The writer says what he or she has to say… and the length of the song just is what it is.  Genius songwriter/lyricists bursting with fresh ideas and stories, like Bob Dylan or Eminem, don’t need to worry much about this.  But for the rest of us I think it’s well worth taking the clock into consideration when we make decisions about what to include or exclude in a particular song.

In the songwriting process, I think the issue of song length is not thought about enough.

We’re used to hearing songs that are mostly in the 3 to 4 minute range (50 years ago it was 2 to 3 minutes)… just as we’re now used to seeing movies in the 2 hour range, give or take 15 minutes (that used to be less too).

Longer songs can be great but, just like with watching movies, we’re conditioned to a certain time frame and, if the film or song starts to exceed that, we notice, we feel it…  If we’re fascinated, of course it doesn’t matter; we go with it.  But if the song wanders, often the listener’s mind wanders too… which is not what we songwriters are looking for.  (I don’t believe it’s in the ‘7 Habits of Highly Effective Songwriters’ handbook.)

So if your song is, say, 5 or 6 minutes long… consider the fact that, in ‘song time’, you’re making the equivalent of a 3 hour-plus movie.

Now, there are many great movies that are over 3 hours, just as there are many great songs that are over 5 minutes…  But if your song was a movie, would it justify a length of 3 hours and 20 minutes?  Really?  You’d better have some pretty fascinating characters and twists and turns in that story.  Same idea with a song.

I think it’s worth asking ourselves, does what I’m laying down in this song justify the time I’m using?  Am I repeating myself?  Am I making the same point from only slightly different angles?  Or trying to make too many points… maybe trying to fit two songs’ worth of ideas into one?  Trying to save all my precious words or sections… at the expense of the whole, the overall impact of the song?

Normally I’d be writing about this subject more in the first person, like I do in other posts, but most of the time, in this particular area, for whatever reason I’m not that tempted to ‘go long’  (I have plenty of other problematic temptations – see many previous blogposts!).  I usually – but not always – feel that I can say what I need to say in three Verses, if I can say it at all.  Maybe that makes me particularly aware of the ‘too long’ song.

So my suggestion is – along with all the other things we need to be concerned with as we develop a song – to keep one eye on the clock when writing; think about how what you’re writing fits into the normal attention span of listening to songs in 2013.

If it’s long… and it needs to be… fine; leave it be.  Slip the bonds of normal length, but do it consciously.  If it’s too long, don’t be afraid to cut.  There’s more where that good stuff came from.

And trust the listeners… they’ll still get it.