Editing 1538: Lyrics

{{comic
| number    = 1538
| date      = June 15, 2015
| title     = Lyrics
| image     = lyrics.png
| titletext = To me, trying to understand song lyrics feels like when I see text in a dream but it𝔰 hอᵣd t₀ ᵣeₐd aกd 𝒾 canٖt fཱྀcu༧༦࿐༄
}}

==Explanation==
For some songs, the vocalist chooses to perform in a way that emphasizes emotion, accent or style over clear pronunciation of the lyrics. Some forms of music, for example the Jazz style Scat, use purely nonsensical lyrics while some styles of dance music use a single line of lyrics repeated throughout the track.  Sometimes the instruments overwhelm the vocals, so the words are unintelligible.

There are also certain types of people that may describe themselves as "lyric deaf", which is sort of the lyrical equivalent to being {{w|Tone deafness|tone deaf}}, although it doesn't have an underlying medical understanding. Some people that describe themselves as tone deaf are even quite musically capable.

The comic is illustrating (in text form) how listening to such a song feels before you have learned what the actual lyrics are. The lyrics are represented in an indecipherable way, with a few mildly recognizable words. This represents the auditory experience of being able to hear and understand some words (perhaps incorrectly), but not all of them.  The depiction is similar to some {{w|CAPTCHA|CAPTCHAs}} (text that is distorted so it is hard to recognize, and one has to guess at what the words are.)  Audio CAPTCHAs are sometimes used, where words must be picked out from distorted sound.

Another example of this experience can be seen in [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxELSzay2lc this British TV commercial] from the 1980s, showing someone who has misheard {{w|Desmond Dekker}} song {{w|Israelites (song) |Israelites}} so for instance the line ''Poor me Israelites'' becomes ''Oh-oh my ears are alight''. See more details in the [[#Trivia|trivia]] section.

This experience is similar to that shown by the character {{w|Havelock Vetinari}} the Patrician of {{w|Ankh-Morpork}}, in {{w|Terry Pratchett}}'s {{w|Discworld}} book {{w|Soul Music (novel)|Soul Music}} (see [http://www.ealasaid.com/fan/vetinari/vl-soulmusic.html part of book here]). Rather than listening to music, he preferred to read the printed sheet music:
:''In fact the kind of music he really liked was the kind that never got played. It ruined music, in his opinion, to torment it by involving it on dried skins, bits of dead cat and lumps of metal hammered into wires and tubes. It ought to stay written down, on the page, in rows of little dots and crotchets, all neatly caught between lines. Only there was it pure. It was when people started doing things with it that the rot set in. Much better to sit quietly in a room and read the sheets, with nothing between yourself and the mind of the composer but a scribble of ink. Having it played by sweaty fat men and people with hair in their ears and spit dribbling out of the end of their oboe... well, the idea made him shudder.''

For a related experience see {{w|Mondegreen}}.

The title text elaborates on the fact that [[Randall]] has the same experience when trying to understand [http://lyricsmusic.name/ song lyrics] as when he sees text in his dreams. The last part of the title text is written in strange scripts to illustrate how he feels when seeing text in his dreams. Translated it says: ''it's hard to read and I can't focus.''

Note that it looks like the song lyrics were written by drawing in a tool, like MS Paint, and then cutting out pieces and shifting them slightly.

=== Possible lyrics and songs ===
The closest guess on the lyrics is this:
:''I can't even tell her''
:''Anything she wanna''
:''Had outstanding skill''
::''Beautiful''
:''Forgetting love.''
(Note that the first line also might be ''I can't even '''help''' her''.)

It is very likely that [[Randall]] completely made up these lyrics himself and if any song coincidentally share some part of them it only happens because Randall has chosen some very cliché lyrics, that would thus be likely to occur in some pop songs.

Nevertheless, here below are some possible song references, in which the exact line from above occurs:
*If the first line is ''I can't even '''tell''' her'', it could come from
:{{w|Joe Budden}}'s song ''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJPZtoH_wok More of Me]''
:From the [http://genius.com/Joe-budden-more-of-me-lyrics lyrics]:
:''World keeps spinning, learned sinners keep sinning''
:''And '''I can't even tell her''' some fights ain't fight worthy''
:''Cause my pops got 20 years clean, but her pops got 20 years dirty''
*If the first line is ''I can't even '''help''' her'', it could come from:
:{{w|Bill Anderson (singer)|Bill Anderson's}} song ''[https://myspace.com/whisperinbill/music/song/baby-s-blue-again-104023287-116024575 Baby's Blue Again]''
:From the [http://www.metrolyrics.com/babys-blue-again-lyrics-bill-anderson.html lyrics]:
:''Oh Lord, and '''I can't even help her'''''
:''All I can do is just wait''
:''Until the clouds are all blown away''
*The second line ''Anything she wanna'' could be from:
:[https://twitter.com/1johnnycinco Johnny Cinco's] song ''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ri4LjCESbOA She Wanna]''
:From the [http://www.lyricfever.com/lyrics/1069636/Johnny-Cinco/She-Wanna lyrics]:
:''Buy here '''anything she wanna'''''
:''Fly in '''anything she wanna'''''
:''Try on '''anything she wanna'''''
*The third line ''Had to be outstanding or kill'' (which is basically just a simple guess at what could be said in the line) does not make much sense and there are no songs that include such a line.
*The fourth line ''Forgetting love'' could come from:
:[https://www.facebook.com/chino.brown.7 Chino Brown's] song ''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SOW2o-g8yg Love Again]''
:From the [http://genius.com/Chino-brown-love-again-lyrics lyrics]:
:''I was at a point in my life''
:''Of just '''forgetting love'''''
:''Until the day you touched me''

Or we've been [[356: Nerd Sniping|nerd sniped]].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball sits in a chair holding something. A speaker on a counter behind him is transmitting music. Four lines of wavy undecipherable lyrics emanate from the speaker. The lyrics are surrounded by musical notes. Below is the best attempt to write this down in text, also using capitals when they are clearly there in the comic.]
:I CANT₣∇EN +ELҼ ⊤HER
:A|N⊃Г⊕N6 ƒHE W(AN NAp.
:HADβE Aūτ|ƒA!NNNG∩fҠILL...
:FOR&#9825;ITiNn⊣GLOOOO!VEEE ?.-

:[Caption below the frame:]
:Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to be able to understand song lyrics without looking them up.

==Trivia==
*The [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxELSzay2lc commercial] mentioned in the explanation above spoofs Desmond Dekker's song ''Israelites''.
*The two verses used in the commercial are the 2nd and 3rd of the song as can be seen in the [http://www.metrolyrics.com/israelites-lyrics-desmond-dekker.html lyrics].
*Below can be read the two verses, with the first line (and then every second line) being what is sung (from the lyrics) and the following lines what the guy in the street shows on his cards (as he heard it):
*Verse 2:
:*Get up in the morning
::Get up in the morning 
:*slaving for bread, sir
::sleeping for for bread, sir
:*So that every mouth 
::Sold out to every monk
:*can be fed
::and beef-head
:*Poor 
::oh-oh
:*me Israelites
::me ears are alight
*Verse 3:
:*My wife an' my kids 
::Why find my kids?
:*them a pack up an' a leave me
::They buck up and a-leave me
:*Darlin' she said, 
::Darling Cheese head
:*I was yours to be seen
::I was yards too greasy
:*Poor 
::oh-oh
:*me Israelites
::me ears are alight
*After these two verses, there are more text from the guy while no new lines are sung:
::I think that's what he says
::But I need to hear it on a {{w|Hitachi Maxell|Maxell}}
::(There is a picture of a {{w|Compact Cassette|cassette tape}} below that last line of text.)

===Non-ASCII characters===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Matching text
! Character
! Description
! Preview
|-
| THAI CHARACTER O ANG
| U+0E2D
| THAI CHARACTER O ANG
| อ
|-
| ARABIC SUBSCRIPT ALEF
| U+0656
| ARABIC SUBSCRIPT ALEF
| ٖ
|-
| TIBETAN VOWEL SIGN AA
| U+0F71
| TIBETAN VOWEL SIGN AA
|	ཱ
|-
| TIBETAN VOWEL SIGN REVERSED II
| U+0F81
| TIBETAN VOWEL SIGN REVERSED II
| ཱྀ
|-
| TIBETAN MARK BSKA- SHOG GI MGO RGYAN
| U+0FD0
| TIBETAN MARK BSKA- SHOG GI MGO RGYAN
| ࿐
|-
| TIBETAN MARK INITIAL YIG MGO MDUN MA
| U+0F04
| TIBETAN MARK INITIAL YIG MGO MDUN MA
| ༄
|}

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Songs]]
[[Category:Dreams]]
[[Category:Unicode]]