If a an army moves on its stomach, a band moves on its drums. It isn't central, I think we can all agree that vocals are central, but it is at the bottom of everything. Without time nobody knows when to stop, nobody can find the deep silence, nobody can get the timing right.
It's just like stand-up comedy.
Writing about Jimmy Fallon's new album, I went in search of an old Woody Allen stand up album. The material stood up better than you'd imagine, and thinking along to the punchlines, that are quite a bit like hooks, I could feel myself holding back the same way Woody would; here he is discussing college: "I was thrown out of NYU in my Freshman year for cheating", Allen says, and then clucks his tongue, "it was a very delicate situation at the time because it was the dean's wife." The pause in the middle, is what makes the joke.
Look at it this this way, here is the joke said straight: "I was thrown out for cheating with the deans wife.
1. It isn't funny
because
2. The pacing is wrong.
You need enough time assimilate the joke, you need the time and timing: "the delicate situation" is there to draw it out before the punchline. It is really about how your assumption is proven false but the hook, the funny, is the cluck, is the pause. Another joke around the same time is just about musical. Woody tells of being so poor as a kid he could only afford a damaged pet. he got a dog that stuttered and when the other cats gave it a hard hard time would go "buh-buh-buh-buh-bow-wow"
That is one of my favorite jokes EVER. And the reason is because it is so musical, the iteration is Roger Daltry five years prior to "My Generation", the joke is all time and sound and movement. And repeated over and over again, your ears wait for the the "buhs".
It is also a joke I can not tell and get a laugh from.
It needs an off handed self aware patience, it needs to be undersold with the knowledge of the musical payoff. When I tell it, I try and make my voice toneless and go a little too fast. I am so sure that the punchline is flawless that I wanna say it inconsiderately.
That is why I'm neither a comedian nor a musician, and Woody Allen is both. Both comedy isn't just about the joke any more than good songs are just about the melody. It is about the pauses, it is about the musicalness of words put together. Pauses, beats, repetitions, it is a rhythmic art form and because of that, because you are waiting to hear the words again, it bears repeating over and over.