Page 100Fantasy
In fantasy lyrics, you can let your imagination run riot – though whether your listener will be inspired or confused is
something to be considered. The words may obliquely refer to the "real world", as in 'Whiter Shade Of Pale', or not.
John Lennon wrote a number of outstanding fantasy songs, including 'Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds', 'Come
Together' and 'I Am The Walrus', and he parodied the genre with 'Glass Onion'. 'Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite'
was a fantasy inspired by an old poster.
You will find loads of such writing in Hendrix ('Spanish Castle Magic') and early 1970s progressive rock, where
David Bowie, Marc Bolan (T.Rex), Genesis, Hawkwind and Yes all featured fantasy. Gothic horror was mined by
Alice Cooper and later Michael Jackson, on 'Thriller'. There have been plenty of sci-fi lyrics involving aliens and
UFOs, such as 'After The Gold Rush', and end-of-the-world scenarios like '99 Red Balloons' and 'Five Years'. Within
fantasy writing lies the realisation that words can make sense even when they don't, as with the famous line "The
movement you need is on your shoulder" from 'Hey Jude', which Lennon rightly told McCartney not to change.
A special sub-section of fantasy might involve songs based around the mind-expanding properties of certain drugs.
Psychedelia helped to create lyrics such as 'I Can Hear The Grass Grow', 'Cloud Nine' and 'I Can See For Miles'.
More general drug songs run the gamut from 'I'm Waiting For The Man' and 'Green Manalishi' to 'The Needle And
The Damage Done' and 'Caught By The Fuzz'.
Songs about Writing Songs
When all else fails, songwriters write about what they do. The self-referential song-about-writing-a-song has a
higher percentage of turkeys than any other category. Love-obsessed singer-songwriters tongue-tied in the presence
of their beloved are notorious for perpetrating these. Nothing is guaranteed to make you sound more like a self-
obsessed egomaniac who ought to get a life than starting a lyric with "I'm sitting here writing a song, I'm waiting for
chords to come along... ."
This rogues' gallery includes 'Pop Muzik', 'I Write The Songs' (... and we hate 'em), 'Gonna Write A Classic' (... I
don't think so), 'Thank You For The Music' (... but we prefer 'Dancing Queen'), 'I'd Like To Teach The World To
Sing' (... in atonal harmony), 'Silly Love Songs' (... but we've not had enough of 'Maybe I'm Amazed') and the
pompous 'Music' (music is our first love, too, so shut up!). Odd references to songwriting within a song, if the song
is about something else, are acceptable, as in 'Romeo and Juliet', 'Sunflower' and 'Your Song', but not in the case of
'True', where the question "Why do I find it hard to write the next line?" invites a whole series of colourful replies.
'Killing Me Softly With His Song' provides an interesting perspective from the recipient's point of view.
Sarcasm and humour are welcome here, as with George Harrison's sarcastic 'Only A Northern Song', Noddy Holder
singing "So you think my singing's out of time/Well, it makes me money" ('Cum On Feel The Noize') and in
'Halleluja', where Jeff Buckley spells out the chord sequence.
There is a whole genre of songs that deal with the music business and corrupt managers ('Death On Two Legs', 'So
You Wanna Be A Rock'n'Roll Star'), touring ('Homeward Bound', 'All The Way From Memphis') and groupies
('Sick Again'). BoyzIIMen made a hit title out of their two favourite record labels: 'Motownphilly'. And there are, of
course, zillions of songs with "rock" or "rock and roll" in the title – but you don't want to add to them, do you? You
do? Oh, all right then... but make it snappy!
The two coolest couplets ever written about rock'n'roll are, of course, 'The