Don, I think I may have misunderstood your point, but it's an interesting subject. The example of the German band reminds me of a few things. I'm not sure, I haven't kept up, but I think it was the band Tool that did a very sinister-sounding song with german lyrics culminating in a horrible scream--which turned out to be a recipe, and the frightful cry translates as And then you bake it!!!

I think a lot of rock really is mainly about energy, and a lot of the lyrics are just props, loosely grabbed up as if there isn't time to find the right words. It may correspond to a feeling, and an unwillingness to explain or pin down that feeling, maybe. An unreflective emotional state. I think when rock gets too sophisticated lyrically or harmonically it tends to not work as rock anymore. But I don't know, it doesn't work for me like it used to.

   There is a strain in literature and popular music of words that seem intended to merely sparkle with possible meanings, a sort of Gertrude Steiny stuff, or collage-effect, maybe, that carry no particular point. I'm not sure what I think about it, except that it's silly for the songwriter to turn around and say it's Really ABOUT whatever they say they intend, when they never made it clear. They tend not to be my favorite lyrics, but I'm not opposed to the manner. I like listening to Angelique Kidjo, and don't know what the songs are about--I think I know what they ought to be about, and get a few ideas for my own lyrics sometimes, but I might be disappointed if I learned.

   I suppose I think when you give up coherent verbal sense, it's a loss, but sometimes it's given up for a musical purpose, a psychology, and it may more or less achieve an end.

   A friend of mine who seems a little struck by celebrity always says it seems to her that anything so many people respond to must have something to it--they can't all be wrong. I always say Yes they can, it can have to it, sure. I just like to be skeptical about audiences, like that.