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Ultimately, the pairing of Healy and Antonoff makes sense. They’re both endlessly referential music nerds who are known for their voluble, neurotic personalities; both have made music videos in which they are seen talking to therapists. “People may think that it’s ‘uncool’ to work with the biggest producer in the world—I don’t give a fuck,” Healy says, leaning in. “I wanna make a great fucking record.” At this point, Healy counts Antonoff as one of the few close friends he’s made in recent years, a kindred spirit. “Jack doesn’t get enlisted by a lot of the best artists because he’s some go-to guy—Jack’s good,” he explains. Healy also makes it clear that he’s always the one in full creative control—of production, songwriting, performances. “Everything the 1975 does, I write.” He laughs softly. “No one touches the lyrics.”

I’d like to know what “No one touches the lyrics” in this case means. There’s this expression “no one can touch someone/something”, which means no one is as good as a particular person. Does the sentence in bold here mean that no one can write the lyrics as good as him?

2 Answers 2

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It means that "nobody changes the lyrics".

The songwriter, Healy, is saying that he has complete control over the song, and the producer, Antonoff, isn't allowed to make edits or cuts to the lyrics that Healy has written.

To "touch" something can be used figuratively to mean "alter":

Has someone touched my things? Because I can't find my favourite pen and it was on my desk!

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  • That makes sense. Thank you so much for the explanation.
    – whitewater
    Aug 14, 2022 at 18:36
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I don't think it means "no-one is as good": which might be

No one can touch me with/for lyrics.

I guess it refers to the previous

Healy also makes it clear that he’s always the one in full creative control . . . “Everything the 1975 [band] does, I write.”

and so literally only Healy can change the lyrics.

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  • Thanks so much for the explanation. I get it. I thought it might just omit the “can”. But I was wrong.
    – whitewater
    Aug 14, 2022 at 18:38

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