Write Away Magazine - Issue No:13

The Lyrics Greg Barnett Doctor
I WROTE MY FIRST SONG at age 50!
It had begun as a eulogy for a good friend who died
too young and reflected upon the fact that we men
rarely tell each other of our admiration and affection.
As I was writing it simple felt suited to song lyrics
and, within a year, it became the first track on the
first album of original music I ever recorded (“Not
All It Seems”).
Prior to this, throughout my life I had tried to write
songs, but to no avail. It was the recognising and
the grabbing of a fleeting opportunity that made all
the difference in my own case. That breakthrough
moment eased the path to a second co-written album
(“Prescient”) with a different collaborator, and also
now in 2020 a 30-track debut solo release (“The Flat
White Album”).
All three albums are available on Spotify, Apple, etc.,
but complete lyrics, chords and production stories
for all tracks can be found at
http://www.clancys.com.au/music
A lot of what I have read on the pages of
“Writeaway” are, in my opinion, lyrical poems,
many of which I personally can’t project being set to
music. The greats like Joni Mitchell, Dylan, Cohen,
etc. can magically weave words in and around the
music, and vice versa, but most of us mere mortals
have a much narrower palette.
“What is the difference between poetry and lyrics”
is a question I’ve posed before to Jane Shields, the
Editor or this magazine. She’s a prolific writer but
(by her admission) is not a musician. I think our
answers reflect our creative perspectives.
Because pop songs have short verses with some
repeats, and a shorter chorus with many repeats,
the discussion needs to consider the more elaborate
word-centric folk genre.
In my experience, written words that work great on
paper can often fail when being put to music because
perhaps syllabic rhythms don’t work, key words can
be missed on the beat, some sounds are hard to get
your mouth around or can be mis-heard (e.g. a long
“wild” sounds like “while”), and so on. Phrasing and
word quantity also can make or break a song so
‘poems’ require honing, sometimes substantially, to
fit a musical framework.
I’ve found some support for my amateur views in a
“Rolling Stone” article - “Bernie Taupin on 48 Years
Writing With Elton John”
Do you write longhand or by computer?
It’s almost like a circular motion. I write on a guitar
because it gives me a rhythmic sense. It’s got nothing
to do with how it ultimately turns out with Elton, but
I do use a guitar. I play chords and just sort of sing
the lines over to myself, so that I feel when he reads
them, he can read them in a rhythmic cadence. So
what I’ll do is have a pad and a pen and a computer
and I will just sing to myself on the guitar. I’ll come
up with something, write it longhand and after I’ve
written maybe a verse or something, I put it onto the
word processor because I wanna make sure I can
remember it, because I’m scrawling on a pad. So it
really goes from guitar to the pad to the computer
and back to the guitar again. Again, a circular
motion.
Also, Martin Isaac is an Elton John fan since 1990
and has written the following in his blog:
Elton John primarily writes the music having been
given the lyrics by ... Bernie Taupin. However, Elton
does alter the words a little to fit his rhythmic flow -
cuts out words here, repeats a line there, or asks his
songwriting partner to add another section or
couplet etc.
Conclusion
My hypothesis for discussion is that “lyrics” are the
END product of words being satisfactorily set to
music and sung. Prior to that, they remain lyrical
poems.
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