Re: Lyrics

Date: Sun, 9 Feb 2003 19:42:00 +0000 (UTC)
Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.songwriting
Size: 3,828 bytes

I didn't get the reference to chinese cookery :)
OK just looking at this from a melodist's point of view, I can see potential
unfulfilled in this lyric.
I can hear 'I see your face in every place we used to play' instantly, but
the last line of the second verse doesn't have the same "internal rhyme
scene" (Gary?) for the melody to exploit it to its full potential you need
the same second time around like....... ahem.......
"A perfect song? They played along for everyone"
....ahem.... or something <cough>.
Where 'song','along','..one' has the same internal rhyming structure as
'face','place','play'. If you get me. Here is the difficulty as I find it. There is very little continuity
from line to line. I can find a melody for line 1 and line 2, when it gets
to line 3 I can make another departure, but when line four also needs to be
different I'm struggling. Wandering lyrics make for wandering melodies. Now
admittedly this is a problem I don't have. I write the melodies first so I
never have to consider whether or not a lyric will work as a melody, because
I already know it does before I begin to write it. My problem is making it
work as a lyric, if that makes any sense! In short you need to give consideration to melody at the lyric writing
stage, by which I do not mean writing the melody first necessarily, but by
giving due consideration to the requirements of melody. Try to produce
commonality between lines 1 and 3, 2 and 4 or between 1 and 2 with a
different 3 or...... well the options are endless, and it's all common
sense. Have a read of some commercial lyrics and see what they do. Keep the
rhythm going, yet at the same time, don't! There's nothing worse than a
predictable lyric. The best I can say is at the start of this paragraph, ask
yourself as you write each line what the tune's going to do, then follow the
tune through the rest of the lyric. That way you can't go wrong and you can
always redo it later. The worst mistake you can make is to treat one element
of a song as separate from the others. They work in conjunction with one
another. They are mutually subservient. Tc knew I was going to say they are
mutually subservient, because that's what I always say. But it's true. They
are.
Take care.
"Rebecca Humphreys" <email-address-deleted> wrote in message
news:3e45cb14$0$28934$email-address-deleted...
> Anyone have some suggestions to putting this to music? Writing the lyrics
is
> the easy part...the music is what bothers me
> Thanks
> Beck
> email-address-deleted
>
> I'm not Superman
> (Beck Humphreys, 2003)
>
> It's not only 'cos you said goodbye
> I guess this time I really tried
> To make it wok still
> Ended up alone here hurt
> By thoughts I can't define
> And even though I try
> I still see your face in every
> Place we used to play
>
> I'm not Superman
> Flying around
> Like only he can
> Head up in the clouds
> No chance of coming down
> Everybody thinks
> That's who they'd like to be
> But it's just not me
> I'm not Superman
>
> Staring from a dead end room
> At the puppets dancing free
> From the bounds of confirmation
> What better motivation
> Than anything you'll ever
> See the fearless knights
> Guards of the darkness
> Never thought they
> Could be harmless
> They sang such a perfect song
> How could it go so wrong
>
> I'm not Superman
> Flying around
> Like only he can
> Head up in the clouds
> Not wanting to come down
> Everybody thinks
> That's who they'd like to be
> But it's just not me
> I'm not Superman
>
> You spent too long
> Trying to create
> The perfect version of me
> Back to reality
> Undies on the inside
> Make sure it's all
> Where it should be
> You gotta know yourself
> Before you commit
> To anybody else
> Maybe that's just
> What I tell myself
> When the cape comes off
> -end-
>