Do You Listen for Lyrics?

[KONGO]

Somewhat rising out of a conversation over being a music person vs. a lyrics person, I've always wondered how people who do really connect with lyrics interact with them. For me, it always takes me a few listens to really understand the lyrical message, and I only try to work it out sometimes. Mostly, I'm content to leave it as random shouts/sung passages with a couple words I do hear (and yell out in my car while I drive). I listen to a lot of metal, but even listening to rap, I focus much more on rhythm, cadence, and the sound of the rapper's voice than I do the actual words.

[Liam]

It depends. I've always considered myself more of a lyrics man, but that tends to be from my favourite songs more than constantly. I mean, I can give you various lines I like from songs I like. However, these days I just tend to throw on songs without really caring too much about the lyrical message.

[SRN]

I am mostly a music man but it widely depends on what kind of music I am listening to; even down to what band I am listening to. However, first and foremost I am a music man and the lyrics will take a few tries to sit on me if I bother with them at all.

[GA!]

Depends on the band. Muse aren't a lyric band, while a Manic Street Preachers or a Biffy Clyro are.

[METALMAN]

It's really about music. Let's face it, most lyrics are, if not awful, often just a raggletag of clichés. Even those that are regarded as great lyricists - Lenny Cohen, Bobby Dylan - aren't really that good when put in context with proper poetry or prose.

I mean, I learn lyrics to sing along and stuff, and I do pick them up, but I don't bother "looking into" them, because more often than not there's nothing there. And that doesn't bother me. It's all about the music, maaaaaaaaan.

However, if the lyrics are really god damned blatantly terrible - as opposed to merely dull or derivative - I really struggle to enjoy the music, viz my dislike of Paul Heaton and David Allan Coe, who are otherwise fairly sound musically.

Then there are those lyrics that sound cool provided you don't think about them too much, wherein the whole stupidity is revealed. I like these ones best, The Doors being the obvious example.

There are, as ever, exceptions to all of thse points.

[Dingle]

I agree with pretty much all of mm's points, because if you ever have the misfortune of needing to learn lyrics, looking at a page of them just makes them look weak and rather shit. I'm a huge Morrissey fan, and some of the lyrics are quite genius to me (Smiths days really), but just looking at them, they look shit. It's why I hate my own so much because when they're on paper/computer, they look awkward.

Still, a band I find great meaning in the ridiculous is Radiohead. Fake Plastic Tree's jumps out at me because it's about capitalism and the need to sell yourself, yet it can probably be taken in so many different ways. And it's all about plants and shit! It's great.

[KONGO]

I like fun or intense lyrics. High on Fire lyrics are great. Matt Pike's concept for the new album De Vermis Mysteriis is absolutely bizarre:

“I got this idea about Jesus Christ and the Immaculate Conception: What if Jesus had a twin who died at birth to give Jesus his life? And then what if the twin became a time traveler right then? He lives his life only going forward until he finds this scroll from an ancient Chinese alchemist who derived a serum out of the black lotus—which is actually in Robert E. Howard’s ‘Conan’ stories—and then he starts traveling back in time. He can see the past through his ancestors’ eyes, but his enemies can kill him if they kill the ancestor that he’s seeing through at the time. Basically, he keeps waking up in other people’s bodies at bad times. It’s kinda like that old TV show Quantum Leap. Kurt actually pointed that out to me after I told him the idea. But whatever—time travel is a killer concept.”

Amazing. Also a lot of gangland rap, Mobb Deep, M.O.P., Wu Tang, storytellers. It's a horrifying reality but a fun listen and the lyrics help lend that to the music. I can't recite any lyrics but after hearing a few or looking them up, those types stick out the most.

Guys who are known for lyrics like Dylan are guys I don't pay attention to lyrically. Dylan's lyrics are fine but I've never found them captivating.

I guess I'd say Big Business have my favorite lyrics, but maybe it's just because I have yelled theirs the most. Somewhat like NoMeansNo and Melvins lyrics, very strangely intense. Like describing a juggling act as if it were a life and death situation for the listener.

[Redefine Sick]

I focus much more on rhythm, cadence, and the sound of the rapper's voice than I do the actual words.

Same here, but I always pay attention to the lyrics. But you don't need awesome lyrics to make a song awesome.

Want proof?

Test, this is a Test, Test, Test, This is a Test

Here we go, bring your name, we can hold peace

Here we go, bring your name on the go

Freakin' pull the line and go, for the high school sock hop,

Give it up, cause you and I know,

Conceit to fall on parasol,

'Cause Here we go, we can hold peace,

Yo, here we go, bring your name on the go

Freakin' here we go, bring your name on the go

Freakin' for a jack off, you can go

Here we go, bring your name on the go Freakin'

Test(give it in),this is a Test(here we are again)

Give it in, here we are again

Test(give it in),this is a Test(here we are again)

Give it in, here we are again

Test(give it in),this is a Test(here we are again)

Give it in, this is a Test(here we are again)

Here we go, bring your name, we can hold peace

Here we go, bring your name on the go

Freakin' pull the line and go, for the high school sock hop,

Give it up, cause you and I know,

Conceit to fall on parasol,

'Cause Here we go, we can hold peace,

Yo,here we go, bring your name on the go,

Freakin' here we go, bring your name on the go,

Freakin' for a jack off, you can go

Here we go, bring your name on the go Freakin'

Test(give it in),this is a Test(here we are again)

Give it in, here we are again

Test(give it in),this is a Test(here we are again)

Give it in, here we are again

Test(give it in),this is a Test(here we are again)

Give it in, this is a Test(here we are again)

Here we go, bring your name, we can hold peace

Here we go, bring your name on the go

Freakin' pull the line and go, for the high school sock hop,

Give it up, cause you and I know,

Conceit to fall on parasol,

'Cause Here we go, we can hold peace,

Yo, here we go, bring your name on the go,

Freakin' here we go, bring your name on the go,

Freakin' for a jack off, you can go

Here we go, bring your name on the go, Freakin'

Test(give it in),this is a Test(here we are again)

Give it in, here we are again

Retarded? Absolutely. Sound good with the song? Absolutely.

[Quom]

I'm a different sort of lyrics person to what you are describing. I rarely pay attention to a full song and try and work out what it's about. But a clever turn of phrase or a line that really reaches me will make me love a song. For instance "(we are) like a self help book that is written in braille, the more that we touch the more we learn about our failings" "if love is a bolt from the blue, then what is a bolt but a glorified screw, that doesn't hold nothing together" (although fuck the double negative) "I want to be a tattooed lady, dedicated as I am to art, characters complex, bold and shady will write my memoirs across my heart".

Or for stuff that hits home "I'm afraid of the dark without you close to me, always was" and a load of other romantic clap-trap.

So it's rare for me to love an entire set of lyrics from a song, but some artists come out with some lines, metaphors, similies or whatever other literary devices you wish to name that I find really impressive. If I knew how to play an instrument I would probably be just as blown away by an amazing riff or melody or whatever, but to me it's like a form of magic that I respect but don't understand.

[Matticus]

I guess I'd say Big Business have my favorite lyrics, but maybe it's just because I have yelled theirs the most. Somewhat like NoMeansNo and Melvins lyrics, very strangely intense. Like describing a juggling act as if it were a life and death situation for the listener.

I agree, Jared's vocals are amazing.

[Hobo]

I am generally drawn to songs with lyrical quality, which probably explains my huge love of the Mountain Goats. John Darnielle has gone on record as saying sometimes has things in songs that might encourage people to look up what he is talking about. An example, on the All Survivors Pack, which was the limited edition cassette released after last years All Eternals Deck album that was a song called 'Kathy Antrim's Kid'. It only occurred to me recently that that song was about Billy The Kid. Who was also known as William Antrim. It also referenced a previous Mountain Goats song called Billy the Kid's Dream of the Magic Shoes in the first lines: 'Brushed all the dust in Kansas off of my special shoes'.

For that reason the whole of The life of the World to Come fascinates me. It is an entre album where the songs are named for and inspired by bible verses.

I am generally fascinated by the lyrics of old folk songs aswell.

One of the most striking bizarre albums I have heard from a lyrical standpoint is Jordaan Mason and the Horse Museum's Divorce Lawyers I Shaved my Head. It is an album about a transgendered couple in an alternate reality during a war that ends in 1990. The lyrics are often visceral, bleak, disturbing and along with interesting musical style it is a really distinct listening experience.

[OctoberRaven]

For me, it's vocals over lyrics, though when you have good lyrics and good vocals it's a big plus for me.

[Skummy]

It really depends on the song.

To take my two favourite bands; The Lucksmiths I'll mostly listen to for the lyrics. Morphine, I'll listen to for the music, because the lyrics generally seem to be more selected based on cadence and musicality than for any deeper meaning.

Also, heavy metal lyrics are uniformly dreadful.

[SRN]

Also, heavy metal lyrics are uniformly dreadful.

I would say that depends on the band. I can agree that largely metal never had the most amazing lyricists or the deepest lyrics, but I wouldn't say all metal lyrics are all bad.