Riffs

Bare Trees is the title track from the Fleetwood Mac album released in 1972. 

What’s remarkable is that it’s composed almost entirely of riffs (6!) in E Mixolydian/Blues with a few random lyrics mapped over them.

The lyric is beautifully denuded.

The fact that "dummy" lyrics were used indicates that lyrics in pop songs aren't really essential when music can take the spotlight. Lyrics are now hugely meaningful, pushing musical ability to the far background. Like artisans that were hired to paint backgrounds in Old Master paintings, anyone can fill in the background with some beats or something.

Riff-based music is probably more universal than through-composed music. Lyrics in pop songs can be non-substantive. Many early blues songs just had moaning in them.

Here are the minimal lyrics (see riffs below):

Bare trees, gray light
Oh yeah it was a cold night

Riff 4:
I was alone in the cold of a winters day
You were alone and so snug in your bed

Riff 5:
Bah do dah, do dah da do da do

Also interesting is that the notation looks complex when the music is essentially blues.