Lyric writing 101
How to get started when you’reunder pressure of deadlines.
Point of view• First person narrative:
One – Metallica
• Two narrators:Somebody that I used to know - Gotye
• Second person narrative:Wicked Game – London Grammar (Chris Isaak)
• Third person narrative:A-team – Ed Sheeran
Tell a familiar story• Proserpina – Martha Wainwright
Wainwright tells the Greek myth of Proserpinathrough the person of her desperate motherDemeter. She’s even added a Greek choir tosing the chorus.
• Exit music - Radiohead (Romeo and Juliet)
Flip perspective in the narrative, e.i. Malificent.
Be PlayfulFind links between lyrics and music:• One – Metallica has machine gun rhythms• This is not a Love Song – PiL is a happy tune
but the lyrics are sung whiny.• Money – Pink Floyd uses cash registers to
create rhythm
Add a choir or backing vocals in the chorus• Happy – Pharell
• Continue on the meaning of a word:I dreamt you were a cosmonautof the space between our chairs
(Armchairs – Andrew Bird)
• Flip an idiom: Food for thought / Thought for foodAbsence makes the heart grow fonder /Fondness makes the heart grow absent
STUCK?
Reference books / sites
• Rhyming dictionary• Thesaurus
Emergency fillers
• Repetition:
Get Lucky – Daft Punk & Pharell
Can’t stop the feeling – Justin Timberlake
500 Miles – The Proclaimers
• Nonsense words:
Lalala, ooh oooh ooh, obladi obladah
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