Article response -- rambling from me on the importance of lyrics

as for Lisa Gerrard, she should come out with an accapella album, i'd like to see a studio version of Eyeless in Gaza reach the light of day for once

Who said anything about that being roundabout? ;-) But you don't only have to apply that to rap, of course.

Your indifference to lyrics explains to me why you have such an enormous appetite for buying records. For me (outside of certain fields, like dance music, or, rarely, guitar music with a direct emotional hit, like MBV perhaps) the lyrics are the way I instinctively sort the wheat from the chaff. As Tom and everyone sensible ever has said, it's not about judging them on a printed page. It's more about them giving me a sense of where the band/singer is coming from, and whether it's an interesting place. Fits in with what Dr. C was saying in the other thread about entering a band's World. I don't want to ignore crap lyrics. They come from crap people and I don't want anything to do with their World. Sorry if they're musical geniuses and I'm a fool to miss out. But it's just as well for my bank balance.

And now you know why I love the Cocteau Twins so much. ;-) More accurately, it's not in fact why I enjoy them, but the fact that on the early records Liz Frasier is all but incomprehensible certainly doesn't affect my enjoyment of them. And the clarity in later years doesn't affect it either. ;-)

Similarly, I wouldn't say that indifference to lyrics determine what I like to buy/listen to/etc. That's far too pat -- it doesn't explain, for instance, why I would enjoy modern dance music of all stripes where others would trash it just for the fact that it's all synth-based or whatever. Also, though admittedly it's not always clear, I'm not saying that I can't ever enjoy/appreciate lyrics -- but it's by no means my personal standard the same way it is for you. Hurrah for variety. :-)

I just meant not caring much about lyrics allows you to be much more open-minded about music, and hence explains why you can enjoy buying so many more records than I can.

re: the Cocteau Twins. Yeah, I was going to bring them up. Didn't I once read that Liz Fraser has quite clear, English lyrics in her head by and large, and it's just the way she sings them that makes everyone think she's singing nonsense? Not that it matters much to this discussion. But seriously - would you be happy most of the time if all vocal lines were replaced by another instrument?

Good music will trump bad, however defined by the listener, in all cases, and lyrics are merely one flexible element in that personal equation.
For me ... the entirety of the song is needed, and the entirety subsumes the particulars.

Just to check something: where do you stand on Dylan?

so the ideal lyrics just emphasise the rythymn/melody in a happy jumpy song. message lyrics embarass me, though paradoxically the lyrics i DO get a kick out of are really embarassing to most others: slushy boy stuff (wedding present, field mice) and pet shop boys.

Not a fan of his own recorded work, a number of his songs have received interesting covers. That's about it.

Among other reasons to dislike Rolling Stone, their focus on lyrics in their reviews is maddening. With every album, it's like their reviewing a book of poetry (i.e., "Destiny's Child is asserting their independence with this record, stating 'I'm not going to listen/to what you say/any more'). Who honestly wants to read shit like this in a record review?

In an interview w/ David Fricke (I think that's him) on the rock critics site, at least he owned up to this bias, saying it had something to do w/ his background in literature. But still...

Anyway, Ned, nice work.

In an interview w/ David Fricke (I think that's him) on the rock critics site, at least he owned up to this bias, saying it had something to do w/ his background in literature.

Garbage, if he means this as an inescapable determining factor. I have an MA in English lit, and obviously I'm not using that to judge music.

This man is not a good writer, but he is absolutely right.

Lyrics are important I feel, although to construct them is a completely different, almost entirely unrelated art than constructed text to be read. Lyrics for me, don't really invoke emotions or thoughts as much as remind me of them. I think of them more as signifiers, something that opens you to something that was closed so the music can do the rest of the work. They guide me with or against the music. Written text leaves a lot for me to create when I'm done with it. In my bed before I sleep or as I'm thinking, I fill in a lot of the gaps. Lyrics leave the gaps to the music.

although having said that, there are exceptions, of course - those artists whose grasp of rhythm and rhyme and phonetics and meaning coheres into a singular, effective expression. people like leonard cohen, or scott walker on scotts 1 to 4, or amanda palamer on the dresden dolls' 'first orgasm' for example.

oh, and 'macarthur park', obviously.

;-)