This is probably why some pairs don’t stay together (including L/M?) – they feel choked by their role; it doesn’t really fit them… or maybe in some cases it really does fit them, but they just don’t see it that way.

John Lennon has certainly received his due over the last 50 years, posthumously even more so. And, as acclaimed as he is, Paul McCartney has at times been in Lennon’s artistic shadow; often quite unfairly. Lennon is seen as the ‘rebel’, Paul as the more conventional, ‘establishment’ type. Although there’s truth to this, it has to do with their images as much as their songwriting.

When it comes to writing melodies, however, McCartney is generally considered the genius of the two.

There’s some justification for this. McCartney’s tunes are in the tradition of the great melodists – rangy, a lot of step motion interspersed by thrilling leaps, strong rhythmic momentum… Think of his antecedents – Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, many of the great popular pre-rock and roll songwriters who focused on melody. Or think of Lennon/McCartney’s contemporary, Brian Wilson (probably the greatest pure melody writer of that generation).

Then think of McCartney’s Yesterday, Michelle, When I’m 64, Fixing A Hole, For No One, Maybe I’m Amazed… you could make a long list.

Lennon’s songs and melodies are a little gnarlier (no surprise there) but at times at least as rangy, melodic, and satisfying.

One of the reasons it’s easy to miss this is that Lennon often wrote melodies, or parts of melodies, that depended on a single note, or one note with slight variations and changing harmonies underneath – listen to the Chorus of All You Need Is Love, the Verse of Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, the first lines of the Verses of I’m Only Sleeping, the Verse of Julia… This was a trademark of his songwriting.

Also, some of John’s most famous songs – Imagine, Give Peace A Chance, Woman, etc. – are quite simple melodically.

I’m not going to do what I described in the first paragraph and take anything away from McCartney – whose greatness as a songwriter and musician speaks for itself – but at his best Lennon was right up there with anyone in terms of writing consistently surprising, even soaring (but always singable) melodies when he chose to.  Listen to (or just hum to yourself) If I Fell, Girl, In My Life, It’s Only Love, Across The Universe…  Consider how lively, interesting, and unusual are the melodies of She Said She Said,  Tomorrow Never Knows, and Strawberry Fields Forever.

I think Lennon thought of himself as more of a rocker and less, as McCartney did, in the larger tradition of popular song, so John was at times less focused on pure melody. But when he wanted to bring it, Lennon was up with the great ones.

If you’re not acquainted with the songs mentioned above, please listen to them. Also, check out my friend John Stevens’ book – The Songs Of John Lennon: The Beatles Years by John Stevens.

And listen to the melody in the video below.

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Let me say right now that, in terms of songwriting, my questions above don’t matter at all, and never did. They might matter in regard to a particular artist’s voice and production… but not to their songs.

Take Bob Dylan, for example. He’s written songs in many genres that have been covered in every imaginable style by innumerable artists. But when he sings them, it always sounds like ‘Bob Dylan music’.

That’s not exactly untrue about Billy Joel – you do know it’s him singing. There’s nothing wrong with Billy Joel as an artist. Some of his recordings are superb. But the styles of his musical presentation and production, not to mention songwriting, can vary wildly. And it’s hard not to notice that many of the songs (though far from all) are ‘Billy Joel in the style of…’.

Even with these caveats, I come not to bury Billy but to praise him to the skies.

As time went by I started to hear the songs themselves more clearly and become aware that he was one of the greatest composers of popular song melodies that I’d ever heard. I’m talking about Richard Rodgers-level (which is the highest level there is, and few have attained it. I’m not counting Brian Wilson, maybe the greatest popular song melodist, because a lot of his best songs were so complex that they barely were popular songs – who’s going to cover Surf’s Up? Heroes and Villains?). I started to understand that Billy’s songs, especially because of their melodies, would outlast most of the other, more critically acclaimed songs of his era and beyond.

As I’ve written before, melody writing is the least understood and hardest to define aspect of songwriting. Not that the words aren’t critical too, but more than any other aspect, melody is what makes a song outlive its time.

What makes a good melody? A great one? There’s no formula; you can’t define it. To paraphrase Justice Stewart, you just know it when you hear it.

Forget Billy’s tacky ‘80s videos. Listen – just for the melodies – to Allentown. Listen to Uptown Girl. New York State of Mind. Leave A Tender Moment Alone. Movin’ Out. The Longest Time. His best melodies soar.

His roots in the songwriting traditions of the American Songbook, the Brill Building, DooWop, Classical music, and Rock ’n Roll (and who knows what else) seem to enable him to draw on any and every source to write melodies that surpass the tunes of almost all of his contemporaries. He’s like a rock ’n roll George M. Cohan (google him!).

Billy’s no slouch at harmonizing either. There’s a lot of unexpected motion and subtext in the way his harmonies move under the melodies. I got curious about the chords for Leave A Tender Moment Alone (listen below). Then I got lazy… so I looked online to get started and found that all of the chords listed there were wrong. Outrageously wrong! So I figured them out – they’re below. A bonus, for reading this far.

Also, Billy’s melodies tend to have a lot of notes. I always felt a little sorry for him – he wrote these fabulous melodies and then had to come up with twice the amount of words that most of us do (because: so many notes!). Though I don’t see his lyrics as being quite up to the level of his music, they’re generally very good. They sing well, his craft is excellent, sturdy, and he certainly always wrote from the heart (true of his music too).

You don’t have to seek out Billy Joel songs. You can’t avoid them! But the next time you hear one, pay special attention to the melody (and its harmonies). You’re listening to a master.

Leave A Tender Moment Alone
Verse:
||: Ebmaj7 | Dmin7 | Cmin7 /F | Bb | Ebmaj7 | Dmin7 | Cmin7 /F | Bb |

| Ebmaj7 | Dmin7 | Cmin7 /F | Bb | Ebmaj7 | Dmin7 | Cmin7 /F | Bb |
| Fmin | G7 /B | Cmin /Bb | Abmaj7 Eb/G | Fmin | G7 /B | Cmin /Bb | F/A |
|| Ebmaj7 | Dmin7 | Cmin7 /F | Bb | Ebmaj7 | Dmin7 | Cmin7 /F | Bb :||
Bridge:
| Amin7 | D7 | Ebmaj7 G/D | Cmin7 | G/B G | A7 | Dmin7 Dbmin7 | Cmin7 ||

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I’m not recommending laziness or failing to make a song as good as it can be. But it’s like a car… If you’ve got a motor, transmission, steering wheel, axles, wheels… the thing’ll run, even if it’s dented, the paint’s chipped, the fender’s falling off, etc.

Focusing first on the essentials is a good habit to get into. Get those right and you can color in the rest around them.

So what are the most essential aspects of a song?

(Keep in mind that there quite a few songs out there that don’t get all of these right and are still great because the elements that are good about them are GREAT.)

• Title/Chorus. Having a strong central idea, a phrase or section of words and music that the song is organized around.

Many an otherwise great song has fallen short of its potential due to a weak central idea.

Often I don’t start with this. Many writers won’t start without it. But it’s something that I’m always keeping an eye out for as I wander through the writing process. When I find it, other things tend to snap into focus. Or the opposite – it becomes immediately clearer when things don’t fit.

• Structure. This connects directly to the Title and/or Chorus.

Am I supporting it with the right structure? Should it be a Verse/Chorus song or an AABA song; or something else? Should it have a Bridge, a Pre-Chorus, a Tag? Is the length of the Verses and Chorus right, as well as the amount of Verses? Is it the right structure for the story that’s in the lyrics, and vice versa? Too long, or too short?

This also has to do with the momentum of the song. Is it moving along at the proper pace? If not, does something need to be shortened, cut, or extended? Sped up or slowed down?

• Melody. The not-so-secret (but too often ignored) weapon of great songwriting.

Remember, melody has two aspects – pitches and rhythm. Does the melody have motion in the notes and in its rhythm? (Don’t forget that the rhythm of the notes needs variety too.) Without movement, a melody can quickly get static and boring. Does the combination of short notes and longer, held notes feel right?

  * Harmony. This starts with harmonizing the melody, which creates the emotional subtext of the song.

Also including riffs or chord progressions that go beyond harmonizing, musical signatures that can be so important to the character of a song that it’s hard to imagine it without these trademarks.

  * Lyrics. Why do I put this last? Lyrics are obviously crucial to a good song. But I’d venture to say that there are more good songs with weaknesses in the lyric than good songs with weaknesses in the other areas we’ve discussed.

This isn’t true for some songs that are mainly lyric-focused. But a song with a great Title or Chorus, appropriate structure, powerful melody, great harmony and key riffs… can get away with a mediocre lyric. Again, I’m not advocating this as a writing strategy. It just seems to be the case… generally speaking.

But I still include lyrics as essential. Not just the content of the words – the sound of the words, which in songwriting is just as important as the content. (In fact it’s the main reason why sometimes lyrics with weak content can work – because they just sound right – even if they’re not!).

So, in getting your car to run, think first about the engine, the wheels, etc. When those are in place you can spend as much time as you want on the paint job and taking the dents out of the fender.

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One major reason for the staying power of his songs is that great melody never goes out of style. And the more I hear Brian’s melodies the more I appreciate their haunting beauty, and the more his stature rises in my book – and it’s always been high.

I watched a documentary recently that focused on his early songs for The Beach Boys. I was struck by Brian’s individuality, his harmonic and melodic daring, in even his earliest pieces, before he’d developed a songwriting voice that was completely his own (in later masterpieces like ’Surf’s Up’, ‘Heroes & Villains’, and ‘’Til I Die’ ).

I’m going to look at two fairly ‘typical’ early Brian songs – ‘Surf City’ (written and produced for Jan & Dean) and ‘Don’t Worry Baby’ (The Beach Boys). Both songs combine basic rock and roll chords (for most of the song) with some real curveballs that only Brian could’ve thrown.

A lot of ’Surf City’ (listen below)  is a simple blues in Ab. But it starts out with a signature hook; they sing “Two girls for every boy” (this was 1963, folks) over these chords:

| B | E F# | Eb | Eb |

An unusual (to put it mildly) and interesting way to get into the key of Ab! The Verse chords:

|| Ab | Fminor | Ab | Ab | Ab | F minor | Ab | Fminor |

| Db | Bbminor | Gb | Eb | Eb ||

Check out how he goes from 8 bars of straight-up ‘50s RnR into the brief harmonic journey in thirds (in bars 9-13) that takes him out of key to the Gb chord and then back in again (Eb). All done so smoothly you might not notice.

Nobody was writing rock and roll songs with chord changes like these! (We still aren’t.)

The Chorus starts out as a straight ahead 12 bar blues…

|| Ab | Ab | Ab | Ab | Db | Db | Ab | Ab | B | E F# | Eb | Eb ||

…but when he gets to the 9th bar, instead of hitting the V chord as expected Brian hits a ‘B’ chord (way out of key) and revisits the introduction described above.

I want to emphasize that, within a basically diatonic song, when big moves out of key work it’s almost always because the melody works. The listener follows the melody. If that makes sense you’ll follow the chords anywhere.

‘Don’t Worry Baby’ is known to any Brian Wilson/Beach Boys fan for its aching, soaring melody and the universal and heartfelt sentiment of the Chorus. Not to mention Brian’s poignant high vocal. (Listen below.) The song starts out in one key, changes key for the Chorus, and then returns to the first key for the Verse.

This in itself isn’t so unusual, but what is less common is the way it’s ‘baked in’ to the song. It’s not an imposed modulation. You couldn’t play the song without it (another one like this is The Beatles’ ’Penny Lane’).

‘Don’t Worry Baby’ starts out with a chord progression and melodic contour that’s very close to ‘Be My Baby’ by Phil Spector (a big influence on Brian, mainly as a producer – and he wrote this one with ‘Be My Baby’ in mind). But what Brian does is much more sophisticated (not taking anything away from the classic, but compositionally simpler, ‘Be My Baby’).

The chords of the first 8 bars are identical to ‘Be My Baby’ and the Pre-Chorus chords similar too. But Brian, switching the order of ‘Be My Baby’s’ Pre-Chorus chords, moves into a new key for the Chorus.

Verse || E | E | A | B | E | E | A | B |
Pre-Chorus || F#minor | B | G#minor | C# ||
Chorus || F# | F# | G#minor | C# | F# | F# | G#minor | C# | E/B B ||

The way he comes back to the home key in that ‘extra’ 9th bar of the Chorus always gets me.

Again, the reason this all works musically is because of the melody. Play or sing the melody of ‘Don’t Worry Baby’ without the chords. Note the winding, rising and falling drama of its musical story. Note the trademark Brian big leaps – twice jumping up a flat 6th in the Verse and twice up a flat 7th in the Pre-Chorus. Beautiful.

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As with many of Marley and the Wailers’ songs, the record throbs with heartbreak and longing while also being wistful and bouyant (respect to The Wailers, a great band), making listening a multi-layered emotional experience. (Listen below.)

Start with two chords only – Ab and Db. A four bar pattern, two bars each chord, repeated for the whole song irresistible reggae ballad groove.

Add a memorably poignant refrain: ‘I Don’t Wanna Wait In Vain For Your Love’. Words that most of us can relate to – we’ve been there – sung to a touching 5-note melody, with the word ‘vain’ landing on a C over the Db chord; a major 7, what I call one of the ’tender notes’.

The Verse melody uses only 5 notes: Ab, Bb, C, Eb, F. Marley works lovely and imaginative variations, both melodic and rhythmic, on these few notes – he was very good at that! (Great singer too.) Remember that with the chords being simple, it’s especially important that the melody has motion and variety, and stays interesting.

Add some vulnerable Verse lyrics:

In life I know there’s lots of grief
But your love is my relief
Tears in my eyes burn, tears in my eyes burn
While I’m waiting, while I’m waiting for my turn
I Don’t Wanna Wait In Vain For Your Love

The Chorus adds another note, a passing Db, into the melody mix. The Bridge climbs up to an octave Ab. The range of the entire song is just one octave, using 7 notes.

That’s it. That’s all you need. Ok… all you need if you’re Bob Marley, that is.

But we can all learn something from the transcendent feeling created by those two chords rolling along in a steady groove, a touching melody that uses few notes – though I wouldn’t call it simple -, all in a major scale, and a touching one-line Title/Chorus that ties the whole thing together.

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I have to put myself into the song, really invest in it, to make progress, without any guarantee of success. Some of them work out and some of them don’t. And though I can gain in craft from both results, there’s almost never any telling in advance which ones will come together and which won’t.

But here’s some good news. If I put in work on the tougher ones (that’s most of them) the likelihood of an easier one falling into my lap increases exponentially. They’re like bonuses.

I had this experience recently. I was wrestling (and song wrestling is fun – an interesting challenge) with a song I’d been working on for a while and a different one just dropped into my lap. A riff led to a title led to a chorus led to a verse led to three verses…

I had the thing 90% finished in a half hour, maybe 45 minutes. I performed it at my last show and it turned out well. The response was great. Much of the time the quick ones come to me like this – by way of the labor-intensive ones (though the quality, as always, will vary).

I’m convinced I never would’ve had that one fall out of the sky if I hadn’t been laboring over the one taking me weeks to finish. And by the way, I’m still working on that one! Who knows if it’ll ever come to fruition?

Assuming I have an idea I think is good and might turn into a worthwhile completed song, if it’s taking time to get it right, it doesn’t mean I’m doing something wrong. Songs take the time they take.

There’s no direct correlation between difficulty or ease and quality.

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A simplified way of thinking about it (although these elements always overlap) is, the words go to the head, the melody and music go to the heart, the rhythm goes to the body.

Of course melody doesn’t tell a literal story. But a good melody often takes you on a condensed journey with a satisfying Act 1, Act, 2, and Act 3. Just like in a traditional movie or play, Act 1 presents the situation; Act 2 – the longer part in the middle – develops the conflict, usually reaching a climax at the end of the Act; and Act 3 restates the themes and all issues (harmonic and melodic, in this case) are usually resolved.

This is far from the only way to put together a melody. In fact, the examples here are pretty traditional and old-school. But they’re great illustrations of the idea that, to work, A Good Melody Tells A Story (it doesn’t just wait around for the words to do the storytelling).

I’ve found the simplest way to illustrate this is in your basic 8 bar melody, which often includes 4 phrases (2 bars each) –

1) Statement of the main theme (Act 1);

2) Restatement with slight variation (Act 2a);

3) Main Variation (Act 2b);

4) Restatement and/or Resolution of the main theme (Act 3).

Conceptually, pretty straightforward. Some examples (think about them without the words):

Yesterday (Paul McCartney) – Starts with a simple 3-note descending phrase. Next it rises up by scale tones to a higher statement of that  phrase. Then descends by scale tones to a lower restatement. Then a final phrase that resolves with three notes going in the other direction (down-up-up).

Reason To Believe (Tim Hardin) – First phrase: statement of theme. Second: slight variation. Third: A longer, passionate phrase that leads to the highest point (both melodically and emotionally). Fourth: resigned resolution.

Allentown (Billy Joel) – Tremendous soaring melody. The first two phrases are structurally very similar to those in Yesterday. But the third phrase is double the usual length, allowing it to either loop around – back to another verse – or add a 2 bar phrase (bars 9 & 10) that restates the first phrase (and the title). Listen below.

Smoke On The Water (Deep Purple) – not the vocal melody; the guitar riff! Think about it… Statement – slight variation – restatement – resolution. All with 4 notes.

There are thousands of other examples of all different styles and genres. I don’t recommend that your melody always follow the patterns above. But thinking about melodies as having a drama of their own can add a lot of interest and emotion, and help yours stand out.

(I’ve put together a free video that covers a lot of ways to approach and get more creative with melody on this page: https://tonyconniff.com/ask-tony-videos/. Scroll down!)

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I’m not talking here about songs that have only one word or phrase in or at the end of the Chorus (like ‘Tequila’, ‘Soulfinger’, ‘Do The Hustle’, etc). I’m talking about songs that actually have lyrics… just very few of them.

A friend of mine recently suggested I listen to Nirvana’s ‘School’ (Cobain). The whole song has only 3 lines, repeated a lot, each line in its own section. 14 individual words total.

Wouldn’t you believe it
It’s just my luck

No recess

You’re in high school again

This got me thinking of other songs that are similarly stingy with words. There’s Beck’s ‘Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometime’ (Warren), a real favorite of mine (listen below). This bloats all the way up to 21 words.

Change your heart
Look around you
Change your heart
It will astound you

And I need your lovin’ like the sunshine

Everybody’s gotta learn sometime

Then there’s The Beatles’ monumental ‘I Want You/She’s So Heavy’ (Lennon/McCartney). I count 12 distinct words. (Listen below.)

I want you
I want you so bad
I want you
I want you so bad
It’s drivin’ me mad
It’s drivin’ me mad

She’s so heavy

Another classic, weighing in at 14 words, is ‘You Are So Beautiful’ (Preston/Fisher).

What makes this interesting to me is that these songs let the music carry the weight, using the obsessive urgency of repeating the same words over and over (and not minding that some listeners will just find the whole thing annoying…).

Obviously this is not going to work in most songs, but when you have a simple lyric message that you really want to drive home, combined with the right musical setting… less can actually be more… big time!

Any others under 20 words that I missed?

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The narrator takes offense and gets defensive because he’s being hustled by a hustler not unlike himself, as he used to be… when he was poor.

He admits to faults and flaws, he exposes his vulnerability and lack of empathy, but still he reacts with aggression to the threat to his identity that the beggar represents. There’s no happy ending. It’s a confrontation between a Have and a Have-Not… which is not resolved.

It doesn’t matter if the narrator of the song is Lamar or not. What matters is what is revealed in his monologue, interspersed with quotes from the homeless man.

The words are hard to separate from Lamar’s skills as a rapper. The lyrics are tremendous but his flow, his phrasing and rhyming, the way he places the words rhythmically and uses his tone and timbre, along with the evocative music, brings his saga to a high level.

The song starts with a haunting chord progression that underlies most of the song, played by piano, bass, and drums (listen below). The piano and bass play 8th notes… but when the drums enter, the beat turns into a mournful shuffle, as the 8ths rub disquietingly against the shuffle triplets.

||: F | Gbmaj7 | Ab6 | Gbmaj7 :||

The 1st Verse asks the question, ‘How much a dollar cost?’, and sets the scene (‘Deep water, powder blue skies that crack open’). He’s feeling ‘big as Motombo’ in ‘this luxury car’. The man begs him for a little money – ’10 rand’; less than a dollar. The narrator, who immediately sees the beggar as a crackhead, simply turns him down. (‘I told him I ain’t have it and closed my door’)

How much a dollar really cost?
The question is detrimental, paralyzin’ my thoughts
Parasites in my stomach keep me with a gut feeling, y’all
Gotta see how I’m chillin’ once I park this luxury car
Hopping out feeling big as Mutombo
Twenty on pump six dirty Marcellus called me Dumbo
Twenty years ago, can’t forget
Now I can lend him a ear or two how to stack these residuals
Tenfold, the liberal concept of what men’ll do
Twenty on six, he didn’t hear me
Indigenous African only spoke Zulu
My American tongue was leery
Walked out the gas station
A homeless man with a semi-tan complexion
Asked me for ten rand
Stressin’ about dry land
Deep water, powder blue skies that crack open
A piece of crack that he wanted, I knew he was smokin’
He begged and pleaded
Asked me to feed him twice, I didn’t believe it
Told him, beat it
Contributin’ money just for his pipe, I couldn’t see it
He said, ‘my son, temptation is one thing that I’ve defeated
Listen to me, I want a single bill from you
Nothin’ less, nothin’ more’
I told him I ain’t have it and closed my door
Tell me how much a dollar cost

Then follow close harmonies (sung by James Fauntleroy) over a shockingly lush chord progression, almost Brian Wilson-esque. These sections – the first two identical, the third one different – happen after each of the three Verses.

|| F | Db | Bb/C | Gbmaj7 ||

The lyrics, repeated the first two times, are a counterpoint to the harsh raps that surround it:

It’s more to feed your mind
Water, sun and love, the one you love
All you need, the air you breathe

The encounter doesn’t end with the shut door. The homeless man stares the narrator down (’Starin’ at me’, repeated – brilliant – six times)… and he takes the bait.

He’s starin’ at me in disbelief
My temper is buildin’, he’s starin’ at me, I grab my key
He’s starin’ at me, I started the car then I tried to leave
And somethin’ told me to keep it in park until I could see
A reason why he was mad at a stranger like I was supposed to save him
Like I’m the reason he’s homeless and askin’ me for a favor
He’s starin’ at me, his eyes followed me with no laser
He’s starin’ at me, I notice that his stare is contagious
‘Cause now I’m starin’ back at him, feelin’ some type of disrespect
If I could throw a bat at him, it’d be aimin’ at his neck
I never understood someone beggin’ for goods
Askin’ for handouts, takin’ it if they could
And this particular person just had it down pat
Starin’ at me for the longest until he finally asked
‘Have you ever opened up Exodus 14?
A humble man is all that we ever need’
Tell me how much a dollar cost

He responds defensively and angrily, with thoughts of violence. He can’t stand that this fool, this crack-smoking beggar, is disrespecting him. He can’t let it go. And to top it off the guy throws a Bible quote at him… about humility.

Guilt trippin’ and feelin’ resentment
I never met a transient that demanded attention
They got me frustrated, indecisive and power trippin’
Sour emotions got me lookin’ at the universe different
I should distance myself, I should keep it relentless
My selfishness is what got me here, who the fuck I’m kiddin’?
So I’ma tell you like I told the last bum, crumbs and pennies
I need all of mines, and I recognize this type of panhandlin’ all the time
I got better judgement, I know when nigga’s hustlin’
Keep in mind, when I was strugglin’, I did compromise
Now I comprehend, I smell grandpa’s old medicine
Reekin’ from your skin, moonshine and gin
Nigga you’re babblin’, your words ain’t flatterin’, I’m imaginin’
Denzel but lookin’ at O’Neal, Kazaam is sad
Thrills, your gimmick is mediocre, the jig is up
I seen you from a mile away losin’ focus
And I’m insensitive, and I lack empathy
He looked at me and said, ‘Your potential is bittersweet’
I looked at him and said, ‘Every nickel is mines to keep’
He looked at me and said, ‘Know the truth, it’ll set you free
You’re lookin’ at the Messiah, the son of Jehova, the higher power
The choir that spoke the word, the Holy Spirit,
The nerve of Nazareth and
I’ll tell you just how much a dollar cost
The price of having a spot in Heaven, embrace your loss, I am God.’

At first he reacts with honesty about his own vulnerability; his guilt, his resentment, his frustration.… but he immediately turns that into aggression (‘I should keep it relentless… My selfishness is what got me here’). He goes back and forth with the dude, who finally tells him he’s the son of God. But… is he nuts? Or is he just saying that, crackhead or no, he’s a child of God?

This last declaration, in terms of the sound of the words and the rapping (listen!), may be the most intense section in the song – the rhyme of ‘word’ and ‘nerve’… and ending with ‘Embrace your loss’!

There is a coda to this, sung by Ronald Isley, which feels like a closing prayer, a hopeful benediction (‘Help me change, right my wrongs’).

I wash my hands, I said my grace, what more do you want from me?
Tears of a clown, guess I’m not all what is meant to be
Shades of grey will never change if I condone
Turn this page, help me change, to right my wrongs

This final section also contains a different 4 bar chord sequence, unrepeated:

|| F | Eb (no3rd) | Db | Bb/C ||

In most songs you can only artificially separate the words from the music. It can be valuable to get a temporary look into any single aspect of a song, just as you would if you focused on a melody or chords. But in many songs – and this is one of them – the words can’t really be pulled out and have justice done to them.

Lyrics are not poetry – though some, like these, are quite poetic. They’re words that are inextricably blended with music.

(For a song about an encounter with some similarities to ‘How Much A Dollar Cost’ – including a wealthy narrator’s frank – though not as corrosively honest as Kendrick’s – self-examination of their encounter with a Have-Not… who may actually have something the singer hasn’t got, and needs – check out my take on Joni Mitchell’s song ‘For Free” here.)

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What creates skill?

Talent – It helps to have a ‘feel’ for songwriting; sometimes called ‘natural talent’.  This certainly exists, but it is so intertwined with Desire and Determination (see below) that in the long run sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference. 

Natural talent is a fact, and a few people have so much of it that it carries them quite a ways. But many of the songwriters you most admire did not start out as prodigies. They loved writing, so they worked at it. They learned something new every day. Their songs got better as a result of this application; and their inner talent began to shine through.

What you make of what you have is usually much more important than what you start with.

It’s often been noted that as a high school freshman Michael Jordan did not make the Varsity team. He was a decent player. But he was obsessed – he couldn’t stand not being the best; he worked and worked; and his genius began to emerge.

I’m not saying everyone’s a genius and that all one has to do is to work hard to be one. What I am saying is that even Michael Jordan, generally acknowledged as the best ever in his field – or court – was not recognized as a prodigy. It wasn’t obvious from the start – except maybe to him. (Oh yeah… and he also grew to be 6’6″ tall…).

Study – Learning from those who came before you. This can come through books to some extent, but usually there’s somebody talking to the person who’s trying to learn, explaining and demonstrating how they do things and how other skilled people do them. It can be a coach or teacher, it can be a peer who’s somewhat more experienced – a bandleader or band member, a fellow songwriter, etc.  Or all of these.

Then there’s the study you do on your own. With music and songs, it mostly starts with Listening. Again, a lot of this can be fun… if you find learning, playing, and analyzing the songs of great songwriters to be fun (I do). Trying to figure out what makes them tick, what makes them great. Trying to imitate them. Deeply checking out Richard Rodgers’ and Brian Wilson’s melodies… Burt Bacharach’s and Lennon/McCartney’s chord changes… Bob Dylan’s and Eminem’s lyrics… etc., etc.  Also the grooves, arrangements, and tempos that bring songs to life… Why do some things work better than others?

Repetition – Doing it over and over and over again – writing song after song after song. As the great musician Robbie Kondor said to me years ago, “Songwriters write songs.” Most of us have to write a lot of songs to learn our craft and find our ‘voice’ – to incorporate all our influences into something special.

Learning from mistakes – This may be better put as accepting that many songs will be failed experiments… that just don’t work out the way you hoped they would. So you go back to the drawing board and work on the next one; trying a lot of approaches, gaining some feeling for what might or might not work in the current song and in the future.

Desire/Determination – This is the X Factor. Sheer determination can overcome many lacks, shortcomings, obstacles. Most accomplished musicians and songwriters I know were not considered ‘best in class’ in high school. But they’re the ones who stuck with it and kept improving and learning, through the good times and bad. They thought about quitting… but they didn’t.

(And don’t forget; some of us – like me – are late bloomers. For some, all of this takes more time than for others.)

It’s amazing to me how much a person with desire and the willingness to work can improve – it can be astonishing. It’s also amazing how quickly a person of great talent without a lot of desire and determination can plateau… and never fulfill their potential.

I’ve been both of these people at different times in my life. I know how scary it is to challenge myself to get better and how exciting it can be to actually get pretty good at something I love… and I also know how tempting it can be to say, ‘I’m good enough now… my real work here is done.  Let the rewards roll in!’

But, to a creative person, the latter position is a kind of living death (and usually the expected rewards don’t exactly roll in on schedule either).

Finally, real Skill is the thing you have that no one take away – except you. It’s knowing how to do something at a level with the best in the field.

There’s another part to this that’s beyond skill, beyond competence, beyond technique. You know it when you hear it or see it. You can’t teach it. You can’t force it. You can’t fake it (for long). The Beatles. Duke Ellington. Michael Jordan. Muhammed Ali. Miles Davis. Bob Dylan. Joni Mitchell. Eminem. Philip Roth. Marlon Brando. Judy Garland. Martin Scorcese.  Robert DeNiro. The Coen Brothers. Vince Gill. Many others; the greats. All most of us can do is aspire to moments at that level.

Let’s face it: the majority of the most acclaimed people in any field are largely forgotten after a few years or decades. Some of us ask ourselves, Will I create anything of lasting value, that people will appreciate as a real contribution, decades and even centuries into the future? And, of course, the answer is probably No… most of us won’t have a street named after us… 

Even those few of us whose work will be remembered beyond our lifespan won’t know that for sure when we go. We accept (or not) that ultimately we’re just a small part of something much bigger.

So… I write because I want to, I need to… and because to me, while I’m here, creating something seems to be a more worthwhile activity, given my talents, than the alternatives. And it’s worth it to try to get as good at it as I can. That’s where skill comes in.

Two quotes come to mind:

“You’ll never know if anything you write is any good. You’ll die without knowing. If you have to know, don’t write.” – John Berryman

“I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work; I want to achieve immortality through not dying. I don’t want to live on in the hearts of my countrymen; I want to live on in my apartment.” – Woody Allen

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When working with less experienced songwriters. this is one of the most common questions I hear. I encourage writers to register their copyright (which, by the way, already exists as soon as your creation is fixed in any ‘tangible form’, such as a piece of paper, a recording, etc… What you do with the Copyright Office – URL below – is register that copyright. This is what secures your rights.).

But in decades of working with and producing songwriters in the heart of the New York City music business, as well as writing, performing, and recording many songs of my own, I’ve never seen anyone have the problem of playing their song in public, live or recorded, and having one of the listeners rush home, copy the song, and then make money from it. 

I’m sure this has happened sometime somewhere, but I’ve personally never seen or heard of it.

For you, a songwriter playing your song in public, getting it stolen is probably one of the last things you need to worry about.

Getting someone to hear your song through the clutter, pay attention to it, buy it, cover it, pass it on to a friend… getting people to listen! These are far more worthy of your concern than worrying about your song being stolen.

Copyright your song, by all means. But if you haven’t done that yet, and you have an opportunity to play your song for someone… anyone – my suggestion is… do it.

If you have a successful song that makes money, it’s very possible, even likely, you’ll be sued for stealing someone else’s song, even if you didn’t. That’s the nature of the beast (money).

But someone actually stealing your song… possible… but highly unlikely.

ps  I’m not a lawyer and this is not legal advice. Just my own experience and observations..

http://www.copyright.gov/forms/

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Songs always fascinated me, so I paid attention to the lyrics of the songs I played. At the same time I noticed that, though some musicians listened closely to lyrics, most didn’t. Yet many of them were able to play the songs just as ‘sensitively’, with as much awareness of the song’s nuances, as I did. Often more so.

I’ve been at many rehearsals where the songwriter painstakingly explained their lyric… why, for example, the music had to get very quiet in a certain section to follow the words… Sometimes this was helpful. Often I felt it was unnecessary, for reasons I’ll go into below.

When I started my own band about 14 years ago, I was lucky enough to enlist some of New York’s finest musicians, people I had played many sessions and gigs with, to perform and record my songs with me on a regular basis. Unlike the aforementioned bandleaders, I rarely brought up the particulars of a lyric to my band. And I never felt the music suffered for it.

After having the band for a while I started to realize that most of my musicians truly had no idea what my lyrics were, other than the song title at the top of the chord chart. Even though of course I wouldn’t’ve minded hearing something from them along the lines of, “Heavy lyric, MAN!”, I not only didn’t mind their inattention to the words of my songs; overall I considered it a plus.

Why? Well, I should reiterate that these musicians have played for some of the greatest songwriters of our time… without a doubt they know how to interpret a song! I always felt that they were taking in the essence of the songs at a deep level, a level where most of the time it wasn’t necessary to ‘know’ the lyric.

On top of that, I usually prefer to not have my songs interpreted literally. To not have the tom toms roll when I’m singing about thunder, to not have the guitar ‘cry’ when I sing about heartache, to not have the organ play circus music if I sing about a carnival, etc… Hey, that’s fine with me!

To my taste it’s frequently better to have the musical arrangement provide what you might call subtext. Think of examples when music and words work well together. I believe you’ll find they frequently don’t ‘match up’ literally.

To me the literal interpretation tends to be more superficial… I think listeners take in songs in a more holistic way… and that’s how these musicians hear and play mine – in a deeper, more intuitive way. Songs themselves aren’t literal… it’s all sound. Ideally, as important as lyrics are, there’s much more to a song than can be put into words… or lyrics.

So the fact that my band members might fail miserably at a quiz about my lyrics doesn’t bother me a bit. That said, it would amuse me greatly to give them such a quiz.

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Even going the latter route, if and when partnerships break up you’re back to the same dilemma: Our ‘demos’ are supposed to sound like masters – or at least close. And few of us have the money to go to a ‘real’ recording studio (with an engineer) every time we write a song.

So, on one hand, you do have to get comfortable with recording your songs. But there are pitfalls that often ensue, and they’re easy to fall into.

Let’s say you, like many others (including me), get into production and want to/have to make good sounding recordings of your songs. You get into a DAW – Logic, ProTools, Ableton, etc. – and start learning. There are lots of places to get help; from friends, books, on YouTube, on training sites.

It’s easy to go down that recording/production rabbit hole – in fact, as with everything, you have to go down the rabbit hole and get obsessed, at least for a while, to become any good. (As Woody Allen said about his pretty good but not great clarinet playing, “I have to practice every day just to be this bad.”)

But as hard as it is to become a good producer/arranger/recordist… it’s still not as hard as writing songs. In the former you’re usually creating something from something. In the latter you’re often creating something from nothing.

When you’re producing, you’re usually working on recording an already-written song, or creating a beat for it; that kind of thing. Whatever you do, you start with a song, a recording, a musician, a sound, a loop, and it gives you something back as you listen. You get a playback, you try different sounds, effects, balances… and those sounds, effects, etc, are already there, waiting for you to use them.

When you write a song from scratch… it’s just you and the song. Prose writers call it The Blank Page. (In a way we’re lucky because we get to make sounds as we go.) All writers have to deal with this – much of the time you start with nothing. Or very little, like a title, or a lick… or a writing prompt, if you’re in a workshop.

Look at the movie business. A lot of people start as screenwriters and then become directors. If they’re successful at that, they usually stop writing. Then they hire other writers to do the writing. Why? At least part of the answer is that writing can be a hard, solitary business. It’s easier to have meetings and lunches and talk a lot, sometimes to writers, than to grind out the writing yourself.

The same kind of problem can come up for songwriters and recording. As challenging as it is to become good with recording, sounds, arrangements… it’s still easier than sitting down by yourself or with a partner (which for some people helps a lot) and whipping up something from nothing or almost nothing.

The bottom line is twofold. It’s unquestionably important to know how to capably record your songs or get them recorded well. And it’s easy for songwriting to get sidetracked by recording.

If you want to remain a songwriter and get better at it, this is a delicate balancing act – to fall into the wonderful world of digital recording and at the same time stay faithful to the sometimes painful but highly rewarding process of songwriting and the commitment it requires. This balance, a personal one for each of us, can easily slip out of whack. Finding and maintaining that balance is a worthwhile goal.

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The other way is getting inspired by someone else’s song and thinking ‘I want to write something like that’. Sometimes it’s just getting obsessed with some part of it. So we ‘borrow’ the groove, the chord progression or part of it, a melody phrase.

Call it inspiration, call it borrowing, call it a starting point, call it stealing! Who cares? We all do it. As long as it’s not identical to another song there’s nothing wrong with this. It’s an important way we learn the craft and it’s how songwriting grows, evolves, and expands.

If we haven’t carefully written it down or recorded it, by the time we’re working on either our ‘original’ idea or our ‘borrowed’ idea, it’s already changed. Let it. Don’t fight to recapture something that’s already gone.

As with most things related to memory, how we remember will not be precisely accurate. That may be bad for an eyewitness in a courtroom, but for songwriting it’s fine.

Go with whatever’s there, whatever’s left. Your creative mind is already transforming that idea into your idea. It doesn’t matter where it started.

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(Sorry we haven’t had a new blogpost for a month or so. I had a nasty case of bronchitis. All is well now.)

When you write a Verse/Chorus song that is somewhat traditional (being very broad about that definition) you’re writing music for two or three song sections – a Verse, a Chorus, sometimes a Bridge. Once you’ve got a basic melody and chords for each of those, the musical bones of the piece are in place, however you might change the details later.

As for the lyric, once you have your Chorus words you’re pretty much set for that section. Although you may have some variations within it, every repetition of the Chorus lyric tends to be mostly the same.

The Verse lyric? That’s where the extended labor comes in. The Verse music is set… but words usually have to be written for two or three (or more) Verses, different ones for each, in addition to a Bridge, if any.

Also, the words for each Verse require almost the exact same rhythm, stresses, and rhyme scheme as all the others, so as to fit with the same Verse melody (the ‘crossword puzzle’ aspect of songwriting). Not to mention that they have to develop the story, character, and/or situation.

Who said songwriting was easy?

in AABA songs (‘standards’, aka Great American Songbook songs), the basic issue is much the same. The music stays the same for each ‘A’ section but the words (other than the Title) are almost all different. There are more new words for the ‘B’ section as well.

That’s several times the labor on the lyric side (unless musical words come easily to you!).

Writing music isn’t in itself simpler or harder than writing a lyric. Or vice versa. Almost all writers will have more facility with one or the other. With words, though, there’s usually more writing to do.

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These of-the-moment themes, usually with a lot of emotion behind them, will tend to pop up in our current song lyrics. Sometimes their fit is exactly right – our mental talk perfectly coincides with what our song is about. Maybe at the time of writing we’re angry, happy, jealous, full of desire, full of ideas, feeling isolated… and that’s what the song’s about too. Great.

But more often than not the thoughts and emotions directly at hand don’t exactly fit the song. And it’s easy to see and hear that most great songs are extremely focused, using every single one of a song’s limited number of words (and notes) to contribute to or amplify the main point (and sound good too).

This is where songwriting discipline – the craft – comes in. It’s easy to get lost in the weeds – to get confused regarding what a song’s lyric is about. It can be easy to convince myself that this point I want to make really belongs right here, in this song (even if it doesn’t).

But good songwriting usually rewards the discipline of holding out for what fits, not just what’s at hand. Yes, I may have a good lyric… but it may not belong in this song. I have to have the courage to let it go (or save it for another song) and trust that if I keep chipping away there’s something out there (or in here) that will truly fit.

It’s not so hard to write lyrics that are in the general vicinity of the song’s idea. What can be quite hard is to insist that the general vicinity is just not good enough and to do the labor of finding the right word, line, Verse, Title… whatever is needed to make the song as good as I can make it.

“Does it belong here… in this song?”

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There’s nothing like a deadline to spur creativity. And internal deadlines (“I WILL have this done by Wednesday!”) are usually not as effective as external ones.

The deadline can be anything real – a gig, a rehearsal, a meeting with a producer, a songwriting workshop – that raises the stakes and focuses the mind on bringing the song to a point where it’s at least presentable. (In most cases it’s not ideal for a recording session to be the first time a song is performed. Better to develop it in less permanent settings before recording.)

Songs are notoriously hard to complete. I’ve observed that one of the main reasons people come to a songwriting workshop is simply that most of us seem to write more (and in a more concentrated way) knowing that listeners are waiting to hear the song on Monday, or Tuesday, or whenever.

Playing the song, in a tolerable but far from perfect form, to other people – audience, band, friends, other writers – also provides indispensable information, in real-time and after, on where a song needs to go.

Deadlines are a powerful way to move a song much closer to that mysterious state…  Completion. (And how do you know when it’s complete? Ah… that’s a story for another post.) Leave it at this: when it comes to finishing a song, having a deadline is incomparably useful.

“All I need (to write music) is a piano and a deadline.” – Duke Ellington

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Though less so now than in the past, most songs still work this way. Looking at it crassly, but not inaccurately, if my song was a jingle for a commercial, the Title phrase would be where the product name would go. It’s the takeaway.

I want that Title phrase in the most advantageous place possible, which means putting the most important words in the song at the most memorable spot in the melody, and vice versa.

The Title usually goes at or very near the beginning of the Chorus… or at its end… or in both places. As journalists say: ‘Don’t bury the lede’. If the Title is ‘buried’ in the middle of the Chorus it’s harder to remember.

If I already have a Title I need it sitting at the most conclusive part of the melody. I want it at the same place, usually with the same words and music, every time around. If that’s not working out I usually have to either change the melody or the Title lyric to fit (I’ve done both, many times).

For maximum effect, the high point of the melody (by no means always the highest note) and the words of the Title need to peak at the same moment.

(ps Please remember – the Title I’m referring to here is the phrase we want the listener to walk away singing. It’s not the words at the top of the lyric sheet, those words being, technically, the ‘Title’. This line can be anything and have nothing to do with the lyrics of the song or what the listener hears and takes away.)

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