I'm no songwriter, but last night I was listening to someone who is a pretty good songwriter, Jed Marum, and he happened to say something germaine to this discussion:

"When people who never heard the song before are singing along before you're finished, that's a good song."

I suppose he was talking about the "hook" mentioned above.

What prompted the remark was not one of Jed's own compositions, but a great old songwriter/folk tune he had just sung, Tom Paxton's "Can't Help But Wonder Where I'm Bound," which indeed features a great chorus. (It's hard to imagine an audience not already familiar with that one, though.)

It's hard to judge a song on lyrics alone. I rarely ever hear all the lyrics the first time I hear a new song, but still usually make a quick judgement as to the song's quality (that is, I know whether it "grabbed" me or not.)

After learning that you planned to have those three words sung in harmony like the "take a load" phrase in "The Weight," I realized that I might have enjoyed hearing your song sung much more than I enjoyed reading the words off this computer screen and trying to puzzle out the meaning. When I listen to a song, I'm not usually so concerned about puzzling out anything.

Also: if the repeated words of a refrain or chorus (or even most of those words) are easily understood and remembered, and set to a likeable melody, it almost doesn't matter how the verses are written. There are plenty of more-or-less familiar songs I enjoy every time I hear them, but whose complete lyrics I still haven't really heard.