Call me unsophisticated, but if a song sounds good I pretty much do not care about the specific wording being used.
Do you actually care about the lyrics in a song?
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Last: 21 days ago by HtownAg92
I grew up in the early 60s listening to rock music on an AM car radio with the window down. You couldn't understand half of what was being said. Even now I listen to "Get Off My Cloud" and I still can't understand half of it.
I remember the huge controversy about the FBI investigating the "dirty" lyrics of Louie Louie. As if anyone could understand any of it.
That was one of the attractions of Simon and Garfunkel for me, that you could understand the lyrics and that they were poetic and often had some meaning to them. Most of the Beatles songs were also intelligible.
So yes, I spent much of my teen years loving the tune rather than the words.
I remember the huge controversy about the FBI investigating the "dirty" lyrics of Louie Louie. As if anyone could understand any of it.
That was one of the attractions of Simon and Garfunkel for me, that you could understand the lyrics and that they were poetic and often had some meaning to them. Most of the Beatles songs were also intelligible.
So yes, I spent much of my teen years loving the tune rather than the words.
I vote for both. Sometimes I really enjoy a song because of the lyrics, other times I just like the overall sound of it.
I think it depends on the genre as well. For rock, I typically don't care if the lyrics are nonsensical, for indie/folk and even rap, I appreciate if the lyrics are meaningful or clever.
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DargelSkout said:
I vote for both. Sometimes I really enjoy a song because of the lyrics, other times I just like the overall sound of it.
I'm pretty much like this, however I've noticed the older I get the closer I tend to listen to the words. A lot more eyerolling these days when it comes to back lyrics and I tend to appreciate a well written song more.
I hardly ever listen to the lyrics. To me, it's just an extensive of the music. They could be oohing and aahing for all I care. But I admit I'm a guitar player.....so I'm always listening trying to figure out the chord progression, etc.
DargelSkout said:
I vote for both. Sometimes I really enjoy a song because of the lyrics, other times I just like the overall sound of it.
I'm a big lyrics guy - not that a won't like a good song with bad lyrics…but good lyrics really put a song over the top for me.
That said, the song that always comes to mind when this conversation comes up is Blues Traveler - Hook:
Using clever lyrics to tell you that it does t matter how clever the lyrics are
That said, the song that always comes to mind when this conversation comes up is Blues Traveler - Hook:
Quote:
It doesn't matter what I say
So long as I sing with inflection
That makes you feel I'll convey
Some inner truth or vast reflection
But I've said nothing so far
And I can keep it up for as long as it takes
And it don't matter who you are
If I'm doing my job, it's your resolve that breaks
Because the hook brings you back
Using clever lyrics to tell you that it does t matter how clever the lyrics are
I think the music is what gets my attention first but as I listen to the song more and more, the lyrics can either make it or break it. There's a lot of great music out there but the lyrics are trash and some song lyrics I couldn't even repeat in public without people being offended. That's another pet peeve of mine. How can you as an artist sing certain lyrics but me as a fan playing or repeating your lyrics makes me a bad person?
Lyrics matter, they're the soul of the song.
It's like spotting an attractive person and then you get to know them. They could be either very rude and crude or they could be your type of person and you just hit it off perfectly. They say what you feel and finish your sentences!
Just my two cents.
Lyrics matter, they're the soul of the song.
It's like spotting an attractive person and then you get to know them. They could be either very rude and crude or they could be your type of person and you just hit it off perfectly. They say what you feel and finish your sentences!
Just my two cents.
Yes lyrics matter. A song can sound completely awesome and the lyrics can ruin it. AIC Man in a Box comes to mind. Music has a way of speaking in our deeper regions like no other genre. The lyrics are part of that.
I care about the lyrics.
Depends on the song. I love this little story about Earth Wind & Fire's "September", one of the greatest jams ever.
Quote:
Using a chord progression written by Earth, Wind & Fire guitarist Al McKay, vocalist Maurice White and songwriter Allee Willis wrote the song over one month. Willis was initially bothered by the gibberish "ba-dee-ya" lyric White used through the song, and begged him to rewrite it: "I just said, 'What the f*** does 'ba-dee-ya' mean?' And he essentially said, 'Who the f*** cares?' I learned my greatest lesson ever in songwriting from him, which was never let the lyric get in the way of the groove
Wait...you consider "Man in the Box" to be "ruined"?AgBQ-00 said:
Yes lyrics matter. A song can sound completely awesome and the lyrics can ruin it. AIC Man in a Box comes to mind. Music has a way of speaking in our deeper regions like no other genre. The lyrics are part of that.
I'm listening for a hook, which can be either lyrical or musical.
If there's no hook, I listen for an overall sound, which can be either.
I like "Road Goes on Forever" which could be a movie, I like "why Don't we Do it in the Road" which has the same 15 words for the whole song, and I like movie soundtracks with no words.
That's what is mystical about music. Organized noise that evokes emotion one way or the other.
If there's no hook, I listen for an overall sound, which can be either.
I like "Road Goes on Forever" which could be a movie, I like "why Don't we Do it in the Road" which has the same 15 words for the whole song, and I like movie soundtracks with no words.
That's what is mystical about music. Organized noise that evokes emotion one way or the other.
For the most part, I do care about the lyrics. I'm also a Pearl Jam fan.
And I realize how incongruous that is.
And I realize how incongruous that is.
Yes. The sound of the song is amazing but I cannot listen to it because of the lyrics. It is gut wrenching to hear a man plead and cry for help/salvation only to decide that his addiction is strong enough to cause him to deny his Maker and sink further into his own trap.
I care about the lyrics when they are well written and the writer has something important to say, otherwise, I don't care. My favorite band is the RHCP and their lyrics usually suck.
Interesting, with certain types of songs like that, the music/sound is so amazing, the lyrics take a distant back seat for me. I consider myself lucky!AgBQ-00 said:
Yes. The sound of the song is amazing but I cannot listen to it because of the lyrics. It is gut wrenching to hear a man plead and cry for help/salvation only to decide that his addiction is strong enough to cause him to deny his Maker and sink further into his own trap.
there once was a time in life when there was no internet.........getting your hands on song lyrics was nearly impossible unless you purchased the album and it just so happened to contain the lyrics......as such, i found that it was hard to like/appreciate the lyrics since there was a darn good chance you had no idea what they were....seemed as though my mind heard the lyrics it thought it heard, and then they just permanently stuck.......
until today...
now it's really cool to look at the actual lyrics of a song and compare them to what your mind has been "singing" for the past few decades.......
until today...
now it's really cool to look at the actual lyrics of a song and compare them to what your mind has been "singing" for the past few decades.......
Good music can elevate bad lyrics, but I'm not sure that the reverse is true.
WAP is a banger but then you hear the lyrics...haha
That's not what the song is about.AgBQ-00 said:
Yes. The sound of the song is amazing but I cannot listen to it because of the lyrics. It is gut wrenching to hear a man plead and cry for help/salvation only to decide that his addiction is strong enough to cause him to deny his Maker and sink further into his own trap.
I appreciate you sharing your interpretation of the song, however the song is about censorship and using TV to control messaging by the media and government.AgBQ-00 said:
Yes. The sound of the song is amazing but I cannot listen to it because of the lyrics. It is gut wrenching to hear a man plead and cry for help/salvation only to decide that his addiction is strong enough to cause him to deny his Maker and sink further into his own trap.
I'm the man in the box
Buried in my ****
Won't you come and save me?
Save me
Feed my eyes
(Will be wasted)
The second verse is along the same lines placing himself in the spot of a dog that is beaten and cowed.
ETA support that the main narrative was one of the meanings. Notice the interview referenced here in the last part. (It meant something different then)
In a 1992 interview with Rolling Stone, Layne Staley explained the origins of the song's lyrics:
Buried in my ****
- He sees that he is stuck. All of the stuff he partakes in has him trapped
Won't you come and save me?
Save me
Feed my eyes
- Crying for help. Feed my eyes give me hope come and save me
- tormentor/addiction different voice from his own. saying the fix is to sew your eyes shut pay no attention to the **** you're stuck in
- Back to his voice crying out to Christ
- tormentor/addiction telling him to deny his Maker
(Will be wasted)
- Him seeing and hearing from his tormentor that anyone who tries will be wasted (drug use or killed double entendre)
- change in tone (mourning) he has given in
- he has once again denied his maker and sewn his eyes shut tormentor/addiction has claimed victory and he agrees
The second verse is along the same lines placing himself in the spot of a dog that is beaten and cowed.
ETA support that the main narrative was one of the meanings. Notice the interview referenced here in the last part. (It meant something different then)
In a 1992 interview with Rolling Stone, Layne Staley explained the origins of the song's lyrics:
Jerry Cantrell said of the song:Quote:
I started writing about censorship. Around the same time, we went out for dinner with some Columbia Records people who were vegetarians. They told me how veal was made from calves raised in these small boxes, and that image stuck in my head. So I went home and wrote about government censorship and eating meat as seen through the eyes of a doomed calf.[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_in_the_Box#cite_note-11][11][/url]
In a recorded interview with MuchMusic in 1991, Staley stated that the lyrics are loosely based on media censorship, and "I was really really stoned when I wrote it, so it meant something different then", he said laughing.[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_in_the_Box#cite_note-13][13][/url]Quote:
But what it's basically about is, is how government and media control the public's perception of events in the world or whatever, and they build you into a box by feeding it to you in your home, ya know. And it's just about breaking out of that box and looking outside of that box that has been built for you.[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_in_the_Box#cite_note-12][12][/url]
I Want It That Way makes absolutely no sense, as admitted by the Backstreet Boys themselves, but that's an undeniable banger.
This is me.Philo B 93 said:
I'm listening for a hook, which can be either lyrical or musical.
If there's no hook, I listen for an overall sound, which can be either.
My ego tells me that I treasure the lyrics. But given the number of song lyrics I've sung incorrectly my whole life, or just made up my own words to fill in the blanks, it's clear that I first go for melodic songs with strong hooks, then worry about the words.
Wolfpac 08 said:
I'm a big lyrics guy - not that a won't like a good song with bad lyrics…but good lyrics really put a song over the top for me.
That said, the song that always comes to mind when this conversation comes up is Blues Traveler - Hook:Quote:
It doesn't matter what I say
So long as I sing with inflection
That makes you feel I'll convey
Some inner truth or vast reflection
But I've said nothing so far
And I can keep it up for as long as it takes
And it don't matter who you are
If I'm doing my job, it's your resolve that breaks
Because the hook brings you back
Using clever lyrics to tell you that it does t matter how clever the lyrics are
Plus it's those lyrics on a interesting arrangment of fairly common and renowned song (Pachelbel's Canon) which makes the song stick out more. John Popper might be kind of a kook but dude knows how to write a song.
This seems like a Spyderman/Power bat signal.
Do the lyrics enhance or detract from this song?
I think the music in John Lennon's "Imagine" is beautiful, but the lyrics ruin it for me. At the same time, I don't care what lyrics AC/DC are singing because their songs thump.
You can't understand some of their lyrics anyway.
Having the screenie Alexa show song lyrics has let know I've been singing about 350 songs wrong for several decades.
WARNING: I have a deep-seated desire for others to love the Star Wars franchise as much as I do, in exactly the way I do, and get snippy and sensitive and passive-aggressive when they don't.
I think bad or silly lyrics at the wrong time can ruin a moment. If you're going to be singing along to an anthem or something, you don't want to be taken out of the moment.
I like the Spirit of Radio but I think "oooof salesmen!!" is the lamest thing to sing before a cool guitar solo, so that song will never feel "great" to sing along to.
I like the Spirit of Radio but I think "oooof salesmen!!" is the lamest thing to sing before a cool guitar solo, so that song will never feel "great" to sing along to.
What
Had no idea it was based on that. Thanks for the research
ETA: rightly or wrongly, I trained myself to not really notice lyrics in my teens. Back then, overplaying our limited CDs (no Spotify or mtv or radio stations worth a flip) was a problem as I'd eventually get bored with a song. For whatever reason, I would get less bored with it if it was about the music solely.
Fast forward 30 years and there are soooo many songs that I love and have no idea what it's about. Sometimes I'll even be mumbling along with the song not even noticing I've learned portions by repetition.
ETA: rightly or wrongly, I trained myself to not really notice lyrics in my teens. Back then, overplaying our limited CDs (no Spotify or mtv or radio stations worth a flip) was a problem as I'd eventually get bored with a song. For whatever reason, I would get less bored with it if it was about the music solely.
Fast forward 30 years and there are soooo many songs that I love and have no idea what it's about. Sometimes I'll even be mumbling along with the song not even noticing I've learned portions by repetition.
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