When I think of artists I take seriously, both lyrically and musically, several names come to mind.

Jeff Buckley

Thom Yorke and Radiohead

Matt Nathanson

Jim Adkins and Jimmy Eat World

Bono and U2

One name that doesn’t appear on that list is John Mayer. For the life of me, I cannot take Mayer seriously since the bubblegum pop radio mainstay that is “Your Body Is a Wonderland” became a single.

Mayer, a Connecticut native and Atlanta transfer guitar virtuoso, just doesn’t quite have the lyrics to match his style. He’s a blues man through and through, naming Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan as his guitar gods. Mayer himself is up there, for he has no problem playing “The Wind Cries Mary” or “Lenny” and he even performed with Double Trouble and Buddy Guy numerous times.

The problem with Mayer is in the lyrics. Plain and simple, they need work. A lot of work. When “No Such Thing” first became a staple to radio and graduating high school teens everywhere, it was a song that you sang along with. Mayer documents life after school in less than three-and-a-half minutes and even uses a metaphor that no one would pick up on.

“Okay, let’s get this straight,” he once told an audience during a question-and-answer bit for Country Music Television. “The phrase ‘I wanna run though the halls of my high school’ is a metaphor. Stop trying to picture me doing that.”

Aside from growing up and moving on, Mayer’s “Room for Squares” deals with the softer side of the goofy-looking 6-foot-4 singer. And what better to prove that with than “Your Body Is a Wonderland.”

“One pair of candy lips and a bubblegum tongue.” Wow. If that isn’t sexy, then I don’t know what is. Go ahead and try to use the title to the song as a pick-up line in a bar one night and see how many members of the opposite sex just laugh at you.

Mayer will forever be playing the song live, night after night, until he dies. The Grammy he won for it just proves that. Even if he doesn’t feel like playing it, his radio hits-only fans will scream their little 14-year-old hearts out until he satisfies their love of the song.

So what can Mayer do to break the “Wonderland” image? How about more songs along the lines of “Covered in Rain,” where Mayer has about a minute worth of lyrics and then seven minutes worth of a guitar solo. How about an entire electric album with no words? Just pure guitar, bass and drums. Leave the lyrics at home for a bit and just jam your little heart out.

So, John Mayer, in closing, stop trying to write cheesy love songs that you hope will land you in a bed with a supermodel, or a groupie in Denver when you pull through on your next tour. Focus more on the guitar element and maybe, just maybe, you can make that list one day.