To hear someone say, “I never listen to the words of a song, only the music,” is nearly as disconcerting as if they had said, “I never pay attention to both ballroom dancers, only the one.”
Words and music are more than just two companions on the same sidewalk.
They are a dance. Even if the one is foreign, or seems to be (Massive Attack’s “Silent Spring”), or is simply so poetic that all it conveys is mood.
Some music comes to a party stag. But if music comes with lyrics, they are more than its “plus one.” The song is a couple, a marriage of two souls, mutually complete.