[Gabriel Synthesis]

i think angra rock but occasionally people laugh at this and their reason for laughing is that they sing about angels and demons and that type of crap.

so how much difference do the lyrics make to the quality of music?

some people would rather listen to embrace or athlete singing fucking dirges about they're own pathetic problems just because the lyrics are slightly more normal and i think that's just stupid especially as it means that their live gigs are gonna be mind-numbingly boring.

so anyway, should bands be dismissed purely on the basis that they sing about demons and the battle of good and evil?

(btw i do agree that these are pretty lame things to sing about)

[Forgone Conclusion]

I don't think so at all. Songs can still be good with weird lyrics, and lets face it, most of them are if you get down to it.

[Droogie]

although a lot of the time power metal lyrics are cheesy to the point of silliness, you still get GOOD lyricists that write clever lyrics, even if they are about mythology and fantasy (symphony x comes to mind).

yes, a lot of angra songs are silly, but they don't always sing about demons and goblins, and there are many other bands with much worse lyrics (dragonforce, hammerfall).

but NO!!! people shouldnt be put off by poor lyrics!!! i laugh at bad lyrics but i still listen if the music itself is good. its all part of the fun.

anyway, other genres also have their own overused lyrical themes, e.g. death metal --> death(!)/violence, pop --> love/happiness, rap --> sex/being black.

[Gabriel Synthesis]

and bitches and pimping and cars with silly hydraulics

[Echoes]

now, plenty of good songs have been made with lyrics that don't make sense - Led Zep's Stairway to Heaven is a good example of this.

Good lyrics do not necessarily mean a lot to you - rather, good lyrics 'sound nice' and are easy to sing/shout along to.

That said, when I'm singing along to a song, the song will reach a whole extra level of awesomeness if I can actually make connections between what I'm singing and my own life

Furthermore, even lyrics you don't associate to can make you feel extra emotions which songs about angels and demons couldn't - take nick drake for example. an awesome lyricist.

So really I think lyrics have the potential to add a lot to a song, make it more catchy, more interedting, etc.

[The Phlegmy One!111]

I think lyrics are pretty important. With Dragonforce or whatever, you can enjoy them, but at the end of the day, they aren't the best band. I prefer slightly more abstracty lyrics in that they're not talking about what happened to them last night or whatever literally. Basically, Modest Mouse, Nine Inch Nails and Tool have my fav lyrics.

[Banana]

I think a good song consist of both a good music and a good lyrics...
so yeah, good lyrics are important.

[Eh! Steve]

Picture yourself in a boat on a river
With tangerine trees and marmalade skies.
Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly,
A girl with kaleidoscope eyes.

Cellophane flowers of yellow and green
Towering over your head.
Look for the girl with the sun in her eyes
And she's gone.

Chorus:
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds, ah, ah

Follow her down to a bridge by a fountain
where rocking horse people eat marshmallow pies.
Everyone smiles as you drift past the flowers
That grow so incredibly high.

Newspaper taxis appear on the shore
Waiting to take you away
Climb in the back with your head in the clouds
And you're gone.

Chorus

Picture yourself on a train in a station
With plasticine porters with looking glass ties,
Suddenly someone is there at the turnstile,
The girl with kaleidoscope eyes.

Chorus

Crap lyrics, great song.

[Droogie]

^^
i guess that proves the point.

[RedhotgorillaUSA]

i could care less what people say as long as the song has good music

the only lyrics i TRUTHFULLY care about are funny and humourous lyrics

[Lord Love Rocket]

To be quite frank i think you've managed to prove exactly the oposite. John Lennon said that the song was based on pictures drawn by his little children but now we know this is not the case.

It's LSD trips hence Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds which is as an accronym LSD.

The vivid imagery portrayed by Lennon in that song is unrivalled and shows the true skill of a lyricist. If you want to see poor Beatles lyrics just look at the earlier songs. They are rife with them but certainly not here.

Excellent lyrics for an excellent song. Probably pioneering lyrics too and i don't think there are any better songs about drug trips around.

I love the imagination used and complete and utter randomness of everything. You really can picture it in your head. Then all this is summed up at the bottom of the verse simply, "And you're gone".

Overall in songs lyrics do tend to matter. You can have good songs with bad lyrics but equally an average song can be made into a good one with good lyrics.

Excellent lyrics don't always have to make sense but i tend to think songs should be about something experienced in life and things you believe in. If you look at pop music its just shite because they don't know what they are singing about because there is no meaning and they haven't written it so there is no passion.

The Smiths wrote excellent lyics and to quote one of their songs:

"And the music that they constantly play, it says nothing to me about my life"

[Adamski]

i think lyrics are important to make great rock ongs, but sometimes they're not essential.

if im just listening and not singing along to music, the lyrics could be pretty much chatting shit so long as the vocal melody is good, as the vox is basically acting as another instrument.

the other exception is feelgood songs. simple or nonsense lyrics can work over a very catchy tune because it's the tune providing all the mood, not the lyrics.

i find the songs with good lyrics are the ones i connect with. it's really cool when u hear some lyrics and the singer uses an analogy or metaphor and you can see exactly what they mean, the same happens in good literature. i'm likely to be still playing these songs years after their release.

good example of the first is Inertiatic ESP by The Mars Volta, where the vox is used as a solo instrument. While I love the song, the lyrics mean nothing to me (except that I now know Cedric Bixler-Zavala was lost at the time of writing)

[sexual_harassment_panda]

tbh in lots of rock songs you can't really hear the lyrics anyways so unless you listen to the song bare times or look them up......

[Fender.chiq]

I think lyrics do sometimes matter, when you're singing along, or reading them. You have to be able to connect with them. They're only good lyrics when they make you feel something. If they strike an emotion or two within you, they have created an impact. You'll remember them lyrics for a while, because of what they made you feel; so in a sense, to have a memorable song, you have to have good, meaningful lyrics.

Then again.. A song can have diabolical lyrics, but the harmonies, riffs and rhythms can have a massive impact upon you and once again, the song becomes memorable and stuck in your mind. Music is a lot like art. The colours used in art can strike feelings and emotions. The instruments, harmonies, riffs and rhythms in a song can do exactly the same. If you hear a song, and the riffs and chords make you cry, then you'll remember it.

I think either good or bad lyrics can decide whether a song is good or bad. It depends upon the person who's listening and what it makes them feel.

[The Phlegmy One!111]

Sing-a-longs usually have really crap cheesy lyrics, but it's ok because they're sing-a-longs. But for me to like be in my top 5 or whatever, every aspect of the music has to be top class, and that includes lyrics. Sure there are some bands with shit lyrics I like, but they've restricted themselves as they will never be 'the best'.