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View Full Version : Lyrical pet peeves...?



Wryan
09-03-2008, 06:12 PM
I can't stand overtly self-conscious lyrics that ensure an emotional connection through facile, easily won attachments based on "real life" experience. More simply explained by any lyrics that make someone think/scream "Oh my god! That's exactly what I felt when my boyfriend broke up with me! That's so my life! How did they capture the essence of me so perfectly?" and by the musicians who write such lyrics because they know and want those reactions in order to make their song more identifiable...to anyone with a pulse.

Maybe all music is culpable in this to one degree or another, but surely you would agree that there are those who do it well and with subtlety (and yes, it's my personal preference to equate subtlety with quality) and those who do it badly and bluntly.

What's that new song going around that both samples and uses "Sweet Home Alabama" as the crux of its "meaning"? I've heard the trash twice and I turn the channel when it comes on now.

Where's the line between a lyric that has universal meaning and one that has the feel of lowest-common denominator? A perforated line, and I'm sure the topic has been beaten to death over the years, but my personal worst peeve is a lyric that wantonly strays over into the "bowling pin blunt" territory not out of necessity but because the musician can't think of anything better to say.

Justin
09-03-2008, 06:36 PM
What's that new song going around that both samples and uses "Sweet Home Alabama" as the crux of its "meaning"? I've heard the trash twice and I turn the channel when it comes on now.

I take it you are talkng about Kid Rock's "All Summer Long" which I believe also takes a lot from some other southern rock song. I work at a music store and people just eat that song up.

Benny Profane
09-03-2008, 07:01 PM
I can't stand overtly self-conscious lyrics that ensure an emotional connection through facile, easily won attachments based on "real life" experience.

Can you give an example?

Wryan
09-03-2008, 07:22 PM
Can you give an example?

You mean other than the one I gave?

Benny Profane
09-03-2008, 07:31 PM
You mean other than the one I gave?

I meant an example of the lyrics, not just the song. I haven't heard that version of the song so I don't know how it relates to the thread.

Wryan
09-03-2008, 07:48 PM
I meant an example of the lyrics, not just the song. I haven't heard that version of the song so I don't know how it relates to the thread.

The song's a mashup of Warren Zevon's "Werewolves of London" and Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama," so it's possible that it's not supposed to be taken too seriously. Taking a tiny gander at Wiki produces this: "Billboard praised the song's style adding that its lyrics 'will make listeners nod and smile knowingly as they recall their own glory days.'" There you go. Nutshell. Yet I feel the song was written too obviously to produce exactly that effect, rather than writing to reach for artistic merit and producing that effect as a byproduct of the song's quality.

~~~

It was 1989, my thoughts were short my hair was long
Caught somewhere between a boy and man
She was seventeen and she was far from in-between
It was summertime in Northern Michigan
Ahh Ahh Ahh
Ahh Ahh Ahh

Splashing through the sand bar
Talking by the campfire
It's the simple things in life, like when and where
We didn't have no internet
But man I never will forget
The way the moonlight shined upon her hair

[Chorus:]
And we were trying different things
We were smoking funny things
Making love out by the lake to our favorite song
Sipping whiskey out the bottle, not thinking 'bout tomorrow
Singing "Sweet home Alabama" all summer long
Singing "Sweet home Alabama" all summer long

~~~

It too clearly wants to be an anthemic mixture of every Southern rock song and I feel embarassed listening to it.

Similar to this peeve: musicians that change lyrics to incorporate the name of the city/state/town that they're singing in front of. Why? So people can say, "Hey! I recognize that name! That's us! Whoooo-hoooo!" There is literally no other reason to do this and it gives me kidney stones to hear it.

transmogrifier
09-03-2008, 09:33 PM
To tell you the truth, lyrics matter very, very little to me when it comes to liking a song. It's all about the instruments, arrangement and melody. Some of my favorite songs/artists have barely functional lyrics, and I couldn't care less.

Derek
09-03-2008, 09:45 PM
To tell you the truth, lyrics matter very, very little to me when it comes to liking a song. It's all about the instruments, arrangement and melody. Some of my favorite songs/artists have barely functional lyrics, and I couldn't care less.

This.

Ezee E
09-03-2008, 09:53 PM
This.
Seconded. I barely even know what most songs are about.

D_Davis
09-03-2008, 10:08 PM
To tell you the truth, lyrics matter very, very little to me when it comes to liking a song. It's all about the instruments, arrangement and melody. Some of my favorite songs/artists have barely functional lyrics, and I couldn't care less.

Kind of.

Really great lyrics will rarely, if ever, warm me to a song that is not sonically interesting and well composed. However, really bad lyrics will often turn me off to a song that is. I would rather have no lyrics than poorly written lyrics, or at least have the poorly written lyrics buried so far in the mix as to render them inconsequential to the over all composition.

MadMan
09-04-2008, 02:45 AM
I like songs that have lyrics I can understand, and I like songs where the lyrics don't even matter. Its all relative anyways.

Kurosawa Fan
09-04-2008, 04:07 AM
Here's my two cents: if a song puts lyrics front and center, they better be fucking good. I don't want to focus on garbage, nor have to tune it out. If a song makes its lyrics part of the background, just another instrument to get lost in, I'm okay. Plenty of great songs have unintelligible lyrics, or lyrics I don't much care about. I don't think it's as cut and dry as "lyrics don't matter". The musician decides whether the lyrics matter.

Derek
09-04-2008, 04:34 AM
Here's my two cents: if a song puts lyrics front and center, they better be fucking good. I don't want to focus on garbage, nor have to tune it out. If a song makes its lyrics part of the background, just another instrument to get lost in, I'm okay. Plenty of great songs have unintelligible lyrics, or lyrics I don't much care about. I don't think it's as cut and dry as "lyrics don't matter". The musician decides whether the lyrics matter.

No, the musician decides whether the lyrics matter to the song. They don't determine whether they matter to me, which they rarely do. Of course, I'm not saying I don't appreciate great lyrics, but when a song is more about the lyrics than the music, my chances of loving go down quite a bit. Like D said, awful lyrics can inhibit my enjoyment of a song to a certain degree, but not nearly to the same degree that great lyrics can be ruined by mediocre musicianship. Personal preference, it's my life, back off. ;)

Kurosawa Fan
09-04-2008, 04:38 AM
No, the musician decides whether the lyrics matter to the song. They don't determine whether they matter to me, which they rarely do. Of course, I'm not saying I don't appreciate great lyrics, but when a song is more about the lyrics than the music, my chances of loving go down quite a bit. Like D said, awful lyrics can inhibit my enjoyment of a song to a certain degree, but not nearly to the same degree that great lyrics can be ruined by mediocre musicianship. Personal preference, it's my life, back off. ;)

We're in total agreement. In fact, nothing you say contradicts what I wrote above. I never said you couldn't ignore the lyrics, nor did I say that the musician decides whether the lyrics are important to the listener. I meant exactly what you wrote. However, if the musician feels that the lyrics are important to the song, and showcases them above all else, and said lyrics are total crap, so is his/her song. At least for me. I can't think of a single instance where the lyrics are the main focus of a song, those lyrics are downright bad, and I still like the song.

Derek
09-04-2008, 05:17 AM
We're in total agreement. In fact, nothing you say contradicts what I wrote above. I never said you couldn't ignore the lyrics, nor did I say that the musician decides whether the lyrics are important to the listener. I meant exactly what you wrote. However, if the musician feels that the lyrics are important to the song, and showcases them above all else, and said lyrics are total crap, so is his/her song. At least for me. I can't think of a single instance where the lyrics are the main focus of a song, those lyrics are downright bad, and I still like the song.

I see what you're saying now and accept your decision to agree.

transmogrifier
09-04-2008, 09:07 AM
We're in total agreement. In fact, nothing you say contradicts what I wrote above. I never said you couldn't ignore the lyrics, nor did I say that the musician decides whether the lyrics are important to the listener. I meant exactly what you wrote. However, if the musician feels that the lyrics are important to the song, and showcases them above all else, and said lyrics are total crap, so is his/her song. At least for me. I can't think of a single instance where the lyrics are the main focus of a song, those lyrics are downright bad, and I still like the song.

But it seems to me that your assumption about the lyrics being "showcased" implies that the instrumentation behind ithem is rote or unmemorable in the first place (correct me if I'm wrong, but that's how I interpret your comment). So, being generous, great lyrics can potentially save a song, but that's about it?

Boner M
09-04-2008, 10:10 AM
I can't stand overtly self-conscious lyrics that ensure an emotional connection through facile, easily won attachments based on "real life" experience. More simply explained by any lyrics that make someone think/scream "Oh my god! That's exactly what I felt when my boyfriend broke up with me! That's so my life! How did they capture the essence of me so perfectly?" and by the musicians who write such lyrics because they know and want those reactions in order to make their song more identifiable...to anyone with a pulse.
This kind of songwriting reminds me of DVDA's "Warts on Your Dick" (Trey Parker & Matt Stone's band), from the hit-or-miss Baseketball:

Your life is spinning out of control
Seems the whole world is out to get you
Everything is wrong, nothing seems right

There's a sinking feeling inside
Even your best friend has turned his back
But-cha can't let it bring ya down, no you've gotta fight
Coz you’ve tried but ya can’t let go

It’s when you’re down that ya gotta get up
Don’t let em walk all over your face
Stand up for yourself and make everything right again
Even if some guys trying to blackmail you
And your girlfriend thinks you suck
It’s up to you to let them know
That it was all just part of some rich guy’s evil plan

Look out ahead there’s a truck changing lanes
You've got some yellow crumbs on your upper lip
And those warts on your dick aren’t gonna go away
Less you start using topical cream everyday

megladon8
09-04-2008, 12:27 PM
Boner mentions a song called "Warts on Your Dick".

Who'da thunk?


EDIT: Is it bad that I know that whole song by heart?

Wryan
09-04-2008, 12:52 PM
I'm surprised so many people here are meh on lyrics. I hope it's not a case of people not wanting to bother to "read" the song.

"What!? This movie has subtitles? It's in French!? Fuck this!"

:P

Kurosawa Fan
09-04-2008, 01:05 PM
But it seems to me that your assumption about the lyrics being "showcased" implies that the instrumentation behind ithem is rote or unmemorable in the first place (correct me if I'm wrong, but that's how I interpret your comment). So, being generous, great lyrics can potentially save a song, but that's about it?

No, not rote, but quieter. Soft while the singer does his thing, and then picking up during the chorus or in the gaps that the singer isn't singing. That's what I mean by showcasing the lyrics. If they're deliberately calling attention to the lyrics rather than making them more cohesive with the instrumentation, the lyrics need to be good. Here's a very deliberate example: Bob Dylan, for much of his early years, was just a man and a guitar. Now, if his lyrics had been forgettable, he wouldn't be worth listening to. On the flip side, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah are almost completely unintelligible. I really don't have a clue what they're saying most of the time, but his singing style blends right in with the music and it feels like just another instrument, so it doesn't really matter what he's saying.

Dead & Messed Up
09-06-2008, 06:31 AM
I think I'd agree with Wryan that those pity-me-pity-you lyrics get really old. The "universal" emotion that's really just pandering and facile. Some bands can pull it off and give it weight, but most just make me wonder how low standards can be. That said, I think lyrics work best as another instrument used to further the mood of a song.

Out of context, Trent Reznor's lyrics are pretty much bad poetry with the occasional flourish. In context, I find them effective; cathartic and to the point. On paper, "Come Together" doesn't make much of any sense. "He one spinal cracker." Bwuh? But when coupled with that funky beat, it's pretty awesome.

I think I'll go listen to that again.