Good music & bad lyrics, together--Outstanding examples

[A. Scherze]

Another wonderful ELP entry: Still You Turn Me On (someone get me a ladder?)

That was actually an inside joke based on something Emerson said.

[Rangershockey7]

I always loved the music from Asia's "The Boys from the Diamond City", but have always found the lyrics rather unsettling.

[Scott Bails]

Sorry but I don't understand the relevance of the metaphor. I didn't say I dismiss music just because I can't be bothered to listen to the lyrics. I love the music, including the singing. I just dismiss (as of no consequence) most of what the words are trying to convey.

The metaphor is that you're dismissing all prog lyrics and thus are missing out on some good lyrics.

[ThomasKDye]

The metaphor is that you're dismissing all prog lyrics and thus are missing out on some good lyrics.

True. Anyone who wants to throw the lyrics of Tull's "Skating Away On The Thin Ice of a New Day" into a generic melting pot of "bad prog lyrics" will have to step outside.

[Plasmatopia]

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)?

[Trane]

True. Anyone who wants to throw the lyrics of Tull's "Skating Away On The Thin Ice of a New Day" into a generic melting pot of "bad prog lyrics" will have to step outside.

Yeah, the Mad Flauter is one of the better (and most acerbic) lyrics writer around, along with Roger Waters

Though I will say that his lyrics are sometimes better than the music in the song they're part of. (ex: skating away)

[iguana]

BOSTON.

[Digital_Man]

Re: "Hemispheres"

It's just soooo corny, IMO. So much exposition, so little attention given to what it will sound like when sung-- instead, it's as if the only goals were to advance the "story" and rhyme. Cringe-inducing moments include:

I have memory and awareness,
But I have no shape or form.
As a disembodied spirit,
I am dead and yet unborn.

I have passed into Olympus
As was told in tales of old,
To the city of Immortals,
Marble white and purest gold.

I see the gods in battle rage on high,
Thunderbolts across the sky.
I cannot move, I cannot hide,
I feel a silent scream begin inside.

C'mon. Yuck. Very 7th grade English class. And then all that trees business on side two. The music's great, though! Chronologically, it's the first Rush album that I can dig... I just try to ignore those lyrics!

Well in that case "the Manhatten Project" is seventh grade history class or science class if you're talking about atoms and the invention of the nuclear bomb. For example: "All the brightest boys to play with the biggest toys."

[2 Sheds]

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.............."

[PotatoSolution]

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.............."

You must be the least fun person to go to karaoke bars with.

[GuitarGeek]

"Good Lyrics and bad music .....etc.............."

Three words: The Final Cut

[ThomasKDye]

Good Lyrics and bad music .....etc.............."

Well, anything by Talking Heads, really.

[GuitarGeek]

Well, anything by Talking Heads, really.

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.

[ThomasKDye]

*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.

[2 Sheds]

You must be the least fun person to go to karaoke bars with.

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.

[Don Arnold]

In 42 years of listening to 'prog', I've never really listened to any lyrics.

This is me as well, except it's been about 35 years.

....And obviously I've picked up phrases here and there - '"I get up, I get down", "a flower ! ". That sort of thing. I did say 'really listened'. But from memory I don't think I could recite more than 2 consecutive lines from any piece.

Me again. I'll add "am I really me me me...", "I...am...yourself", "me...I'm just a lawnmower".

That's too bad, because there are also some fine lyrics in a lot of prog.....

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.

.....Seems to me you might be throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Still fair (because you use the word "might" ) but for me it's the bathwater that floats my boat!

[Plasmatopia]

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....

[ronmac]

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.

[Plasmatopia]

True....but perhaps that explains why I'm not much of a Kansas fan? The music itself just never did much for me.

[mx20]

Well in that case "the Manhatten Project" is seventh grade history class or science class if you're talking about atoms and the invention of the nuclear bomb. For example: "All the brightest boys to play with the biggest toys."

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.