Why do lyrics matter?

[Toad]

Yeah, see... Skynrd is another great example.

I know I'm stepping on younger toes here but when you compare that kind of work, music & lyrics, against the "max out the amps, max out the distortion and we'll gargle razor blades for the lyrics" work... well, there really isn't a comparison.

I probably sound like my dad praising Glenn Miller when I was listening to rock in the late 60's. 

I have long since come to appreciate Miller along with a lot of other types of music. In his genre, Miller is outstanding.


I still can't find a place in my catalog for rap or the razor blade music though.

[lazs2]

You guys are just old....  lyrics no longer matter.. at least to women.

How else would you explain white girls and boys listening to rap?

lazs

[Thruster]

I remember this one rap that got regular rotation for years, I never hear it anymore. Can't remember the name but the rapper's name as I recall was Joni Mitchell.

[lazs2]

Yeah.. how high on the rap charts is she today?   How many folk singer albums are sold today..  I say albums cause that was the last medium they were on.

lazs

[Squirrel]

That's also why Yes is still my all-tiem favorite rock band.  Jon Anderson has stated that the words he chose for lyrics were aking to a musician picking notes; not so much for the meaning but what they add to the song.  He formed his lyrics for sounds rather than meaning.  I've listened to yes for almost 30 years now and I still can't tell you the lyrics to any song they've done the whole way through.  Well, anything prior to 90215 that is.

Same here... these guys are in a class of their own     
For me lyrics only detract from a song when I don't like what they have to say.

[Toad]

Funny, I remember Joni Mitchell as one of the most poetic of lyric writers. I can't recall a rap song by her but it's been years since I listened to any of her newer stuff. Just kind of forgot about her.

Song to a Seagull and Clouds... there was some songwriting in those two. I like Mitchell.

[Thruster]

God I suck.

I was referring to J. Baez.
Sorry.

Favorite bands aside. The question was about the relevance of lyrics. Sorta.

With exception to the new trend of cookie monster singers, which even I will concede are silly, even if they're nonsensical or banal, they are integral to modern music. Not requisite but often key to really getting what a composition is about.

Why?.......Who cares?

[Lukanian-7]

I Dig The Backward Mesages Maaaaaaaaan. Trippy

[AWMac]

Because no matter how much Night Train or Mad Dog 20 20 you buy or how much you are paying by the hour... Barry White without the lyrics will not get that special Texan woman in the mood for love.

"Darling, I, can't get enough of your love babe."

 

[LEDPIG]

I personally am a fan of people like John Lennon, who say such things as, "Yellow mellow custard, dripping from a dead dogs eye". Or Bob Dylan saying "Jewels and binoculars hang from the head of the mule". Such lyrics to me evoke pictures in my mind and create controversy and speculation and interest.

Usually such musicians don't look at the world in such a literal sense and use strange sounds and words to evoke weird pictures and ideas.

I also like song's like Metallica's "One" that tell a story of a man horribly injured by war. Even the music sounds thought provoking, with the machine gun like intervals of stacatto electric guitar.

Songs like Jimmi Hendrix's machine gun are amazing. When a man has the ability to sum up the 60's in raw form not just with lyrics, but mostly with an electric guitar sound that sounds as tormented as the time itself, thats not music, it's an exorcism. Lyrics should exorcise very internal feelings that the listener didn't even know they had.

[AWMac]

Check out some old Dr. Hook songs....
Good stuff...
Beginning of Southern Rock.
Beginning of Disco.
Songs that hit the heart makin ya wanna cry.
Songs that will make ya laff yer arse off.

 

Mac

[lasersailor184]

Yeah, see... Skynrd is another great example.

I know I'm stepping on younger toes here but when you compare that kind of work, music & lyrics, against the "max out the amps, max out the distortion and we'll gargle razor blades for the lyrics" work... well, there really isn't a comparison.

I probably sound like my dad praising Glenn Miller when I was listening to rock in the late 60's. 

I have long since come to appreciate Miller along with a lot of other types of music. In his genre, Miller is outstanding.


I still can't find a place in my catalog for rap or the razor blade music though.

Well, with any music, at any time, you'll find that some will pick a particularly grating sound solely because most normal people don't find it pleasant. 

I personally like when they crank the distortion and play fast paced music.  But I just don't enjoy the "Scary voice" singing.

[midnight Target]

Bob Dylan Rap

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srgi2DkDbPU

[AWMac]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLgGGW_emjY&feature=related

Needs more Cowbell...

Uh Huh...

Mac

[Jackal1]

but mostly with an electric guitar sound that sounds as tormented as the time itself, thats not music, it's an exorcism. Lyrics should exorcise very internal feelings that the listener didn't even know they had.

LMAO
That might be a tad over the top.
I peed on an electric fence one time and it didn`t move me that much.