the importance of lyrics

how much importance do you give to lyrics in music? are bad lyrics enough for you to dislike a band or a song? or maybe you dont care what the band says as long as it sounds good?

i have trouble getting into Rush because of some of the lyrics.
when i tried to give Dream Theater a chance i heard octavarium and thought that the lyrics were so cheesy that i havent played that cd again. (to be honest i didnt like most of the music either, but with better lyrics i might have given them another chance).

however, i AM willing to sacrifice some good lyrics for great music.
for example, the song "killer" by VDGG. some parts of the lyrics are terrible, but the music is good enough for me to ignore them. i have no trouble listening to italian prog even if i dont understand the lyrics.

some songs i learn to appreciate in spite of the bad lyrics, but the lyrics make it impossible for me to sing along the song. its hard to sing words with meaning that you dislike.

most bands have average quality lyrics, they are good enough as to not diminish the quality of the songs but not good enough to stimulate interest. but others are really good and help improve the experience, like what Tom Waits writes. the lyrics really helped me to understand and appreciate his music. he is a genius.

so, what do YOU think about this?

I can tolerate bad lyrics with great music.  For example...when I was into black metal, their lyrics didn't really do much for me, yet I really enjoyed the music.  Yet, a great song with great lyrics makes that song so much better.  I will always listen to the music first and not pay attention to the lyrics, and if I start to really like that song, I will then pay attention to the lyrics.  

I quite like Spock's Beard in spite of some pretty cheesy lyrics.

On the flip side, I really appreciate Bob Dylan's "Blood on the Tracks" album.  Absolutely nothing special about the music, but the lyrics alone make it one of my favourite albums, ever.

That's why PoS rules, not because Gildenlow is a musical god, but he can write awesome, emotionally-moving lyrics. Lyrics sometime don't affect the music at all, like some of Yes' work.

The way that gets me isn't the cheesiness of the words (because I don't listen to the words as a whole anyway, while listening to a song, I just listen to the way they sound, and if they sound neat, then it doesn't matter much to me if they're even in English!! - no, it's later that I look up the lyrics and sometimes become embarrassed at the cheese factor ) ... what gets me is the way some things just sound ridiculous and cheesy when you sing them.

Perfect example: Yes' Tales, in part one, when they all sing the word "moment"... I love this guy and never thought I'd say this, but right then Jon Anderson actually makes me sick. It doesn't even matter how important the word 'moment' was to the rest of the sentence ... I just wish they'd left that out!

I really don't care if lyrics are horrible. Being heavily into Death Metal before i discovered prog properly i have listened to plenty of bands with digusting and pitiful lyrics, but that's not what it was about. It's all about the music maaaan, peace!  Really though, the only way lyrics affect a song for me is if that's the main drive of a song. For example if it's a song featuring a single person with an acoustic guitar playing open chords constantly and sing a simple melody line then that's when the lyrics matter. Having said that the music would suck and i wouldn't lisen anyway

Having said that good lyrics can add an extra something to a song, as others have said.

Most of the time, I'd need to focus to understand the lyrics, since I am french speaking, and I do not listen to much music with french lyrics. So as long as the singer sing good, I can listen to a song for a long time without ever knowing the lyrics and it's okay...

But when the song is in french, it's something else... It seem to me like every song in french sound cheesy. Still, there are some good ones, but they are rare...

The best is to listen to music with non-sense lyrics like Sigur Ros, or Magma (if you dont know Kobaian...). Or one you can't understand what the hell he's singing, like Can...

As others have said, music is what matters most to me, as well as good vocals. I have a weakness for singers who can actually sing, so that rules out most black/death metal for me. However, I won't deny that I enjoy well-written lyrics, as they can really enhance the music. A prime example are Pink Floyd with Roger Waters, but also Rush (I know he's not to everyone's taste, but I love Peart's lyrics) and Peter Gabriel's solo production. I don't find Lake that bad a lyricist either, and I quite enjoy Sinfield's lyrics too. On the other hand, I love Yes even though their lyrics are absolute gobbledygook.