View Full Version : Rock lyrics
I've been reading the DMB posts and I thought of a question; however, I wanted to seperate from any particular artist.
So, what makes great lyrics? I have read very good poetry that makes terrible song lyrics, Bob Weir (Grateful Dead) tried to set Howl (Ginsberg) to music. By the same token, some of the best lyrics to absolutely great songs are nonsensical, but catchy and eminently singable. So, what makes a good song lyric?
Elliot Luber
May-30-2005, 9:01pm
Raw human emotion from the heart, be it be nonsense syllables or poetry. Express what you feel, others will relate.
With all do respect, that misses the point. Clearly songwriting is an endevour rife with emotional investement.
The same can be said of poetry; however, if emotion was the only factor inhererent to good songwriting, great poetry would make for great lyrics and by and large this is not the case (although Cats seems to working out ok).
I can't quantify it, but singability seems, ket. Two of my Faves "White Room" (Cream-Bruce)king of Pain (Police) are sort of frought with psychodelic babble, but they are great lyircs to sing to. However, I did a very unscientific poll and of the five people I surveyed who new the lyrics to these only one knew what the lyrics said/meant.
fangsdaddy
May-31-2005, 12:12am
i'm with santiago. rock lyrics aren't poetry (unless you're trying to justify what's on the stereo to your parents when you're 16) but in my opinion patti smith came the closest. the slogan for her first & best disc -horses- was "three chord rock merged with the power of the word".
The one thing that I like in a lyric (when I paying close attention that is...I didn't know until recently that "Wonderful Tonight" was NOT a love song...tee hee) is when the lyric is vague enough for everyone to relate to, but specific enough that you can envision the situation...yeah, I know not anything you can base a class on..."Main Street" by Bob Seger fits here, I think.T
he other thing I like is a play on words or Ryhme schemes...But I think it is correct that most people don't pay THAT close attention to them unless they are absolutley silly...anyone remember the song "I love you period, do you love my question mark..."? Urgh...now I have to get THAT out of my head...
reindoggy
May-31-2005, 10:18am
In the '60's, the Fugs DID set "Howl" to music. It was not pretty music.
Andrew Reckhart
Jun-11-2005, 1:06pm
Lotsa good mind altering chemicals! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif Seriously, I think it is more a combination of how the lyrics are phrased within the music. Sort of how it all fits. Does the music fit the mood that the words are speaking of? Do the words reflect the emotion that the music is portraying? Are the words actually saying something or are they just empty phrases? Are they cliche'? But to me the most important thing is relativity. Can I identify with what the singer is talking about. Have I been there before. Of course it is all relative to each individual listener, but the greatest lyricists have the ability to connect with and invoke emotion from with a very broad range of listeners.