The song in its place

Posted on 20/09/2014 by admin

Having canvassed the narrative so that we have a full understanding of its importance and place in the song, it’s probably safe to peer out at how the approach to narrative differs from that employed in other media.

Let’s consider the ‘horror budget’ in general. If we were writing a mini-series and wanted it to be current and up-to-date then a good approach would be to take some of the things particular to things as they are in 2014. My pitch would include a father, Geoff, who is an assembly line worker at Holden; his wife, Sheryn, is a pragmatic climate change sceptic. She doesn’t pretend to know the science or have a reason to refute it on an empirical level but she is concerned about the rising energy costs and believed the promise that scrapping the “carbon tax” would bring down power bills and costs passed on by affected companies in a range of fields. They have a son, Marcus, who hates his boss but is worried about the six months waiting period if he quits and is aghast at the prospect of writing forty job applications a month and being thrown onto a ‘work for the dole’ scheme. There is interaction with a neighbour, Phat Lam, who was given a temporary humanitarian visa due to his involvement with the Tianemen Square protests and was allowed to stay.

Now, as you can see, apart from delineating characters who will exemplify certain key dramatic aspects of contemporary Australian life, the approach is built on the use of characters. This is because we want the audience to identify with them and be interested in following them. It means that actors will sign on, knowing that there is substance to their roles where their appearance in a more plot-driven vehicle may be more fleeting.

In a movie you would probably want more of a blend in of some story situation or development. The focus may shift to a smaller cast engaged in greater activity and less exposition.

A short story would typically want to centre on one activity or sharp burst; there could be a dramatic event at the car manufacturers, a sudden a-ha moment in the realisation that prices weren’t really going to go down, or an altercation involving Marcus. The aspects of other characters might be touched on lightly if at all.

Can a song not take the same approach as other media in developing a narrative? It can actually. Just as plays are made into films and novels are made into musicals, it is possible to tell a story in a different medium, acknowledging and accepting the changes. The styles that spring from Springsteen prove songs can tell dramatic stories about a small cast of characters and place us in a setting. Whether you’d use this for Geoff, Sheryn and Marcus (toying with adding a daughter, Nola, who is a swotty year 12 with an enthusiasm for microbiology but concerned about what it would cost with no caps on fees) is another matter. I’d maintain that even when we’re speaking of Lightning’s Child, Farmer John, the Son of a Preacher Man, Son of Hickory Holler’s Tramp, the Eyes of Lucy Jordan… there’s a narrowing of focus in much the same way as there can be in poetry and vignettes. There are songwriters who can work a crowded room but there’s some skill involved and it does dictate the structure and possibly the genre. So songs in the same cast as a mini-series are going to be less our focus.

III

How would songs based on the horror budget more naturally evolve?

Auto manufacture


We used to make it up as we go along

Revelling in the rivetting although the hours were long

Automanufacture
We plumped the seats

Engaged in feats that the world would watch

Designing the body weilding the welding torch

Automanufacture

It was our roads that drove us on Where we could get to and how we belong Take the we'll always remember Automanufacture factoring in

Great Big New Attacks

Threats and debts of our design
The fears this year cannot confine
The hiving off of heave and ho
The skiving and the to and fro

There’s great big new attacks
great big new attacks

The lies disguise what we despise
A reckoning we can recognise
A tut tut for reverse tracks
What it was we ever lacked

What’s yours we’ll mine
You’ll get your share sure
philistine

Not while there’s great big new
Attacks

Reliable method

Posted on 25/07/2014 by admin

I don’t want to encourage lax behaviour in any writer but I thought while on the subject of bashing out songs to order we’d pause a while on the best way to ensure a song that sticks to a formula without sounding hackneyed. Or you don’t notice because of the beat.

So we’ll deal with this in this post before moving on.

There are so many titles lying around that allow you to expand. You could picture ‘No Cuts‘ as a protest song, a polemic cast in anything from folk to punk and the hyphen inbetween.

And all you have to do is list out a different cut that won’t occur and you have your song.

Is it necessary to choose leading titles that tell the prospective listener what to expect? This is, after all, the flipside of taking a cavalier approach to writing the piece in the first place.

It’s perfectly possible to churn out six or seven songs this way. It’s whether you should, or whether this is not the best use of your creative streak.

It’s not necessary to choose titles that telegraph their whole approach by listing things that you can’t take back or won’t cut, for example. Early rock’n’roll made good use of this but that was sixty years ago.

No, you can reliably write a song without this crutch. You want to be able to write a song with a girl’s (or boy’s) name, giving no clues away. You want the listener to carry The Weight.

This may seem ambitious, the more so when given time constraints or a fickle intending audience, but you can invest artistry where before there was formulaic.

You may not need a prompt or a prop to sell each verse but a solid approach is to make each complete. It covers one aspect or facet of what it is that that the song is about; whether the narrative moves or remains static. I don’t think this always means “sneaky listing” either. The verse can capture something fleeting or ethereal that doesn’t give the game away completely.

There’s nothing wrong with observing this element of verse in more serious work.

Public Broadcaster

We care for neither cruise nor craze
We fare with either fuse or phase

Here what you’re doing is letting the lines play off each other. Notice how this method or approach automatically has a more intriguing take than an attempt to explain ever could. Now I’m not saying you’ll mint this dexterity straight out of the gate, but it’s a noble device.

Silence and Science

Here there’s a whole narrative about laws that silence dissent and the parallels or coincidence of science being also on the outer. You won’t need to stop and list so much as vent. Then there’s the fact that the official version is at odds with what is happening; that finely tuned protest and breakthrough discoveries continue unabated.

These two examples: a whimsical take on a perpetually threatened entity and an emphatic line in articulating currency, may seem like so much of what we’ve gone through in other posts but the point is that whimsy and passion work equally well.

Quicken the deed

Posted on 18/07/2014 by admin

I heard your ears prick up when I mentioned a quick and dirty method, as it were, to dashing out a song on demand. Not to corral your efforts on this theme but if you were given a brief by a hard pressed mate who was busily constructing chords, to pen words to a country song called ‘You Can’t Take It Back’ for that gig in Yerecoin. You’ve never been to Yerecoin and have no idea what sort of music they like or what sentiments they’ll find entertaining. Or you’re busking on the street in Tamworth.

The trick is to outline what this angle will bring: stick with the premise – what kinds of things can’t you bring back? Then take four such items and place them in verses down the page. Now add a chorus, perhaps.

‘Your Danielle Steel novels’ is too narrow (even if they are bestsellers) and doesn’t resonate.

No time to be fancy; you’re playing at a mate’s keg party and you don’t have enough material. Or you’ve heard Colin speak disparagingly of Neil Diamond just as you’d perfected Kentucky Woman. Whatever your pressing need to bash out a number, simple is best as it lends itself to the tried and true techniques. So there’s nothing wrong with reaching for the most predictable things one might talk of taking back or having taken back

‘You gave me your heart
For when we are apart
Now you can’t take it back’

‘You gave me your love
and it fit like a glove
Now you can’t take it back’

‘You gave me your soul
A wind-up painted doll
Now you can’t take it back’

‘You gave me your dreams
to pull at the seams
Now you can’t take them back’

Spot the odd one out. That whole soul thing is creepy, get rid of it. Either substitute it with another verse or drop it out altogether. And, no, soul and control has been played out in the Motels. You can’t use that.

So, anyhow, that’s the bones of the song and it didn’t take long. You might not want to write to this level all the time. Use times off the road to construct something more substantial that will leave a legacy. For now, know how to deal with all songwriting situations.

Not so bumpkin

Posted on 12/07/2014 by admin

The second song attempts to get closer to country motifs by speaking of years of tears but the twist here seems contrived and this can only be because a country song may draw attention to its words when it’s a novelty number such as “I’ve Been Everywhere Man” where the singer lists off all the towns he’s been to in a musical manner. You can even spell out a word – such as D.I.V.O.R.C.E. – and keep the listener focused on the fact that this is about parents keeping the bad news from their young children by spelling things out. It’s the narrative that is captivating here and you become interested in this family (or you don’t; experience may vary)
What you can’t do is to divert the interests of skinny youth in greatcoats to capture the country crowd. Not unless you can do crossover.

At a pinch of red dirt, I’d say there are elements of rockabilly which must be a distant cousin of bluegrass or am I just making that up?

So the move from the tears, which are already streaming in a strange direction, to an apparent escape of some kind – this is not explained – confuses in a way that is then compounded by the words to follow. Sure, there’s a straight reading of these words that serves the concerns of country kind. But it’s the fact that they suggest other readings is distracting in a song that prides narrative engagement. Though they might not phrase it that way.

‘You lent me/rent me/circumvent me’ Is there a place for this in country? No, I would say it was lost. Both the set of meanings in this triplet and the rhythm are suggestive of a more uptempo style and one that doesn’t mind puzzling people as they dance.

It’s not so much that the subject matter is wrong for a country song called “You Can’t Take It Back” so much as the approach to it and the ambiguity; who by the third verse is certain about the role the narrator has in this. Country songs may revel in protecting the feelings of saloon girls and salon guys alike but the listener wants to know which group are being referenced in this song. That is not the kind of trickery that belongs in a country song. There are plenty of other kinds; this is just not one of them.

Now, I have written country songs. Or, I have written songs that musician friends have given a country backing, which is similar enough.

If really pushed, I could do a reliable paint-by-numbers take on “You Can’t Take It Back” to make it suitable for any community hall performance. The moped mope of that first song (not a draft as the two snippets are two different takes and unrelated) is humanised a little but perhaps pause over paws for next time.

The idea of giving out things and not being able to reclaim them is good grist for the rustic meal so keep at it.

The Rules of Country

Posted on 07/07/2014 by admin

What about genre? Let’s not get caught up in the clanging of metal or flitting of folk. There are as many genres and subgenres as to have lost count. There are song types that are labelled but the fad finishes so fast that it falls into disuse. But for all its susceptibility genre has a useful purpose in subconsciously delineating its defining features.

Country music is earthy and celebrates life on the land. It talks about the trails and tribulations of life, love, companionship, home. There is glitter and rhinestones, don’t get me wrong, but the lyrical content has a modesty of intent. Later artists started getting increasingly gimmicky to keep the appeal of plowing the same field, with one behatted guitar-slinger declare he was “Lookin’ for Tics”. No music should, however, be judged by its most facile aspects.

Every permutation of love and heartbreak is attended somewhere along the line. These are popular subjects in many genres. Country music adopts a more courtly approach; Merle Haggard “We don’t make a party out of lovin’/We like holdin’ hands and pitchin’ woo”. The menfolk are as likely to get a serve, perhaps even more so. From being admonished to ‘Not come home a’drinkin’ with lovin’ on your mind’ to being accused en masse “Two hoots and a holler/The men ain’t worth a damn/Two hoots and a holler/They’re the lowest thing around”
Even when a partner is found to be cheating, there’s a bitter remorse at it “happening” like in the beautiful Tennessee Waltz where ‘my friend stole my sweetheart away‘ or coming off the poorer from a table with “Three cigarettes in the ashtray” rather than an excuse to cuss. It’s ‘Your Cheatin’ Heart’ not ‘You’re a Cheatin’ Harlot’

If you’re a national treasure you can write songs about different towns and then tour them. You’re guaranteed of good crowd reaction for at least one song.

The first artist I would have seen live was Buddy Williams, an odd honour for him to possess given the array of singers and musicians I’ve watched since. But live entertainment was very much appreciated that far out in the country and there’s a real sense in which artists in this genre are writing to, for, and with the people living in remote rural communities.
One of his was ‘Way Out Where the White-face Cattle Roam’ but that was on a later recording so not sure why that one stuck. Early Slim Dusty takes its inspiration from the bush balladeers of the nineteenth century and also sings about pubs and mates. Country music isn’t given to too much trickery. Wordplay has to let the listener in on the joke. But it’s glorious when it does this well “If I said you had a beautiful body would you hold it against me” “All my exes live in Texas, that’s why I live in Tennessee”
Chad Morgan’s stock in trade is humorous songs about country weddings, country nutjobs, country hicks. Nothing’s sacred.

While country lyrics take a genteel approach to lovemaking – witness Charlie Rich suggesting what will go on once they get Behind Closed Doors or listen to Travis Tritt hearing his lover’s heart beating faster – death tends to be dealt with more bluntly, and there’s no sanction on singing of revenge and murder.

Occasionally country will stray into politics but usually only if the situation is extreme such as Hank Williams warning off Joe McCarthy in ‘No Joe’. Even then we wonder whether he’s not more of a folk performer when he addresses such topics. Topical events like The Pill or The Streak get a run and we can’t forget (much as we might like to) the conservative admonitions often as not culminating in boneheaded attempts at rousing patriotic sentiment for the agenda of the government of the day.

I don’t intend to look at features of all genres that closely as I feel that the songwriting process absorbs much of this understanding from a lifetime of listening (even half-listening) but I don’t think it hurts to see how genre operates.

Does this mean that you tailor your words to the expectations of what a country song is? Or what an alt country or Americana tune is? I remain consistent in my advice that you need to build songs up from the needs of the song and let things like genre take care of themselves. This wouldn’t work so well if you were thinking of writing ‘You Can’t Have a Hoedown Without Hoes’ but if you stay away from the cliche you’ll be better off anyway.

III

‘Towing Back’, ‘Tow It Back’ sound too topical to past muster, especially when the subject strays a little into the opposite camp. Even when my whimsy touched down on ‘Towin’ Back Your Heart’, I thought of the tangential ‘You Can’t Take It Back’ but, even as I was assembling the first lines in my head, I had an overwhelming sense that this would be more of a gritty R&B. Let’s see

You Can’t Take It Back

You give out hurt and hate galore
The darkest corners to explore
You surrender planned splendour
Release a real ease of movement
The impact that sells improvement

But you can’t take it back

You give away the things you say
Watching it all come into play
You abandon the cause you stand on
Throw the game of second chance
While circling round a circumstance

No you can’t take it back

I don’t think it fits either genre. It’s more my choppy style laden with different readings. You may encounter other stylistic tics that take you away from the country. This is only a problem if you’ve taken on the wording for a hoedown or been given the task of pitching some lyrics for a country & western song. As for alt-country, for the purposes of this exercise, I want to stick to a more traditional form even among more contemporary songwriters.

I’d thus suggest an approach more along the lines of:

You Can’t Take It Back

You gave me years of turns at tears
You gave me an escape
You surrendered your pretended
coy ploys and attack
You can’t take it back

You lent me rent me circumvent me
You turned me inside and out
You pawed me and ignored me
at the first prospect you lack
You can’t take it back

What you offered and you proffered
Off colour and profane
You slid across the chrome embossed
dream all dressed in black
You can’t take it back

Bets placed for what are but bits

Posted on 15/06/2014 by admin

If it was difficult to join two disparate lines then surely adding a middle one will fail to tell us what we don’t already know. That said, let’s try three lines or couplets we can align in any order. That way, if one has more relevance or resonance than another in a certain position, we at least have that as a tool in our armoury.

‘The yarn pulls apart’

‘Rolling hills of condescension/Rolling waves of seize your chance’

‘Heavenward or awkward, you decide’

Well, the yarn pulls apart could reasonably sit at the end but so could Heavenward or awkward, you decide. In fact, that has a conclusive tone to it. The rolling hills and rolling waves are on a roll; you’d see those in the middle.

But none of that is accounting for what the finished song decides. What do I mean? Well the order of the lines in abstract are different again to the order of lines once the whole song unravels. There’s always an element of enigma and it’s best to allow for that.

Let’s try three different (unfinished) pieces placing them in different order and see what eventuates:

The yarn pulls apart
from the very start
The close-knit brow
for the here and now

Lie rolling waves of condescension
rolling waves of seize your chance

The waves pull me under
once more rent asunder
Weave an old wives fancy
Several stories high

The hills rise before me
the rest to restore me
Depict a depth I fancy
Paddled tales afire

The characters collude and then collide
Heavenward or awkward you decide

Rolling hills of condescension
Rolling waves of seize your chance

I’ve watched the way you’re guided
all the time you’re timed and tided
The yarn pulls apart
at the source your art

Always confound whom you confide
Heavenward or awkward, you decide

III

Heavenward or awkward you decide
To give birth to the earth where you reside
The sentimental celestials wait some while
For you to scan the skies

The yarn pulls apart
all the yearning for a start

To rolling hills of condescension
Rolling waves of seize your chance

So order is important. If not the order imposed by a theme or subject then by how we place the lines; the beginning, middle and end. This affects the flow and it privileges the beginning, which takes over from the title or subject matter when they are not defined.

These are drafts and can be sketched out with more repetition and effects that suit the vocals or music. The important thing to take away from this lesson is that it is possible to construct meaning merely by choosing a leading line. There are more than three possible treatments here: you could do yarn/Heaven/hills or Heaven/hills/yarn, for instance. And you’ll notice I’ve already turned the ‘hills of condescension’ into ‘waves of condescension’ in one treatment.

Middle muddle medal

Posted on 09/06/2014 by admin

Speaking from the constructs of the song, working a song from beginning to end, rather than from the usual organic approach, had some benefit in expanding the possibilities. As a songwriter, you don’t use every morsel, but there’s a delight in the gathering.

Mixing for the middle or staging for the start; enabling the end, are all capable of being done mechanically.

If you have a particular techno beat or trip hop treatment then lyrics are tools for that. But that is a different emphasis. My teaching is in the classic song form that I use. Clearly, knowing the strengths and limitations of different songwriting strategies is what you want when you are learning the trade.

Given the genres that continue to use verse chorus verse or variations thereof, you won’t miss too many core tenets of good lyric writing if you stick around.

Having looked at beginnings to end in both a structured and unstructured style, let us meet in the middle. The middle we went to before? Well, this time with the features we’ve found in the start and finish of the song.

First let’s theme a song before doling out the three sections and their potential, separate and combined.

Canopy

The cool collective gather there in branches
Underneath the leaves their shadows dancing

Flung high above our fellows

Live solely in the canopy
Never touching ground

Here the three parts are all still on the subject of canopies but the style is different: the first is a poetic romantic walk through the forest, the second connoting the presence of humans or else casting the narrator as a beast, and the third managing to be scientific and Doorsy at the same time.
Whether you want as abstract a notion as this natural feature (?) being cast above kindred creatures, as to trust it to lead to the end (or The End for that matter) is something for you to decide as you work on it.

You could also rest on a moss-covered log and ponder whether you feel that the quite violent ‘flung’ reference might disturb the mood.

Meditative mood setting in the opening does complement the science wonder the song closes with and we feel reassured that we haven’t left the rainforest.

That middle line introduces drama and mystique and it’s knowing when those are not wanted that is crucial in developing as a songwriter. Without those narrative fellows with something- presumably the canopy but possibly not – flung above them, this would serve an ambient purpose while still satisfying those who came for the music. Arpeggios go well with birdsong and brook babbling if you time it right. And if hammering the Hammond conjures the forest, so much the better.

III

You could at this point decide that it’s time for the flung line to be flung aside.

Or keep it in reserve in case the subsequent song suggests it again.

Needless to say, if you’ve followed my approach to the art, there’s no need to be prescriptive about the position these lines hold after there’s a certain progress. If you can see that the number of verses looks right and the conclusion brings satisfaction then why shoehorn in some aspect of the songwriting tool you started with. Don’t let these considerations hamper your style. Choosing to write to a formula; albeit a loose and arty one, is worth it for the exercise. It can on occasion lead to other things.

Canopy

The cool collective gather there in branches
Underneath the leaves their shadows dancing
They commune as common lesser spotted

Yes the canopy is one level
Layers lie below
All sheltered from the winds
Hidden from the sun

Covered by the canopy

The naturally selective perform a highwire courship
Flung high above our fellows
They play out green affection
and filtered fancy there

Live solely in the canopy
Never touching ground

Top to tale

Posted on 31/05/2014 by admin

Just as I don’t recommend particular focus on your song’s end, any more than I do for any other feature (as my emphasis has been all along on the song, with some qualifications, writing itself), I don’t imagine there’s a reason why you’d want to use a method where the songwriting student nuts out an opening line and a climax, and then finds the filling.

But, as with those other facets that I’ve downplayed, From the Sound of It is going to examine this as a strategy and see what develops.

As with devising just a beginning or fashioning only a finish, you can either do this with an overall title and theme in mind, or you can play with this as a creative writing exercise. Just be warned that the latter approach is harder, especially if you’re not paying any regard to whether those two lines have commonality.

Fear for our Reef

Another icon is listing

To score an Abbott Point

I’ve played fair and made sure that the lines are relatable to the subject matter in a clear and recognisable way. The first line deals with the Great Barrier Reef as one of Australia’s most important features; as being integral to our identity and the thing tourists are driven to see. The last line conflates the dredging and dumping activity and its architect or facilitator. A happy accident like the name Abbott Point is too good for any lyricist to pass up.

Given though, that coral bleaching and the Crown of Thorns starfish also threaten the reef, there is plenty of opportunity to make this more about the region and the reef itself than a further screed against the Government. I think doing this and making only the last couplet or so about Minister Hunt and co would make for a stronger piece (unless you’re deadset on writing a protest song that inflames opposition).

What happens when you don’t relate the first and last line? It’s been my experience that the brain’s ability to draw connections is near infinite so, if you want something more abstract you’ll probably need a non descript title and watch where the rest of the piece drifts.

‘Terminal avatars have set belief’

‘The gardenias have taken their place’

The last line, so capable of a literal reading and nice adjoining image, is a letdown for the first, which burst with potential in all directions: ‘What are terminal avatars; are they stand-ins that stand round stations, are they memes with a shelflife, or are they something else entirely?’ ‘Do they have rigid and doctrinaire belief systems or are they the instigators of an idealogy and drivers of perception?’
The last line may mean that there was some other flower or plant in the garden bed before, it may mean that the gardenias have assumed their position.. There is room for ludic play aplenty. But the fact that it is so different stylistically – though matching in length – makes it hard work for the novice to see the connection and work from it. I wouldn’t be surprised, if a work does emerge, that the title is decided once the piece is written because the task of joining up such a song requires all your concentration.

The most likely approach is to add to the lines in a way that makes sense for both the pitch and flow of the song. It may be harder for some to work backwards, and there’s no guarantee that, by observing the fidelity of couplets, start and finish will meet and make sense.

‘While shadows have met with grief’

‘Seedlings and saplings falter’

Terminal avatars have set belief
While shadows have come to grief
Our spirits were dashed
Where the waves once crashed
Wraiths wrapped in car wreck confession

Strident symbiotes have open reign
Slipshod silhouettes say can’t complain
The market forces sway statues
Golems as solemn as virtue
Tear ducts for tragic betrayal

Simian similarities in sample case
We can’t let these things go to waste
Proteus as prototype
Grip now, mustn’t gripe
Time spent in timeless fashion

III

We have a draft that doesn’t lead to gardenias but, I’d venture to say, the work on this piece is fully attendant on what is there, not grafting on bits that don’t belong.

See how you go writing a separate song from ‘Seedlings and saplings falter/The gardenias have taken their place’

Tall shoots and deep roots

strikes me as a possibility for a preceding line.

Pretty end pretend

Posted on 23/05/2014 by admin

The purpose of leaving ‘Unlucky for Some’ open-ended is to invite more verse. The post about song endings has a capsule, germ, essence of what that song contains but there are several treatments that suggest themselves. You could be adding in at different spots, repeating, emphasising; there’s so many ways to forge beginnings, mechanise middles, and craft finit.

But there are fledgling writers who will focus on that final line ‘Four leaf clover consumed‘ which looks like it has more to say for itself, and requires explanation.

Can you work backwards? Would an ending generate everything leading up to that moment and thereby produce a song? Certainly it’s possible. It wouldn’t be everyone’s working methodology.

There are two ways I can think of approaching (or retreating, if you prefer) the task:

Have a theme and/or title and generate a final line from that consideration then work back
Create some random last line and work from that

Universal Application

‘to prod and poke in places private to the touch’

You can go two ways again: retain the original thought about universal applications and songs entitled Universal Application when using this line OR work solely from a now singularly intriguing snatch.

‘To liberally baste you/To hardly waste you/To touch and taste you’ That’s one line that I thought of that bears both in mind. Whether you could find a way of reaching from there to a universal application or the ‘prod and poke’ line is another matter. But even if you now just have more crackerjack lines and snippets, it’s worthwile.

I propose a last line ‘Carbon sequestration’ and, really, I’m dooming it be the title or to have some repeating to do. Probably both.

‘The singed, unhinged can’t penetrate/The hour is late/How sour the fate’

That’s an earlier line for the song that ends with the line ‘Carbon sequestration’ or, perhaps after even more such efforts, it’s the germ of another song. Or it’s still this song but now you’ve lost the end and none the wiser.

Of course there’s nothing to say that your ending has to comprise of only one line and so you might start (as in end) with a toughie
‘It was you at the hold-up
Now we’ve found where you’re holed up’

Not for beginners.

Part as a whole

Posted on 27/05/2013 by admin

While I emphasise the song as a whole (or the story the song contains/image it sustains) in this instructional blog, one should not overlook the part the part has to play.

Whether it’s noting the bad grammar of ‘this ever changing world in which we live in’ or the clunky image of ‘you wouldn’t know me from a can of paint’, particularly bad parts stick in the conscious of the listener more than the unexceptional or fitting parts of the song. However, a song has been sold on just one part and, if you’re really (un)lucky, you will thus hear the part repeated.

The consummate lyricist has no time for this (unless the motif is repetition) and will continue to where the song leads him or her. Be content that there is a memorable line, a quirky couplet, a terse but tender turn of phrase. And, sure, if you’re the bassoonist, think about your bassoon parts as well.

Is it possible to manufacture a part? It’s evident that there are songs that are built around their strongest point, rather than containing such in a mix with other elements that also serve to serve the song. And, on balance, you are better exercising your craft writing a full song, rather than an extended part.

Let’s say you have a part of a song where you are witness to an atrocity (as an example), and this image you’ve conjured is powerful enough to be the centrepiece. Any ideas? That’s the thing, as I’m racing ahead, you should always gauge your ability to engage with the topic and then mold that into the shape of the exercise. Here we’re asking for an eyewitness account to suggest a line or phrase, and from there show how the snippet can inform the song.

Here you might protest that the part of the song is dictated by the theme so it won’t be the part that is telling the story, it will be the parameters the part was given. To ward off this objection, let’s follow it with a more abstract clause. So, firstly:

‘Blood on your hands should have stayed a metaphor‘

So, that’s pretty clumsy; maybe worthy of a pub rock number when no one is really listening but you kind of know that this isn’t going to be a deep philosophical dissertation on the subject, but arresting as an image in the constraints of the song.
There is probably still more lyrics written that are perfunctory or on their way to going somewhere before abandoning it for the drink rider. We don’t aim to write them, naturally, but it helps to know how they perform in the song.

It’s hard to say whether you’d want to turn this “beginning” (as the exercise is to write with the part as the starting point, not because this will be the actual beginning of the finished song), into a song based on the incident of the extremist killing a soldier in a London crowd and holding up his bloodied hands, or whether it doesn’t match the event. It is probably safer to turn down a cartoon horror corridor, where you lose nothing in the saleability and the song has a chance of being okay rather than offensively “too soon”.

And if you think of a better line along the way, as always, be prepared to grab it rather than hoping you’ll remember it later, after you’ve finished staying with the theme you’re after for this one.
Many a writer has forgotten some of the best lines of their life because they thought they could remember them later.

‘I couldn’t match the motion of that blade and bloodied hand’

Now this line, believe it or not, is apropos of no real world event whatsoever. It’s taking a sidereal shift and tracing the arc of stabbings and slicing innumerable. If you count every swordstroke, every machete blow, every sideswiped with a scythe.. this is subject to our history as far back as you can recount.

Now that you have a line or phrase – a part – that is telling a story, rather than recounting an event, you are free to take it into any avenue you wish.

Even though you’ve divested yourself of a specific association, there is still the objective question of what can be done with ‘I couldn’t match the motion of that blade and bloodied hand’ as opposed to ‘Blood on your hands should have stayed a metaphor’. The latter is a deprecatory account of the murderous erupting into our everyday, while the former is classic storytelling. It doesn’t matter where you go with this – it reads as a first person account from the victim; otherwise why the urgency to match (fail to match) blows?

When we say ‘part’, technically this could mean the title, the opening line (as an event), the refrain. I’ve used it here as a separate entity that informs the song. The line about bloodied hands being better as a metaphor, or the one describing the attack from the victim’s perspective, are capable of more than one treatment. The important thing is, that they do stimulate the creative impetus and result in a good song.

III

So, again, the part might be a title “Blood on your Hands“, an opening line ‘I consider calm and kindness/the best conditions for a crowd‘, a chorus ‘and everyone can see/there’s blood on your hands/blood on your hands‘. You can use a mixture of these, or decide that one restricts where you would like the song to go – or more the case, where the song wants to go. The part can be similar to the notes a writer makes when constructing prose: characterisation and background not featured in the book that nonetheless informs how well rounded the characters and scenarios are that do appear. In a song, a phrase like ‘eyewitness to an atrocity’ would make a suitable headline but doesn’t have the right feel for a song title and would have trouble sitting in the song itself. As a reminder of where you want the focus of the song to rest, it could prove valuable and it is, therefore, also a part.