Those Pesky Lyrics!

I've a weird thing with lyrics.  Being a MBLF I don't always care about the words.  If it's a good groove, then I may have to listen to a song several times before I realize what the lyrics are about.  That being said, I also have a hangup that runs - if you're going to take the trouble to write lyrics, then by golly ENUNCIATE so I can hear what you're saying.  Like I said, it's weird.  And if you want me to hear a song because you totally dig the lyrics, please try to give it to me in a format other than YouTube.  I love watching videos, mind, but I'll be distracted by the story being told in the pictures and not necessarily pick up the story being told in the lyrics (which often are two entirely different stories). 

So, because I don't care about lyrics, I've got a lot of foriegn music on my iPod.  I can't speak anything except English (although I can often suss out some Spanish when I read it), so most of these songs I have no idea what they are about.  But if I like the sound, I don't care.  I've got at least 8 languages on my iPod other than English.  I also have a a ton of instrumental music ranging from classical to heavy metal (and some heavy metal played on classical instruments.  Thank you Apocalyptica).  I'm a big opera fan as well and as long as I know the general story line, I'm fine if there isn't supertitles to get me through the show. 

Now, because I care about lyrics I tend to get techy with folks who have mush mouth.  The Frey comes to mind.  After looking up the lyrics on a couple of songs, I can say they have a good lyricist.  However, I can't understand him (especially if I'm in the car with road noise) enough to know what the heck he's saying when he's singing.  I totally dig the sounds of Red Hot Chili Peppers, too, but often am baffled by whatever they're saying (and it doesn't matter how many times I look up the lyrics to "Scar Tissue" I can never remember what the chorus is saying - "Birds that share?" "Birds in shade?"  "Burma Shave?" - I hear him sing it and I'm all confused again).  Another downside to this hangup is that there are several bands that I'll happily buy the records of that I won't watch in concert.  If I can see someone singing on stage, but can't or can only barely hear him/her, then I'm not a happy camper.  I've gotten to where I prefer to see soloists, because the back up bands know that they'll be fired if they let their "guitar/drum/bass ego" get in the way of the audience hearing the singer. 

So, there is my lyric hangup.  And I suppose since I mentioned them in a positive way, I should share: