ABSTRACT
Nothing should more closely signify the relationship between music, place and identity than the words of songs, especially where performers and audiences have broadly similar interpretations. Yet not all lyrics seek to convey a sense of place or identity, nor is there any simple relationship between lyrics and their reception and interpretation. Throughout history, popular music, like other forms of popular culture, has reflected contemporary issues (though, given its commercial underpinnings, sometimes opaquely). This chapter examines potentially the simplest and apparently the most basic element of popular music: the words and the nature of the images conveyed in songs, where those images relate to place and identity, though it cannot possibly review the diversity of lyrical themes and place references. Most popular music (including much country music) is subtle, ambivalent or vague in its designations and descriptions of place and identity. Moreover the lyrical content is not necessarily central to popular music. Many lyrically powerful compositions have been quite unsuccessful, since the rhythm, melody (or performer) were obscure or simply bad. Not all lyrics were even intended to be comprehensible. When John Lennon wrote ‘I am the Walrus’ (1967), he was reported to have said: ‘Let’s see the little fuckers try and work this out’ (though some purported to understand the lyrics and it was attacked in a morals campaign).
