Words and Music is a collection of different perspectives on the interplay between words and music in opera librettos, Broadway musicals, pop, rock, blues and rap lyrics, and video game soundtracks. Topics include the links between sound and sense, challenges involved in translating song lyrics, the difference between adaptations and parodies, linguistic and cultural analyses of contemporary song lyrics, the censorship of protest songs, and teaching foreign languages using songs.

Strange Brew is the title of a 1967 hit song from Cream's album Disraeli Gears, which featured the most psychedelic cover art ever. The song is what postmodern scholars, influenced by Fredric Jameson, would call a pastiche: its lyrics combine images of love, witchcraft, and getting stoned with a note-for-note rendition of Albert King's traditional blues song Oh Pretty Woman. The song's title is a metaphor suggesting that words and music can mix to become a kind of magic potion. Strange Brew: Metaphors of Magic and Science in Rock Music traces the evolution of psychedelic music from its roots...