Recently, at a friend’s funeral someone sang Leonard cohen’s Hallelujah.
Afterwards at the reception my friends and I were discussing the ceremony and somebody remarked about the fact that they had changed the lyrics of hallelujah – omitted some lines, cut some verses.
A few others agreed and had noticed.
Yet I, hadn’t noticed at all.
I realised that i hadn’t really tuned into the lyrics at the ceremony, that I hadn’t noticed that the lyrics had been altered and that I probably have never consciously digested the lyrics of hallelujah even though i’ve heard it a fair few times since the mid ’90s.
i realised that at some point for certain artists or possibly for any artist i just don’t tune in to the lyrics, but when i was in my teens i could recite whole albums by the jam or the clash or bowie or whatever.
and I’m trying to ascertain at what point did i stop remembering, – it’s not that i don’t like lyrics, i love them, I write them occasionally but do I care about them – probably not.
it is true that the music i most enjoy as i get older is instrumental , electronic, piano, spacey, abstract dub etc but i do like words but I just can’t tune in to them/remember them
do you know what i mean?
Arthur Cowslip says
I agree fully and I feel the same way! I just can’t remember lyrics and I can never see them as that important. When people describe a song as being ‘about’ something (meaning whatever story is contained in the lyrics) I always feel the song is ‘about’ the whole sonic experience and the overall attitude rather than the literal meaning of the words.
It certainly helps with something like the Beatles, whose lyrics are generally gibberish. ‘The movement on your shoulder…’
I draw the line at a band like Oasis, however, whose lyrics are just SO self-consciously meaningless they drag you out of the song. ‘Walking down the hall, faster than a cannonball…’
dai says
I would say The Beatles’ lyrics are beautiful and meaningful, but very occasionally gibberish. McCartney himself is a little self conscious about the example you quoted which is just one line in a song with outstanding lyrics.
DogFacedBoy says
Lennon said that was his favourite lyric in the song so Macca left it in. I suspect Lennon thought the song was about him and that line was about Yoko
dai says
Yes, he always mentions this, being slightly defensive about it. I like the line personally even if it is effectively meaningless
Bingo Little says
Funnily enough, Champagne Supernova came on the radio yesterday and I found myself wondering why the lyric you’ve quoted above gets the stick it does. It’s quite clearly meant to evoke the feeling of arriving home still high – stumbling down the corridor with everything inside you racing at 100mph. It’s deliberately contradictory to achieve an intended effect – much like “I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now”.
Is it a great lyric? Not really. But nor is it self-consciously meaningless, and it fits the song well enough. It certainly beats: “A dreamer dreams, she never dies/Wipe that tear away now from your eye”.
JustB says
Everything The Beatles wrote was better than everyone else before or since, though. Let’s just establish that early on so there’s no confusion. 😉
Bingo Little says
Most civilians fail to understand that Hey Jude is actually an epic meditation on the joy of bananas.
Tahir W says
The Beatles were largely responsible for the vulgar idea of a “hidden meaning” in song lyrics. Not their fault, you say? Hmmm
Gatz says
Are you sure you’re not confusing The Beatles with Charles Manson?
DogFacedBoy says
The Oasis line is about the butler in Chigley. I know that sounds like a fever dream of Harry Hill’s that I just quoted but it’s fact in Noel G’s head.
Black Celebration says
Got to get you into my Fyffes
DougieJ says
After a relative eternity away from the AW, I log on and feel compelled to post something. Namely, to support your post. I too have always thought Noel’s lyric represented an altered state. It chimes with another bugbear of mine – ‘sophisticates’ using phrases like ‘it was a game of two halves’ as a stick to beat the hoi polloi with. Any fair-minded person could see that it means that each half of a football match had differing qualities, not, duh, snigger, both halves last 45 minutes.
RubyBlue says
Ah, I feel the opposite; lyrics have always been important to me, and even more so as I get older and move to listening to more singer-songwriters. I love the words, unpicking them, reading about what the writer might have meant. Maybe it’s the introspection of getting older *.
I love pop but maybe the lyrics are less important (but paradoxically, more memorable, perhaps because they are simpler?) But then again some pop lyrics can condense a feeling, mood, emotion, whatever, beautifully although I haven’t had enough tea to write any down just yet.
I can remember lyrics much better than virtually anything else, especially what I got up to do in the next room.
*Having said that I’ve always liked more evocative lyrics- I remember hearing ‘Edith and the Kingpin’ at 15 and spending hours trying to work it out.
JustB says
This. Great post.
JustB says
I love lyrics and think good ones are really important, while bad or indifferent ones can wreck a song. If they weren’t an inbuilt part of what makes pop so great, why would all popular music have them? Words and music in combination are more than the sum of their parts, and again, if that weren’t true, why would people have such affection for, say, “Like A Rolling Stone”, whose instrumentation is fairly standard and whose chords are basic? Without lyrics, Dylan is just a I-IV-V bloke with a funny voice.
All pop is musically unsophisticated, which is part of its loveliness, and I agree with Arthur above that the sound is more important than the composition: the basic unit of pop is the record, not the song. But good lyrics are really important and I feel like not listening to them is missing half the point.
JustB says
(Back to the OP, Hallelujah is a really good example of lyrics being the song, to me. It’s musically basic (and I’ve never enjoyed Len’s voice). What makes it amazing is the richness and genuine depth of the words: the biblical allusions, the erotic charge, the ingenuity of the rhyme and the perfection of the word choice.)
dai says
Yes, and if you don’t like Len’s voice there are about 10,000 other versions to listen to, most of which featuring “better” singers who have little clue what the song is about. Personally I would say it has a great melody.
JustB says
It does have a lovely melody: basic isn’t intended as a criticism, just an observation: it’s mostly a slow ascent up a major scale, with similarly basic chords. I wouldn’t have it any other way, and the words are an integral part of the magic for me.
RubyBlue says
Yeah I agree with all that; especially that bad or indifferent lyrics can wreck a song. I’m trying to think of an example…
OK, seeing as Oasis are mentioned. ‘Supersonic’ is a great, great song with generally amusing, faintly louche lyrics, but – ‘I know a girl called Elsa,
She’s into Alka-Seltzer’, argh, I bump up against this every time I hear it and it spoils what is musically a great big hooky earwormy song.
JustB says
Ha! Yes. “Sniffin’ in a tissue / sellin’ the Big Issue” isn’t much better either. (I always bump on mis-emphasised words, and that line puts the stress on “the”, which is an eye-roll.)
RubyBlue says
Oh yeah I’d forgotten that one. I mean I presume both couplets are deliberate shit writing for some effect, but…really?
JustB says
Oh lord I just remembered “she done it with a doctor on a helicopter”.
Saying all that, I *really* like Supersonic and the rest of the lyrics fit it perfectly: that self-possessed swagger that early Oasis almost deserved.
RubyBlue says
Aw man this song is getting ruined for me.
I think it must have been a deliberate strategy to juxtapose Elsa/Alka Selzer – tissue/Big Issue – doctor/helicopter, for a laugh; I mean they must have known this is a bit shit?
Also: doctor, OK, I’ll buy that, but on a helicopter? Hmmmm. I find this unlikely.
Rigid Digit says
Noel is never scared of a rhyme, no matter how banal.
He’s also forever imploring us to “hold on”
JustB says
Presumably cos we haven’t put our seatbelts on.
Leedsboy says
It is difficult to do it (especially in a helicopter) with seatbelts on.
JustB says
For a start, the pilot would’ve had a stern word about not being buckled in.
RubyBlue says
I am really thinking about this now. All the helicopters I have seen in films are really small- no room, surely? We have helicopters land on the roof of the nearby hospital but I am going to presume that the doctor is going to prioritise the needs of a patient with a severe injury over ‘doing it’.
Military helicopters are quite big; but then why would you be doing it with a RAF doctor on a mililary helicopter? I think there’s a backstory here.
Or maybe it’s just a banal rhyme.
JustB says
NHS HORROR AS PATIENT DIES WHILE DOCTOR DOES IT ON AIR AMBULANCE
RubyBlue says
DR PERV IN CHOPPER CHAOS
JustB says
“Chopper” hurrrrr
RubyBlue says
TEEN GIRLS BICARB CANCER TIMEBOMB?
(OK I’ll stop now.)
SteveT says
Interesting @DisappointmentBob because you have previously argued with me that lyrics were not important. Change of heart or just being a contrarian.
Interestingly with Haleleujah there are different versions of the song with different lyrics I think to satisfy the sensitivity of the BBC but also understand that Leonard himself anguished over the words and changed them on more than one occasion.
JustB says
I suspect you’re misremembering, Steve. I can’t imagine a time when I would’ve said that. I suppose it’s not impossible but if I did, it would’ve been a momentary blip. Lyrics / language are my first love.
Joshua Van Brass says
You’re such a contrarian you feel the need to disagree even when someone calls you a contrarian. 😉
JustB says
No I’m not.
Moose the Mooche says
I’ve told you once!
Sniffity says
I’ve never worried too much about lyrics, because I usually have a difficult hearing them…or rather, deciphering them. Kevin Rowland used to be particularly mystifying…strangled vowels and consonants meant that, like some of the others here, I’d just go for the sound.
Joshua Van Brass says
I love the lyrics to Come On Eileen – even though I can’t make half of them out, it doesn’t matter! It’s so obviously about a horny guy trying to have it away with an unattainable girl that it doesn’t matter you can’t understand it all!
Tahir W says
Well, the relationship of words to music in song is variable, isn’t it? Song lyrics can vary from pure vowel-and-consonant music, at one extreme, to pure ‘meaningfulness’ or ‘aboutness’ at the other extreme. Usually we look for some kind of balance. That’s why it’s good that lyrics should not be demagoguery but they shouldn’t be pure scatty gibberish either. They must sound good AND have some sort of sense to them. Hence the art of the songwriter.
Diddley Farquar says
It depends on the song really doesn’t it? Something like Life During Wartime hits you with memorable couplet after memorable couplet, all delivered with great clarity and phrased to great effect, dove-tailed into the music. Byrne makes his wordsmithery unignorable. He’s put a lot of effort into his finely honed words and is going to make damn sure they come across.
In other cases mumbling and deliberate obscurity hides unfinished work or the words are meant more as abstract sounds to accompany the music. Casino Boogie by The Stones is a case where no proper lyrics were ever written and the song makes do with nonsense text.
If the lyrics meaning is not apparent or the text cannot be properly deciphered due to failure to ennunciate then I will not dig deeper. I can’t really be bothered and often the writers have clearly not worked too hard either. In such cases the lyrics do not matter so much. Perhaps they’ve resorted to cliches or made up some half-arsed stream of conciousness tosh while under the influence. Not unusual but it can still mean a great record, if nothing too intrusive jumps out. Sometimes there are some unremarkable lines delivered just to fill-in before a rocking, instrumental wig-out gets going. Sometimes a track is great despite the lyrics.
Philip Larkin reviewed Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited album and remarked that Desolation Row was a tune with some pretty guitar and some half-baked words, which they are really but the lyric works for the song and has some striking images. Dylan was a great singer because he could deliver his lyric with clarity and expression, even if it was a half-baked lyric.
Joshua Van Brass says
Philip Larkin reviewed Dylan?? Will need to check that out, thanks!
Moose the Mooche says
I saw a Larkin exhibition in Hull this year that laid out all of his personal possessions – including, amusingly, his review copies of Dylan and Beatles albums.
Kaisfatdad says
Scatty gibberish?
Here’s a quote from one, Man’s not hot, of my favourite songs of the past month. Brilliantly wacky.
“The ting goes skrrrahh (ah)
Pap, pap, ka-ka-ka (ka)
Skidiki-pap-pap (pap)
And a pu-pu-pudrrrr-boom (boom)
Skya (ah), du-du-ku-ku-dun-dun (dun)
Poom, poom, you don’ know,”
Maybe one’s attitude to lyrics does change as one gets older? When I met DuCool, twenty plus years ago, we bonded over our mutual enthusiasm for the likes of Paul Simon, Joni and Laughing Len. As he comments, there are very few albums on his best of the year list that stand out because of great songwriting.
One of the great appeals of Americana artists like Jason Isbell, Eilen Jewell, Ry Cooder, John Prine etc is that they write songs that have a story to tell and deliver them so that you can hear every word.
Tiggerlion says
I’m not much of a lyric man myself but sometimes they jar and upset my equilibrium.
I was pondering this over Christmas when John’s song came on the radio. “Another year over, a new one just begun.” That ‘just’ puts my teeth on edge. I’m not sure he needs another syllable at that point in the line, but, if he does, why surround it with such hard consonants? Either cut it out or replace with ‘has’.
Paul’s Live And Let Die also distresses me. “But if this ever changing world, in which we live in….” gives me the jitters. Too many ‘in’s. Why not “in which we’re living…”?
dai says
And the new one hasn’t begun yet, at Christmas.
Pajp says
I agree about Live And Let Die. The line you quoted always sets my teeth on edge. To avoid this, I had started telling myself that I was in fact hearing the words that you suggested (… “world in which we’re living”) but I have just made the mistake of looking the lyrics up and read the in-in line.
I should have left well enough alone.
Lodestone of Wrongness says
As Lady W will testify I sing most of the day long. I make up most of the lyrics as I go, a habit she finds totally endearing.
Douglas says
So it’s not just me then @seekenee! I absolutely agree, and I think there are two possible reasons:
1. For those of us of a certain age, we grew up in our formative listening years with a record player in our bedroom, so we were fixed to a few feet from that source. And you inevitably pay closer attention, in particular reading the lyrics from the inner sleeve. And as the years went by our listening technology freed us from that stationary position, and from that enforced concentration on the words, so we pay less attention to them.
2. The rock journalist pose of deciphering and analysing every bloody song on X’s new album, to solve the puzzle which the artist clearly constructed, regarding what the whole thing is “about”. It’s lazy because it’s so much easier to write about words than music, so journalism encouraged the elevation of lyrics to a higher profile than they deserve. Sure there are good lyrics out there, and memorable ones which maybe hold a special place for some of us for personal reasons – but I’d hazard a guess that the vast majority of the time that happens it’s because it takes us back to our hormonally-engorged teenage years, or highly emotional points in our life: it’s not the lyrics at work, it’s our own lives and emotions.
seekenee says
I think you’re on to something there @Douglas re sitting at the record player.
i just don’t think I’ll ever sit and give Dylan or Cohen the attention they require lyrically, I’m certainly not going to put them on for sonic pleasure.
on your second point re journalism – that reminds me of a Clash book I have that goes through every song which i found frustrating because it invariably focussed on the lyrics whereas I was much more curious about the sound, the record and the origin of the sound.
i’m not a big reader of fiction either, might be connected to my inability to listen to a story in a song
Blue Boy says
This is absolutely right about far too much pop music journalism and writing. Dylan is particularly vulnerable to this – you can read whole books analysing his lyrics to death with barely a mention of the music – Mainly because far too many music critics and pop music academics are musically illiterate and/or Eng Lit students and professors.
DogFacedBoy says
Michael Stipe commented on the need to endlessly examine ‘what lyrics mean’ in that he regularly used to do it with Dylan’s songs and then would read in an interview with Bob “oh Yeah, that was about a dog that got run over outside my house”
And he would think ‘what do you mean?! I lived my life thinking a certain way for two years cos of what I thought you meant’
Awopbopaloolopawopbamboom!
Tony Japanese says
A great lyric can make a good song even better. Pulp would have been less of a band if it weren’t for Jarvis Cocker’s lyrics. Ditto The Smiths and Morrissey,; The Housemartins/Beautiful South – Paul Heaton; Artic Monkeys – Alex Turner.
Milkybarnick says
Pulp are a great example – and their album sleeve notes always used to ask you not to read the lyrics while listening to the music – presumably so you weren’t distracted by reading them.
Ardnort says
I was at a spiritualist wedding a couple of years back, and the guests were invited ti sing along to Hallelujah. The full lyrics hadn’t registered with me previously, but when we reached the line about being tied to a kitchen chair everyone hesitated, wondering if this was entirely appropriate for a wedding.
Gatz says
Surely ‘remember when I moved in you’ is pretty graphic for a Church assembly too? That’s a line they left out when Hallelujah was the X Factor winner’s single.
DogFacedBoy says
Love is not a victory march it’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah- seems less appropriate for a wedding too
Still, you can chop n change the verses how you like to suit the mood
Ardnort says
The ‘happy couple’ were clearly only familiar with the chorus and not the verses. Even when printing out on the song sheets they obviously hadn’t bothered reading it through. Bride was a bit of a fruitcake.
Tiggerlion says
More importantly. Can you lick your own nose?
Blue Boy says
Depends on the song for me. The art of great songwriting is to craft words and music which complement and enhance each other perfectly. Some songs the lyrics mean a lot because they have a particular quality or resonance, but equally there are any number of songs where the lyrics are little more than assembled sounds that go well with the the music. So ‘Idiot Wind’ – the lyrics mean a lot and I pay real attention. ‘Black Dog’ (or actually pretty much anything by Led Zeppelin) not so much.
Vulpes Vulpes says
She was workin’ in a topless place
And I stopped in for a beer
I just kept lookin’ at the side of her face
In the spotlight so clear
And later on as the crowd thinned out
I’s just about to do the same
She was standing there in back of my chair
Said to me “Don’t I know your name?”
I muttered somethin’ under my breath
She studied the lines on my face
I must admit I felt a little uneasy
When she bent down to tie the laces
Of my shoe
Tangled up in blue
Joshua Van Brass says
One of my favourite lyrics.
Mike_H says
There is no legal requirement that song lyrics must be meaningful or even coherent. In the same way that there’s no requirement for music to be sophisticated. The important thing is if they fit together in a way that gets the song as a whole to your pleasure centre somehow.
There are certain genres of music where I don’t expect lyrics to be of any great importance. For metal, general-purpose rock, most pop and dance music, the rhythm and tunefulness of the performance of the lyrics is generally far more important than what they actually say.
Bingo Little says
As has been amply covered above, it all depends on the song.
There are lyrics that have made me laugh, lyrics that have brought a tear to my eye, lyrics that have made me reflect and lyrics that have changed the way I see life.
That said, good lyrics are not a necessity – it really depends on the tune. Would I love Who Knows Where The Time Goes as much if it didn’t have that magnificent lyric? Of course not. Does it matter a single iota that the lyric to Supersonic is, as discussed above, almost uniformly awful? Jesus, it positively adds to the charm.
I also think it’s worth bearing in mind that most (but not all) lyrics have been written by half witted 20 somethings, and have profundity imposed upon them by under stimulated 30/40/50 somethings. They work great as part of a song. Look at them separately and they generally fall to bits pretty quickly.
Kaisfatdad says
I think Pulp have exactly the right attitude. The lyrics of a song are not a poem that should stand alone. They are intended for use with a musical accompaniment. To comment on them in isolation is like making a judegement on a piece of clothing that is not being worn.
Suzanne Vega, Pete Townsend, Paul Simon, Carole King, Stephin Merritt, Joni Mitchell, Paddy McAloon, Hal David, Ray Davies, Cole Porter: all will have a place in my songwriter Valhalla.
But in the naughty corner will be the members of Yes. Employing an army of chimps with typewriters to write their lyrics was not close to the edge, but well over it.
Joshua Van Brass says
I get up! I get down!
Alias says
Interesting that you mention Pulp because they are one band whose lyrics I think are great, much better than their music. For me, their lyrics are worthy of a much better musical accompaniment.
Rigid Digit says
As a kid, my most favouritist band was The Barron Knights – they wrote “funny” lyrics for songs of the day.
I would listen intently and recite at family gatherings in the hope of getting a laugh.
This has resulted in:
a) my sh*t sense of humour
b) a general air of neediness
and
c) a love of poring over lyrics
There is no intent to find “meaning” in these lyrics, more like the Clifford T Ward line “I like the words they use, and I like the way they use them”.
At school, an English teacher said “Reading can help improve your vocabulary”.
Me being a belligerent sod suggested Paul Weller and Phil Oakey could do a similar job, but in a more “fun” way
(She was not impressed)
Whether there is meaning, or insight, in the lyrics. Or if they are just a stream of gibbersih it makes no odds if combined with a stonking tune, energy and passion
minibreakfast says
Ah yes, Phil Oakey, responsible for,
“Dehumanisation is such a long word,
It’s been around since Richard the third”.
Marvellous.
Rigid Digit says
and another of Phil’s Finest:
Before he leaves the camp he stops
He scans the world outside
And where there used to be some shops
Is where the snipers sometimes hide
In mitigation – I was 12, and believed that Keep Feeling Fascination was a message of hope to the world
Tiggerlion says
And another, from Night People:
“Leave your cornflakes in your freezers / Leave your chocolate and your cheeses”
When you are in a hurry to go on a night out, all bets are off.
Alias says
Yeah, but is it historically accurate?
Moose the Mooche says
Depends if he means the king, the Shakespeare play or the Olivier film based on the latter.
Either way, I haven’t a fookin clue pal.
Sniffity says
Or the rhyming slang?
Kaisfatdad says
Serious flashback time now, Rigid. I too was an enormous fan of the Barron Knights and performed a version of Call up the Groups at a talent contest at a holiday camp at the tender age of ten or so.
Thinking about Bingo’s comment about lyrics written by twenty somethings, there are some groups and artists, who perhaps realised that words were not their strong point and thus got in someone else to write their lyrics.
Pete Atkin – Clive James
Grateful Dead – Robert Hunter
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Hunter_(lyricist)
He has also worked with Dylan and several others.
Latin Quarter – Mike Jones.
He could be a bit wordy but when they got it right, the results were magnificent.
Procul Harum – Keith Reid who wrote their lyrics throughout their career.
Any other examples than come to mind?
Rigid Digit says
King Crimson – Pete Sinfield
Cream – Pete Brown
There may be others not called Pete
Mike_H says
Richard Palmer-James. King Crimson’s lyricist for “Larks’ Tongues In Aspic”, “Starless And Bible Black” and “Red”.
Pete Brown was only Cream’s lyricist when co-writing with Jack Bruce. On Eric Clapton’s Cream compositions, the co-composers were either Martin Sharp, Felix Papallardi or Papallardi’s wife Gail Collins. Ginger Baker’s co-composers were either Jack Bruce’s then-wife Janet Godfrey or else jazz composer Mike Taylor. Quite possibly all of them contributed to music as well as lyrics. Particularly in Mike Taylor and Felix Papallardi’s cases.
Rigid Digit says
A very thorough answer Mr H.
My stance is often “never let the whole truth get in the way of an AW comment”.
Plus, I managed to stop myself saying:
“Pete Sinfield – did you know he co-wrote Land Of Make Believe?”
“Yes” says the whole of The Afterword
He also co-wrote Rain Or Shine for Five Star, and Think Twice for Celine Dion
Kaisfatdad says
MikeHepedia is giving Wiki a serious run for its money today. Great comment Mike.
What a very interesting bloke Peter Sinfield is!
Quite a few major hits under his belt. I had no idea about Land of Make Believe, Rigid.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Sinfield
A few choice quotes from that Wiki page:
Up until the age of eight, he was raised largely by his mother’s German housekeeper Maria Wallenda, a high wire walker from the circus act the Flying Wallendas, after which he was sent to Danes Hill School in Oxshott
he returned to London in 1980, with his new Spanish wife (a model and runner-up for Miss Spain)
Sinfield had a fairly unusual and colourful upbringing, being an only child (bar his adopted brother, Dennis) of a bisexual mother who ran a hair salon and one of the first burger bars in London in the 1950s. He grew up in a bohemian household, and claims to have vivid memories of extravagant and wonderful Christmases, later inspiring the lyrics for his hit “I Believe in Father Christmas”, which recalled a lost and naive faith in Father Christmas.
Tiggerlion says
Elton John – Bernie Taupin
Kaisfatdad says
Robert Hunter was probably the first full member of a rock band whose role was to produce lyrics.
I do not know how many vicars we have in our number, however they would tell us that with hymns it is not uncommon to sing the same text to different tunes.
The only example I can think of is Greensleeves which in the US ( and Norway?) is better known as the Xmas Carol, What child is this.
Here’s Sissel.
Black Celebration says
The occasional US film has a spirited rendition of “Oh Christmas Tree!” which always brings to mind this :
Mike_H says
“The working class can kiss my arse
I’ve got the foreman’s job at last..”
A prime example of a choon with several different sets of lyrics.
Black Celebration says
I think lyrics are important. If it wasn’t for the lyrics, The Smiths would have been all right, but not brilliant. However, the Stone Roses did all right without making any sense at all.
Tiggerlion says
My favourite Smiths album, in fact the only one I like, is Strangeways because it has the least Morrissey. Closing my ears to his singing makes me appreciate that the music is actually a blast.
seekenee says
I love lyrics, i just can’t retain them anymore
retropath2 says
I am as happy listening to Dylan, Robert Earl Keen, James McMurtry tell a story in a song, or Chris Difford and Jarvis over here, as I am to foreign language songs where I don’t understand a word. Songs where I don’t understand a word are sometimes in english.
However I sometimes can be loving a song, oblivious to a lyric, raved about it to the missus, only to get a stern put down about the lyrical content. She only hears the words and decries the tunes on the strength of the illiteracy. Pity.