Musical lyrics in performance are the positive expression, not of an imaginary or merely virtual subject, but of a hypothetical subject, a publicly proposed subject, as if in an experiment in perception and response. They are able to provoke a joy that is independent of anything the lyrics might be about, of their propositional content or significance as imagined speech acts in a more of less troubled imaginary situation, unless, over-topping the immediate context, they are taken to be entirely about the possibilities of experiencing itself. Indeed the lyrics can achieve this effect even when they are not understood. Nevertheless they are taken to be authentic expressions of the state which they evoke, perhaps even defining the meaning of authenticity in this context. The joyous state is one where thought and symbol seem to freely determine each other. The dimension of mind which deals with objectivities merges with the dimension that deals with symbols. It is not the freedom of thought to determine it symbols or its freedom to be determined by them that is experienced but an adumbration of a deeper forgotten freedom into which the notional self and all its scaffolding of meaning and mattering quietly and delightfully resolves.