Good music with bad lyrics VS. Bad music with good lyrics

Rhovanion · 06-11-2010, 04:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dankrsta

Is this a question of choosing between the two? If it is, my choice would always be good music with bad lyrics. Music is more important to me than lyrics and it has its own language that speaks more directly to the feelings than words. Besides, I can always ignore the lyrics, but I can't ignore bad music even if it's accompanied by some good words. And I'm not even sure if I would be able to appreciate the words when the music cheapens them. It is so easy for words to lose their meaning. Anyway, in that case I would rather read poems.

Yes! This! Every word.

**Janszoon** · 06-11-2010, 05:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OctaneHugo

Good music can redeem bad lyrics (see: a lot of prog) but if the music is terrible I don't care what the lyrics are saying.

Agreed. Though sometimes this can work in reverse too. There are some songs that have such stupid lyrics that it starts to effect my enjoyment of the music. I'm perfectly fine with the good music + passable lyrics equation though.

sidewinder · 06-11-2010, 05:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Janszoon

Agreed. Though sometimes this can work in reverse too. There are some songs that have such stupid lyrics that it starts to effect my enjoyment of the music. I'm perfectly fine with the good music + passable lyrics equation though.

That's how I feel.

As for prog, it's probably a good thing I don't understand Italian, German or Spanish as the lyrics could very well be laughable and ruin the music for me. Unless they're passable and not anything too cringe-worthy...but I mean if they were really god-awful.

**Janszoon** · 06-11-2010, 05:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sidewinder

That's how I feel.

Yeah it's served me well as an industrial/EBM fan all these years.

I'm sure you can relate.

sidewinder · 06-11-2010, 05:53 PM

Yeah, though truthfully I never paid much attention to any of those lyrics. But now that I think about it, yeah.

Hell, generally speaking, a lot of the stuff I listen to and enjoy has stupid/silly/nonsense lyrics. I'm not a lyrics guy, I just like what sounds good. Some of those artists/bands just happen to have great lyrics once in a while and I appreciate that, but it's not what I look for.

boo boo · 06-11-2010, 06:35 PM

In terms of prog. I think there's some good lyricists in there. Roger Waters, Ian Anderson, Peter Gabriel, Richard Palmer-James, Peter Hammill. Peter Sinfield's stuff for early KC has some great fantastical imagery but some of the stuff he wrote for ELP was pretty horrendous, I can't believe he actually wrote the lyrics for Love Beach.

Jon Anderson's lyrics get criticized a lot, I think people just hate his lyrics because they don't really understand them which is actually why I like them, it gives Yes songs a great mysterous quality like it's another language and I think these songs would lose their ethereal quality if they were specifically about something. It may be cosmic debris but it works for the music. Jon has written some pretty bad lyrics but only when he makes the mistake of being straightforward (see: Don't Kill the Whale).

Other bands, primarly the canterbury bands, like anything Robert Wyatt and Richard Sinclair has been involved with, they didn't even pretend that their lyrics meant anything, their lyrics are just a bunch of random goofiness.

Greg Lake is the worst prog lyricist I can think of at the moment, which is a shame because he's a very talented and passionate singer.

06-11-2010, 05:53 PM	#15 (permalink)
sidewinder Engorged Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 5,536	Yeah, though truthfully I never paid much attention to any of those lyrics. But now that I think about it, yeah. Hell, generally speaking, a lot of the stuff I listen to and enjoy has stupid/silly/nonsense lyrics. I'm not a lyrics guy, I just like what sounds good. Some of those artists/bands just happen to have great lyrics once in a while and I appreciate that, but it's not what I look for. __________________ last.fm \| my collection on RYM \| vinyl instagram @allthatyouseeandhear I'd love to see your signature/links too, but the huge and obnoxious ones have caused me to block all signatures.