does music need lyrics to make sense to be good?

2»

Comments

  • youngster
    youngster Boston Posts: 6,576
    Don't forget about Bush.
    He who forgets will be destined to remember.

    9/29/04 Boston, 6/28/08 Mansfield, 8/23/09 Chicago, 5/15/10 Hartford
    5/17/10 Boston, 10/15/13 Worcester, 10/16/13 Worcester, 10/25/13 Hartford
    8/5/16 Fenway, 8/7/16 Fenway
    EV Solo: 6/16/11 Boston, 6/18/11 Hartford,
  • Bob Dylan comes to mind. Most likely the best songwriter in music history, the most talented at least. Alof of his stuff in the mid to late 1960's reads almost like stream of consciousness.

    And a modern example being Aesop Rock a hip hop artist. Another very talented guy, in the top tier of quality hip hop, and his lyrics are completely off the wall, just totally crazy.

    So no, lyrics dont have to make sense to be good.

    Music is art. Are paintings powerful and important if they make no sense? Jackson Pollack comes to mind. Are movies important and powerful even if they make no sense David Lynch's Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire come to mind.
  • Think of all the songs that work even though people can't make out the lyrics or the words are misheard.
  • dunkman
    dunkman Posts: 19,646
    In the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey
    Butane in my veins and Im out to cut the junkie
    With the plastic eyeballs, spray-paint the vegetables
    Dog food stalls with the beefcake pantyhose
    Kill the headlights and put it in neutral
    Stock car flamin with a loser and the cruise control
    Babys in reno with the vitamin d
    Got a couple of couches, sleep on the love-seat
    Someone came in sayin Im insane to complain
    About a shotgun wedding and a stain on my shirt
    Dont believe everything that you breathe
    You get a parking violation and a maggot on your sleeve
    So shave your face with some mace in the dark
    Savin all your food stamps and burnin down the trailer park



    so with all that in mind i'd say no.
    oh scary... 40000 morbidly obese christians wearing fanny packs invading europe is probably the least scariest thing since I watched an edited version of The Care Bears movie in an extremely brightly lit cinema.
  • Back_Pedal
    Back_Pedal Posts: 1,171
    I enjoy Beck and Nirvana just fine, so I guess no.
    Thanks EPOTTSIII!
    "Vinyl or not, you will need to pay someone to take RA of your hands" - Smile05
    424, xxx
  • BinFrog
    BinFrog MA Posts: 7,314
    It just depends on what the music does to your senses. Lyrics are only part of the landscape of a song. That is why an instrumental song can move you to tears. That is also why you can 'feel' a song even though you have no idea what the lyrics are or what they mean.
    Bright eyed kid: "Wow Typo Man, you're the best!"
    Typo Man: "Thanks kidz, but remembir, stay in skool!"
  • rollings
    rollings unknown Posts: 7,127
    You mean like....

    When you're old enough to repaint...
    but young enough to sell?


    of course they don't!
  • justam
    justam Posts: 21,415
    No. Lyrics aren't required for music to be good.
    &&&&&&&&&&&&&&
  • rollings
    rollings unknown Posts: 7,127
    Get_Right wrote:
    no

    Look for a while at the china cat sunflower,
    Proud walking jingle in the midnight sun.
    Copperdome bodhi drip a silver kimono,
    Like a crazy quilt stargown through a dream night wind.

    Crazy cat peekin through a lace bandanna,
    Like a one-eyed cheshire, like a diamond-eye jack.
    A leaf of all colors plays a golden-string fiddle,
    To a double-e waterfall over my back.

    Comic book colors on a violin river cryin leonardo,
    Words from out a silk trombone.
    I rang a silent bell, beneath a shower of pearls,
    In the eagle-winged palace of the queen chinee.

    ca-chinkers!
  • mysticweed
    mysticweed Posts: 3,710
    Rollings wrote:
    You mean like....

    When you're old enough to repaint...
    but young enough to sell?


    of course they don't!

    wow
    are you slamming neil?
    i suppose
    old enough to reap pain makes more sense . . .
    fuck 'em if they can't take a joke

    "what a long, strange trip it's been"
  • Jason P
    Jason P Posts: 19,394
    RHCP too...
    I love the random crap that Keidis comes up with. He admits a lot of it is just for the rhyme.
    :lol:

    There isn't a damn thing on Stadium Arcadium that makes a lick of sense. It's total gibberish but it sounds cool.
    Be Excellent To Each Other
    Party On, Dudes!