There’s two types of lyrics. The ones that repeat constantly. You can’t help but instantly take note of those.
Then you have the chatty songs where the lyrics tell a story. You really have to make an effort to fully absorb the lyrics. We used to pull out the album liner notes in the days of records. Today you Google the song’s lyrics.
There’s a lot of songs that I’ve never bothered to learn the lyrics. Adele is a good example. I like the groove in her songs, her raspy bluesy voice. Her great tone and control of dynamics. The catchy chorus. Rollin in the Deep yeah baby! I know she’s singing about broken love. I don’t pay much attention to the words. I certainly couldn’t quote any of her lyrics.
The Beatles often used words that made little contextual sense. It’s the sound of the vowels they wanted and cared about. Creating a great melody. I never lost any sleep trying to dissect Norwegian Wood. The words are easily understood and it’s about a girl and a guy that doesn’t sleep with her. Beyond that… I don’t particularly care.
Some songs are ruined if you pay attention to the lyrics. Sarah Mclachlan Angel is a gorgeous song and expertly sung. The actual lyrics are morbid and depressing. Inspired by the heroin overdose of the Smashing Pumpkins’ keyboardist. Totally opposite from the beautiful melody being sung.
I listen more carefully to other styles. Country and Pop ballads have some great stories.
R&B. I can quote a lot of Motown lyrics. Probably because I’ve heard them played for over 40 years.
How closely do you listen to the lyrics of a new song?
Do you just groove to the music or pull out the album liner to check out the intricate subtleties of the lyrics?
Never. First, I can never understand them when I try to listen. Second, I find lyrics so distracting from the music (and often inane), I rarely listen to music that is sung in English.
It depends on the type of music for me, but I tend to first react to the music and listen to that and, eventually, if at all, get to the lyrics. Like I said, it depends on the music. For more folky or singer/songwriter stuff, I focus on the lyrics.
More to my above remarki: If the lyrics are of any poetic or literary value, I can read them, without the defect of misheard lyrics. Lyrics to music are not an essential part of music, but simply a throwback to a time when few people could read and there were no printing presses, and music was about the only effective way of passing along poetry to the masses. But now I know how to read, and every text availalable, with translation if necessary (except, sadly, Amharic). The human voice is a fine and intricate musical instrument to accompany the rest of the ensemble if rendered with feeling, and I love the human voice within an arrangement. But the words themselves are just a distraction,rarely good poetry, sometimes even at odds with the emotions the music makes me feel.
A lot of the vocal music I listen to isn’t even in a language I understand. I’m often disappointed when I discover what they’re actually saying. Of course this depends on the skills of the lyricist.
I’m a singer. I mean I AM a singer - constantly. I sing to the radio, I sing while I’m walking and a couple times a week, I sing onstage. I may not pay a lot of attention to the lyrics but I can repeat the lyrics of most Classic Rock songs with a fair bit of fluency. If a song catches my attention, I not only look up the lyrics, I learn the song so I can play it myself. I write my own too, so I really appreciate a well put together song
I pay attention to them based on the role they are serving. If Donna Summer is saying “I Feel Love” eleventy-twelve times, I’m not assessing her scansion but damn I love that song.
The trick with lyrics depends on the intent of the writer. With classic pop songs across genres, a “Music Up, Lyrics Down” approach is classic. Write open ended lyrics that are generally down, and marry them to a strong catchy hook. The Beatles’ Help is a poster song for this; Sting beat it to death, O King of Pain that he is.
If Smokey can nail a lyric so perfectly, like he did with, say, Tracks of my Tears or Tears of a Clown, I savor every word like its sacred script.
*People say I’m the life of the party
'cuz I tell a joke or two.
Although I might be laughing, loud and hardy,
Deep inside I’m blue
So take a good look at my face
You’ll see the smile looks out of place
If you look closer it’s easy to trace
The tracks of my tears.*
I mean, come on. Even the worst bit, “loud and hardy”, is useful since it sells the basic falseness of how he’s faking his happiness, so it works.
The point is: even with music that’s not lyric-centered like Cole Porter or Bob Dylan, lyrics matter. And finding ones that do their job AND transcend a bit with some art is a very cool thing. I feel love
Exactly. I find we are something of a minority in this regard, but the first thing I do when I hear a song is listen to the lyrics. I marvel at people who listen to music in languages they don’t know, it drives me nuts, not only not knowing what they are saying, but not being able to sing along. Music, to me, loses meaning when it doesn’t have words. I think this is because I am a writer and I value storytelling.
That said, I think a lot of lyrics taken out of the context of the music also lose their meaning. One of my favorite bands, Chevelle, writes increasingly fragmented lyrics. In the context of the music, they are very powerful, but if you just read the lyrics, divorced from music, it’s not clear what makes them special.
I like songs where the mood is contrary to the lyrics. Lily Allen is good for that, and the Third Eye Blind song “Semi-Charmed Life” sounds decidedly peppy considering it’s about disillusionment with crystal meth.
Well, I see where my missing post about April landed. That was meant for MPSIMS.
Back to song lyrics…
It’s funny how lyrics in some songs jumps right out at you. Hey Jude, Let It Be, and Yesterday are great examples. Everybody learned those lyrics soon after hearing the songs. Many of us sing these songs with the car radio.
Other songs are more difficult. You need a lyric sheet to really process what’s being said. It takes effort to memorize and sing them.
Interesting polar opposites. I learn more toward Spice Weasel’s point of view, but the thread title asks about "a new song; and I’ll admit, the first time or two I hear a new song, I don’t always listen closely to the lyrics. On first listen, I’ll be getting a general impression of the song—is it catchy, what’s the “feel” of the song, what’s the structure of the song, are there any musical or lyrical hooks that jump out at me?
I know what you mean: the music and lyrics together very often add up to much more than either one separately. I’ve found that it usually is unsatisfying to read the lyrics to a song without knowing what the song sounds like.
Heck, there’s even music out there in made-up languages that nobody understands, like Sigur Ros. I’m not entirely sure if the Cocteau Twins got into made-up languages or not (I’m pretty sure at least some of their songs are in nonsense languages), but the words are completely unintelligible in many of their songs. Personally, I think it’s to quite good effect. I feel that nonsense syllables are an instrument and music of their own. To me, there’s room for both kinds of music–lyric driven and not. And even if you don’t understand the words, or they don’t make any sense, they can be emotive in their own right by the sounds they make.
I think the vast majority of lyrics suck as poetry and only work within the context of the song. It’s rare for me to find a song, at least outside the Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan type tradition, that reads well without the music.
The words are easily understood and it’s about a girl and a guy that doesn’t sleep with her. Beyond that… I don’t particularly care.
