Interpreting songs

Mathemagician wrote: ya. after years of listening, i finally "got" dark side of the moon. meh. not that good of a concept. animals was much better. and on the subject of pink floyd. i hate when people say that wish you were here is a concept album. shine on and the title track could have been a concept ep. but have a cigar and welcome to the machine dont have nething to do with syd barret. waters wanted to put dogs and pigs on it, but gilmour wouldn't let him for some odd reason, so they made animals with them. they should have put machine and cigar on animals and made some more syd-centric songs for a tribute album. r.i.p. syd barret. shine on you crazy diamond.

Waters was, and is, dim, how his lyrics came to be highly regarded in the century that gave us T. S. Eliot is beyond me. Most likely it has to do with their inherent ability to make any t**t feel "deep", gobsh*te.       

I don't interpret the theme of Wish to be as much about Syd Barrett as it was the band taking stock and getting a good look at the industry they chose (or that chose them). It is an album of fond memories of simpler times, growing up, and facing the reality of success. Remember, WYWH was the album after the chart-busting monster Dark Side. In this way, most if not all the songs have a connection.




Edited by Atavachron - April 06 2007 at 01:23

ya. after years of listening, i finally "got" dark side of the moon. meh. not that good of a concept. animals was much better. and on the subject of pink floyd. i hate when people say that wish you were here is a concept album. shine on and the title track could have been a concept ep. but have a cigar and welcome to the machine dont have nething to do with syd barret. waters wanted to put dogs and pigs on it, but gilmour wouldn't let him for some odd reason, so they made animals with them. they should have put machine and cigar on animals and made some more syd-centric songs for a tribute album. r.i.p. syd barret. shine on you crazy diamond.

I think I read in some music magazine back in the seventies that Lake wrote Lucky Man  when he was a kid and it was only used as filler on the first ELP album. Anyone know if there`s any truth to this? Also he returns to this  money  theme on at least a few other songs he`s penned over the years. Paper Blood off the Black Moon album comes to mind.

Edited by Vibrationbaby - April 05 2007 at 11:19

UncleMeat wrote: Music is the most important part of my listening experience. If the 'tone'  of the lyrics sounds good, and I have been able to give my own interpretation to them, I consider that a bonus. If the music is good and the lyrics are not really interesting, or if I don't 'get'  them (like most Yes Lyrics),  I can still enjoy the music (like most Yes music). I can also enjoy music with lyrics in a language I don't understand (Le Orme). If I really understand the lyrics but I consider them to be bad, stupid or whatever, this really annoys me, especially if the music is good. It really spoils the song in that case.If the lyrics are good but the music does not appeal to me, I will probably also not listen to it again.  Conclusion: Music Good +  Lyrics Good = OK Music Good + Lyrics not understandable  = OK Music Good + Lyrics stupid = Not OK Music not good + Lyrics Not good = Not OK

for stupid, song-spoiling lyrics theres nothing like porcupine tree. I love their music but the lyrics just get in the way. I can't listen to lightbulb sun anymore just because the lyrics make me cringe.
I'd rather they just be like TMV and be utterly ridiculous. For the most part its more about the music to me though. Trying to find meaning to me takes away from the enjoyment of the song, especially when the meaning is something political i'll probably disagree with.

Why, you've never hear about ye olde defintion of prog? "A rock song is a 3-minute song about love. A prog rock song is a 15-minute song about nothing!"

Music is the most important part of my listening experience. If the 'tone'  of the lyrics sounds good, and I have been able to give my own interpretation to them, I consider that a bonus. If the music is good and the lyrics are not really interesting, or if I don't 'get'  them (like most Yes Lyrics),  I can still enjoy the music (like most Yes music). I can also enjoy music with lyrics in a language I don't understand (Le Orme).

If I really understand the lyrics but I consider them to be bad, stupid or whatever, this really annoys me, especially if the music is good. It really spoils the song in that case.

If the lyrics are good but the music does not appeal to me, I will probably also not listen to it again. 

Conclusion:
Music Good +  Lyrics Good = OK
Music Good + Lyrics not understandable  = OK
Music Good + Lyrics stupid = Not OK
Music not good + Lyrics Not good = Not OK

Yes, I agree that some lyrics don't seem to have an point, bu eg. Rush wrote IMO very good lyrics, and when I began to pay atention to them I appreciated this band even more. Lyrics are also very, very important (and brilliant, although sometimes depressing) in VDGG. But I realised now that I shouldn't take some lyrics or songs too seriously, beacuse they simply have no meaning, I had thought before that maybe I'm so unintelligent that I can't understand them .
BTW, as for 'I talk to the wind' I somehow love the lyrics, because they fit so well with the music, they don't have to contain any moral.

Edited by Harold Demure - March 30 2007 at 07:32

I personally have never been terribly interested in interpreting lyrics.  If I wanted to interpret poetry, I'd crack open a book, not listen to music.  Besides, often lyrics are just strung together to sound good (e.g. Yes), too veiled in symbolism to be interpretable (eg. Beefheart), or too tied up in personal experiences/inside jokes to be relevant to the listener. 

I often find it funny how overanylized some people get; I even saw someone try to interpret Trout Mask Replica once, which is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. 

Oh man Tales has for me one very good concept, and by far Andersons best lyrics. It speak basically that the grace of God is not in the words of books, rules and such, but in nature, in mankind and in everything beautiful in this word. And even if you dont like the God connection, its not explisit, so you can make out of it whatever you want, but for me its that... I think its genius