Tag Archives: lyrical endeavour

Narrative drive

Posted on by
Reply

Gospel and soul demonstrate devotion to the Lord and a loved one respectively. South Park satirised this to some extent when Cartman replaces sweetheart references in popular songs with that of Jesus and then sells to Christian radio listeners.

A narrative that serves both at once is the sublime ‘I Say a Little Prayer‘. A simple song that recounts little moments grabbed throughout the day shows such love for the paramour but still manages to include God.

To see the role of narrative, let’s start a song from a narrative: ‘Leading conservatives forecast a short war in Iraq, now, without irony are considering returning to a battlefield they’ve withdrawn from’. Forget the wording here and focus on the intent. It’s not so much about living in a Red Zone as talking about the former Kingdom and how it’s fallen.

What’s happened here? You have the narrative as described and two further narrative elaborations. You don’t need to think any of these out loud when you’re writing songs. Retain a brief sideways glance at what’s arising but don’t let it stop you from getting down that draft.

So our song’s called Iraq the place and now immediately, if your creative juices are flowing, you’ve got lines for your song as well ‘Don’t drive too fast towards a checkpoint/Don’t fire your guns in the air’. The lines carry the same rhythm and emphasis. The only thing is, that these lyrics are “instructions” to locals. Occupying troops aren’t the ones doing this, they’re the ones shooting Iraqis who do.
But the title suggests both a travelogue or mapping and the mimetic ‘I rock the place’. My cultural studies training kicks in and I can recall the lecturer recounting how it was interlopers who sat up on sacred mounds that locals merely walk past pursuing their trades. Clearly you could make a meal of mashing these two narrative constructs together but not by failing to mark when a different character is talking.

The lines carry more meaning than the title or theme. If they contradict either then they will compel the recipient to choose sides. Are we talking about rocking the place or being in the place like a rock? The threat imposed from outside is what these lines convey and any theme or title has to fit that.

Opening gambit

Posted on by
Reply

I think it’s a good idea to spend longer on openings. They are integral to the finished song in all but the most obtuse examples.

Let’s stick with songs of renown and consider “In the Ghetto” by Mac Davis. He wasn’t always this downcast and solemn. (His “Oh Lord It’s Hard to be Humble” was a regular among rural youth get-togethers.) but there is no doubt about the statement of purpose where narrative is concerned in this song. It has a place-setting title but consider how different a work it would be if it started with a gun incident or a mugging. “On a cold and grey Chicago dawn/and another little baby child is born/in the ghetto” The first line lets us know it’s a bleak situation and the following lines throw forth the startling notion that the birth of a baby is a catastrophe here, not a cause for celebration.

You’ll notice that whenever nonsense lyrics comprise the title or the central coda, they often start off that way. It’s as if why not, or maybe having decided on lyrics that can’t possibly mean anything to the casual listener, they figure they better maximise their chances of getting away with it by getting in early before the person listening has had time to form an opinion.

The choral beginning of “Ba-ba-ba- Barbara-Anne” is an approach that works as it serves to prepare the lead who can then come in and tell us about his encounter with the subject of the song. Perhaps proper names share a similar association between title and opening as do abstract terms, for there are a number in the vast vault of Christian name ballads and first name laments that start right in addressing the subject of the song.

There’s no hard and fast rule on whether you use the title in the first line or save it for the chorus. Or not repeat it in the body of the song whatsoever.
My counsel would be that you see what natural shape the song wishes to take. It will become apparent when you learn to read what is developing, just where to place the varying elements, including title and opening line.

Whether you wish to place your song in some locale in the opening line (e.g. ‘In Dublin’s fair city’) or use some point in time to set the scene (e.g. ‘When I was just a lad of ten’),  is as much a natural consequence of the construction as it is an act of volition.

In the above examples, if I want to sing to you about sweet Miss Molly Malone then I need to find some way of introducing her and I do this in ‘Dublin’s fair city’ ‘where girls are so pretty’. Now you may be writing your lines to fit in with the chords or melody you’re toying with, and that’s fine; it’s another approach, but that doesn’t stop the resultant words for serving the song well. Here we find the place – the big city in the case of an Irish folk song – to be full of pretty girls and so the narrator’s eye being caught by the song’s namesake is the more remarkable. In the best folk tradition, it doesn’t take long to tell us what the redoubtable MMM is up to. In this case, wheeling her wheelbarrow through streets broad and narrow hawking seafood.

In the case of “Lemon Tree” the narrator or songwriter, depending on your school of thought and/or critical focus is using the remembrance of the lesson he got at this father’s knee with the way this has panned out in his life. The simile of love and  a lemon tree needs a bit of authority as it’s not a ready image one thinks of in the many musings ‘pon the subject of amor. Knowing the tribute paid to fatherly advice when the song was written, it’s about the readiest appeal to authority there is. Even if we don’t always look to Dad for pronouncements on the subject; it’s a bit down the blokey calendar from other topics of discussion.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen

Quote

Posted on by
1

Let me introduce my credentials. I draw my inspiration from copious quantities of reading, of listening to music, and of going to concerts.

There is a mix of experience and technique that I bring to bear on my own writing. My two strongest areas are in song lyrics and poetry. I bring a poetic sensibility to other works but am not bound to. It does help, however, in providing you, the reader, with a good combination of expert tips and insights into the process.

I can write on practically any subject, but I arrived at this point through much trial and error, many broken conceits. I don’t need time to write. I don’t lack for inspiration. I can write to order if the request is general i.e. write me snippets for a musical on a tabloid banning a reality TV star. There’s no way in hell I’d want to do that. But I could.

I like pieces to be filled with the kind of lines that one can chew over; build patterns with. Poems that act like gifts to the reader when they spot another layer.
But equally I could write you a dozen songs called I Love You.

II

I think, just as it useful to step out on stage the movements and interaction of the characters in a play you’re writing, it is helpful to be able to sing (at least in your head) your song lyrics.

Singing is a whole other discipline but it can feed into your songwriting enterprise. It will help if your singing is matured to the point where you are tracking the significance of what you are singing about, rather than dragging the words into a sloppy pastiche of your idol(s). It is natural to begin with emulating the singing styles and/or lyrical panache of the artistes you look up to but the real revelation comes at the point when you realise you have your own style. And this style is not affected, but natural.