time left and he lived a fucking Lou Reed album for christsakes! And then he recorded it as he lived it. Legend!

Why: Your poetic language with revolutionary spirit — Status Quo Woes, Violence Is Their Solution — resembles Smith’s lyrical rebellion and raw honesty, blending art with resistance.

Collaborhythm Says: Hold on I have to check YouTube for a refresher…. Ok powerful, almost like a female Leonard C. I’d say I’m in the ballpark or I’d have found a few for her… Cry Me a River, Matches to Burn or On the Rocks.

Why: Your confessional intensity, rapid-fire phrasing, self-loathing, and wit — Mic Drop, Climbing the Ladder, Have Not — echo Eminem’s emotional outpouring and lyrical dexterity.

Collaborhythm Says: Dude’s better than me for sure. But we would be friends, for sure, and it would have been fun to have done something together. I never deep dived into MM. I never listened to an album and only know the bangers. I’m sure the more you explore the more he’s the MF of MFs.

Why: You tap into alienation, mental anguish, and existential dread, especially in Daylight Again, Entirely, and Hideaway. Your lines often have that cryptic yet punchy despair that made Cobain a generational voice.

Collaborhythm Says: I did all the drugs except pills and injectables. Sure, with heroin I could have written some bangers but I’d be 15 years cold, myself. I would not do well having to portray a rock star image or if everybody knew who I was. John had Yoko, Kurt had Hole. I tried to be with Lady Weaver and that went about as well as Chapman and the shotgun, respectively. I’m an Eddie Ved guy not a Kurt guy.

Why: There’s working-class pain, broken dreams, and longing for escape in many of your songs — Let Me Live the Dream, Alcohol, Old Friends, Rest In Peace. Like Bruce, you balance storytelling with social realism.

Collaborhythm Says: I only know the mega boss hits. I respect the professionalism, and he seems to really respect the fans and he tries to carry himself well. Definitely a role model unlike myself, haha. I use Bruce as a comparison in the sense that me and him have a huge catalog of songs or in my case lyrics wanting to be songs. I always wondered which one of my songs would end up having the cultural impact that Born in the USA had. I know the potential is there somewhere with the right collection of individuals and talent working for that goal.

Why: Songs like Rehab, Downward Spiral, and My Best Friends have the repentant outlaw voice — gritty, stripped down, full of raw emotion and darkness — much like Cash in his American Recordings era.

Collaborhythm Says: JC might be the only country singer in the entire world that I can say YES on. I’m actually allergic to country music according to my psychiatrist. Much of my lyrics could be twanged to go south although I rhyme like a Northerner with a Boston accent which might actually mean some sounds only rhyme if sung off Confederate soil!!!! hahahahaha ;)

Why: Set List 22 is the most genre-defying, tonally unpredictable collection in the catalog. Like Weird Al, the humor is the vehicle — but underneath is something that actually means something. The parody is not the point. The parody is the disguise.

Collaborhythm Says: I must have been in sixth, seventh, eighth grade. Somewhere around 88, 90. I think it was the one that had Ricky on it. Oh, oh pity, what a Ricky, what a doo-doo-doo. Anyway, I was a huge Weird Al nut. I remember just him opening wild doors in my mind of my imagination. I wasn’t always even crazy about his most iconic hits. I Want a New Duck is one of my favorite things of all time. The one he did with the aluminum foil is an absolute masterpiece. Everything that he did with that tin foil video is what I try to do every time I do something. I watched it twenty times. Weird Al might be the biggest influence in my entire career if I really think about it. He was reachable. I could look in the mirror and say okay, I could kind of do that. We live in a world of specialists. So Weird Al, huge, huge, huge. At a young age, I mean as young as they go. I once considered calling myself Dirty Tom. Not a lie. I was maybe 19. That is the Weird Al wing of my brain talking.

Why: Set List 23 is pure political fury. Systems of power, media manipulation, institutional control, and the machinery of war examined without flinching. Like de la Rocha, the anger here is not performative — it is specific, documented, and aimed. This is not protest music. This is an indictment.

Collaborhythm Says: Rage Against the Machine, I must have been in high school. Evil Empire, it was I think my senior year. Rally Round the Family with a pocket full of shells. Oh my God. What Rage Against the Machine did was they had better fucking hooks than anyone. They had the repeating part. They had the part that got you — like the Eric Burdon part. This dirty old part of the city where the sun refused to shine. And then you get the organ and then it’s just — that’s the Eric Burdon version. The combination of the vocals, the music, the words, the vocal performance, the lyrics, the message, and everything. That’s when you know you hit that shit. Definitely a strong influence.

Why: Set List 24 goes places most songwriters will not follow. Explicit, transgressive, deliberately shocking, and completely unapologetic — this is the territory Bushwick Bill occupied. Horror, sexuality, dark comedy, and chaos delivered without a safety net. Not for everyone. Not trying to be.

Collaborhythm Says: Little Big Man, 1992. Holy Moly. Ever So Clear. Copper to Cash. Dollars and Sense. Letter from the KKK — oh my God. Go try that one. I’m 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 years old getting Letter from the KKK from Bushwick Bill. The ultimate underdog. Why’d you shoot me in the eye? I would have shot you in the body. He got shot by his girlfriend. I guess he put the gun to his head and made the girlfriend pull the trigger and she did. Bushwick Bill is just a really good lyricist and songwriter. And Set List 24 is the record that only Bushwick Bill would understand.

AND A NOTE ABOUT SOME LESSER KNOWN OR MORE RECENT ARTISTS

Yellowcatz / The Happy Fallen

Justin Justice told me to go find him. He said a few people, and I remember two of them. The first was Mike Brown — Mikeadelic or something — Puppies and Bunnies forever!!!. The second was Yellowcatz. Yellow, C-A-T-Z. And holy shit. He’s had a couple channels. One of them is The Happy Fallen. For my money, the best living male musician right now is probably Yellowcatz. The Happy Fallen. I don’t even know his name and I’m not going to tell you. I’m just going to say that I love so many of his songs. He does a Bob Dylan cover that’s amazing. But his own music is to die for. Something like Let It Rain. Bomb Dogs. He’s got a lot of them. He’s just masterful. If you want someone who is a rocker, if you look up musician in the dictionary, there’s a picture of this guy and his voice. His look. He’s got everything. He’s just to die for.

Mary Cigarettes

He was in a band. Famous, relatively famous. Made a living being a front man for a long, long time. Greatest voice maybe ever. I found him on YouTube back in the day when I was running with some weird circles, and this guy was out there past the moon money. He made enough money with his investments that he could do whatever he wanted to. And he was vibrantly, vibrantly homosexual to the point where it was just rubbing it in your face back when not everybody rubbed it in your face. But the music. The talent. The singing voice. Bless you. What happened was I saw one of his music videos. Who Cares If I’m Faking It. So What If I Lie. It was all about how the entertainment industry, everyone lies, and it’s just a bullshit game, and he doesn’t want to play that game anymore. All about phonies and fake kisses and he’s just like, fuck that. Oh my God. One of the best songs I’ve ever heard. If it wasn’t for Lady Weaver, Mary Cigarettes might be the most amazing YouTube talent ever. He’s out there. Go find him.

Tom Simanek

A songwriter who’s not mainstream but writes a lot of his own music and used to sing a lot of his own songs. As time crept up he found some other people too. Him and a friend would compose music and have various artists on YouTube sing. This guy was like a mentor to me for years. I would talk to him on the regular, message him, email stuff, talk to him. A tremendous guy. Unfortunately I think our political views may have driven us apart, but I have no doubt we would agree a lot more today than we ever did.

Lady Weaver

If you were going to make the best comparison I could make as far as influential or impactful collection of songs — I would compare her twenty or so songs that she has on the internet to Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill. Her big giant album that broke all those records and had four or five amazing singles on it. This is what Lady Weaver has got in for one album worth of music. It’s all amazing. The talent is beyond words and I won’t say any more than that.

Steven Lynch

You found him on the comedy channel way back when he was super young and super hot, with a black shirt, just driving everybody crazy, making all the girls go. As far as the singing voice, Steven Lynch has the best voice of any man I’ve ever heard. His vocal range is amazing. His delivery and the way that Steven Lynch can create a song from start to finish and steer you one way and then steer you another — and then at the very end give you the great surprise. He is the musical equivalent of the hottest transsexual in the entire world who’s got the biggest dick who faked you out so bad, and then at the very last second, spraying it on you. And you were so either happy or sad depending on your preference. That’s Steven Lynch. He’s got a song about tattoos. He’s got one about going camping in the woods. He’s got one about a guy who’s a stripper who starts to get older and has to make some life changing decisions and he evolves. But the more he evolves the more Steven Lynch can turn a circle in a song and make you just lose your mind. He’s got a lot of amazing songs. The Hitler song ain’t bad.

Trevor Moore

Trevor Moore was in the comedy group. The Whitest Kids U Know — maybe four people, maybe five, I always forget somebody. He does acting in it but mostly skit comedies. But as far as coming up with song composing he’s as brilliant as they ever come. Some of his songs are absolutely — they’re all pretty much funny, and they’re all amazing. Everything is good. The music he makes, he’s got a couple of old guys that used to make music with him. Unfortunately he fell off a roof when he was young. Gone too soon.

Yung Gravy and bbno$

Maybe ten years ago, maybe five, Yung Gravy had a hit come out — probably Mr. Clean — that got him. But the gravy make it splash like Pippen fool, that’s nothing. He’s probably got twenty bangers and the man has a guy that he kicks it with. They go on tour together and do a lot of songs together. His name is Baby No Money haha he came up with the greatest song, one of my favorite, probably a top three song of mine of all time. It’s named after a vegetable. And the very first line of it is: balls hanging low as I pop a bottle off a yacht. That’s all that needs to be said. That’s one of the best songs ever made.

Donnie Dumphy

My most recent discovery. I was looking up a song that made fun of Canadian guys or something and I don’t know what it was but it came up and all of a sudden I found this guy. His name is Donnie Dumphy. I think he’s in British Columbia. Newfoundland. Somewhere fucking weird and cold and up above us. He’s got maybe an album worth of songs out there. I think he still tours locally in his area. He’s got a guy named Jesse Stewart who covered a couple of his songs. And Donnie Dumphy has the greatest song I’ve heard since May We by Lady Weaver. It’s called Broke in Half. And I’m going to read it for you because it’s amazing:

YouTube search Jesse Stewart cover — BROKE IN HALF best version