Wayne Cohen is a veteran multi-platinum selling ASCAP hit songwriter, producer, educator, and owner of publishing/production company Stand Up Songs. He also teaches individual and group songwriting tutoring sessions at his NYC Stand Up Studio and via Skype.
a hooky melody is what draws people to a song, but an emotionally
riveting lyric is what keeps them coming back time after time. In
addition to a compelling story (which I’ll talk about later) there is a
holy trinity of three elements which – to me – are absolutely
paramount; this holy trinity is needed for a lyric to be engaging and
interesting enough so people don’t turn you OFF. So after you go back
to work on your current song, ask yourself, is your lyric:
1) Universal (Does the story express a universal emotional truth?)
2) Real (Is it a simple, fresh, street expression of that truth?)
3) Urgent
(Does the song takes place in a single emotional moment, and does the
protagonist own that emotion? Does every line of the lyric come from
the same emotional place?)
So, how did you do on the holy trinity checklist? Unfortunately 1 or 2
out of 3 ain’t good enough if you want to have a breakthrough song.
But do not despair – you can make 3 out of 3 every time if you follow a
few simple steps.
How to express a universal emotional truth
Some examples of universal emotional truths include heartbreak,
restlessness, attraction, etc… But it’s all in how you say it. Look at
your lyric; is it in the passive or active voice? If it’s passive,
take the same song idea and flip it from passive to active. For
example, you could say ‘why don’t you come back,’ but I would rather
say ‘I want you to come back’ because it’s not passive and blaming.
And let’s say you want to express that ‘life is falling apart’ or
you’re ‘falling off the edge of a cliff’ and ‘never going to recover
from this heartbreak.’ Whatever it is, really go for it and don’t just
say ‘I can’t stand this’.
It doesn’t have to be in first person but it’s definitely more dramatic
and compelling to say things like that in the first person rather than
‘when are you going to come back,’ ‘why didn’t you come back,’ ‘it
could have been so much better if you had blah blah blah…’ There can be
a passive part of the song, could be the bridge, however people aren’t
generally drawn to songs that are passive. There are so many different
forms of entertainment competing for your audience’s attention.
Changing from the passive voice to the active voice can make your lyric
much more immediate and appealing. A listener will be engaged way more
if the protagonist of the song is passionate about what they are
expressing as opposed to blaming the other who the protagonist is
singing to.
So, ask yourself: Is your song’s emotional story universal? Is the theme of the lyric consistent?
Keep it Real
This is so important! I like to imagine myself as the character in the
song, and I really try to forget about everything else in my life. If
somebody’s calling me and inviting me to a gig or whatever I try to
ignore all of it and just think, “what is that person in the song going
to be thinking about?” Whether it’s ‘wish fulfillment’ or how ‘things
feel different now…’ How’s that going to feel? I find it’s a lot
easier to come up with the lyric ideas if you are literally that
character of your song. Its method acting that I find works, much
better than saying to myself, ‘hmm now I have to write about such and
such a subject’ which I find NEVER works. You’ll never get there if
you think about it. You need to feel about it. The lyric has to
sound like someone would actually say it, or it will not connect with
people..
You have to live in the soul of the character. Even if I’m in a
different moment in my personal life – which is usually the case – I
want to complete the song I’m writing from the point of view of the
character. Living in the character is of paramount importance, and
it’s gotta be 100% believable. It’s gotta be that every line in the
lyric says ‘this is who this person is and this is where they are in
their life.’ Because when a person hears something on the radio or in
the car or an mp3, it’s gotta catch them that way, and you never know
where in the song you’re gonna catch them. They may be tuning in to
your song in the last line of the pre chorus, they may be turning it on
the last line of the chorus, or in the bridge – you never know.
Anybody should be able to flick on your song at any point in the song
and GET it. So your job is to grab and keep ‘em for the whole ride.
It’s a challenge, because when you’re writing a lyric you don’t want
EVERY line to stand out. Obviously, if you have a good idea for a
title, you need to set it up and support every lyric – and every lyric
idea has different requirements. But there are key points – like the
first line of the song, and the chorus – that have to be breakthrough
lyrics. However, if you give your audience too much to absorb all the
time it can be mental freak-out time. There have to be moments of
stand out lyrics and then other supporting lines. For example, the
lyric right before the chorus could be a good point to write something
simple so that the chorus stands out more. The lyric in that place
usually needs to go down easy, to keep the song balanced.
And if it comes naturally, by all means make it ‘street.’ Adele’s song
‘Chasing Pavements’ does this well. But be careful, it’s gotta be real
or it will fall flat. It doesn’t have to be ‘street’ to be real, and
if it’s not, it better be a really vivid cool expression of your
universal emotional truth. If I’m going to sing along with a chorus, I
want it to be an emotion I can identify with which is fleshed out by
the lyrics of the chorus – even if it’s something simple as my song “Better Off Alive.”
It’s not particularly ‘street’ but it is an edgy restless twist on that
old phrase ‘better off dead.’ Here’s some of the lyric and a link to
the song, sung here wonderfully, by artist la Sara who I recently produced two songs for:
BETTER OFF ALIVE (W. Cohen/M. Harwood)
THERE’S NOTHING IN THE WAY OF MY GOOD TIMES
TURN IT OFF CAUSE NOW I’M TURNING ON
ALL THE CLOUDS ARE GONE CAN’T BEAT THIS BLUE SKY
JUST LIKE A DESERT THAT TURNS INTO A WATER STREAM
THERE’S SOMETHING IN THEN OUT THAT MAKES IT A BRAND NEW ME
NO POINT IN BLAMING YOU ‘COS SOMETIMES WE MAKE MISTAKES
JUST GOTTA STAND UP AND SAY
I’M BETTER OFF ALIVE
WANNA LEAVE THE DARK BEHIND
OH I’M BETTER OFF ALIVE (BETTER OFF)
THAT’S JUST MY KIND OF PARADISE
LIFE JUST STRUCK ME ON THE NOSE
THAT ARCHETYPAL POSE MAKES ME CRAZY
NUMBED YOU TRIED TO MAKE ME UP
BUT NOW I’M WAKING UP TO THE FEELING
I CAN’T IMAGINE A TIME BEFORE WE SAID GOODBYE
TO ALL THOSE USELESS THINGS THAT CLUTTER UP THE MIND
I GUESS I’D RATHER LIVE THAN BEING SOLD A LIE
I’M NOT BUYING TONIGHT (UH UH) IS THAT A CRIME THAT’S WHY
I’M BETTER OFF ALIVE
GONNA LEAVE THE DARK BEHIND
NO I’M BETTER OFF ALIVE (BETTER OFF)
THAT’S JUST MY KIND OF PARADISE
Sometimes it’s better NOT to be ‘street’ as it can put an expiration
date on the song. So my advice is be ‘street’ where appropriate, but no
matter what, be bold and be cool in how you express your truth.
Convey Urgency
To help get into that urgent place, sometimes I like to write down the
raw elemental concepts of what I want the song to be about before I
actually set a lyric. I find that it frees me from having to worry
about scansion and rhyme and I can focus on expression, and find it
helps me to own the emotion instead of dotting “i’s” and crossing
“t’s.” I’d like to tear a page and give props here to Julia Cameron’s
breakthrough book “The Artist’s Way” (search ‘morning pages’ on Google
and you’ll know what I mean).
Recently one of my students had a lyric about missing someone. They
had mentioned ‘I want you to be here for when the sh-t hits the fan’ or
something to that effect. My reaction is that’s not an urgent
representation of the feeling. If you are having that in your
conversation, it’s a ‘secondary’ conversation in which you can afford
to be cerebral. But that does not make for an urgent lyric. If you
were having an urgent conversation with someone you care about, you
would be blurting out your raw feelings, and I don’t think you’d be so
cerebral. I’d rather hear something about how you feel about them NOT
being there when the sh-t hits the fan. However that subject could be
cool to use if the tables were turned and the song was about the
protagonist wanting to provide comfort by saying something like ‘I will
be here for you when the sh-t hits the fan’ because that has some
urgency to it.
Two further examples of effective dramatic urgent lyrics are songs by
Evanescence, and the songs of Kurt Cobain. Their songs are so in the
moment, focused in that moment, there’s no other emotion around it –
you really believe and you can connect with the depth of that emotion.
Check it out.
On another tip, and I don’t know how you feel about opera (I tend to
have a love hate relationship with opera…) but the great operas tend to
have storylines where the characters are so embroiled in their
particular personal dramas that you are taken along for the ride, and
that’s what a good pop song should do as well. A great song will give
listeners the break they need from their own mundane existences. Take
Puccini’s ‘La Boheme’, or check out Aretha’s amazing last minute filling in for Pavarotti at the 1998 Grammys singing ‘Nessun Dorma’
from Puccini’s ‘Turandot’ for example. Now I don’t know what the song
is about, and I’m sure this has a lot to do with the melody, and with
Aretha, but I get goosebumps
every single time I watch this. And it wasn’t even in her key! Look at
the close ups of Faith Hill with tears in her eyes and Celine Dion
shaking her head at the end of the piece..Now that’s drama. But let’s
face it, Puccini could not have written that melody without a dramatic
story!
People are drawn to songs that take them on a wild ride. To make people
want to listen to a song you have to rouse them out of their everyday
lives, which is why I’m saying a lyric has to be as urgent as possible.
Part of your job as a songwriter is to make sure that the listener is
always engaged in a particular emotional space and not skirting around
the periphery of the emotion.
So, use the restlessness in your spirit to do what you want to do, and
be where you want to be, in your songs and in your life. You have the
potential to write great, breakthrough songs.
Thoughts, questions comments? Share them here! You can also contact Wayne here or by writing to wayne@standupsongs.com
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