I have a vague feeling I’ve written about this before. I don’t feel like checking through the archives, so if I’ve written about this before, oh well!

When you listen to songs, do you listen to the music or to the words first? What do you like the best — the words or the music? Being an amateur musician, I’d have to say that I’m drawn to both the words and the music. If a song has well crafted lyrics, or if the lyrics tell an interesting story, I’m especially intrigued by them. That is part of what drives my love for musicians like Billy Joel, Mark Schultz, Ben Folds, the Barenaked Ladies, etc. All of these individuals/groups are gifted at telling interesting or touching stories with their music and lyrics. If you’ll pardon the pun, that really strikes a chord with me.

I was driving this afternoon and listening to a new album I downloaded from the iTunes Music Store. It is called “Barenaked Ladies – iTunes Originals“. This is the second iTunes Originals album I’ve bought. The first one was by Ben Folds. One thing I enjoy about these two albums is that they include the artists talking about what was going through their minds when they wrote a particular song or a particular piece of a song. In fact, Ben Folds even says in one of the tracks on his iTunes album this statement: “There is nothing that is against the rules. If I feel that I want to write in first person and completely make it up, then I’m gonna do it. And I realize that it is a powerful….the I in song writing is powerful because people tap into the celebrity of it.” He then goes on to talk about his hit song “Brick”, and explains that what he is singing about in that song is dealing with getting his girlfriend pregnant when they were 17 years old and then selling his Christmas gifts so he could pay for her to get an abortion. Wow.

The Barenaked Ladies, on the other hand, tend to do songs a bit more light-hearted. Many of their songs are not quite that first-person, but I love the craftsmanship behind the lyrics. For example, their hit “One Week“. If you’ve listened to that song (and I’m sure you have), I’m sure you were amazed at just how FAST the lyrics go by when they sing that song. If you take the time to read them you’ll realize just how clever they really are. The underlying story behind that song is that it is about the stages of an argument between two people. Again — I’m hooked. I wish there were more opportunities to hear artists talk about what was going through their heads when they wrote a particular song and what they think the song is about.

Got any songs you want to talk about? Any songs you think I should hear?

–Pete