Do you pay attention to the lyrics of prog songs?

Hi,

That's interesting ... I guess I learned early on, to not separate things, as in my "seeing" of things, there really is no reason to do so ... I can follow the lyrics in Italian and Spanish easily enough, but the German ones I can follow but have no idea what is being said, and never have I thought that the lyrics were separated from the music at all ... it's really hard for me to think that, specially listening to so many different languages, and somehow, things sound fine ...  but, I think that my listening to something is much more dedicated than most folks, that are just putting it on the background, and then wonder why lyrics, or music, don't click ... I'm in it all the way right from the start, and have been from day 1. This was something that I learned from all the classical music in our house (almost 3K LP's at the time), even though my dad would go back to his typewriter as the thing played out loud ... so he could write his poem, of which he had many done to music.

(Note: I think that the tone and mood, or what I consider the acting style of a lot of the German lyrics from AD2, CAN, and some other bands, made it easier to not feel the need to "understand" the lyrics ... I think they were mostly obvious!)

(Note 2: Following the lyrics, as in reading as the music is on, for ME, is not a good idea. Why? Your mind is "essentially" translating what you are reading, and you are trying to adjust it to the music, whereas I concentrate on the singing and the music together ... and the feeling arises just fine, and my following the lyrics is not needed, since I trust them to be on par with what I am hearing. See what acting/directing teaches you? )

When I wrote my bunch of things to music, for the most part I had the memory of it in mind, since (as an example) the visual sights in Tangerine Dream move much too fast for words to follow easily. But I still got it done, even if in that one thread about visual this and that on TD, I could not really post a whole lot ... I couldn't help thinking that some of it was too weird and strange, but I don't doubt it.

Hi,

May I suggest that this is not quite a good interpretation.

Going back some 6 to 8 years (then!!!), Europe had developed what was called "anti-film" and it also went to "anti-theater" and then "anti-literature", and a lot of the early "lyrics in ELP, PF and KC were almost (not quite) a sort of "anti-lyrics" with the same kind of results ... and in some ways, one could say that this was an extension of the psychedelic forms of wording and lyrics, the ones that defy anyone to declare some sort of meaning, since within that sphere of experience, there might be a meaning but it will change into another something else within the next set of letters and words.

The other side of things, and it was clear in the use of Pete Sinfield and other poets, and many others, was the use of POETRY for lyrics, which changed how it would be sung and brought out. Greg Lake's deliveries in the first KC album are not exactly "sung" ... they are more about the expression and ensuring that the meaning is concise and clear ... and he did this all the way to the "Endless Enigma" ... we continually confuse these with "lyrics", the majority of which in so many top ten songs, have as much meaning as what goes down in the stool!

My take, and I am keen on the relationships between ALL THE ARTS including rock music, is that some folks were hoping to do something different ... and yeah ... sometimes it seemed to work, and sometimes it didn't ... but I don't see anyone here say that ... Mona Lisa you got a bird brain ... is a sh*tty lyric! Or that Hunters and Collectors actually means "something" ... the point was to ensure that it DIDN'T mean anything, since everyone is/was expecting some sort of meaning and message ... 

50 years later and we're still going around expecting some meaning ... and people not realizing how much of the stuff out there is just a crock of letters and words that gives a bouillabaisse a bad name!