A coupla years ago I was writing about Bright Eye's I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning, and dubbing it his 9-11 album. I interpreted his place, his meaning, even the cover of the album!
This year I wrote about Bright Eye's The People's Key and I don't think I did much more than laugh at his lyric when I bothered to notice it all. And the album is one of my faves of the year.
The truth is, whatever conor Oberst's deeper meaning might be, rock lyric should and do function as aphorism. Does it matter if there is more to a line like "Why do I hide from the rain?" than I want to study, than I care to study, than I need to study. It is, in effect, like Lennon said, "a state of mind". Do I need to know more.
The more I study rock lyric, the less I gain from the experience.
While a billion words from millions of songs stay with me, a 54 year old man will have problems with uniqueness a 24 year old man won't. I was 24 when I was writing for East Village, and I once deconstructed the meaning behind Elvis Costello's Imperial Bedroom over a coupla thousand words (I decided it was a shielded divorce album).
I wouldn't do that today and here is two reasons.
1. Since I write all day everyday, and have a lag time of at worst a couple of days before posting, I don't feel it necessary to have the last word. When your time between writing and publishing is three months, you better be thorough.
2. But I also don't feel it necessary. I don't need to know why Costello sang, "To murder my love is a crime but will you still love a man out of time". All I need to know is that he did so. What is back story on "Love is always scarperring, or cowering, or fawning". I know but I don't care. It is true as such. It needs nothing explained.
And it sings well, the rr and ing are a blast to sing along with and the music is a wall of sound implosion of sound: it is nerve aching. So
4. Since lyric is written to be sung, removing it and analyzing it is to take it by definition, out of context.
Finally?
5. You can't keep people's attention forever, in 2011 do the right think: make your point and go away.
The perfect length for a song is under 3 minutes, the perfect length for a post 300 words, and the perfect lyric is "Tutti Frutti all-rooty". Interprete the lyric as you choose.