Does Understanding Rock Lyrics Really Matter?

When The Kingsmen's version of the song "Louie Louie" hit the airwaves in 1963, it ruled the charts with its rollicking rock 'n' roll riffs. But thanks to its hard-to-decipher lyrics, it became the target of an FBI obscenity investigation and was even banned by the governor of Indiana.

While the government thought it was obscene, most of the rest of the population simply couldn't figure out what it was about, period. Decades later, it's considered a classic of 1960s rock and has been covered numerous times.

That begs the simple question: Does understanding rock music lyrics really matter? The simple answer is no.

"Louie Louie" is far from alone in its what-the-heck-is-he-singing style. Nirvana's wildly popular rock song "Smells Like Teen Spirit" combined bizarre lyrics with singer Kurt Cobain's slurred singing style to create a song with lyrics so hard to understand that "Weird Al" Yankovic parodied it in a video by singing with marbles falling out of his mouth.

There are entire books devoted to misinterpreted song lyrics (an example: Jimi Hendrix singing "'Scuse me while I kiss the sky" is often misheard as "'Scuse me while I kiss this guy"). English grunge rock band Bush has a reputation for songs that, while the words may be relatively easy to understand, the lyrics' meanings escape many casual listeners.

And yet, people love rock music, intelligible lyrics or not. They sing along with it even if they don't know what they're singing or whether they're singing it correctly. They tap their feet, drum their fingers on steering wheels and nod their heads.

It seems that all that really matters is a solid guitar riff, an energetic beat and a catchy chorus -- even if you aren't sure what it is. But that's OK. Rock music is about fun, about energy, about having a good time. Sometimes it's a party, sometimes it's a rebellion. All that matters is that the listener enjoys it. Whether he or she knows all the lyrics doesn't always matter.

Sure, there are rock bands with great, intelligent lyrics that are complex poems in and of themselves. Tool is one band that comes to mind. Radiohead is another. But for every complex song with intricate lyrics, there's a "Bad to the Bone" or a "Johnny B. Goode" -- rock songs that are brilliant in their simplicity.

And good for them. The world needs more music like that.