Do Lyrics Even Matter?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jack Russell
  • Start date Start date

Do lyrics have to mean anything?

  • Yes, they should!

    Votes: 147 64.2%

  • No, it is up to the listener to get their own meaning!

    Votes: 82 35.8%
  • Total voters
    229
A song I'm working on...

They're gonna take my dog from me
Put him in a cage throw away they key
They're gonna take my dog from me
They're gonna take my dog

No more fetch no tricks to see
No waiting at the gate barking
They're gonna take my dog from me
They're gonna take my dog

Why couldn't they just take my dog's fleas
Stay well enough away or leave him be
They're gonna take my dog from me
They're gonna take my dog


I don't even have a dog, but these are the words that sounded good with the chords, so that's what it is. I voted for the second option. I don't think lyrics have to mean anything at all.
 
didnt rem do a whole album without real words? theres singing but its all nonsense syllables except for a few lines. didnt they do that to prove that lyrics dont matter?

paul mccartney looks like a death mask on his new apple commercials and hes just spouting the most trite crap imaginable. everybodys gonna dance tonite... oh really sir paul? i dont think so.

i would like to have the money hes getting for that crap. everybodys gonna crap today!
 
I think lyrics can have no meaning at all, but mean a lot at the same time.

If you put a bunch of words together that paint an nice or interesting picture, and they don't neccessarily have a specific meaning, then in fact this could enable the listener to derive their own meaning from it. And if you have some lyrics that everyone can derive their own meaning from, then you have some lyrics that everyone can relate to. Which makes for good lyrics.
 
meaning in lyrics?

Meaning in lyrics can mean many things. "Imagist" poetry can be deeply meaningful even though it lacks literal sense.

That said, "meaning" isn't what makes lyrics work or not work, but lyrics are very important. What matters in lyrics is a pattern of pleasing vowels the singer can exploit for vocal resonance and tone.

Vowels that let the throat open, like OH and OO, will make for a much more enjoyable song than pinched vowels such as the i in fit.

Also, most (though not all) great songs use a simple vocabulary, fifth grade tops. The words we learn as children are always the most powerful and rich in associations built up over a lifetime. Think of almost any great lyric:

Yesterday / all my problems seemed so far away

Some folks are born / made to wave the flag / ooh, they're red, white, and blue

Even some that make no sense:

I am the walrus, goo goo goo joob

In art, all rules have exceptions, but most of the time a great lyric has simple diction (sorry, all those who like Rush lyrics; most of the time they're stuffy and unbearable) and emphasizes the big open vowels like AAH, OOH, AY, OH, as in the examples above.

Sure, Sting can write a line like:

Caught between the Scylla and Charybdis

But he did so knowing (1) he had cultivated an audience that would accept his literary bent (he started out simple, with "Roxanne") and (2) he was a skilled enough vocalist so he could pull off those tight i (spelled y) vowels. Note also that the line is musical in other ways, with both alliteration and assonance. (And still this may be a line that looks better on the page than it sings.)

One last point: Today singers in the rock world, and often in other genres too, mostly write for their own voice. You'll often find a singer-songwriter has a favorite word he or she likes to include in multiple songs. Is the word especially meaningful to the singer—or did the singer discover that word suited his/her voice and subsequently explored it in lyrics, making it meaningful to him/her? For example, Chris Cornell likes to include the word dog in lyrics, while Scott Weiland likes to sing about lies.
 
Jack Russell said:
I've puzzled over some lyrics i've been writing in a new tune. More often than not, they don't really mean anything. Why? Well, because I tend to come up with a melody first, and then write words for the melody.

Which leads me to wonder: Do lyrics matter at all? If the music and melody are dead on and good, then who cares what words you use?
Click to expand...

Sometimes, writers just string together any old words. Then 20 years later realize they were pregnant with meaning.
 
Totally depends. One of my favorite songs ever, "Kinky Reggae," has pretty dumb lyrics, but damn I love it. Then again, if Robyn Hitchcock couldn't write lyrics I happen to love, I don't think I could take his voice for very long, though he plays a nice guitar... I don't know if I would be a Tom Waits fan at all if his lyrics didn't kick ass, but I'm also a Phish fan, and their lyrics are freaking retarded.
 
Lyrics have meaning
But more to the point
Is the music redeeming
When you're smoking a joint?


But really, illicit drugs aside, I like lyrics that capture a specific emotion or experience of the artist. Heavy-handed, moralistic, thou-shalt-not lyrics turn me off big-time.

Specific > vague. Personal > general. Is > should.
 
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