Finding the Rhythm

Do lyrics matter?

May 1, 2009 at 12:22 pm 2 comments

I was listening to iDanceRadio.fm as I made my morning coffee today, and the new song from The Killers came on. It’s titled Spaceman, and while hearing it on radio, and during DJ sets, I’ve listened to the lyrics.

Quick digression; as I’ve blogged before, I listen to lyrics. A lot of it is the fact that I tend to sing along with songs I DJ, when I’m in the car, or just listening casually at home. I also pay attention because I enjoy finding songs with meaning and emotion, songs that say something to me, make me feel, think or identify with.

So the occasional song comes along, like Spaceman, where I just sorta say to myself, “What the heck?” The song makes no sense on the surface, other than sounding like a diary of somebody’s drug trip or dream. I’m hard-pressed to divine any metaphorical meaning either. The words are just… Weird.

That said, the way Brandon Flowers sings the song, and the music around the lyrics, is compelling and enjoyable enough that the song works, I like it, and I obviously play it. But I’m left wondering what the heck it’s about.

Of course, wondering about the meaning of lyrics is hardly new. Bruce Springsteen’s songwriting has been the subject of a lot of public wondering over the years, for example. The Springsteen-penned epic Blinded by the Light, one of the most notable songs of the 1970s, is still causing debate and speculation about its meaning almost four decades after it was written.

And perhaps in the most extreme example I can think of, the infamous Cocteau Twins recorded songs that lyrically made absolutely no sense at all (except, perhaps, to Elizabeth Fraser, who sang them), but the songs were no less compelling.

So do lyrics matter? Well, apparently not. But I’ll still keep trying to find the meaning as I try to sing along. 

Entry filed under: Dance Music. Tags: Brandon Flowers, Bruce Springsteen, Elizabeth Fraser, The Killers.