skiesofganymede

Seeing as this forum is about song writing, I guess it's not inappropriate to veer from reviews and onto some meta-writting topics. I was just wondering what people's personal thoughts on lyric writing were (why you do it? personal aims in writing a song? way you go about it? personal inspirations?), and what kind of music you tend to like or emulate. Just thought it might be an interesting point of discussion, because I imagine it would be wildly varried across writers.

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Punk is an ideology, not a haircut.

littleknowitall

keep it simple, only a few people are good enough to be exceptionally in depth and clever about their lyrics and manage to make them then follow on by sounding good over a song, it's as much an acomplishment to write lyrics with simplistic values but that fit fantastically well over a song, take ac/dc for example, fantastic lyricists and their lyrics weren't very in depth at all.

A_Perfect_Sonnet

Plenty of songs have lyrics that are incredible and fit over the music well. Just because you make lyrics simple with the excuse that you'll have an easier time putting them over the music does not excuse the fact they are crap.

littleknowitall

the simplicity of the lyrics shouldn't dictate wether or not you'd define the lyrics as 'incredible', since when did lyrics need to be so in depth? that's poetry, not lyrics. and i'd like to note that i haven't once posted my lyrics on this thing, i was just saying in my opinion there should be more focus on creating lyrics that fit well with a song than lyrics that are overly emotive.

but you can be a **** and jump the gun with the false assumptions and misinterpritations if you wish.

A_Perfect_Sonnet

My mistake.

skiesofganymede

Um, guys! The post wasn't meant to inspire bickering. I'm presupposing that people will have different philosophies on lyric writing. I was just trying to tease out those differences and purposes. Like simple lyrics can have different purposes. Maybe they're deceptive in their simplicity (i.e. have alot of subtext), maybe their unashamedly one-dimensional. That's okay. No matter what, they're gonna convey something about the aims of the writer. What they're trying to get out of writing like that...ya know? It's not a competition about what type of writing is best.

And the whole "that's poetry not lyrics"...well, it's kind of interesting you should say that, because artists like Patty Smith actually aimed to meld music with poetry, quite openly. (as I write this I see a_perfect_sonnet has raised the same objection). But, maybe theres a point in that. Maybe being emotive for it's own sake isn't enough. Maybe there are conflicting aims in some peoples songwriting, a sort of inconsistency in the content? I'm not saying one way or the other, but it could be a part of moley's complaints. Actually I'd love to hear you expand on that...cause I get the feeling you're not dismissing all poetic lyrics as a rule, but maybe are eluding to something else.

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Punk is an ideology, not a haircut.

TrampInaTux

What's the problem with simple songs? I write simple songs all the time and I don't see the problem with them. Writing them all off as crap is stupid. I can relate more to the people that write simple songs than those who create deep, vague ones.

Mama Booze

The you shouldn't have joined MB. Heh.

Urban Hat€monger ?

Why shouldn`t lyrics be simple?

If I buy an album I don`t want to hear the lead vocalists life story 15 times over

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littleknowitall

oh im sorry, since when did 'decent' lyrics have to be so in depth is what i meant to say....