I hate lyrics

G

Greg_L

Banned
I'm finally starting to try to write my own stuff. My problem is I draw a lot of influence from the music I like, and I always compare it to the bands I'm inspired by, and always scrap it in disappointment. I think my riffs and arrangements are okay, but my lyrics suck. I have nothing to say and don't feel anything. Everything I come up with is dumb. How do yall do it? :mad:
 
Keep it fun bro...draw from your influences, and even fro real life, but embelish....don't force it. Take some of the sayings from your favorite tunes, and see where they take you...don't use them as they are, but mold them into your own thoughts. See what words happen to come out with your riffs...it doesn't have to make sense initially. Change it after writing it down. And don't forget to bounce ideas off other people...they might tell you what you've written has already been said, and then help you fit something else to your piece. I like the words most of the time....sometimes they come easily for me.
 
Greg_L said:
I'm finally starting to try to write my own stuff. My problem is I draw a lot of influence from the music I like, and I always compare it to the bands I'm inspired by, and always scrap it in disappointment. I think my riffs and arrangements are okay, but my lyrics suck. I have nothing to say and don't feel anything. Everything I come up with is dumb. How do yall do it? :mad:
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Easy!!!!








































Instrumentals. :p





Seriously.....well a little more serious anyway, I used to be the main lyricist for my band mainly because everyone else was too frickin lazy. What I found to be effective for me was to pick a subject and write down key words that related to that field and then put them into phrases. Sometimes they may not make much sense!! :eek: :D I found that making the first line and third line rhyme and the second line and fourth line rhyme in a verse sounded better than making two consecutive lines in a row rhyme.

Just my 2c.
 
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Just do it...write down everything...dumb stuff..simple things..things that go bump in the night...things that squeal..things that swim...colors...and how they make you feel...do you hear colors..?...if so, tell us about it...how about sexy...just what do you think is sexy...?....ice cream cones...yah..I think that is what sexy is for you...1-2-3-4







































:eek::mad::D:eek::mad::D:eek::p:mad::eek::p:D:mad::eek::D:mad::p
 
I fucking HATE writing lyrics, but not as much as I hate instrumentals. Write about something you are extremely familiar with. It makes it easier.

All of my songs are about drugs.
 
Most importantly...

...keep writing and rewriting. Your stuff will improve as you become more comfortable and proficient with the process. Everytime I hear a phrase oran image that catches my fancy I write it on a scrap of paper. At day's end they are all put in a folder. After months and even years there is a ot of stuff in there. When I am flat I read through them. I always come up with something to bare bones a song out. Then it's back to rewriting until I either finish it or hate it. If I finish then it's recorded. If I hate it then it goes back in the folder with everything else. In essence, you are writing or thinking about it most of the time. Hope this helps. Best of luck.;)
 
As up-fiddler indicates, the only way to improve as a writer - is to keep writing. I'm suspect most of the serious writers in this forum (any forum) will admit that some (most) of the lyrics they wrote when they started were very weak (in particular when looking back after a few years of improved skills).

I can't speak for anyone else - but I know some of my early stuff was pure crap and even today, after writing for years I feel maybe one of ten songs I write are decent enough to develop and maybe one of every 50 are really good (my publisher confirms that almost every time I submit something:() I've written a couple hundred songs and there are only a few I'm actually really proud of.

You'll never know if you can be good unless you keep trying. Different people draw inspriration from different sources - it's always good to start with things you know (to develop a comfort level). So - keep writing. Any writer has to write a lot of crap before they stumble on something good - but when that something good appears.....you'll know!

Naturally, as an option, you can try to team up with a lyricist and be the musical genious of the team (some of the greatest songs were written by a pair of writers - one writing lyrics and the other composing the music).
 
Thanks yall. I'm just too hard on myself I guess. I'll write something, and ask myself "would I listen to this?" The answer is always no. I'm always like, this is junk. I always feel like a cheap copy of the stuff I like to listen to - from people that can actually write songs that are funny or interesting. This shit is hard.
 
rayc said:
You could always collaborate!
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Yeah I could, but I'd really like to figure it out on my own. Do my own thing. My bands songs are all collaborative efforts, so I'm all collaborated out. I want to write my own stuff, I just have huge trouble doing it.
 
Greg_L said:
Yeah I could, but I'd really like to figure it out on my own. Do my own thing. My bands songs are all collaborative efforts, so I'm all collaborated out. I want to write my own stuff, I just have huge trouble doing it.
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You seem to be approaching it the same way I am, and are equally critical. I look at it like this: The music is done and there ain't no way around me not writing lyrics for this song.

It's something that has to be done.

Something that has helped me a little bit is don't worry about "what the song is about". There's an approach that places more significance on how words sound together than their meaning. John Lennon bought into this theory. If it's good enough for him, it's good enough for me.

When someone asks you what the song is about after it's finished, just tell them drugs.
 
ez_willis said:
You seem to be approaching it the same way I am, and are equally critical. I look at it like this: The music is done and there ain't no way around me not writing lyrics for this song.

It's something that has to be done.

Something that has helped me a little bit is don't worry about "what the song is about". There's an approach that places more significance on how words sound together than their meaning. John Lennon bought into this theory. If it's good enough for him, it's good enough for me.

When someone asks you what the song is about after it's finished, just tell them drugs.
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Lol.

Even when I did drugs, I never wrote good songs. :p

Fuck it, I'm just gonna belt some shit out that halfway rhymes and tells a dumb little story. If it sucks, then I succeeded. :D
 
rayc said:
You could always collaborate!
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yes.....++1 i have worked with lyric writers and the possibilities go thro the roof.....do what u are good at.

elton john and bernie taupin.......elton couldnt write a worthy lyric to save his life.....but together !!!
 
zazz said:
yes.....++1 i have worked with lyric writers and the possibilities go thro the roof.....do what u are good at.

elton john and bernie taupin.......elton couldnt write a worthy lyric to save his life.....but together !!!
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Sometimes it's not only about writing a great lyric. Sometimes it's about overcoming an obstacle that is holding you back from becoming better at the craft.

Collabs are cool, but if you're doing it because you're too lazy or weak to improve your chops, then it's not beneficial in the long run.
 
zazz said:
yes.....++1 i have worked with lyric writers and the possibilities go thro the roof.....do what u are good at.

elton john and bernie taupin.......elton couldnt write a worthy lyric to save his life.....but together !!!
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Yeah I have nothing against a collaboration, but I'm trying to do this on my own. I'm not trying to be a piece of a great song. I'd settle for a mediocre song that's all me. :o

P.S. - Elton John sucks. :p
 
just do it, and don't worry about the lyrics being great. I'm sure if we read the lyrics of most of our favorite songs without ever hearing the music, we'd think 90% of them were pretty stupid.

That said, maybe try to draw upon lyrics from other styles than what you are writing in. If you are writing hard rock songs, maybe suck it up and see what Elton John's (or more properly, Bernie's) lyrics say, how they are constructed, etc. You might be surprised to find that, the music aside, there is some good lyric writing there. Maybe you can pick up some things. Look at some folk tunes - Dylan, etc. Hell, maybe even, listen to some crappy pop or country. What makes them catchy?

Also, don't force yourself to write in strict rhyme or strict rhythm/number of sylables. (I still do this all the time, mind you). But if you start paying attention to it, you might find that a lot of songs with cool lyrical flow are those that squeeze a few extra sylables into a line here or there, or don't get too hung up on strict rhyme scheme. To do this, I find it helps to write your words apart from or even before you figure out the music. Just write a poem. When it's done, make it fit the song (which still may include some rewriting).
 
I started a thread in the Cave a couple of years ago called "Favorite Lyrics Thread", or something. Unfortunately it's gone forever because we can no longer search for Cave threads!! :mad: :mad:
 
I have the same problem. I suck at doing lyrics. In my band the vocalist would help me write stuff. Typicaly I'd come up with a chorus or a catchy phrase, and he'd build around that. Now that we don't play together anymore, I'm stuck with a shit load of catchy choruses and phrases and nothing else:o
 
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