>>Well some progressive rock lyrics are bad, but some aren't in my opinion, well after racking my brains I can only
>> come up with:
>> Times Table
>> The Night Watch
>> Lament
Hmm...I don't really know or remember 'Timetable' enough to make any kind of comment, but the other two are well enough known to me and they are pretty *meh*. One appears to be extemporising around details from a painting by Rembrandt (I think) and the other is just another take on 'rock and roll....it ain't as much fun as it used to be, is it?' which I seem to have heard about a zillion times before. I'll grant you that Palmer-James is a significant step up from Sinfield, though. Sinfield's excruciating Sea Goat said that 'the nonsense makes me numb'. How right he was.
I don't really want to get into the issue of shouting about one set of lyrics and slagging off a whole pile of others because you also say
>> But in general no worse than other popular music or serious music come to that.
My big issue with 90% of rock music of any genre is in the vocalist department. Good signers are a rarity. I mean a real rarity. Mediocre singers are more plentiful, but the utterly awful comprise the huge majority, and add to that horror the fact they have to sing rock and roll lyrics. I love the sound of the Beach Boys but I'd rather listen to the sound than have to endure what have to be some of the worst words ever thrown on a page. (Actually that is unfair. Jack Rieley was much worse)
>> There is almost nothing in music that Bach didn't do first.
That's really not true. Bach copied a lot from other people before him, just like any other composer ever did. However, he managed to synthesise something new from that which he had picked up along the way. He also didn't ever go near trying to write an opera, which many people are a bit puzzled by. i also don't recall Bach doing a big line in rockabilly. Maybe I haven't got to that CD yet in my complete works set. :-)
-- Mike Dickson, Edinburgh Free Music Project: http://www.mikedickson.org.uk/ Or http://www.last.fm/music/Mike+Dickson Or http://soundcloud.com/mikedickson Or http://www.planetmellotron.com/revd4.htm#mikedickson