Yup. Hopefully we're not going to select Chrissie as an example of someone who occassionally 'has it on'. My god. More guts, more feeling and more imagination--all rolled into one, than your decade's worth of guitar dweeks. Like, I could care how well she plays guitar like I care if Dylan could do anything in particular with a harmonica. You guys all raise great points. But there's a reason for connection...not accident.
I think there's a big difference between 'catchy' lyrics and good poetry. I hear a lot of catchy lyrics. Fun. Poetry, on the other hand, is the sort of thing that makes your priorities change, in a moment, from the price you're paying at the pump or how hard your miserable existence is...to something more like oh, there's actually a world that doesn't spin around my self-serving uselessness.
Just plain old love is okay, too, I guess.
Yes, 'instrumentally demanding' is something I can appreciate...I can appreciate that other folks appreciate it. I, on the other hand, would never notice or appreciate nor care about it. I simply don't know when it's going on and don't care.
Now, from time to time when listening to Louis Armstrong I might think, "Damn. Command of the instrument. That is incredible. That feller really knows his damn way aroung the old blow horn."

But generally, I don't. I just let myself not think at all, and let a little drool run down my chin as I go into a coma.
