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Page 91

Section 8—

How to Write a Lyric

ABBREVIATIONSRoman numerals I VII

indicate chordrelationships within a key.

m maj minormajor

Song sectionsbr bridge :

c ch codachorus

hk i introhook

pch v versepre-chorus

Most of the chord-sequence examplesare standardized for comparison

intoFamous songs referred to in C or A minor. C major

orthe key of the original recordings. A minor are not necessarily in

It's not unusual (to quote Tom Jones) to meet songwriters who find the hardest part of songwriting is not the music
but the words. Sometimes this difficulty arises from having too high expectations, with the consequence that
everything you write seems terrible. Another problem is trying to write words that have impact even without the
music. But listen to a few contemporary Top 40 hits and you will realise that the current standard of lyric writing is
pretty poor. The sheer banality of many hit singles (especially in dance music) is appalling. From this you can take
heart. Maybe your words are not so bad after all – maybe they will still do the job, commercially, even if they
wouldn't cause Bob Dylan to lose sleep.
Like melody and harmony, lyric writing is a subject that deserves a book in its own right. That said. I will present a
few tips and points of craft. If you have never written or completed a lyric, the next few pages should give you some
ideas. If you have already written some song lyrics but are frustrated because you seem to write the same thing over
and over, or feel you lack inspiration, then here's food for thought.

Are Lyrics Poetry?
This confusion of two quite distinct crafts often leads to a good deal of trouble for people in the early stages of
writing songs. The answer is simple, though: do not confuse poetry and song lyrics.
It is true that some lyrics read quite well away from their music, and some lyrics have a poetic quality in terms of
their imagery or phrasing. But that alone does not turn a song lyric into a poem. The language of poetry is often too
complex to be set to music. Poetry is intended to convey its meaning and emotion purely through words. True poetry
has much less tolerance of clichè than lyrics. There are images you can get away with in a song lyric that you could
never use in poetry.
Lyrics are words whose effect depends upon, and is symbiotic with, music. The music can supply whatever
profundity is not there in the words. A banal phrase delivered by a great singer like Levi Stubbs or Aretha Franklin
can sound fresh and full of meaning. In the same way, great music can excuse or even temporarily revive clichèd
words and images.
Music is such a powerful modifier of meaning that a lyric that is essentially saying "I hate you' could end up leaving
the listener with the impression that although the singer says he hates her (or she hates him), really and truly he still
loves her. Take 10cc's 'I'm Not In Love'. In this song, the speaker is at pains to