RMD.
Allow me to elaborate on some isolated opinions thus far expressed on this thread that fall clearly one side of the fence .. and the discretion to draw that very clear distntinction in Steve's original post if I may ....
(sidebar FB !!! I happened to love Julie Andrews !! .. dress to your intended !!)
He made it abundantly clear that this was a "one or the other" debate ...... as is his choice ..... and despite my initial misgivings to divorce one from the other, I've done that (easily) and been (to date) one of few to do so.
I read the "arguments" and they have equal value and I respect (with obvious deference) those opinions. But they have either ignored for the most part, or cast aside the question posed in the thread topic.
Steve deliberately intended a divorce between the words and music. ... and for those that made our "call" ?
Far easier it would be to write music to someone else's feelings than words to someone else's musical notes.
The opening strains of of a song may pull you in (whether they be freely singing to one's soul or evocative and take you to your past) but unless they hold your attention through an incisive line, a well constructed verse, they die, immediate from mind as they do from heart.
By the way ...the name is Mike
[ July 23, 2006, 09:54: Message edited by: Mike Dixon ]