Just this morning I went to YouTube and listened to Springsteen’s “I’m On Fire.” Such a powerful song, and I don’t think I had ever seen the official video before, which includes a short dramatization of Springsteen as a car mechanic being asked to repair a car by a woman we never actually see, other than her legs.
Even in this short video we get to see that Springsteen is actually a pretty good actor, and he communicates all the intended emotions in just a few seconds: longing, regret, warmth, perhaps a bit of despair. It’s an almost perfect set-up for the song.
But in another way, I found myself almost regretting that I had seen the video. I had my own short story for that song rattling around in my brain. I first encountered “I’m On Fire” when it was released back in 1985, while I was dealing with a bout of pneumonia.
There’s more to a song hook than meets the ear… a lot more. “Hooks and Riffs: How They Grab Attention, Make Songs Memorable, and Build Your Fan Base” is a vital manual for any serious songwriter.
And at the time that “I’m On Fire” was getting the most air-play, I had a persistent high fever, the shakes, chills, a powerful headache, and everything else that goes along with it. That song would nudge its way into my musical mind as I lay in bed with the radio on, and “I’m On Fire” was almost exactly how I was feeling at the time: on fire.
The catchy rockabilly drum beat reminded me of a train, and so I had come up with a story about a character lying in an abandoned train car, suffering from a bit of fever-induced delirium, trying to escape his own ailments — his own past.
Over the years, anytime I’ve heard that song, that story I invented would always come rushing back: someone trying metaphorically to escape his complicated and unpleasant past, trying to find a new starting point.
This morning, all of this got me thinking that as a songwriter, you don’t always get to choose what story your listeners are going to apply to your songs. And what someone comes up with may surprise you.
And it’s a good reminder to us as writers that listeners are never wrong. They are the ones who’ll create a story, and it may be nothing like the one you thought they’d come up with, or the one you intended.
And if ten different people come up with ten different back-stories for your song, you should consider that a great thing. You managed to write something that stimulated people’s imagination, and created different stories and a different set of emotions in the minds of each one of them.
As long as your songs are doing that, you can call yourself a success.
Written by Gary Ewer. Follow Gary on Twitter.
Thousands of songwriters are using The Essential Secrets of Songwriting eBooks to straighten out their songwriting problems. Have you been spending years just reinforcing errors? Sort out your technique! Get today’s free deal!