Jenny, I just read your post and am replying before reading any of the others. Yes ..... learning a song has ruined it for me. It just wasn't the same after. Also ...... it has made me love songs I didn't used to care for. Does this make sense? There are also songs I loved and continued to love after learning them. I think it is a mixed bag. OK, now I'll read what others said. :wink:
"Work hard, rock hard, eat hard, sleep hard,
grow big, wear glasses if you need 'em."
-- The Webb Wilder Credo --
Just out of interest (and I totally take your point about some artforms leaving you cold, despite an appreciation the technical excellence involved)I presume that you see some magic in the lyrics of a song, that you don't get from poetry.. I wonder why there's a difference? Is it the added dimension of the music that lends more weight to the words, or perhaps make them less important..
The vocals are often just another instrument to me.
Unless the lyrics come across as storytelling. As opposed to some elusive search for a clever rhyme (simile, allusion, alliteration, or some other literary device).
I truly appreciate a good storyteller, with or without musical accompaniment.
I wrapped a newspaper ’round my head
So I looked like I was deep
