Song lyrics, poems, fragments and phrases
I have some friends that are really good writers. We get to talking every once in awhile — maybe about writing some songs together. Often times when we get down to brass tacks and try to put something together I might defer to them when it comes to lyrics.
The problem arises when we take a look at some lyrics that they’ve written down. It’s not that they’re bad. They’re typically great, actually. It’s just that they don’t seem designed for a song, per se. They actually most often seem like longer form poetry. Words meant to be written down. And read.
But songs aren’t read. They’re heard. And if you’re interested in writing song lyrics my advice to you is to start from the opposite end of the spectrum. Build up from a word or a phrase. You see a phrase might not mean anything when it lies flat on a page. But that’s not what words in songs do.
Songs have this nice little thing we like to call music. It plays in the background. It conveys emotion and feeling. You can say less with this thing called music. And sometimes mean more.
It’s phrases that resonate with a song. Little glimpses of things. Incomplete pictures filled out by notes and melody and your imagination and the vocal performance of the singer.
At the end of “Perfect Day”, Lou Reed says “You’re going to reap just what you sow.” He says it over and over. And it rises up and is mysterious and beautiful and he leaves it like that.
On “Summerteeth”, Jeff Tweedy says “Maybe all I need is a shot in the arm. Something in my veins. Bloodier than blood.”
That’s all. No long and winding stanzas (unless you’re Dylan). No complicated meter. Enough syllables that you can stretch into the song form but not so many that you have to impossibly squeeze 30 words into eight bars.
Focus on a word. Focus on a phrase. You’re not going to be reading it. You’re going to be listening to it.
Tags: songwriting
blog comments powered by Disqus
Leave a Reply