Recently I was reading a blog post about the debut album by one of my favourite bands, Dire Straits. As well as celebrating the spell-binding guitar and characteristic vocal style of Mark Knopfler, Another Grumpy Commuter paid attention to the excellent lyrics on the album.
“Down to the Waterline” is a tale of teenage liasons in Knopfler’s native North East, while “Wild West End” describes his wanderings around London before Dire Straits’ success.
Then there is the witty description of jazz musicians in “Sultans of Swing”.
Knopfler always has a fine eye for the detail of situations, but despite this, Dire Straits are rarely discussed as a ‘lyrics’ band.
It got me thinking, just how important are lyrics to music fans?
Songwriters can spend hours, days, months and sometimes years sweating over lyrics; but despite this I have often heard people – music lovers – say that lyrics are of no interest to them. This has always baffled me. Surely everyone’s enjoyment of a song must have some relation to what it’s about, or seems to be about?
Lyrics may complement or contrast with the music, but I don’t understand how you can hear the words without processing them on some level (as long as they are in a language you understand), and that affecting your response to the track.
At the other extreme are people who take lyrics far too seriously. Music critics are the worst for this. Because the actual sound and emotional impact of music is hard to describe, they tend to base album reviews around lyrical themes, trying to sum up what the album is ‘about’, rather than it just being a collection of songs that worked out alright in the studio (or didn’t).
This kind of analysis then becomes the basis of long interviews, with lyric scribblers being treated like they were the authors of great literature, as if anyone listens to an album in that way.
I guess most of us sit somewhere between those extremes; song lyrics may wash over us in a pleasing flood without us catching all of the meanings, or necessarily wanting to. We relish certain lines as they come up, and check on lyric sheets or online to find out the exact words, but it’s rarely a subject for detailed study.
As for my personal favourites among lyric writers, I love the wit of Morrissey and the ‘beat poetry’ style of Tom Waits, but I also like lyrics that I don’t understand. Michael Stipe’s lyrics for REM were affecting as well as often being experimental and opaque. I’m not sure why a “Candy Bar” and “Dr Seuss” crop up in this tune but it’s a beautiful slice of left-field pop.
Following on from that, on the classic “Motorcycle Emptiness” by The Manic Street Preachers, I can hardly make out a word James Dean Bradfield sings, but I don’t care. The drama of the song is not diminished by the indistinct lyrics, indeed it adds to the bittersweet beauty of this track, for me. Lots of things in life are enigmatic, which only makes them more fascinating.
Bob Dylan is probably the most celebrated lyricist of any generation, and he’s certainly one of my heroes. But for all his brilliance, like most songwriters he often wrote lines just to fill up his verses.
When interviewed in 1989, a journalist asked him:
“In the song Man in The Long Black Coat you sing ‘People don’t live or die, people just float’…what do you mean by ‘people just float’?”
Dylan: “well…I needed a rhyme for ‘coat'”
Tom George 
Definitely listen to the lyrics. Hard to get the first time around sometimes. Have to listen to it over and over to get the words and meanings.
I have to confess to primarily being a melody, arrangement, production, instrumental ability and musical/vocal harmonisation fan.
If the lyric is great then that’s a bonus. I guess it’s borne out in two of my favourite acts, The Beatles and The Beach Boys. I’m also a big fan of 60s Motown. None of these would be considered great lyrical works I guess, but to me they still created great music.
One reason why many people today probably don’t care much about the lyrics is that there are few quality lyricists still practicing the craft. Most of pop music today is so predictable and repetitive that I guess lots of fans just like to bop to the beat without giving a second thought to what, if anything, the song may be about.
I’m old enough to remember when song lyrics used to be printed on the backs of record albums, and we’d read them intently. Then you had the inner-sleeve of the CD, and the lyrics were so small they were a challenge to read. Now, when downloading songs off Amazon or some other site, you’re not getting the lyrics in print form at all. I guess you can call it post-literate Rock.
Nice post,
Bill
Really nice post. I’m an enormous fan of Waits, Knopfler, and Dylan. And your point about Dire Straits is well taken. That being said, Knopfer has totally blown the roof off the building with his solo post-Dire Straits records. Are you into those at all?
Hi Brian, I haven’t actually heard any of those, no. Maybe I should, but I think I’ve probably been put off Knopfler in later years as it seemed to me that towards the end of Dire Straits he was turning into a boring old fart. I mean after the bite and vitality of the first three Dire Straits albums he seemed to relish slowing down and blanding out. Brothers in Arms? No urgency at all. I thought On Every Street was much better. The Notting Hillbillies album he did was so well-behaved it was hardly worth listening to, and the live TV performances I’ve seen recently it was all so…tasteful. I really respect his blending of country and celtic influences but I just wish he had some fire in his music these days.Then again, I haven’t heard those albums so what do I know?
I’ m big fan of Knopfler (obviously) but I really urge you to check out Paul Kelly as well. He really writes a great song.
And cheers for the mention of my site
George
Oh, thanks for the tip George! I’ll check him out 🙂
Thanks Erich, I guess there a tradition in the late 60s/early 70s (you were there so you know more than me!) of epic, winding, semi-mystical, and enjoyably wordy songs that encouraged deciphering, probably influenced by Dylan. I would include Procol Harem’s “Whiter Shade of Pale”, Noel Harrison’s “Windmills of Your Mind” all the way to “Hotel California” and “American Pie”. It seems like a genre in itself to me.
Thanks for another thought-provoking post. There are songs that I love, love, love that I still have no idea what the lyrics mean. “Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys” — anyone have a clue what that song’s about? Or even that old chestnut, “Stairway to Heaven” — must have listened to it a million times. Still a muddle to me. But then there are some songs (like so many Dylan songs) where the lyrics are everything. So I guess it all depends . . .
Good choices,I like Springsteen’s lyrics, he has a beautiful, expressive turn of phrase.