February | 2013 | From the Sound of It

Does a song have a plot? It doesn’t follow the same progression as a story, so there is no reason for a song to possess a plot.

You could see a plot in a traditional or folk song because this is the structure; it starts out describing the situation at one juncture and ends showing what happens as time passes. However, not even the old songs all follow this pattern, not by any means. It’s just as likely that a piece will dwell on how gorgeous one’s paramour is, or study a subject closely. If the narrative is timeless or static then it’s less likely to have a plot.

Look at “The Gambler” by Kenny Rogers. Here the verses set the scene and then the chorus is the old man’s advice repeated so taking us away from the card table through reflection. The plot consists of a current day gambler using past pearls of wisdom to inform his conduct at the table and in life generally. This active use of metaphor tells a story with less filling than an actual short story or novella, because there is the other aspects of the song for the audience to appreciate: the sound and construction of the song, the performance, the way it fits into the milieu..

Let’s get into a little practice then, despite the fact that we’ve just recognised that a plot is a fairly unimportant component of song lyrics and may occur by chance, if at all.

It has to be said, even as we do this, that probably whatever plot one devises, it would be better utilised in another medium than song. Not if you decide to keep it simple though. For example, a plot for a movie or television episode might consist of a hypnotist committing murder through sleeper subjects and that’s a good chance for dialogue and set scenes, a fine opportunity for actors to show their chops, but does the process of illustrating this restrict the potential? Compare ‘Falling For You‘, the title of a song before it is that of a play or short film. Rather than just riffing off this title, because we want to look at plot potential, I have a plot in mind: each verse talks (in a poetic way) of how the narrator or protagonist falls; off mountains, off fences, off a motorcycle, and then how this is all still about the ‘you’ in the title. A particular fancy, I should fancy. This is too rudimentary for anything but a children’s book – the repetition, that is! – but perfect fodder for a song.

It might be a song with a plot, but that depends on how you write it. You see, after making the choice to talk about the person relating events, taking different kinds of falls, there’s still more than one approach.

You might decide ‘screw the plot’ at this stage, if the exercise has given you the material to write a good song using this title and theme. Why try to make this go somewhere in the way that “Bus Stop” by Manfred Mann does, where the act of sharing an umbrella blossoms into a full blown love affair. There might be some satisfaction in all the falling resulting in reciprocity or at least an appreciative glance down at your crumpled form at the base of the ladder. But if the falls are diverting enough and the images strong, the listener probably won’t notice.

III

Falling For You

I fell forward and I fell hard
on the path to your half
the length of your yard

I fell
out of practice
I fell
out of bed

Falling for this feeling
Propelled on by chance
The mind finds it’s reeling
Circled by circumstance

IV

What you may have noticed is how the poetry takes over, leaving no room for a proper plot. It’s still talking about “falling for you” but it isn’t doing so with the objective of seeing that the narrator falls into his or her baby’s arms by the end of the song. In one approach, you would be using serviceable language to tell a tale, in the other one is using visual imagery and lyrical ambiguity to weave a song that reveals further meaning over time.

Apart from as an academic exercise, I don’t see virtue in pursuing plot foremost. Allow the song lyrics to convey their meaning through their delivery and any inherent musicality, and things like ‘plot’ and ‘script’ and ‘narrative’ will sort themselves out of their own accord.

Here’s a different take on ‘Falling For You’ where you take that surveyed route of falling off different heights.

I had this falling dream
I can’t recall if it was some recent wall
that we clambered over calmly
that we called from as we climbed
I know how it sometimes seems
Falling for you

Notice how, here, you start off telling the story right from the vantage of falling off things yet by the end of the snippet there are other things falling out as the lover tumbles headlong into the space of the desired one. I suggest you go with it, since letting the song tug the writer along could conceivably be more fulfilling than going with the original idea.
If you wish, you can scribble the other directions all this falling could take for use in other songs, or as a fascinating future curio for those keen to learn.

If anything, this works better in song than in anything but the most experimental novel or fringe theatre. And then you’ll be onto the next tune, which is about something else.

There’s a difference between not stopping to think about what the theme of your piece is (a balking mechanism if I ever heard) and writing to a theme. If the theme already exists then write the song and, with the right skill, it will stand with any work produced to that theme.

So, let’s keep with the idea of choosing from events as they occur, to remove subjective sensibility from the process. After all, if you are asked to write to a theme, already you are at one remove to creating a work from scratch. If you had to write a song on the subject of where to shoot – bearing in mind that this is derived from the state government decision to allow shooting in national parks, and the fact that the US massacres have reached a new low by being staged in a primary school. The two items speak to different things; the danger of being hit by stray bullets while enjoying nature vs the danger of being targeted in what should be a safe zone in societal terms. There’s a link there, and if you can run the narratives in parallel then you have a potent work of art.

That’s the key though. This seems for all the world like a political discourse, writing a song about gun control, but unless you’re a folk singer writing to topical currency, there is more potential in examining the lyrical possibilities. The theme isn’t the outlawing of firearms, it’s the notion of having prescribed locations for the discharging of offensive weapons, so that’s the broad direction. But the writing of the song would entail different considerations if you hope to produce the superior or definitive piece.

He’s not old enough for shootouts excepting to pretend as in a game of Cowboys and Indians (though I doubt this is still a children’s playground game) so why is this terrible thing visited on the country’s youngest in their place of learning? So, the question for the songwriting (as opposed to the political essay) course of action is, is this the hook; the inappropriateness of the setting the shooting takes place? If so, you no longer need allude to the events that sparked this approach, this angle.

The advantage of using this aspect to represent the theme, is that it can also cover the idea of shooting in places where others are pursuing recreational activity. We are providing less spots for smokers to light up, why are we creating more spaces for discharging of rifles?

I’m not saying that you would want to tackle this subject or write to this theme, but you don’t need to actively pursue an interest in Don’t Shoot, the song about having to tell someone not to shoot in this place. Or in Offshoot, a song that lists places where hunters and sporting shooters can go. It’s an exercise like any other.

From the Sound of It

Monthly Archives: February 2013

Loosened the plot

Writing to theme