sheer potentiality

I think it’s fair to say that music is pretty important to my life. One of the questions I have sometimes asked of others is whether it’s the sound or the lyrics that are more important. People give me various responses*, but I’ve recently discovered I’m less sure of my own response than I once was.

I used to think it was all sound, but I’ve found that particularly lame lyrics can ruin a song for me (most of Styx’s Kilroy Was Here), and particularly good lyrics can lift it up (Rush’s “Bravado”, from Roll The Bones). So now I’m starting to think that lyrics are far more important than I ever believed.

But that doesn’t mean I have to like or even agree with the lyrics. For the most part, that means that I don’t have to consciously notice any lameness. That can either mean that there is lameness, but I don’t pay attention to the lyrics and don’t discover it, or alternatively, that there isn’t lameness. Either way works, although lacking lameness in the first place is more sustainable. Once I know the lyrics I can’t hide from them anymore. Their lameness just comes and gets me. By the throat.

*Hint: That’s the audience involvement bit. See that “comments” link? :)

Tags: Music

This entry was posted on Friday, November 4th, 2005 at 6:04 am and is filed under Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.