phase II .......
i'd like to add some thoughts here, and i hope folks don't think i'm going over board. these are things that i have picked up over the years. and it's high time i return the favor.
Avoid This TRAP!!!!!!
if anything is more difficult than learning to write lyrics/songs, it is learning how to critique lyrics/songs. if you're a writer, then write. don't critique until you completely understand how to critique, when to critique, and expecially why to critique.
do not critique your self. it is futile. it is reverse engineering. it is self-deprecating. it does you no good. let others who understand and know "how" to critique, read your work. let them tell you how it is. if you critique yourself, you will get no where. you are your own worst enemy!
Avoid This TRAP!!!!
Gordon Lightfoot, one of the worlds best lyricists, said about song writing.... "you haven't written a song until you've written 400 songs".
and there is truth to that. ok, yep ... but you say ... "all it takes is one good lyric" .... yep, thats right ..... pitched to the right person, marketed by the right team, backed by the best singers and musicians ...... and bam .... you own an island off the coast of Spain. but lets get real. i mentioned above there are no rules to writing a song. well, maybe not rules, but there is a "formula" ..... hence "commercial music". i'm not going to get into the technical aspects of writing here. rather, hopefully, just give some guidance and encouragement.
let me throw a disclaimer out first. i am not a professional writer. i have never sold a song. i did pay to have a lyric printed in a compilation book of lyrics, i have yet to make money from music. but i write lyrics almost daily to hone and perfect my writing abilites. even if it's just one line!
i used to be an evangelist against commercial
radio. i was one of those, "i write for myself" type of musicians and avoided the stark reality of commercialism. well, writing for yourself is good and healthy for body and soul, however, it's not going to get you anywhere except perhaps center stage of your kitchen or family room.
in the 60's when modern rock and roll was just hitting the airwaves, 61, 62, 63, all we had was AM radio and the local DJ played exactly what was given him to play. it was good and it worked because we knew no better. sometime about '65 or '66, FM radio came on the scene. i received my first AM/FM transistor radio about that time and all of a sudden there was an alternative to "commercial radio". one of my favorite stations was called Jelly Pudding Radio. they flat rocked. i mean they played "all" the progressive rock of the period. they did not play "commercial songs". AM radio was playing Incense and Peppermints by the Strawberry Alarm Clock .... FM was cranking out Badger by Eric Clapton. it was alternative radio before anyone knew what that term was. well, we all know what has happened to FM radio over the last four decades. it's commerical radio now. i was tainted. which has cost me 30 years of my life and caused me to black-list myself from commercial music for 3 decades. i have found the err of my ways.
didn't mean to get off track there ...
The formula.....
Well, simplistically, a commercial song should be around 3 minutes long, get the hook to the listener in 30 - 45 seconds (get 'em while they're hot), have a couple or three verses, a great bridge, a tidy chorus and you've got a hit. well maybe not a hit, but a formulized potential commercial song.
so don't go bang your head against the wall and/or kill yourself writing eight or 12 verse songs. very few can get away with it and in my mind only one writer has ever succeeded in the "long song" arena and that's Bob Dylan. ok, well, go ahead and write your eight or 12 verses, then narrow the verse list down until you have "the main three" verses that completely tell the story and/or convey the meaning of your song. once you've mastered the 3 minute song, have a recording deal worth millions, can call up your agent and tell him you're off to Monaco for a few months, then you can induldge yourself and write that 12 verse nine minute song!
(i'll be your baggage man!)
i know i've been long winded again, but these are things i wanted to bring right up front. the purpose is not to dissuade you from writing but to open your eyes to the reality of the process and to give you encouragement. so i encourage you to write at every opportunity, study and read about song writing, listen and i mean "seriously listen" to not only the lyrics of hit songs but the music of hit songs as well. as you listen to these hits, you'll soon see a pattern (i.e., the formula) that makes it a hit song.
thanks for getting this far. and as George Harrison says, "if you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there".
Les
Peace