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Why are so many metal/hard rock lyrics such merda?


Barking Spiders

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OK, we can all find examples of  good lyrics but there are loads of songs with bollix about warriors,/demons/wizards/orcs/fairies/pixies/dragons or about finding inner strength/being strong, a fighter /survivor yada yada  or they're about 'rockin' whatever that involves (does anyone here know?).  Usually lyrics seem to be  lots of cliches cobbled together. Listening to Planet Rock this morning, there were quite a few such songs to illustrate this  like  Black Vultures by Halestorm  (fighter/survivor thing)

Feels like the end of the world
But it's only the beginning of it all
Forget the things that you've heard
Been a survivor since I began to crawl
I'm falling down but I'm not out
The devils at my door
I don't give in, I don't give up
I won't ever let it break me
I'm on fire, I'm a fighter
I'll forever be the last one standing
Black vultures circling the sky
Pick at the pieces
Scavengers wait for me to die
But I'm not defeated
I'm on the edge of the war
I'm holding on and hanging by a thread
I am the eye of the storm
And you haven't seen the last of me just yet
I'm falling down but I'm not out
I'm coming back for more
I don't give in, I don't give up
I won't ever let it break me
I'm on fire, I'm a fighter
I'll forever be the last one standing
Black vultures circling the sky
Pick at the pieces
Scavengers wait for me to die
But I'm not defeated
 etc etc
 
And Ancient Warrior by Black Sabbath (surprisingly, but not with Ozzy)
 
There's no end, there's no beginning
To the old man's story
Does he still remember me
From lives gone by
Oh I see his spirit rising
Upon the back of time
I've got nowhere to hide
Will he keep a place for me
He is the king of all kings
The keeper of light
He holds eternity's wings
In his eyes an ocean's burning
Swollen seas of tears
Troubled mind the beating
War drums in his ears
No one ever hears his warning
Am I the one he calls
When they tell me they're afraid
Some say I'll be put away
He is the king of all kings
The keeper of light
He holds eternity's wings
My blood will spill my blood
My blood will spill my blood
In the wisdom of the prophet's
Never ending tale
Open up the eyes
Within your mind, he says
Crowned in his ancient glory
There's a king within us all
Some will say it's all in vain
That he doesn't have a name
He is the king of all kings
The keeper of light
He holds eternity's wings.
 
I mean ... ay caramba WTF are they about?
Edited by Barking Spiders
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I think the Comic Strip presents series really nailed the silliness of metal lyrics with the Bad News episode. They went on to do an audio album which I had a copy of back in the day and the lyrics were hilarious - and funnily enouh, I've heard similar used genuinely on many occasions since.

I can still remember some pearlers like:

"Eat my brain - go insane"

"Ride the rat, night mare man"

"I'm a warrior the blood won't wash away

I'm a warrior, I'll kill myself one day!"

 

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I can predict with some confidence that if you turned the dial to Radio 1, or Kiss FM, or similar, you'd find lyrics full of different subjects but a comparable level of inanity. Pop music is similarly guilty of pulling randomly assorted cliches out of a hat and crowbarring them into a rhyming schema, but then I've often thought Halestorm were basically just Taylor Swift with louder guitars.

And anyway, what is a good lyric? I've a few favourite writers myself, but some people would probably balk at my choices. (Though I imagine we could all agree that Black Sabbath turned out some bloody silly examples in their time...)

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Yes - listen to a lot of pop thesedays and once you get past the auto tune and naming themselves and all the other artists in the song and all the random sound effects and the lyrics that needed a team of 12 writers are just rubbish pap that most of their 12yr old audience could outdo in break time.

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19 minutes ago, EliasMooseblaster said:

I can predict with some confidence that if you turned the dial to Radio 1, or Kiss FM, or similar, you'd find lyrics full of different subjects but a comparable level of inanity. Pop music is similarly guilty of pulling randomly assorted cliches out of a hat and crowbarring them into a rhyming schema, but then I've often thought Halestorm were basically just Taylor Swift with louder guitars.

And anyway, what is a good lyric? I've a few favourite writers myself, but some people would probably balk at my choices. (Though I imagine we could all agree that Black Sabbath turned out some bloody silly examples in their time...)

Yellow Submarine anyone?

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Lyrics, obviously, are a subjective topic, one man’s I wanna really, really, really
Wanna zigazig ah
, is the next man’s The piano has been drinking, My neck tie is asleep. Obviously if you want to appeal to the lowest common denominator (the chart/pop buying herd) then you need to use broad brush stroke cliches in order to illicit general emotional responses en masse so to speak, All I Ask by Adele as an example, most people have had similar experiences so it’s easy to trigger an emotional response using such lyrics. However, if you write a verse alluding to one of the minor rings of Saturn and a chorus about a Golem in the shape of an artist’s armature emerging from the sea in order to eat the horizon then expect puzzled faces and no sales, like I do.

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My old bit-of-everything band used to do a metal number called "Loud and Proud"

Which went:

Heavy Metal music

Loud and Proud!

Mysterious Goblins

Dressed in shrouds

 

And it went downhill from there. Luckily that's been kicked out long ago, but we do one called "Turn to the Left" which has the immortal lyric:

Armani, or salami?

One fills yer belly the other takes yer mo-ney

 

Still, PFunk lyrics are up there as some of the silliest and possibly deepest if you put on your Pseud's hat...

Ha ah, ha ah, ha ah
I am Sir Nose D'Voidoffunk
I can't swim, I never could swim
I never will swim

Oh, put me down
Let go my leg
I told ya, will you shut up
I told ya I can't swim, ha ho no

Put me down, I hate water, ho
(Hah, ah hah, ah hah, ahh)
Will you shut up

(Aqua boogie, baby)
Never learned to swim
(Underwater boogie baby)
Can't catch the rhythm of the stroke
(Aqua boogie, baby)

Why should I hold my breath
(Underwater boogie, baby)
Feelin' that I might choke
(Ha ah, ha ah, ha ah)
(Aqua boogie, baby)

Things ya blow through
Because of things ya swim through
(Underwater boogie, baby)
Why hold your nose to spite your face
(Ha ah, ha ah, ha ah)
(Aqua boogie, baby)

With the rhythm that makes you dance
To what we have to live through
(Underwater boogie, baby)
You can dance underwater and not get wet, oh

Psychoalphadiscobetabioaquadooloop            Etc

(Parliament - Aqua Boogie)

But who cares so long as it's funky!

 

 

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2 minutes ago, Beedster said:

Which is some achievement :)

😁

I won't even quote any of the cod reggae song we did in the very early days (we're talking '83-4 here!) called "Sex Feeling".

Suffice it to say that at our last session (we do 1 a year!) somebody had found an old rehearsal tape of this classic. After only the first verse at least 2 of us wished we'd stopped off and bought some Tena Man pants!

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I think we should allow some special pleading here, in that lyrics are not intended to be read.  They aren't poetry, they're words to accompany a tune

4 minutes ago, cetera said:

If you don't like those lyrics - (insert deity of choice) help you if you ever hear any modern RnB, gangsta rap, dance lyrics etc...

Exactly.  There's a fairly strong opinion about the death of heavy metal that since it went all PC and largely stopped singing about abusing women and killing people, RnB and rap have massively increased in popularity amongst teenage boys because it hasn't had the same pressure to grow up

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I think metal music is mostly angsty, angry, stuff written by and for reasonably intelligent misfit nerdy types and/or people who may be going through a teenage identity crisis.  People who think about existential stuff, possibly channelling this through heretical ideas about religions and the occult or escapism through fantasy novels/films.

So certain buzzwords about Satan, mouldy old Babylonian (or wherever) gods, Dungeons and Dragons type creatures, being sad or angry and being able to pull through a phase of being sad and angry is all easily marketable stuff.  As it's at least in the right ball park.  If you believe anyone in the music industry could be so cynical.

Before anyone gets upset at my stereotyping, I say this as misfit nerd with a mid-life identity crisis who has listened mostly to various types rock and metal music for the past twenty years.  😀

Like everything, if you filter out the dross there's some thoughtful and intelligent stuff.  Also some stuff that's just plain old good daft fun.

Speaking of which, @Leonard Smalls I loved the image of the heavy metal goblins in shrouds.  If you felt up to reproducing the lyrics of "Sex Feeling" I imagine it would surely brighten up a tedious Tuesday afternoon!

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15 minutes ago, Monkey Steve said:

Exactly.  There's a fairly strong opinion about the death of heavy metal that since it went all PC and largely stopped singing about abusing women and killing people, RnB and rap have massively increased in popularity amongst teenage boys because it hasn't had the same pressure to grow up

That's quite an interesting theory.

She should still be made to smell the glove though!

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