Hey Big3, happy seventh anniversary!
I like your style, and I feel your pain. I too hate when the lyric becomes secondary to the song, and you're right: the lines you quoted make no sense, but then people these days (the majority at least) don't care too much about lyrics, which is why so many sub-sub-sub-par artistes can get away with simply sh1t songs, as long as the "kids" can dance to them. Pathetic, really.
But one thing that annoys me about lyric usage is the employment of the quick or easy rhyme. I'm talking about the maybe/baby, school/fool, girl/world idea, where anything will do as long as it rhymes. I mentioned a while back in my review of Heart's "Brigade" that I hated the lyric in "All I wanna do is make love to you" (penned by Mutt Lange, no less, so there's no excuse!), where he rhymes stupid lines like "We found a hotel/It was a place he knew well" and so on. If you're going to write a lyric, take pride in it and try to make it as interesting and as original as possible.
That's why I love Fish (Marillion) lyrics: they're just so, well, poetic. I also often prefer lyrics that DON'T rhyme, but scan well. You know Waits' "9th and Hennepin"? None of those lines rhyme, but my god do they paint a picture! Speaking of Waits, I wonder that you may have tried to "convert" starrynight with the wrong Waits songs. "Sixteen shells"? I would have gone with something more along these lines
or maybe this
or even this
So much of Waits' music is inaccessible to those who know no better, you really have to lead the newbies in slowly...
As to country music, well I know virtually nothing about Johnny Cash, although I have it on good authority that he once fell into a ring of fire, and by all accounts, it burned, burned, burned.
Seriously, I know OF him, but not enough of his music to try to pretend I know whether he's more country than rock (the former, obviously) but I do like some country. I try, you know: I started watching Willie Nelson's 70th birthday special, or something. It was ok for about 15 minutes, but then it got too twee for my tastes, so I shut it off.
I do like some country artistes, like Crystal and Emmylou, but probably my favourite would be Nanci Griffith. I also like the sort of rock/country crossovers like Dwight Yoakam and the mighty Steve Earle. But in general I'm fairly clueless when it comes to those two popular music forms, country and western. Thing is, I KNOW it, and accept it, and don't try to pretend otherwise.
As for, for want of another word, banter on the site, yes I too feel we're a little isolated. When I first started my journal I had high hopes, but the pressures of holding down a fulltime job while also looking after my disabled sister forced me not to be able to update, and I drifted away. It was only when I quit my job to look after her fulltime that I found I had a lot more free time on my hands, so about four months ago I had another shot at it, and although I don't get too many comments, the ones I do get are quite complimentary.
I was thinking at one stage, about two months in, about giving it up again, as maybe no-one was reading, but then I chanced to glance at the views, and saw there were about 2000 I think. These days it's getting closer to 7000, so at least someone is reading what I'm writing. I do get the odd comment from the likes of Jackhammer and Nonsubmissivewife that help perk me up when I feel it's maybe all for nothing, and they assure me that they read the journal regularly.
So I guess the moral there is, just cos no-one is talking to you doesn't mean your work isn't being appreciated. It certainly is, and I'l continue to talk to you via comments here, or if you prefer, on my own journal. Or both.
Keep your chin up, man.
And now, to cheer you up...