How Important are lyrics to you in Prog music

The instrumentals are the body of the song, the lyrics are the brain. Many good songs are bottle-necked by terrible lyrics which can make the song feel depressingly pointless. It's like watching a movie that has a incredible, moving soundtrack but has a nonsensical plot, terrible acting and horrible CGI. It's a waste of good music.

lyrics are completely secondary for me personally. Each to his own. If i can understand what the singer is saying them odds are i'll pay a little attention. For example on Pink Floyd's animals i think i got the lyrical jist of it just by listening. 

twosteves wrote: For the music and groups I really love--I think the lyrics are part of the equation in the fact that I love them---but for all the rest---I can get by on less than perfect lyrics.

for EBIL0505:

Hey man, I LOVE your avatar and the image at the bottom of your posts......

Listen, maybe you can answer a question for me.......

Why were there NOT MORE Bruford Yes-songs ON "Yessongs"?

Seriously, if Atlantic were to give us "Perpetual Change", "Long Distance/Fish"........WHY NOT MORE with Bill?

Do you know the answer to this?

WAIT!  I just realized....the introduction of White-ness!  ha!

But WHY NOT in the re-mastered series, we DON'T get a "Yessongs" w/Bruford minus the "CTTE" tracks?

The late 1971- early1972 concerts were recorded, right?     Where are these tapes, dammit?

ha!

Well, what is your opinion of "The Word is Live"?.....is THAT what I'm looking for?   is it worth shelling out the big bucks for on E-bay, since that stupid thing is "out-of-print"?






Edited by Crimson_King - August 05 2014 at 21:30

Tapfret wrote: lyrics are like pepperoni on a pizza. They are extremely important... Unless you don't want a pepperoni pizza. If you want a pizza with mushrooms, sausage and peppers, then they are completely non essential. The entire pizza is ruined when the lyrics try to be the cheese.

With this comes enlightenment.

Good lyrics can definitely enhance and add a dimension to a song, but is IMHO secondary to the music. That is, I can appreciate good music and strong songs, that have crappy lyrics. On the other hand I'm almost never interested in listening to songs that just have strong lyrics, but where the music is crappy..

I will chime in here and say that lyrics are not that important to me in my prog.  However, bad lyrics can ruin an album for me.  All I need is a good theme with average lyrics.  So as long as the lyrics are not silly and stand out, I am happy.  However, lyrics are important when I am in the mood to listen to singer songwriter stuff since that is the focus of the song.  Something catchy that I can sing along to is something I crave once in a while.

Edited by javajeff - August 04 2014 at 07:12

Some very interesting perspectives here, for sure!

Edited by PrognosticMind - August 02 2014 at 12:02

hellogoodbye wrote: When the words (french for me) are stupid, I tend to find the music stupid.

 

SteveG wrote: I justed wanted to say that after going through the posts again that I'm shocked, shocked I say, that no one brought up Saint Peter or was it the angel Gabriel,oh I remember, Peter Gabriel and said anything about his lyrics and the relationship to music that he has produced over the years. I know I'm playing Devil's Advocate  but Peter the Great  is one of progs greatest lyricists and I think that at least with him the lyrics are definately part of the expirence and are extremely important.

Look aback through again. I brought him up in relation to the question of obscurity in lyrics. His solo are reputedly less obscure and more direct, but I suggested they retained some of that obscurity. And yes, whatever we say about them I do believe they're good.