I still don't know the exact lyrics to a lot of my favourite songs, and still just hum along to Nirvana - especially the one where he likes the songs, but doesn't know the words, and I'm suitably aware of the irony to all that.
You can get the lyrics for anything in 10 seconds flat now, but the lyric sheet printed on the back of the album cover used to be a major reason for getting the tapes or CDs, because then you could show the whole damn world how much you loved some music by singing along with it to the proper words.
I used to spend ages in the local record store, peering at the vinyl issue of Pink Floyd's The Wall, deciphering some of the lyrics I couldn't make out in my endless listenings, until the store owner gave me enough stink eye to drive me away. I would wear out video tapes going back and forth on songs like Queen's The Miracle, the immortal Star Trekkin' by The Firm, and all the songs from the first half of the Rocky Horror Picture Show (I only had the first 40 minutes of the film on video before the tape ran out.)
It was pain-staking, but sometimes it was the only option, and I remember well into the 90s, sitting around the table in our flat, trying to decipher Spoonman. All that effort, over all those years, and now I can look up lyrics anytime I want. I still don't do it most of the time, because singing the wrong words with passion is just as much fun as getting it right.
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