As ya'll know, I aint exactly the most lyrical of the org musicians. Music is only real form of expression as words have a tendancy to fail me.

The only real problem with my lyrics is:

1. Finding someone to sing it (trust me, ya'll dont wanna hear my vocals. least not if theres any windows or wine glasses around)

2. trying not to sound cliché

Hope ya'll can give me some advice about how to convert the feeling of my songs to words. How do you guys avoid sounding Cliché & what normally inspires some good lyrics??

Lewis

Lewis, I have the same problem. That's why I'm constantly looking for people to sing on my songs and write lyrics.

As you've guessed by now, I can't give you any tips. But at least you know now that you are not the only one with this problem!

Me tooo, i cannot sing, so i made a band, but i write on my band, so i dont know if you shoul think about what is cliche or not, i write what's in my heart and mind i dont care for the rest i dont want impress anybody with lyrics, i just write about things that happens in my life.. smoke a joint that i know that you like and write on a piece of a paper anything it will be good i hoipe :p you are an intelligent guy

Okay. Here's what I have on writing lyrics. And it worked for me. I read this in a book, and within 30 minutes, I wrote my multi-plastic-seller, "Superhot Ladycop" ( http://www.mp3.com/beauhall )I'll put the lyrics at the bottom of this post.

1. Pick a topic.
I was on the road reading this book on lyrics, passed a female officer, and came up with the subject: Police Woman - like the old tv show... already had a vibe built in, 70's disco kind of feel. So I had a topic and a basic direction. And of course, it HAD to be funky.

2. Write, free-form, any/all ideas you have about the topic.
Do NOT just start writing the lyrics - it invariably leads to dead ends cuz you write yourself into corners by the second verse. By writing out thoughts, ideas, experiences about the topic, you're gathering fuel for the fire.

So for this excercise, I wrote stuff like paddywagons, speeding tickets, handcuffs, guns, prison, doing time, crimes. BUT, since I knew the song was going to have that swinger disco bent to it, I elaborated: speeding ticket: going 69 mph. Guns - a set of 38s (double entendre, get it?), "if the paddywagon's rocking, don't come a knocking", etc.


3. Assemble a direction for the lyrics
is it a list of examples, a story, instructions, etc. If it's a story, begin to assemble the story, WITHOUT putting together the lyrics, but at this point, begin to assemble key phrases.

I'd already accomplished this at the beginning when I selected the topic, so it was now just a matter of what type of song - a list of things that make the girl a hot cop, or a story about meeting a hot cop, or details on HOW to be a hot cop? I decided on a story with an O. henry twist...

so, what kinda story? uuh, a chauvanistic stud-guy gets a speeding ticket, he offers a bribe, she books him, he tries to seduce her, she goes along, turns out, she's a freak.

4. Begin the basic outline of the lyrics:
Since it's a story, my outline would be like this:
1. guy gets a ticket, tries to bribe the cop.
2. cop arrests him for trying to bribe him, he tries to seduce his way out.
3. guy wins out on the seduction, but chick is a freak.

So that's 3 verses. But i'd need a bridge somewhere in there to make it less of a boring song. Okay. between 2 and 3, the guy reflects on his plans/success.

And the chorus? in this case, I would go with the "repeat the title over and over again with mumbling in between":
Superhot Lady Cop
- you're so fine
Superhot Lady Cop
- you catch me everytime,
... etc etc.

SO. Below are the lyrics, with my comments. I'm BOLDING the words/phrases that I came up with earlier, to show that the freeform writing FIRST really helps you put together a great song (well, shit, I think it's great; people that hear it think it's great... thanks mom and dad...)

---

HERE'S THE LYRICS:

Don't want a ticket, I can't pay the fine
Don't wanna go to court, I ain't got the time
But this lady cop, is driving me out of my mind.

okay. That's just three lines. How do I solve it? By the KC sunshine band solution - repeat one word over and over and over again - in this case:

but this lady copy, is driving me, driving me,
driving me up out of my mind.

Won't you stop writing that ticket
Won't this Lincoln help you change your mind
(later changed to HUNDRED, as Lincoln made no sense, even tho I was trying to be funny, that the narrator thought a $5 could get him out of trouble)
hey what you doing with them handcuffs pretty lady
I thought that you and me could reach a comprimise

CHORUS:
SHLC: you drive me out of my mind, you catch me everytime, you make me go blind, my watermelon has a rind, etc etc.

VERSE 2
So you got my license, and my registration
you say you got me going close to 69
that might be illegal in 47 states
but I can't help myself mama you're so fine

Chorus

BRIDGE (where he thinks about what's going on:)
She had a nice set of guns, .38's at least
and as we talked, I got into trouble when I tried to show her my piece
see I was thinking to myself if I played my cards right
I hoped to get sprung by the end of the night.

SOLO

LAST VERSE here's where I try to tie everything up in the story, with the great twist, etc.

I worked my way out of this situation,
but now I'm thinking I should have paid the fine
as I stepped into her van I heard her tell her partner
if the paddywagon's rocking don't come a knocking.

Chorus to end.

---

SO.

See how, by following those 4 steps, I put together a solid set of lyrics in less than 30 minutes? Once I did the prep-work, the song practically wrote itself. I was so blown away, I turned around and wrote a second song that was pretty coolio too ("Come On Baby" at www.mp3.com/blindslim)

So there you go. Go and write.

I get 50%, dog.
[This message was edited Sat Sep 6 18:24:02 PDT 2003 by otan]

just write what means something to you. go over it again and again until you decide it's not too cheesy, although sometimes cheese is real good. Don't follow rules all the time when writing is what i think. Go where the song takes you. Try writing lyrics first, then music to the mood of the lyrics. Or opposite and let the music tell you a story.

I don't know, I don't write a whole lot of lyrics myself. Mostly rhymes. I play bass and guitar and most of the time I keep my mouth shut besides harmonies, but when I do write lyrics, that's how I write. Like I said above.

Peace and good luck to the both of us on our lyrical endevours.

Hey how about some more suggestions. I'm learning from this too .

The one thing that three different books have said, that I continue to ignore, (and thusly, continue to come up dry lately) is to write, EVERYDAY.

Even if it's an "Ode to my cat" - write verses... it's like riffing: you soloists will know what I'm talking about - you build up a library of riffs, and on the solo, you're just putting together those riffs into a cohesive conversation on tape.

Same thing with lyrics. If you think of just one line, or two, write them down and try to expand. Mind like bicycle - only work if you use it with gloves and riding shoes and a decent seat cuz damn those things hurt after 39 miles, don't they? wait. I'm off topic.

Write everyday. Build up a vocabulary of lines, rhymes, riffs, etc. Whenever I hear a fantastic lyric, like Ani Di Franco or Soul Coughing... (their lyricist) M Doughty's got amazing lines - "he grips her love like a drivers license" - or "if you were the baltic sea and I were a cup", WHERE THE HELL did that come from?

I'm sure it's from constantly building up the verbal riffs - so when it's time to write a REAL FULL LYRIC, you've got this huge body of one and two liners from which to pull.

Write. Even if it's horrible - push it further into borribility, JUST to get more writing and to push your brain VERBALLY instead of NOTILLY.

Yeah. Been out gigging tonight. The beer was flowing like wine. TONS of the upper eschelon of musicians at this private jam (uh, and MY sorry ass).

It was AWESOME.

edit: but I consider THIS part of my writing everyday, since I'm throwing out wack verbiage and constantly putting out the similes and metaphors and semaphores and semitones.

MAN that beer was good. Did I mention that already?

hoo.
[This message was edited Mon Sep 8 21:17:11 PDT 2003 by otan]

Beau is most definitely a writer from what I read above. He knows what he is talking about, and I am impressed that he actually took the time to spell out in exact steps.

I write songs that way. It comes natural to me, but the steps that Beau wrote is right on it. You pick a topic and theme, you write a story from the idea, you pick an amount of words and arrange the music accordingly, (you might rhyme every word at the end of each sentence, or every other sentence, etc). Then, you get a hook or a chorus of your song, and then repeat the whole thing for verse 2. Beau is better at explaining it all.



Peace,
JD

Flashpointe said:

oh go on!

Thanx for all the great advice. I think its also about disapline, I cant force myself to sit down with a pen & paper when sitting down with a guitar is easier.

cloud9mission said:

I know! That's the hardest part - NOT going over to make music. I do a lot of writing in the car - much to the stress of the other cars...

Flashpointe said:

Ditto. That is amazing! I've never actually thought about how I write lyrics. I just do. Most of my stuff is first draft. If I write something kinda cheesy or cliche I write it to get it out of my system and then leave it. Its what I felt at the time, but if I put the lyrics in a song I leave the cheesy part out unless I can make it work melodically. Sometimes you say silly things just to fit the music.

Sometimes I don't have a theme in mind. A line comes to me and I "follow it" by writing it down and then other lines come. Belong was written like that. And as I was writing it I knew a structure was developing as I wrote each line down.

Move was actually written on separtate days. Sometimes just a verse comes to me and I read it later and come up with another verse to follow it. So for me it's just inspiration and not something I think too much about. But I like the abstract stuff. Anyway, Beau knows what he is talking about and he cracks me up. "My watermelon has a rind".

[This message was edited Fri Sep 12 21:44:07 PDT 2003 by VinaBlue]