"Nobody would dream of calling the little black notes on the page the music of Bach, and so it is with poetry."
Lew Welch

As with almost all song lyrics, the emotional power and meaning of Erickson's work comes through largely in performance. Of course, this statement does not apply solely to the singer of songs. Poetry, either read aloud or in the mind's ear, becomes a performance. Thus the fixedness of any text can be called into question, since each performance of that text will differ in some way with every other performance. In the final analysis, no version can be considered definitive, even if a particular version of the text, however artificial in view of the foregoing, may be. Therefore, there will be cases when a specific recorded version of a song will be used to illustrate a particular point. The acoustic solo version of "Think of as One" found on Never Say Goodbye can produce a substantially different set of responses than the one performed with Okkervil River on True Love Cast Out All Evil.

The total effect of a song involves many variables, such as lyrics, melody, arrangement, and delivery, as well as others that exist outside the boundary of the song itself. "Ain't Blues Too Sad" from True Love Cast Out All Evil is a good example. Stripped down and basic, the song has the feel of a field recording from Appalachia, especially with the gruff-sounding vocal. What lends the song power is not merely the ragged, world-weary voice, though this is considerable. What lifts the song to another level is the listener's recognition that Erickson, now in his sixties, is singing a song written when in his twenties. The sense of loss, conveyed by the words, but even more so by the voice in the song's final line, is not merely that of an old man, with all the regrets that entails, but that of a young man whose future has been wiped away because, as he states, "electricity hammered me through my head." There is a similar effect on many of the songs on this album, as if Erickson is singing a duet with himself. The inclusion of older recorded material strengthens this perception.