Something that people are really forgetting here is that rock lyrics aren't meant to stand on their own...and in fact most rock lyrics can't stand up to scrutiny w/o the music. These aren't poems...the music is the thing after all. We can read Shakespeare as literature, or appreciate it in performance. But it's difficult to appreciate the lyrics to any song w/o the music. We're not talking about a poet reading his work accompanied by music. In that case, it's really the words that matter, and the music is incidental. In song, the music (along with the vocal performance of course) is what it's ultimately about..the lyrics are meant to serve the music. And a lyric doesn't have to be great to be great in a song, some of the best rock songs in history have pretty banal lyrics, after all. But the lyric must work in terms of the song, or the whole thing just falls apart. So yeah, context matters. "A mole, diggin' in a hole, diggin' up my soul..." for example looks silly when it's read, and is certainly no better than the magic marker line, or the baby's head line, et.al. But in terms of the song, it works. Or at least you don't care b/c the song rocks so much. In fact, a lot of U2's lyrics, from any era, don't make a lot of sense. There's a lot of clunkers in the much revered-90's, and the "poetic" 80's. But U2 made a lot of great music, and that can elevate mediocre or even poor lyrics...the opposite is rarely the case. If the music isn't there, the lyric isn't going to work. Or at least, the song isn't going to work. I'm one of those people who pays attention to, and appreciates, good lyrics. But no matter how good they are (and rock lyrics are only going to ever be so good), if the music isn't there, I'm really not going to care enough to continue to listen for the lyrics alone. The magic marker line, to me, would be bad even if the song itself were better...but in that case, I wouldn't really care. Breathe is a pretty good example of this, as is, yes, Unknown Caller. Those lyrics aren't that great, but those songs work (though granted, they'd work even better with better lyrics). I can't quite put my finger on why so much of Bono's 00's lyrical output seems awkward and forced. It's certainly not all like that, there's been some great stuff from AYCLB onward. But when it's bad, it's really bad.
