Best spoken word pieces

The intensity of its physical expression. Snatching words from memory the split second before they swing and hang in the room in front of you. The release of something so deeply personal with the raw tools of one’s being.

My first spoken word performance itched with pre-show anxiety and all its peculiar manifestations. We all deal with unwieldy nerves in different ways; some puke before a show, some need solitude. I learnt that on that day, and at every performance since, I need:

• An unusual amount of water
• To make several visits to the urinal (especially just before going on)
• To have conversation as a babbling soundscape but not to be expected to contribute, therein coming across as a rude bastard to strangers

Since then I’ve performed at festivals in Denmark, with jazz musicians in Southern Africa, with vocal ensembles in mainland Europe, run workshops with inspiring young voices from Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Scandinavia, and collaborated with artists from all over the world. The spoken word has always had a possessive element to it for me. I know of no other avenue through which the word can be delivered that ties me so tightly to someone’s thoughts and struggles in the space of a few minutes.

As a teenager, the mathematical dismembering of written poetry in thickset anthologies killed the enigma and subjective nourishment that makes the word so special. Getting lost in words is difficult when you’re encouraged to look for the ‘right’ path or answer in something so vast and fluid. Spoken word and hip-hop felt like wide open spaces in comparison.

If you want to sit by someone’s side for a while and hear the grinding that pushes and pulls them, then here’s my (savagely refined) list of favourites online:

1. Buddy Wakefield — “Convenience Stores”

Why not start at the top? I was into hip-hop before and during my introduction to spoken word. My housemate in my second year at university was one of those crazed hip-hop intellectuals who excavated careers and labels to give you the bones and backstories of all the artists you had and hadn’t heard of.

Sage Francis featured a guy called Buddy Wakefield on one of his albums, and my hip-hop fiend of a friend recommended I listen to the following poem. No piece of music, film, or any other form of artistic expression has had the same clawing effect on me as this:

2. Kate Tempest — “Line in the Sand”

I first met Kate Tempest at a show in a basement in a totalitarian vegan café in Brighton, UK. I joined other acts in the opening slots before her. I crossed her path once more a couple years ago when she was screening one of her pieces at an event in London and her name had already begun to sound on radio and television:

3. LKJ — “Inglan Is a Bitch”

Linton Kwesi Johnson, or LKJ as he’s commonly known, is the father of dub poetry. His poetry gyrates with a cadence born in the Caribbean, and his content is shaped by his experiences as a young man in the UK, highlighting police brutality, racism, and life on the concrete island. A timeless flow and message with or without the backing of a band:

4. Dizraeli — “Maria”

Poems on politicians, verses on bombing supermarket chains, and a deep human resonance and skill for storytelling make Dizraeli one of the illest emcees and spoken word artists around. The following piece, “Maria,” has been known to make the most unbreakable, emotionless zombies shed a tear:

5. TJ Dema — “Neon Poem”

Representing Botswana, TJ Dema has featured at events around the world and never failed to capture audience members and performers as she does so. She is a fellow member of the spoken word / jazz fusion group Sonic Slam Chorus and has a truly unique style and manner of describing her world in a way that calls on all your senses:

6. Toby T — “Tomorrow”

I only heard of this lyrical talent recently. Toby T’s face gives away the fact that he’s in the twilight of his adolescence. His content suggests he’s at the foothills of a promising career. With a staggered flow, Toby’s feelings stammer out against the backdrop of delicate musicianship. Check out other videos online that show his versatility as a poet and emcee, but start here:

7. Andrea Gibson and Katie Wirsing

The links that the online searches will suggest can lead you further on a journey into the word to find other talented practitioners. That’s partly how I came across Andrea Gibson and Katie Wirsing. I had seen them perform on a UK tour once and forgotten their names only to stumble on them online.

Below they perform a poem by Christian Drake, probably the most brutally beautiful and violently heartfelt, blood-stained love poem you will ever come across:

8. Shane Koyczan – “To This Day”

Canadian poet Shane Koyczan released an animated spoken word video earlier this year that has rocketed towards 9 million views on YouTube. A jolting piece on bullying and an anthem for the bullied. Arguably one of the best visual presentations in spoken word accompanies it:

You know what I love? Soliloquies! Nothing is more awesome to me than when an album pauses in all the music and has a track where someone suddenly takes the mike and starts talking. Done well, it can be a hell of a powerful piece, but I respect the courage of anyone who gives it a shot.

Some artists actually go onto be better spoken-word artists than musicians: Jello Biafra possibly, and Henry Rollins definitely. Storytelling never goes out of style, and that’s why today we’re going to show you some of the best songs without music.

10. Lou Reed, «Harry’s Circumcision»
Some people like to say that the late Lou Reed is overhyped and never really offered anything much as a solo artist worth noting. To those people, I suggest you grab Magic and Loss because in addition to being a heartbreaking work about cancer and the lives that the disease claims, it’s a powerful tribute to how brilliant Reed could be as a musician. «Harry’s Circumcision» is a weird piece that explores the lengths we’ll go to in order to carve ourselves into a pleasing form — a rough track to listen to, but amazing all the same.

9. The Legendary Pink Dots, «Glasshouse Parts 1 and 2»
I’m not sure if it’s cheating to throw Edward Kaspel in here since so much of what he does isn’t exactly singing anyway, but this weird poetic interlude has always been one of the most amazing things I have ever heard recorded. It’s a soundtrack to a man giving up all hope, and that makes it somehow beautiful.

8. KMFDM, «Dogma»:
The absolute best part of Xtort was definitely when poet Nicole Blackman (also KMFDM’s publicist at the time) took the mike on «Dogma» and just freakin’ goes off on the disposable pop-culture world we live in. Though this song is technically not really in keeping in the theme since it’s more of a rap with a definite hook, her words are delivered with so much oomph it just would have been weird to not include it.

7. The Cruxshadows, «Jabberwocky»
I used to not be able to stand Cruxshadows because even for a goth band, they are just a little too melodramatic sometimes. Over the years, I’ve come to realize that’s it’s all in fun. Consider this hilariously over-the-top rendition of Lewis Carroll’s «Jabberwocky» for instance. After hearing it, I don’t think it should ever be read any other way.

6. Ani Difranco, «Fuel»
Difranco is more than capable as a beat poet, and for four glorious minutes on her big breakout album Little Plastic Castle she proves it over and over again. She wanders through a stream of consciousness looking for a deeper meaning in the modern world, but is left just considering it all wood to burn for the future.

5. Meat Loaf, «Wasted Youth»
Though I prefer Jim Steinman’s original title of «Love and Death and an American Guitar,» Meat Loaf certainly brought the better performance of the story as «Wasted Youth.» We follow a boy that goes mad from playing a forbidden power chord as he proceeds to murder friends and family alike.

The live version is even more awesome because it allows Meat to throw out a few comedic lines that weren’t in the original which show off his stagemanship. Fun fact: I performed this piece in speech class in high school. Got an «F» for inappropriate material. So in reality, I got an «A.»

4. Blood Axis, «Reign I Forever»
Now that we are all full of Thor-love from the hit Marvel films, let’s look at a more terrible version of the god. Set over an endless sample of Prokofiev’s «Dance of the Knights» Blood Axis announces the all-powerful rule of Thor… who they call a war god instead of a thunder god for some reason. It’s a fun bit, regardless, and how about some ballet to lighten the smiting?

3. The Cribs, «Be Safe»
What Difranco does with style and a certain sweetness The Cribs hit back with a bleak drunken nihilism that reeks of a pointless, hopeless outlook despite the constant refrain of «Be safe» in the background cautioning us to not stray from the beaten path. It just keeps going and going and going down a trapped path, and every step is genius.

2. Rasputina, «My Captivity by Savages»
For my money, Frustration Plantation was bar none the best album of 2004, and the one cannot-miss Rasputina album ever. Right in the middle, Melora Creager lays bare the story of how her pioneer family was murdered by wild natives, only for her to survive and be taken prisoner. It’s such a random, wonderful part of the record that I honestly hope one day she expands it into a novel.

1. Iggy Pop, «A Machine For Loving»
If you’re an animal lover you might want to skip this one because it is really, really sad. Pop describes in honest, aching detail the death of a beloved dog from old age and disease, and while his musing on the subject of a pet’s unconditional love is something very special, it will still have you in tears by the end.

Jef has a new story, a tale of headless strippers and The Rolling Stones, available now in Broken Mirrors, Fractured Minds. You can also connect with him on Facebook.

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Atlantis by Donovan — Love how he rolls his R’s in it

The continent of Atlantis was an island

Which lay before the great flood

In the area we now call the Atlantic Ocean

So great an area of land that from her western shores

Those beautiful sailors journeyed to the south

And the North Americas with ease

In their ships with painted sails

To them East Africa was a neighbor

Across a short strait of sea miles

The great Egyptian age is but a remnant of the Atlantian culture

The antediluvian kings colonized the world

All the Gods who play in the mythological dramas

In all legends from all lands were from far Atlantis

Knowing her fate, Atlantis sent out ships

To all corners of the Earth, on board were the

Twelve, ‘The poet, the physician, the farmer, the scientist

The magician and the other so-called Gods of our legends’

Though Gods they were

And as the elders of our time choose to remain blind

Let us rejoice and let us sing

And dance and ring in the new

Hail Atlantis!

There’s rap, and then there’s spoken word. Many great tracks have contained the human voice in narrative, rather than rhyming form, in all kinds of weird shapes and sizes, from chart-toppers to bizarre collectables.

So the chief rule of entry for our Really Sayin’ Somethin’ playlist is that the spoken word provides the chief “instrument” of the song, not in rap format but expressing text, telling a story or just as a stream of consciousness. All of these tracks have music in them, of course, but it’s the spoken communication that singles them out, and there really have been some gems.

The fun begins with a UK No.1 and international success, Australian film director Baz Luhrmann’s surprise 1999 hit “Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)” featuring Quindon Tarver. Its words began life as a column in the Chicago Tribune. The playlist ends with one of the biggest crossover dance hits of recent years and a song that captures the zeitgeist of the social media age, the Chainsmokers’ “Selfie.”

In between, it’s a treasure trove of big rock bands, 60s pop, soul men, and glorious eccentrics. Dire Straits’ hugely atmospheric “Private Investigations,” from 1982’s Love Over Gold, was a must, as was Paul McCartney and Wings’ charming, lesser-known vignette “The Broadcast,” from the 1979 album Back To The Egg. David Bowie was said to be a huge fan of this short, stirring piece, which featured one Harold Margary reading from Ian Hay’s The Sport Of Kings and John Galsworthy’s The Little Man.

English one-off Vivian Stanshall was a master of the spoken word, and is represented twice here. The Bonzo Dog Band’s hilarious “The Intro And The Outro” introduces the imaginary all-star band to top them all, with John Wayne on xylophone, General de Gaulle on accordion and Eric Clapton on ukulele. Then, at the end of the first part of Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells, who should crop up to introduce the instrumentation but Stanshall again.

Oldfield’s frequent collaborator Kevin Ayers is on hand to tell the story of the “Stranger In Blue Suede Shoes” (“thank you-very-muchh”), and the imposing voice of Sir Richard Burton booms out on an excerpt from Jeff Wayne’s The War Of The Worlds. There’s the moving finale from Leonard Cohen’s last album You Want It Darker, and a glorious vision of utopia from Ian Dury and the Blockheads.

Before rap established itself, the forefathers of the genre included such pacesetters as the Last Poets and Gil Scott-Heron, here with closely-connected pieces. James Brown’s chilling anti-drug message “King Heroin” still packs a punch, as does a typical piece of domestic drama from the Shangri-La’s. And one has to include William Shatner’s unintentionally hilarious interpretation of “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds,” which once prompted a radio DJ to suggest that perhaps, at the time of recording, he was being tortured by the Klingons.

There’s authentic 60s soul from the likes of Clarence Carter and Joe Tex, while coolness abounds in the shape of Jim Morrison, Iggy Pop, and modern-day bands like Gorillaz, Deerhunter, and the Hold Steady. Plus there are British modern rock favorites such as Tindersticks, Blue Aeroplanes, and Pulp, and Paul Hardcastle’s massive 1985 hit and anti-Vietnam War message song, “19.”

“Susan’s House,” the eerie glimpse of dystopia from Eels’ 1996 debut album Beautiful Freak, is on board alongside key American bands from Talking Heads to R.E.M. And the playlist couldn’t be complete without that great raconteur Tom Waits, who brilliantly describes “Frank’s Wild Years.” Never could stand that dog…

Listen to uDiscover Music’s Really Sayin’ Somethin’ playlist.

Spoken word artists list, with photos, ranked best to worst by votes. List of good spoken word bands includes a filter so you can sort by the group’s label and what albums they’ve put out. This list of the top spoken word bands in the world includes all musicians who have released recordings that have gotten distribution, and is an up-to-date list. Spoken word groups and artists are shown below along with any additional genres in which their music belongs. If available, you can also see information about where all spoken word bands on this list got started. These are truly the greatest spoken word bands of all time, since the most famous spoken word artists ever are listed, and the order is decided by actual fans of the best spoken word music.

You can click on the spoken word band names to see more information about that particular notable spoken word group. If they’re near the top of the best spoken word artist list, though, then they should have at least some information available. All the top spoken word bands named on the list also have discographies on their pages if you click on the spoken word band names themselves.

This list is made up of many different artists, including Allen Ginsberg and Jim Carroll. Vote for the best artists on the list to see them rise to the top. Which is better for an overall top ranking of this topic, Lydia Lunch or Saul Williams?

All important, significant and iconic names in spoken word music history deserve your votes, so make sure to choose wisely. You can only vote once on this list.

The list includes all new spoken word bands, and if there are any missing on the list, you can always add them yourself. Just make sure they aren’t already on the list and check your spelling, because this is already an accurate compilation of the best examples of spoken word, as well as a good place to start if you’re asking yourself, or friends, exactly how to get into spoken word music. Especially since the bands at the top of the list will at the very least be the best choices if you’re looking for a list of good spoken word bands with which to start out. No point in listening to them if they aren’t actually good or even half-way decent spoken word bands.

This list answers the questions «who are the best spoken word bands of all time?» and «who is the greatest spoken word musician ever?»

If you know enough about the genre, please vote based on the quality of the band’s music instead of just voting for the most popular spoken word bands that you might’ve heard of, but not really listened to closely enough to cast an informed vote.

Re-rank this entire page then share it to see what your friends think. {#nodes}