Writing lyrics

Frankie Rage said:
If you can't write lyrics, why do you want to write songs anyway?
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Lyrics are a necessary evil. I never said I can't write lyrics. I just can't write any good lyrics. But after thinking about, I've come to the realization that no one really does. I've never heard a song and thought to myself "wow, those lyrics really got to me". I feel the music. The energy. I take pride in writing high-energy songs. I think I do it reasonably well. I just wish my lyrics could match the rest of the music. :D
 
Chili said:
I hear ya. In the past, I did a few songs with others' lyrics and I'm not crazy about it. Especially when you have to share a copyright. But it is an option. At least you can peruse through and get ideas for your own stuff. Can't copyright ideas!! or titles!!

Don't worry, something will come to you.... What did Kiss sing about???

Shouting
Sex
Saturday Night
Sex
Detroit
Sex
A Sailor's Daughter
Sex
Beth
Oh, and Rock and Roll!!!! Lots of Rock and Roll!!! and sex.
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Sex, mental illness, and chaos seem to be my main 3 themes. :D
 
Try this. Pick a nice riff that you wrote. Something you really dig. Record a few bars and loop it.
Start humming/mumbling along to come up with a melody and rhythm. Usually when I do this a few words will fall into place.
Sometimes I'll get a line or two sometime only a few words. Regardless take what you get from this exercise and write it down.
Then write words that relate. Do the word association thing until you fill the page. Don't over think it. Words phrases or whole sentences are fine.


Since you should already have the outline of a melody and rhythm you can start piecing the words you wrote down into lyrics.

I usually don't get a full song this way but its a great way to get a few verses or develop a story or a theme. Once I have that I can usually finish it up pretty well.

I hope that helps. It's what I do when I get stuck.
 
Greg_L said:
Sex, mental illness, and chaos seem to be my main 3 themes. :D
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Ah-ha! So you DO have something to write about! Not what you said a few posts ago!:D

Seriously though, you may be being too self-critical. If your music is great, fair enough. Let others decide if the lyric is any good or not, and just do your thing!

As a wise man once said: who cares anyway?

But lyrics as a necessary evil??? How can you have a song without a lyric? It would be a tune, not a song surely?! :)

The music/melody may be the most important part of a song but the lyric can add great weight.

And the idea that NOBODY writes good lyrics is somewhat damning of some really great lyricists. There are examples too numerous to list, but some of my favourite song lyrics are by folks like Jacques Brel, Paul Simon & Bob Dylan, to name but three.

And if you going to say these guys write crap lyrics, well, words would then fail me!!!:D
 
Frankie Rage said:
Ah-ha! So you DO have something to write about! Not what you said a few posts ago!:D

Seriously though, you may be being too self-critical. If your music is great, fair enough. Let others decide if the lyric is any good or not, and just do your thing!

As a wise man once said: who cares anyway?

But lyrics as a necessary evil??? How can you have a song without a lyric? It would be a tune, not a song surely?! :)

The music/melody may be the most important part of a song but the lyric can add great weight.

And the idea that NOBODY writes good lyrics is somewhat damning of some really great lyricists. There are examples too numerous to list, but some of my favourite song lyrics are by folks like Jacques Brel, Paul Simon & Bob Dylan, to name but three.

And if you going to say these guys write crap lyrics, well, words would then fail me!!!:D
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Good because those guys suck. Well, Bob Dylan is okay, but those cats take themselves way too seriously. I hate listening to it, although "My Back Pages" is indeed a great song.

The Ventures have no lyrics to any of their songs, and their stuff "speaks" to me more than 99% of the self-righteous shit out there. ;)

But I'm with ya on "who cares". You're absolutely right. I generally don't care. It's not even like me to talk about this stuff. I'm just gonna keep writing my usual stupid stuff and just make it rock. :)
 
Well, in the end, the music/song 'speaks' for itself. All this gas-bagging about songs is just 'noise on the wires'.

End of, as they say. :)

Fx
 
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Greg,
Your lyrics are almost always clever, toungue in cheek or poking out. What you do have to say is pretty much: have fun, don't take it all toooo seriously and HAVE FUN.
Now, I for one, really like that line of lyric.
As for something to say - I usually don't - I just start with words that sound good together or an image created by words that seems interesting, perverse or similar & toil until something develops. then I pt it away for a week, year or decade and try to rebuild it later on.
The latest track I'm working on came from little scarp comments in an email. The previous song - Kennedy Avalon came from getting peeved with JFK hero worship, a couple before that it was miss hearing the titled of a Stanley Kubric movie, After the Burning came from some incomplete lines jotted down in 1977.
Various sources & inspirations. the lyric I'm currently battling was built on the rhyming scheme and scan of a song I real, really love - I used it as a template to write a new set on. Rather like taking the syllable count, rhyming scheme and stuff from Beat on the Brat but writing about something else:
4 Rip out my heart
4 Tear out my heart
8 Rip out my heart - you'll make it art
2 In Blood
2 In Blood
2 Blood art
The trick - the really hard bit - is divorcing it from the original melody.
As I said - I enjoy your lyrics, the world need your style of lyrics.
If you want lyrics that are more "worthy" or have a "message" - you'll have to wait till you feel you've something to say OR disguise the lack in natty threads.
 
Haha, thanks Ray. Yeah I'm over it now. I don't know what I was thinking. I'm lucky that nothing bothers or interests me enough to write a song about it. :D

I'm just gonna keep on keeping on with the nonsense. :D
 
Greg_L said:
.......I'm just gonna keep on keeping on with the nonsense. :D
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It worked out fine for Tom Lehrer. For me, it's rather nice to see an artist that isn't 'tortured' for a change. Keep it up. It's you. You will always write you better than you write someone else.
 
PM me for my book on writing lyrics. Or don't. Either way, it's free.

Wig
 
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