I always loved the music from Asia's "The Boys from the Diamond City", but have always found the lyrics rather unsettling.
Which part is the baby (the valuable part to be saved) and which is the bath water (the dirty, now superfluous part that needs to be disposed of)?
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my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.
BOSTON.
The relative unimportance of lyrics is demonstrated by the lack of a mirror thread to this one (so far anyway) titled "Good Lyrics and bad music .....etc.............."
Really? I don't have any of their albums, but I always liked the songs I heard from them. I always thought Once In A Lifetime, Cross Eyed And Painless, Girlfriend Is Better, Road To Nowhere, Nothing But Flowers, and Burning Down The House were all good songs. They had lots of good hooks on those tunes.
*shakes head* I was forced to listen to either More Songs About Buildings And Food or Fear of Music (I forget which it was, he talked up both) by a friend ("You like Three of a Perfect Pair, you'll like this!") and the whole experience was just "my God, my God, make it stop." Their hits are very listenable, sure... "Once in a Lifetime" deserves its semi-legendary status, but the album tracks are these horrible repeating grooves that make me want to renounce late seventies new wave altogether.
I just have to assume David Byrne's lyrics are REALLY good.
I probably would be but no one will ever find out. I don't know anyone with any wild horses.
I play in a popular covers band (various rock and pop, mainly sixties and seventies) . We're musically very accurate but our singers often get the words wrong. No one in the audience ever seems to mind or even notice.
This is me as well, except it's been about 35 years.
Me again. I'll add "am I really me me me...", "I...am...yourself", "me...I'm just a lawnmower".
Fair comment, and no doubt you're right. In fact, I know you're right. But the listener still has to (a) have an appreciation for lyrics and (b) have the inclination and time to invest in the lyrics. I love Prog Rock and listen to it because of the music, and as such, most of the time I pay little to no attention to the lyrics. Having said that, I've often thought over the many years of spinning The Lamb Lies Down that one day I ought to take the gatefold lp and digest the lyrics. The fact that I still have never read through them suggests the lyrics are not important to me.
Still fair (because you use the word "might" ) but for me it's the bathwater that floats my boat!
I no longer have the time I had when I was a teenager to read the lyrics while playing the LP. Now I mostly listen in the car where reading is a dangerous practice. And I suck at deciphering what the actual lyrics are...much of the time I can't make sense of them unless I sit down and read them.
I'm glad the words are not a critical element for me. I'd hate to miss out on the enjoyment of Italian, Swedish, Spanish, etc. bands/music....
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I can't imagine listening to something like "Cheyenne Anthem" and not paying attention to the lyrics. Seems like I'd be missing most of the song.
True....but perhaps that explains why I'm not much of a Kansas fan? The music itself just never did much for me.
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That song is more of what I'm talking about! The instrumental breaks are cool, but it's like Neil has plopped down a thick, word-filled notepad in front of Geddy, pressed the record button & said "ok, just start talk-singing in a kinda blathering monotone until you run out of words...GO!" Spirit of Radio & Tom Sawyer are great songs because the music rules & there's an actual vocal melody that soars & makes you (the listener) FEEL something, not just because of the lyrical content. Although, those two songs have cool, clever lyrics.
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