Hello, happy Fourth of July weekend.
I see a lot of you over here writing lyrics and working toward getting help on your lyrics from others. Most of the time, while I know you are all trying, but the lyrics just seem to come up short, not enough difference from other songs, not enough unique ideas or usage of language. I know that everyone wants to get the best knowledge you can and put it into practice on your own songs.
Lyric writing is very hard. Especially in this day and age where people just tune songs out so quickly. And often certain styles of songs the music and production leads and the lyrics don’t even matter. I do understand that is a lot of today’s music. My point is that those of us who really study this can’t depend on the lower denominator. We have to work HARDER than the average writer because we are trying to elevate our craft.
A way to do that is to study the greats and things that have been around a long time. This is the break down of one of the all time classic songs, ME AND BOBBY McGHEE, written by Kris Kristofferson and made famous by Janis Joplin. It is a song that is still sung continuously and even recorded. Almost every time there is a talent show like “American (British) Idol”, and “The Voice” it will be performed by someone, to adoring crowds, and is one of those “KARAOKE CLASSICS” that is always going to get the biggest applause from the crowd. So it is CLASSIC. In every sense of the world.
To me, it is perfect story telling and this article tells the story of the story. Read along and see if you can use the process toward some of your own lyrics.
As always, good luck, MAB