Lyrics

Song lyrics are amazing in their power to paint mental pictures and to evoke feelings or emotions.

I can distinctly remember graphic song lyrics I heard in my childhood, like Nat King Cole singing: "Red sails in the sunset, way out on the sea; please carry my loved one, home safely to me."

I also clearly recall sitting in my Chevy Corvair during my high school days the first time I heard Bobbie Gentry sing her masterpiece "Ode to Billy Joe," which begins with some of the best lyrics in the history of songwriting: "It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day; I was out choppin' cotton and my brother was balin' hay; And at dinner time we stopped and walked back to the house to eat; And Mama hollered out the back door "y'all remember to wipe your feet" And then she said "I got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge. Today Billy Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge."


And anyone from my generation can probably tell you exactly where they were and what they were doing the first time they heard The Beatles burst on the scene with their high-energy songs and catchy lyrics such as: "and when I touch you I feel happy inside. It's such a feeling that my love, I can't hide, I can't hide, I can't hide."

Speaking of The Beatles, lyrics to their songs clearly illustrate how the group -- probably the most important and influential band in modern history -- drastically changed before their highly-publicized break-up in the 1970s. For example, it's a mighty long way from early lyrics like: "Love love me do, you know I love you, I'll always be true. So please, love me do" to some of the lyrics in later Beatles songs, such as: "Yellow matter custard, dripping from a dead dog's eye." Sort of graphically illustrates just how strung out and messed up they were in the later stages.

My favorite lyrics have always been the kind that paint clear mental pictures, such as these lyrics from the Kris Kristofferson song made popular by Janis Joplin: "Windshield wipers slappin' time, I was holding Bobby's hand in mine. Feeling good was good enough for me, good enough for me and Bobby McGee."

My least favorite lyrics are those that are shallow, superficial, insipid and yet stick in your head. Remember the days of "Bubble Gum Music?" I think the phrase evolved from the teeny-bopper chicks who listened to the junk while they smacked on bubble gum, but perhaps it came to be called Bubble Gum Music because, like a big wad of bubble gum, it tends to get stuck in your head and you can't get it out. Classic examples: "Yummy, yummy, yummy I've got love in my tummy" and "Oh, Sweet Pea, won't you dance with me? Woncha, woncha, woncha dance with me?" And I think the worst sort of Bubble Gum Music was the garbage known as disco music, exemplified by K.C. and The Sunshine Band. Their big hit was "That's the Way I Like It." The very deep and profound lyrics to the song go like this: "That's the way (uh huh, uh huh) I like it." Those lyrics (and those lyrics alone) are repeated about 15,000 times over and over again.

I stopped listening to popular radio music in the mid-1970s because the songs just kept getting worse and worse -- junky lyrics that you couldn't hear anyway because they were drowned out by even junkier loud music. And popular music nowadays is for the most part one huge pile of garbage. It's not in any way melodious, edifying, entertaining, fun, relaxing or enjoyable. It's just very obnoxious noise that gets on my last nerve.

So, perhaps anyone who can remember the good old days of real music from back in the 1950s, 60s and early 70s can talk about some of your favorite lyrics.