An exact example of music - all its traits - *melody* is *ALL* - lyrics suck!1

[UTUSN]

Traits: 1) counterpoint, 2) repetition, 3) (I forget)

As Lenny BERNSTEIN said in a Young People's Concert, music has no MEANING: You can take a magnificent song (lyrics) and substitute nutcase words into the magnificent music, and the magnificent music/melody rules - like, take his own "Maria" or "America" or (who cares) and replace the lyrics with whatever jerk words and the MUSIC RULES! As Lord CHESTERFIELD said, "What is too SILLY to be SAID, is SUNG!1"

Here's a totally lyrically immoral song, the music/melody of which is perfect. Except I don't like the ending "melody" part.

[Kaleva]

1. Kate Murtagh is the waitress Libby on the cover. Lived to age of 96.

"Kate Murtagh (October 29, 1920 – September 10, 2017) was an American actress, and a native of Los Angeles, California. She appeared in films including Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961),The Night Strangler (1973), Dirty O'Neil (1974), Switchblade Sisters (1975), Farewell, My Lovely (1975), The Car (1977), Doctor Detroit (1983) and Waxwork II: Lost in Time (1992). She has appeared on television in shows including Daniel Boone, My Three Sons, The Munsters, I Dream of Jeannie, The Twilight Zone and Highway to Heaven.

Murtagh is pictured on the front and back covers of the English rock band Supertramp's 1979 multi-platinum album, Breakfast in America. On the front cover she is depicted as a waitress named "Libby", in front of a depiction of New York City, striking a pose similar to that of the Statue of Liberty, but holding a tall glass of orange juice and a menu rather than a torch and tabula ansata."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Murtagh

In regards to the point you brought up, for many songs I cannot understand the words and "Goodbye Stranger" is no exception. If I like the music/melody, I like the song and lyrics be damned as I can't make out what's being said anyways.

[UTUSN]

2. Wow, thank you for the context, most of all your coda (we totally coincide) !1

[trc]

3. Loved Suoertramp, loved this album

Listened to it on 8-track in my 66 Mustang blasting the back roads of the Kansas City area. Did a quick search about the lyrics, seems the two song writers for Supertramp were at odds and not talking to each other through much of this album. Therefor, you need to understand this song as a sort of break-up song, a break-up caused by a lack of communication. Loved this group, along with Journey, REO, Kansas, Boston, Seger, Styx, Rush, Cheap Trick, The Cars and Springsteen. That was the music of my youth and therefor I remember it skewed and better than it was. What can I say, old. By the way, I do not listen to this music anymore, I do not have an oldies channel I listen to. I listened to this stuff constantly as a kid, I have heard it before, I want to hear what I have not yet heard.

[UTUSN]

6. Am glad for your experience. I seldom hear out an album, just care about *ONE* song/melody.

[unblock]

4. Lyrics can absolutely make or break a song

I'll agree that sometimes the dictionary meaning of a song isn't overly important, but word choice is definitely important, even if it's in a foreign language you don't understand.

Some vocal sounds convey certain emotions and vocals are an important part of the whole composition.

John Lennon's "imagine" is a pretty lame song musically, but add in some profound, thought-provoking lyrics and it's suddenly epic, loved and admired even by people who think the literal lyrics are just a silly naive fantasy.

On the other side, consider "honey hush", by big joe turner. For me, at least, this is a perfectly reasonable song musically, completely ruined by horribly misogynistic lyrics. I'd probably like the song if I didn't know English....

[UTUSN]

7. All I can do is to repeat that LYRICS mean nothing to me. What, "Imagine" is a musically lame song?

I won't get into a discussion because I'm all on the surface and don't know all the references, just my own point over and over.


*************HERESY for me: "Lyrics can make a song!1" - NOPE, NEVER for me!1

And actually, "Imagine" is a perfect example of what Lenny said: This magnificent song can have totally stoopid lyrics substituted and the MUSIC will remain magnificent!

[UTUSN]

5. To be clear (melody is *ALL*) - I first heard this song in the past year

and it shows how out of touch I am since it was a hit decades ago - and the music/melody entranced me (in this past year). I had no idea what the lyrics were.

Heck, I still don't know what Hotel California is about (yeah yeah, steely steely whatever).

Anyway, the MELODY is everything for me. Now, this will get me killed here, but Sia's Chandelier is magnificent for me JUST because of the soaring music AND I don't CARE about all the pain of the lyrics. Slaughter me now.

When music/melody grabs me, I don't even know what the lyrics are about. If it grabs me enough, after the first hundred plays I might look up the lyrics to see what the Hades they say. When the entire song is magnificent enough, the marriage of melody AND lyrics is perfection, but for me the LYRICS will *NEVER* matter!

As Lenny said, you can take whatever music and substitute jerk-off WORDS instead of the original ones and it's the MUSIC/MELODY that rules!

So take *THIS* below, although the girl freaks me out:

In this vein, do I care about Taylor breaking up with somebody, or even if she tells it in a universal way, my contention being that the pattern of the notes (the melody) is all: