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The simple “I’d do anything for you” lyric is usually a winner in the pop song world. Because you want your lyrics to make a personal connection with the listener, story lines that have to do with love, commitment, dedication and infatuation will do well. But in those kinds of lyrics, writers usually also talk about how miserable their life would be without the other person. And if you don’t get things in the right order, your song can come across as being whiny and complainy. Here are some tips for making sure emotive lyrics are done right.
- Use the verse to set up a situation. Keep emotional statements to a minimum. If you do emote, be sure that it’s in direct response to something you’ve just said. Simply writing, “Oh, I’ve had it with you and your evil ways” in a verse simply doesn’t work well, because you’ve given an emotional response to something you haven’t communicated yet.
- With point number 1 above in mind, you can allow statements near the end of a verse to become more emotive, or at least become more obvious in their need to have an emotional response.
- Use the chorus to respond emotionally to the situations described in the verse. Let yourself go! Tell us how you really feel. Because the chorus is where it all belongs. If you’ve used your verse properly, you can now use the chorus to tell us how you feel, and do it over and over if you really want to.
- In songs that use a verse/refrain form, the listener should perceive an emotional build toward the refrain line. And that refrain should feel like an emotional release. Think of Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin'” as a great example. The first verse starts simply enough (“Come gather round people/ Wherever you roam..”. The line just before the refrain is “Then you better start swimming/ Or you’ll sink like a stone..”, which sets up the refrain beautifully.
- A bridge lyric (usually after the second chorus) should be like “short snappers.” Write a line that describes a point of view or a situation, then quickly give an emotional response to it. That back-and-forth will help build song energy.
The worst offense a lyricist can commit is to simply drone on about how miserable he/she is without giving details as to what’s going on. You can’t expect an audience to empathize with you if you’ve given them nothing to empathize with.
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Written by Gary Ewer, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website
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Have you done an article on the “twist ending” or the “unreliable narrator” in lyrics? I’m curious because I think some of these things could actually be done in those contexts. For example, “I’m done with you and your evil ways” could actually be a decent opening for a song where, as the song progresses, you find out that someone has walked away from a bad relationship and it’s the baddie who’s singing.
ARE there many examples of twists or unreliable narrators in song lyrics … ?
Yes, that’s a good starting line, as long as the writer gets to the situation pretty quickly. I’m more talking about the lyricist who follows taht line up with things like, “I hate the things you’ve done to me”, “I wish I’d never met you”, and on and on, without giving the listener something substantial to relate to.
In a way, the kind of lyrics I’m talking about are like the person who puts as their Facebook status, “I’m so bummed out.” Then 30 friends immediately come back with “Why?” People know *what* the emotion is, but what they really need is a reason.
-Gary
Further to that, your mention of the “twist ending” got me thinking about a song I knew from the 70s, by Jim Stafford, I think, called “My Girl Bill”. Turns out at the end that he’s talking to “bill” about his girl, but that isn’t revealed until the very end.
I think “twist” songs, and other such songs that present lyrics in a more cryptic sort of way can work quite well. Your suggestion of a song written by the “baddie” might actually be an interesting take on typical love-lyrics.
-G
Oh, I understand your point totally and agree with it. In a way, song lyrics are sort of like a mystery novel, where you have to allow the reader/listener to have the fun of working the trick out for themselves. TELLING them who’s in the library with the lead pipe in the first line ruins their fun. I’m just wondering if that particular misdirection trick has been used much …