The Official Yes Thread

[Queen Boo]

Originally Posted by Lisnaholic

Yes, a lot of people dismiss his lyrics as pretentious nonsense, and they are a little difficult to defend, especially after JA admitted that he chose words for their sound, not their meaning. But yeah, he comes up with some great unusual combinations of words

I honestly really like that approach, plenty of other lyricists do something similar. Damo Sazuki, Mark E. Smith, Kurt Cobain, Beck and Thom Yorke all come to mind.

[Lisnaholic]

I didn't know that all those guys did something similar; the only singer there that I'm properly familiar with is Damo Sazuki, whose style I really like. I've listened to a fair amount of Can and almost never have a clue what he's singing: what language, or if he is using words at all.