How important is subject matter in songs ?

  • Thread starter Thread starter grimtraveller
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TyroneSloan said:
Dr Seuss rhymes werent fun because of the meaning, but because they were fun to say. Greg L. still is reading Dr Seuss today, he was a little slow.
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Ah, glad you made it. Dr.Suess is pretty masterful. I think dismissing him as childish is a little naive. You couldn't re-write Green Eggs and Ham any more than I could re-write Paradise City. Nor could you write something original of the same caliber.

TyroneSloan said:
AND, lest we forget that just because you can not make out the words of a song, and that nobody cares about them, that they can still be there, waiting to be discovered by those who care to. For some people, the beat is enough. Others the guitar, the drums, for others, they find themselves really moved by a certain artist, and then they decide to dig deeper.

And just because many rock songs the lyrics dont seem to be important, you'd be hard pressed to get the same effect if you were to write new lyrics. Try it.

Write new words to Paradise City and see if yours sounds as good in the fit of the song.
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We're basically agreeing here, right? Because I think you've had different views in the past about the songwriting requirements of hard rock....don't feel like hunting down a quote right now. But I was basically saying the Paradise City verses had to be at least of a certain quality to slide by so easily.


TyroneSloan said:
AND, for many artists, the words aremvery important. Those are the story tellers.

Lyrics matter more in story songs. There's no real way to fudge a story with vague imagery and metaphors. And you write a story to tell a story, for somebody to follow the story.
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Yes, I dislike that stuff because the music often only plays a supporting role. And for the way I enjoy music, consciously following a narrative takes away from that. I think it's a fairly presumptuous thing to even impose on someone. They should just be able to kick back and enjoy the song.
 
TyroneSloan? What's next TelegramSam? Oh wait, we have one of them.

Admit it barry, you chose that name because you secretly worship barry manilow... :laughings:
 
Greg_L said:
I agree that Surfin Bird's lyrics are perfect, but really, it could have been anything equally silly sung the same way and we'd still probably like that song.
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I'm pretty sure I could destroy Surfin' Bird if I really set my heart on it.
 
TyroneSloan said:
I never said anything about Paradise City, somebody else did. Im willing to bet that if you wrote new lyrics for it, it wont sound as good as it does.
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There's no way that comparison could ever be made without huge bias. Everyone's heard that tune a gazillion times. Change one syllable and it's gonna sound wrong.

Therefore it's totally unproveable that I am not a better songwriter than Axl and Izzy.
 
Look at barry's lame ass man-crush Springsteen. Born in the USA. A horrendous song about the vietnam war, but people often mistake it for some patriotic anthem. Subject matter is lost on the idiot general public, so it clearly doesn't matter.
 
The lyrics in our songs are important to me as a writer. It really doesn't matter if they are important to anyone else. To me, writing is therapeutic.
 
Greg_L said:
Look at barry's lame ass man-crush Springsteen. Born in the USA. A horrendous song about the vietnam war, but people often mistake it for some patriotic anthem. Subject matter is lost on the idiot general public, so it clearly doesn't matter.
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Black Sabbath has that Satan-rock reputation, but most of their classic tunes have a pacifist/Christian message if any at all.
 
TyroneSloan said:
try this. Write a new lyric to a song that is not well known. And then let somebody compare both versions. Let them try to figure out which is the original and which is yours. Ill know in 2 seconds
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Only because my style is so easily identifiable.
 
OMG!!! :laughings:

He's as relentless as a hungry Chihuahua trying to chew an oversized meat bone that he can't even get his mouth around!!! :p

For anyone that's been in the Cave over the last year....this guy has similar mental issues and chronic OCD forum posting habits that Dr. Bogey had. No matter how much everyone rejected him and his posts, and told him to stop coming back... no matter how often he got banned....he just kept at it.
It got to the point where he was asking to be banned just so he could stop posting....he lost all self-control.

I guess Barry hasn't come to grips with his condition yet......so he keeps coming back no matter how embarrassing it ends up being.

:facepalm:

Well, at least it's been amusing on some levels.

:laughings:
 
It's funny how sad and predictable barry is. Mention that boring lame ass springsteen and barry's anus explodes.
 
Yeah wikipedia is never wrong. It's not like it's written by just anybody or anything.
 
WilburS said:
Actually Little Steven, with his underground garage show, is a big Ramones fan. They both are
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Little Steven's show is great. I listen all the time. It's too bad he plays for such a fucking tool like springsteen.
 
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