If you look at a lyric from a typical pop song, you’re not usually looking at something that’s deep or complex. Usually that’s by design: the purpose of most pop songs is to create emotions within the listener, and it’s hard to create emotions when the words and their contextual meanings are intricate or convoluted. Words that often appear in casual conversation are the most common ones to use in song lyrics.
如果你看一首典型流行歌曲的歌詞，你通常不會看到深刻或複雜的東西。通常這是設計使然：大多數流行歌曲的目的是在聽眾中創造情感，當歌詞及其上下文含義複雜或錯綜複雜時，很難創造情感。經常出現在隨意對話中的詞是歌詞中最常用的詞。
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But there are exceptions. There are songs that have been chart toppers where the meaning of the lyric is elusive. Sometimes it’s a case that the lyrics, line by line, are making perfect sense, but what’s actually being talked about is less 
obvious when you put it all together, as in the lyric to Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” (1971):
但也有例外。有些歌曲一直是排行榜上的佼佼者，歌詞的含義難以捉摸。有時候，歌詞一行一句地說得很有道理，但當你把它們放在一起時，真正談論的內容就不那麼明顯了，就像齊柏林飛艇的“通往天堂的階梯”（1971）的歌詞一樣：
There’s a lady who’s sure all that glitters is gold
有一位女士確信所有閃閃發光的都是金子And she’s buying a stairway to Heaven
她正在購買通往天堂的階梯When she gets there she knows, if the stores are all closed
當她到達那裡時，她知道，如果商店都關門了With a word she can get what she came for
一句話，她就能得到她來的目的Ooh, ooh, and she’s buying a stairway to Heaven
噢，噢，她要買一個通往天堂的階梯
Or Peter Gabriel’s “Solsbury Hill” (1977):
或者彼得·加布里埃爾（Peter Gabriel）的《索爾斯伯里山》（Solsbury Hill，1977）：
To keep in silence I resigned
為了保持沉默，我辭職了
My friends would think I was a nut
我的朋友會認為我是個瘋子
Turning water into wine
把水變成酒
Open doors would soon be shut
敞開的大門很快就會關上
So I went from day to day
所以復一日地去
Though my life was in a rut
雖然我的生活一團糟
‘Til I thought of what I’ll say
“直到我想到我要說的話
Which connection I should cut
我應該切斷哪個連接
Sometimes, as in the case of several John Lennon songs, the lyric might be purposely abstract, simply to throw a wrench into the brains of listeners prone to over-analysis, as in “Come Together”:
有時，就像約翰·列儂（John Lennon）的幾首歌一樣，歌詞可能故意抽象，只是為了向容易過度分析的聽眾的大腦猛地插上一把扳手，就像“Come Together”一樣：
He wear no shoe shine
他不穿鞋擦亮He got toe jam football
他得到了腳趾果醬足球He got monkey finger
他得到了猴子的手指He shoot Coca-Cola
他射擊可口可樂He say I know you, you know me
他說我瞭解你，你也瞭解我One thing I can tell you is you got to be free
我可以告訴你的一件事是你必須是自由的
In a weird sort of way, the songs where the meaning is not immediately apparent can often still work, and can even, in combination with the melodies, chords and performance style, create an emotional reaction in the minds of the listeners.
以一種奇怪的方式，那些意義不明的歌曲通常仍然可以奏效，甚至可以與旋律、和弦和表演風格相結合，在聽眾的腦海中產生情感反應。
How can a complex lyric do that, if the overall meaning isn’t obvious?
如果整體含義不明顯，複雜的歌詞怎麼能做到這一點？
The Power of a Single Line
單條線路的力量
If you take a song that seems lyrically dense, but then simply go line by line, your brain becomes more likely to create significance to the lines that, on their own, seem quite clear. So in “Come Together”, when Lennon sings “One thing I can tell you is you got to be free“, we find ourselves nodding vigorously and agreeing.
如果你拿一首看起來很抒情密集的歌曲，但只是一行一行地播放，你的大腦就更有可能為這些本身看起來很清楚的臺詞創造意義。 因此，在《Come Together》中，當列儂唱到“我可以告訴你的一件事是你必須是自由的”時，我們發現自己用力點頭並表示同意。
And not only agreeing, but valuing the meaning of that line all the more, simply because we understand it: it’s a moment of powerful clarity in an otherwise jumbled up collection of words and lines.
不僅同意，而且更加重視這句話的含義，僅僅因為我們理解它：這是一個在其他混亂的單詞和臺詞集合中強大清晰的時刻。
I love complex lyrics — the ones where I can tell there’s something there that I’m not seeing right away, but I know it’s there. It makes me want to go back and listen again, and hopefully to eventually come up with a theory of what the songwriter had in mind.
我喜歡複雜的歌詞——我能看出那裡有一些東西，雖然我沒有立即看到，但我知道它就在那裡。這讓我想回去再聽一遍，希望最終能提出一個關於詞曲作者心意的理論。
And I may be wrong when I finally decide the meaning, but for me, the fact that I could be wrong doesn’t necessarily diminish my interest in the song. And most good songwriters accept that different people will derive different meaning from lyrics, and they’re usually fine with that.
當我最終決定含義時，我可能是錯的，但對我來說，我可能是錯的事實並不一定會減少我對這首歌的興趣。大多數優秀的詞曲作者都接受，不同的人會從歌詞中獲得不同的含義，他們通常對此感到滿意。
So this is not a plea from me to encourage you to write complex lyrics that, taken together, form nothing more than garbage, with a few lines that make sense. I’m suggesting though that if you like writing lyrics that are complex, realize that your audience will start to focus on single lines if the entire lyric is beyond them.
所以這不是我懇求鼓勵你寫出複雜的歌詞，這些歌詞加在一起只不過是垃圾，只有幾行是有意義的。不過，我建議，如果你喜歡寫複雜的歌詞，要意識到如果整個歌詞超出了他們，你的聽眾就會開始關注單行。
Once you’ve written a lyric where you realize that the fuller more comprehensive meaning may be elusive, read back through your lyric and see what you think listeners might choose to focus on as single lines. Do those lines have the potential to create emotions in your listeners. I find myself wondering if “Come Together”, without those moments of clarity (even just that simple line, “Come together”) would have succeeded?
一旦你寫了一句歌詞，你意識到更全面、更全面的含義可能是難以捉摸的，仔細閱讀你的歌詞，看看你認為聽眾可能會選擇把注意力集中在什麼上。這些臺詞是否有可能在聽眾中產生情緒。我發現自己在想，如果沒有那些清晰的時刻（即使只是那句簡單的臺詞，“走到一起”），“走到一起”是否會成功？
Written by Gary Ewer. Follow Gary on Twitter.
由加里·尤爾（Gary Ewer）撰寫。在 Twitter 上關注 Gary。
Yes, songwriting CAN be practiced. The 9-Lesson Course, developed by Gary Ewer, will get you practicing your songwriting skills daily, and make you a better and more consistently excellent songwriter. Get the course separately, or as part of “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 10-eBook Bundle.
是的，歌曲創作是可以練習的。由 Gary Ewer 開發的 9 節課課程將讓您每天練習歌曲創作技巧，並使您成為更好、更始終如一的優秀詞曲作者。單獨獲取該課程，或作為「歌曲創作的基本秘密」10 本電子書套裝的一部分獲取。
