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seduction dressed up as a man pursuing a horse. 'Cut Across Shorty' is the tale of a young woman who helps the man
she loves to cheat and win the race against a rival for her affections. 'Meeting Across The River', a story of two
small-town crooks, is one of many Springsteen songs with a novel-like quality. For an imaginary tale of maritime
mystery check out Procul Harum's 'A Salty Dog'.
Aspects of Language
Rhyme
Lyrics don't have to rhyme but often they do. In contrast to poetry, where rhyme schemes can be complex, song
lyrics are often in couplets or alternating rhyme. Couplets are punchier. Rhymes don't have to be exact, because the
last syllable of a word often gets lost in the pronunciation. Pop lyrics tend to use the same obvious rhyme sounds. To
make the whole business of rhyming easier and less predictable, use a good rhyming dictionary.
Poor rhyming makes the rhyme itself predictable, forces you into a nonsense line to complete it or makes you distort
the syntax (word order) of a statement. Therefore, avoid ending a line with a word for which there is no easy rhyme.
Two common examples are "world' and "love'. If a line ends with "world', then something is likely to be "unfurled';
if with "love', then something is coming down from "above' or is like a ''dove' (a punk song might give it a "shove").
Don't allow a rhyme to trap you into an archaism: "I give my love for free, I give it all to thee." Modern people do
not address each other as "thee", Or how about Edwyn Collins's rhyming of "before" with "days of yore". Yore?
Even the great are sometimes guilty of this. Dylan, in 'Don't Think Twice, It's All Right', uses "know'd" instead of
"knew' for the sake of a rhyme. Neil Diamond in 'Play Me' gives us, 'Songs she sang to me, songs she brang to me'.
Brang?? What happened to 'brought'? Ah, but it doesn't rhyme with 'sang'.
Polysyllabic abstractions generate plentiful rhymes but need to be used sparingly, unless you plan to make the lyric
revolve around them, as with 'Give Peace A Chance' and 'The Logical Song'.
As an exercise, find a few interesting rhymes and write a lyric to fit them.
Type of Statement
What type of statement do you use in your lyrics? Are the lines declarations, questions, replies, descriptions or
action?
Imagery
Primary imagery consists of descriptive elements that denote actual things. In 'I Get Around', the "Strip" is the place
where the speaker is getting bored racing his car. If a song lyric said that something was "like a road", you have
secondary imagery, which is conveyed by similes and metaphors. The problem with most similes and metaphors in
pop lyrics is that they are too predictable. I mean, complete the following: "beats like a.. .", "cuts like a.. .",
"sweeter than.. .". (Isn't hard to guess, is it?) Sometimes a great vocal can overcome a clichè. Images can work as
titles, as with 'Love Is Like A Battlefield' and '(Love Is) Thicker Than Water'. 10cc deliberately poked fun at
pretentious metaphors with 'Life Is A Minestrone' (which started "Life is a minestrone served up with parmesan
cheese").
The truly poetic moments in pop lyrics occur when a writer disregards clichè and finds something fresh. The line
"Like a cat in a bag waiting to drown" ('The Drugs Don't Work') is inspired in this respect, as is "The face that she
keeps in a