General Music Chat

When light shines down from stars above
And settles in your eyes
The angels sing a song of Love
And music fills the sky


Try it.
Exercise your lyrical sense.

Try what?

When light shines down from stars above
And settles in your eyes
The angels sing a song of Love
And music fills the sky

A softly pounding racket
Or a freedom-screaming rag
That echoes where the lovers write
Their letters in the sand

Not just another protest song
Or sentimental cry
The angels sing a song of love
And music fills the sky

Not just another lonely poet
Strumming in the park
A whisper to the children
There's a light in all this dark


...I think I've made KLUGMO's point.

Thank you Max,
I think a secondary unintended point has been made here.
Lyrics are not an item that carries much weight on
this forum.
Rarely talked about here actually and arguably
the most important part of a song.
I like bringing this subject up once in a while to enjoy the
feedback from musicians.

As a musician, I've turned down a ton of offers from people asking me to write music for their lyrics.
I just write my own lyrics, instead.
.
On the flip side of the coin: you ought to try writing your own music.

I love lyrics, but I'm very possessive about them. They're my stories and while some of them may stand on their own as poems, together with the music, the magic is complete. That's how I see it.

Also, I'm not posting lines on a public forum for some rattatat to go taking them and using them for their own purposes. It's bad enough we writers have to deal with all the pirates out there who take our books and sell them off some foreign website. Nah, only copyrighted stuff will go here.

Chaeya

A sound studio owner, Les Ledo, once told me that, if someone robbed one of his songs, he would get a lawyer to deal with it.
BUT/AND! if the plagiarized song became a number one hit, he would revel in the proof that he is capable of writing a 'number one hit', and if he did it once, he could do it again.
Just something to think about.

Lyrics are primary for me, I love music but lyrics define a song for me.

One thing I've always shrived for in my lyrics is to not go for the cheap rhyme, and to always try to write on more than one level or at least write a rhyme that doesn't hit you over the head it's so trite or predictable....
Some of mine that I like....

"Phantom Lovers walk my baby's garden in the evening"
Ghosts of love hold her down in the night
They're all dancers in her heart, short time guests
In the candle light...."
_______________

"Half of yesterday and years from that point back
You’ve been wandering ‘round not knowing you were lost
And when you stand at the gates of Heaven and they beckon you in
Be sure to ask them what the package costs"

"And it’s a different road than all those years ago
You might have done it different if you’d only known
But it’s a puzzling day, with many miles to go
When you’re lost beside the Road that leads you home."
______________

I've known Love and I've known lust"
You do what you can, you do what you must"........
___________

Everybody's got their own idea of what makes a good song. And one of the most important lessons I ever learned was the difference between
It's not good/I don't like it.

I don't like it= No justification needed It's not good=You have to defend why....

But Good lyrics are appreciated by those who love the language, at every level of appreciation.

Unfortunately, and this seems to be true with pop culture in general, lyrics are heavily outweighed by melody. True enough, it's een discussd on this very forum-and I remember being shocked by the amount of dismissive reactions towards lyrical content.

It does have its niche, however. Lyrics are the most important part of music for me, and I have noticed that some of the best songwriters are usually unnapreciated by the general public. That being said, those artists still maintain a following-its really just a matter of having the resources to reach that particular audience.

I am personally heavily influenced by guys like Warren Zevon, and I don't believe for a minute that he would have been successful solely based on his musical talent. IMO, you listen to Warren because you like what he had to say.
It's an aspect of music that is taken for granted. Most people settle for hamburger when they can have steak, metaphorically speaking...

Lyrics of course are important, but even more important is being able to understand them in a song. If your recording or performance is so muddy and/or loud it hides the lyrics then why even bother having them at all? Some of the greatest lyrics ever written are unintelligible. What a waste...

You do not need to understand the lyrics to appreciate the singing. The human voice is just another instrument (in fact it was the original instrument). If part or most of a musician's message is the meaning of the words sung, he or she will make sure the lyrics are intelligible. However, I don't need to understand German to enjoy Falco or Rammstein. In fact, part of the fun is not knowing what they're saying. Some bands use vocals to express emotion more than to express ideas. There is room for all points of view and no one correct way to do things. If you don't like it, don't listen.

I can understand your point JD. On the other hand written, spoken
and sung words are the undeniable Kings of comunication. Perhaps
if you did speak German even more enjoyment would come your way.
I believe that music alone can make you feel emotion but with the
added lyric sung with the same emotion. The words pinpoint the
meaning and can make it personal to You.

Maybe, but sometimes knowing what is being sung ruins the song! For example, Eddie Vedder is famous for singing his lyrics in such a way that they can be unintelligible. When you find out what the lyrics really are, they can be a let down. I really don't want to know what Rammstein is singing, that way I can use my imagination. But this argument has been ongoing long before our births; in opera particularly.

Well, obviously some songs are just about the groove, but even then the lyrics do play a huge part; can you imagine Come Together with sappy lyrics? Or Tenth Avenue Freeze Out as an environmental lecture? Or even stranger, what if Nirvana's lyrics made sense?

They would all be completely different songs. You'd think of them differently. No matter what the musical situation, lyrics play a huge part.