Song lyrics - do you understand them?

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...of a shyness that is criminally vulgar.
I'm the sun and the air... 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
I'm the son and the heir... 100%  100%  [ 5 ]
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Zen
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24 Aug 2011, 12:30 pm

I'm really confused about something. In my normal day-to-day life, I have some pretty noticeable auditory processing issues. I have to ask people to repeat nearly everything, because the first time they say it, it literally sounds like gibberish and I can make no sense out of it.

However, I'm apparently really good at deciphering song lyrics... like, better than the average person. I came to this conclusion by looking at all those annoying song lyrics sites, where most of the songs have lyrics listed which MAKE NO FREAKING SENSE. I have corrected a few when I was able to, because it drives me nuts. Some of the listed lyrics aren't even actual words. :wall:

I don't know if I'm better at it because I listen to songs repeatedly, or maybe because I have so much practice consciously deciphering words in general.

But I'm curious how other people here are at getting song lyrics.



Simonono
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24 Aug 2011, 12:38 pm

No, not at all.



b9
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24 Aug 2011, 12:44 pm

Quote:
Song lyrics - do you understand them?


i am not exceptionally interested in lyrics. the only way i ever am "hooked" by a new song i hear outside my head is by it's melody and rhythmic punctuation.

if i like the music, i will learn how to play it, and when i have played it to my satisfaction, i disband my interest in it.

there are songs i have heard and liked that i can not play to my satisfaction, and for those songs i have a deep respect, and i mostly will listen to the vocal tracks of those songs after a while.

when i understand lyrics, it is nice. it adds an extra dimension to my perception of the song. billy joel's "honesty" is a song i can completely understand the lyrics of.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQ-woRBuZxA[/youtube]

but i am not such a genius as he, and i must follow my own course.



Zen
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24 Aug 2011, 1:05 pm

That is a great song. :)



b9
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24 Aug 2011, 1:10 pm

this is without lyrics. it is "with a little help"
there are some places where it sounds unprofessional but i do not care. melody is much more important than lyrics to me.
like this.

....

i removed it because i was a bit busy, and i suspect rather hard to incorporate for other listeners.



Last edited by b9 on 24 Aug 2011, 2:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Zen
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24 Aug 2011, 1:34 pm

I can relate to caring more about the sound than the lyrics. Music is a language all its own, and even the most brilliant lyrics alone does not a good song make. I like plenty of music in languages I don't understand, or even made-up languages.

That link sounds quite nice.



camelia
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24 Aug 2011, 2:16 pm

I ignore the words - mostly they don't make sense. I like the way some singers vocalize the words, like another instrument. I have to listen over and over and sometimes still don't get the meanings. Sometimes though, the words are interesting pieced together. That's how I write some of my own lyrics, but I've always struggled with that anyway. I write more instrumentals than not.

I can't tell you how liberating it is to write this and not be judged a freak. This has been a long time coming.


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IdahoRose
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24 Aug 2011, 2:35 pm

I'm really bad at deciphering song lyrics, when it comes to both the words themselves as well as the meaning behind them.

For example, in the song "I'll Be" by Edwin McCain, the correct lyrics are "I'll be your cryin' shoulder", whereas I misheard them as "I'll be your Crygon Soldier". Similarly, for many years I thought the song "White Winged Dove" by Fleetwood Mac was actually called "Light Ranger".

As for misinterpreting the meaning behind song lyrics, I thought that the song "If I Were A Boy" by Beyonce was about a FtM transsexual, when a friend on Facebook (who is also diagnosed with AS) told me that it's actually about the unfair double standards that women face.



paradoxicalSpiral
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24 Aug 2011, 2:40 pm

I usually notice the pitch and changes in the vocals more then the actual words. To actually retain any of the lyrics I need to look them up.



chrissyrun
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24 Aug 2011, 2:59 pm

I like lyrics that say EXACTLY how I feel.

Like this one:


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2VFnVxvCL0[/youtube]


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Titangeek
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24 Aug 2011, 10:38 pm

I enjoy impressing humans by deciphering the lyrics to songs no one can seem to understand 8)


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glasscasket
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25 Aug 2011, 3:54 am

I usually understand them but although I remember what the song is about, after I listen to it I instantly forget the exact lyrics, no matter how many times I have listened to it before. Which is why I rarely sing along and I look up lyrics.



Last edited by glasscasket on 25 Aug 2011, 4:48 am, edited 1 time in total.

Henbane
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25 Aug 2011, 4:16 am

I have recently started to look up the lyrics for the majority of songs I listen to. Which has caused a few surprises for songs from the 80s and 90s, where I completely misinterpreted the song's meaning!

I like knowing the lyrics now, I guess without them you can interpret it the way you want to, more subjectively. With them you can get a clearer idea of what the writer meant, as well as your own subjective interpretation. Either way is good.

Am I waffling?



Zen
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25 Aug 2011, 3:10 pm

Titangeek wrote:
I enjoy impressing humans by deciphering the lyrics to songs no one can seem to understand 8)

I think we are a rarity!

I don't mean to imply that I think badly of people who don't understand them. But if you don't understand them, don't post them on lyrics sites!

I don't have a lot of trust in those sites anymore. You could well have interpreted them correctly yourself in the first place. There have been times when I've actually looked them up and found lyrics that made sense. I cynically suspect those ones were published by the song writer.

I'd be lying if I said I never had a "kiss this guy" moment myself though. :lol: But I do like knowing the actual intended lyrics, even if I sometimes prefer to change them around to something I like better.



the_curmudge
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25 Aug 2011, 5:21 pm

I am shocked when I hear anyone sing a pop song all the way through--at best I get 50% of the lyrics. I have trouble understanding the initial words of anything--proof that we hear with the brain rather than the ears--but it seems like on the thousandth hearing, a song it would be too famiiar for that to happen. It's better, but still closer to gibberish than intelligible speech.