What Writers Can Learn From Song Lyrics
I was chatting with an old friend via email this morning, and we were discussing song lyrics. It’s a favorite topic of mine, because I’ve always wanted to write them. After all, they’re just a hugely abbreviated form of writing. Mini Flash Fiction, with poetry thrown in. Extreme write tight!
If they can do this with less than a page, what should I be able to do with 365 of them?! No excuses. Lyrics inspire me to write better.
I love how songwriters can capture a mood or a situation with one stanza. As an author, I’m held captive by the words. Taking something old, and through brilliant writing, making it over in a new way. The lyrics to Carly Simon's song, Jesse, inspired my July release, The Last True Cowboy.
Music styles change (a huge amount, in just my lifetime!), but for me, the lyrics are the magic. If the notes can hold a candle to the lyrics, you've got a hit. It’s funny; I don’t really care for country music for the most part, but I find the lyrics very strong.
Here are a few snippets that I’ve loved for years:
We had no cameras
to shoot the landscape
we passed the hash pipe
and played our Doors tapes
and it was dark
so dark at night
and we held onto each other
like brother to brother
we promised our mothers we'd write
and we would all go down together
Billy Joel – Goodnight Saigon
So she took her love
For to gaze awhile
Upon the fields of barley
In his arms she fell as her hair came down
Among the fields of gold
Sting – Fields of Gold
How can I save my little boy from Oppenheimer's deadly toy
There is no monopoly in common sense
On either side of the political fence
We share the same biology
Regardless of ideology
Believe me when I say to you
I hope the Russians love their children too
Sting – Russians
And now I'm glad I didn't know
The way it all would end the way it all would go
Our lives are better left to chance
I could have missed the pain
But I'd of had to miss the dance
Garth Brooks – The Dance
I'm gonna love you forever
Forever and ever, amen
As long as old men sit and talk about the weather
As long as old women sit and talk about old men
If you wonder how long I'll be faithful
I'll be happy to tell you again
I'm gonna love you
Forever and ever
Forever and ever, amen
Randy Travis – Forever and Ever, Amen
Fat man sitting on a little stool Takes the money from my hand while his eyes take a walk all over you
Hands me the ticket smiles and whispers good luck
Cuddle up angel cuddle up my little dove
Well ride down baby into this tunnel of love
I can feel the soft silk of your blouse
And them soft thrills in our little fun house
Then the lights go out and it's just the three of us
You me and all that stuff were so scared of
Gotta ride down baby into this tunnel of love
Bruce Springsteen – Tunnel of Love
I swear I’m going to try writing some!
Are you captivated by lyrics? Share your faves in the comments!
* * * * *
About Laura
Laura Drake is a city girl who never grew out of her tomboy ways, or a serious cowboy crush. She writes both Women's Fiction and Romance.
She sold her Sweet on a Cowboy series, romances set in the world of professional bull riding, to Grand Central. The Sweet Spot won the 2014 Romance Writers of America® RITA® award in the Best First Book category.
Laura began a video blog for writers, answering their burning questions. You can watch all the episodes HERE. If you have a question you'd like her to address in a future episode, leave her a comment!
Did you know Laura teaches craft classes? Check out her upcoming ones, both online and in person, HERE.
56 comments on “What Writers Can Learn From Song Lyrics”
Subscribe to WITS
Recent Posts
- Book Reviews: 4 Steps to Validate Your Work
- How to Write Comedy Part 1, Physical Comedy/Slapstick
- A Big Picture Solution to "The Writing Bottleneck"
- The Rules of the Story You Write
- 7 Things Happy Writers Never Do
Enya - Even in The Shadows
Even in the shadows
I turn around
To find you walk away
And even when I whisper
The winds will come
To steal the words I say
I could fall and keep on falling
I could call and keep on calling
Wonder why this love is over
Wonder why it’s not forever
Even in the silence
I hear my heart
It’s still a part of you
And even in the morning
When light has come
I don’t know what to do
Oh Tracy, Enya. If I Could Be Where You are makes me cry, every time.... if I could be beside you, if I could be where you are, if I could reach out and touch you and bring you back home
My three favorite musical acts are my favorites for a combination of lyrics, music, and gorgeous vocals and harmony. Here are a few favorites, but it's nearly impossible to pick out one song from each:
INDIGO GIRLS - DECONSTRUCTION
We talked up all night
And still came to no conclusion
We started a fight
That ended in silent confusion
And as we sat stuck
You could hear the trash truck
Making its way through the neighborhood
Picking up the thrown out
Different from house to house
We get to decide what we think is no good
We're sculpted from youth
The chipping away makes me weary
And as for the truth
It seems like we just pick a theory
Ah it's the one that justifies
Our daily lives
And backs us with quiver and arrows
To protect openings
Cause when the warring begins
How quickly the wide open narrows
Into the smallness of
Our deconstruction of love
We thought it was changing
But it never was
It's just the same as it ever was
(full lyrics here: https://tinyurl.com/y7g736d3)
BRANDI CARLILE - HEROES AND SONGS
Some rights and some wrongs
Some heroes and songs
Are much better left unsolved
Between fiction and fact
Illusion and pact
Where we've been into what we've become
Although we have changed
We're never estranged
And there's nothing I'd trade from before
I love you my friend, my dear means to an end
But you're not in my dreams anymore.
(full lyrics here: https://tinyurl.com/y8gvkfxt)
THE ACCIDENTALS - ARIZONA STARS
I think that life is like a jack pine
We cycle through the growth and fire
When someone burns us down, we rise up through unlikely ground
And this time we grow even higher
I...I try, But striving for perfection is a waste of time
I apologize, But it wasn't all for nothing in the scheme of life
I...I try, But striving for perfection is a waste of time
I apologize, But all these imperfections are mine
I try to remember the better times
I try to remember the better times
(full lyrics here: https://tinyurl.com/yddgjvgb)
And now I have to go off and listen to every song I have by these three acts. See you in a couple weeks. 😛
Erin, I didn’t know any of those (i’m Old), they’re wonderful, thank you for sharing!
I've been thinking the same thing. In three or four minutes, especially country music, you've got a whole story. There's a line in a new song I've heard where he's singing about where the relationship is going, "Is it written in the stars, babe, or is it written in the sand". That line just speaks to me.
I like that one too!
How about just one line? From “Poison and Wine” by the Civil Wars: “I don’t love you but I always will.” One line like that, that captures so much, can make a song. That was a soundtrack song while writing THE FAR END OF HAPPY, along with “Say Something (I’m Giving Up on You).
Love both those, Kathryn.
I don't know the first one, Kathryn (I'll have to look it up) but I love the second one.
I LOVE Poison and Wine...and you're right, that line says so much!!
Terrific article. How about Cyndi Lauper:
Lying in my bed I hear the clock tick,
And think of you
Caught up in circles confusion
Is nothing new
Flashback--warm nights--
Almost left behind
Suitcases of memories,
Time after--
I mean, there's a flashback right there in the first verse and it's only two words--"warm nights."
Suitcases of memories - love that.
My 'click' moment for my hero of What's in a Name? came from Dan Fogelberg's "Leader of the Band." Papa, I don't think I said I love you near enough."
Oh Fogelberg! His Run for the Roses, makes me cry every time!
Laura, thanks so much for starting this rousing discussion of my favorite source of Mini Flash Fiction and cliche-busting, song lyrics and other poetry. And thanks everyone else for your awesome and inspiring contributions! Months worth of food for thought.
I listen to country music every day while I do my barn work and find SO many ideas for stories. One of my current WIPs was inspiried by (don't laugh) Dierks Bentley's, Drunk on a Plane.
Those songwriters amaze me with their gift for crafting entire moods/worlds/stories in just a line or two. Eric Church is my current obsession. HIs writing is so raw and real. So many books could come from his music.
I LOVE Drunk on a Plane, Cara!
I'm in awe of those that can create story in song. I listen to every genre, from classic rock to rap—and even country.
I too would love to write song lyrics! I keep a journal with some of my favorites.
Hayes Carll is as country as you can get, but the lyrics to this song slay me...maybe because I've been there.
You say 'I love you'
I say 'me too'
We don't think much about it
It's just a thing that we do
We go out walking
We don't talk much
We lie down together
But our hearts never touch
Oh baby it's a hard way
It's an eternity
We got the life that we wanted
Not the love that we need
We never go to bed angry
Cause we never fight
Yeah we never go crazy
In the middle of the night
We could stay here forever
Just holding on
We both had our reasons
But our reasons are gone
Oh baby it's a hard way
It's an eternity
We got the life that we wanted
Not the love that we need
In our hearts we knew better
But we couldn't let go
Now it's time to quit our island
What we've always known
I don't know that song, but wow, the lyrics are powerful!
So song lyrics are where my writing bug started! I wrote songs for years before I ever tried to pen a novel. In fact, in a YA book I recently wrote (still in editing stages), there's a musical involved, and one day I popped over and wrote a song that would go with that faux show:
If he could see past my skin
Would he begin
To understand my heart
And show sympathy
For what I feel
The depth of my grief
If I could see beyond his mask
But I won’t ask
What he’s hiding in his heart
Whatever misery
Makes him
Behave like such a beast
Why pretend he’s someone I want him to be
The man I imagined is just that—a fantasy
We look for what we hope to find
Reach out with both eyes blind
And act surprised when it all turns to dust and destiny
There's more, but I'll leave it at that! (Oh yeah, (c) 2017 on those lyrics and all that jazz!)
Great post, Laura!
OMG Julie, how do you DO that? It weaves in and out, and sometimes lights spot on. I guess you have to be a poet at heart, huh?
You know, I was such a Barry Manilow fan that I think he is what partly inspired me to try my own hand at writing songs. Plus, I adored musicals and the lyrics in the great ones.
Sting, Dan Fogelberg, Billy Joel—some of my favorites for their music and lyrics. We can't forget the legend who just announced the end of his tour ...
"I am"... I said
To no one there
And no one heard at all
Not even the chair
~Neil Diamond
Solitary Man still gets me, Colleen!
You guys have me thinking of more! Love Walkin' in Memphis by Marc Cohn:
Saw the ghost of Elvis
On Union Avenue
Followed him up to the gates of Graceland
Then I watched him walk right through
Now security they did not see him
They just hovered 'round his tomb
But there's a pretty little thing
Waiting for the King
Down in the Jungle Room
then the next verse:
Now Muriel plays piano
Every Friday at the Hollywood
And they brought me down to see her
And they asked me if I would
Do a little number
And I sang with all my might
She said
"Tell me are you a Christian child?"
And I said "Ma'am, I am tonight"
Oh, I love that song! Such terrific lyrics.
I love song lyrics, too! I credit Jimmy Buffett with devising a masterful character arc in the refrains for Margaritaville:
It's nobody's fault
It could be my fault
It's my own damn fault.
I trust you all can fill in with the rest of the words.
Yeah, love that one, too!
There are a few songs always make me stop and listen (and often cry).
Fleetwood Mac's Landslide, particularly this stanza:
Well, I've been afraid of changin'
'Cause I've built my life around you
But time makes you bolder
Even children get older
And I'm getting older, too
Dixie Chicks, Wide Open Spaces
Who doesn't know what I'm talking about
Who's never left home, who's never struck out
To find a dream and a life of their own
A place in the clouds, a foundation of stone
Many precede and many will follow
A young girl's dreams no longer hollow
It takes the shape of a place out west
But what it holds for her, she hasn't yet guessed
She needs wide open spaces
Room to make her big mistakes
She needs new faces
She knows the high stakes
She traveled this road as a child
Wide eyed and grinning, she never tired
But now she won't be coming back with the rest
If these are life's lessons, she'll take this test
She needs wide open spaces
Room to make her big mistakes
She needs new faces
She knows the high stakes
She knows the high stakes
As her folks drive away, her dad yells, "Check the oil!"
Mom stares out the window and says, "I'm leaving my girl"
She said, "It didn't seem like that long ago"
When she stood there and let her own folks know
She needed wide open spaces
Room to make her big mistakes
She needs new faces
She knows the high stakes
I'm also a HUGE FAN of Don Henley's "Heart of the Matter", particularly this beginning part. That last line just nails my heart to the wall.
I got the call today, I didn't want to hear
But I knew that it would come
An old, true friend of ours was talkin' on the phone
She said you found someone
And I thought of all the bad luck
And the struggles we went through
And how I lost me and you lost you
What are these voices outside love's open door
Make us throw off our contentment
And beg for something more?
Oh, Henley, Jen! Has there ever been a better song written than Hotel California?
I loved this post. I have songs for many of my scenes. I can write and edit a dozen times, but I can get that original fresh feeling back when I play the song.
This is my favorite (Rod Stewart). "She" is a delightful childlike woman and "he" is a serious mature man, oblivious to her romantically until she suddenly says "Please kiss me"." He surprises himself when he does - and realizes he's in love with her. "Am I the person I was this morning, And are you the same you." Aw.
For the First Time
Are those your eyes, is that your smile
I've been lookin at you forever
But I never saw you before
Are these your hands holding mine
Now I wonder how I could of been so blind
For the first time I am looking in your eyes
For the first time I'm seeing who you are
I can't believe how much I see
When you're lookin back at me
Now I understand why love is...
Love is... for the first time...
Can this be real, can this be true
Am I the person I was this morning
And are you the same you
It's all so strange how can it be
All along this love was right in front of me
Such a long time ago
I had given up on finding this emotion..ever again
But you're here with me now
Yes I've found you some how
And I've never been so sure
I thought I knew all the Stewart songs, JC, but I didn't know that one - thanks!
She's got eyes of the bluest skies
As if they thought of rain
I hate to look into those eyes
And see an ounce of pain
Her hair reminds me of a warm safe place
Where as a child I'd hide
And pray for the thunder
And the rain
To quietly pass me by
Sweet Child of Mine by Guns and Roses. I remember being stunned at the beautiful sentiment in this hard rock song!
Me too, Debbie!
A great song, Jenny!
I love John Denver's songs. I still play his Greatest Hits album.
Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy, sunshine in my eyes can make me cry.
Perhaps love is like a resting place, a shelter from the storm. It exists to give you comfort, it is there to keep you warm. And in those times of trouble when you are most alone, the memory of love will bring you home.
Thanks for blogging on this subject, Laura. I love song lyrics and poetry. I discovered some wonderful music reading all the responses.
I listen to my John Denver and Gordon Lightfoot stations on Pandora all the time, Barb! You're right. They're awesome.
We were so lucky to have our boat slipped in Ventura County while it was being outfitted. Imagine our surprise the first week-end we went up to spend the week-end on it and our neighbor asked for permission to come aboard. It was John Denver! During the two months of outfitting a new boat with electronics, canvas, sea trials, and more, we were lucky to be invited to John Denver's (much bigger!) boat for drinks, food and music. What a down-to-earth man.
Fae!! How totally awesome! He had his faults but I loved the guy! You were so lucky!
Orly knew his brother, and got to meet him several times, too. In my freshman year of college, he was a God. First concert I ever went to see...I'll never forgt it.
I love being inspired by music lyrics.
BTW, Neither Garth nor Randy wrote the songs you attributed to them--they just recorded them. Sting, Billy Joel, and Bruce did write the songs attributed to them. 🙂
denise
I think that song writers are, in a way, ghost writers. At least they get a little more credit than ghost writers.
You're right! Like with movies and book authors - we remember who covered it - not the author.... That's sad.
[…] Read the rest of this post HERE. […]
Great point! Lyrics must be concise but at the same time captive and emotive. Makes me appreciate well developed writing style even more.
Oh, Laura, what a great post. Just thinking about your point gives juice to my brain! I wrote my very first book, the medieval you'll never see, to Sting's Fields of Gold. After that, each main character got their own "theme song." Now I have a playlist for each book. I think of it as the music to go with the movie of the book. My latest "acquisition" is from Thirty Seconds to Mars' "Walk on Water": "Can you even see what you're fighting for?"
And you know me, I've made whole scenes after getting an idea from a song...like the belly-dancing scene in the contemporary.
You love your 'angry young man' songs, Fae! And I'll admit, I've discovered some great music through your love of them!
Wonderful post, Laura, and I've loved reading through the replies. Here's a favorite line from John Mellencamp's Circling Around the Moon.: 'Spilled dreams soaking into thirsty dust.' So much to learn!
Rebecca, Mellencamp! I don't know that song - it sounds incredible - going to check it out now!
Thanks for this inspiration. Lyrics are the soul of a song.
Desperado is one of my all-time favorites:
"Desperado, why don't you come to your senses?
Come down from your fences; open the gate
It may be rainin', but there's a rainbow above you
You better let somebody love you, before it's too late"
[…] https://writersinthestormblog.com/2018/01/what-writers-can-learn-from-song-lyrics/ “I love how songwriters can capture a mood or a situation with one stanza. As an author, I’m held captive by the words. Taking something old, and through brilliant writing, making it over in a new way. The lyrics to Carly Simon’ssong, Jesse, inspired my July release, The Last True Cowboy.” I do love songs but usually TV is what inspires me, if anything. […]
[…] from many places. K.M. Weiland has 4 ways for writers to become better readers, Laura Drake shows what writers can learn from song lyrics, and Danielle Davis tells how to reboot your novel with the short story […]
I love song lyrics! My husband never knows the lyrics, but for me I have to know the lyrics to like a song.
"Raglan Road"
On Raglan Road on an autumn day
I saw her first and knew
That her dark hair would weave a snare
That I might one day rue
I saw the danger, yet I passed
Along the enchanted way
And I said, "Let grief be a falling leaf
At the dawning of the day"
On Grafton Street in November
We tripped lightly along the ledge
Of a deep ravine where can be seen
The worth of passions pledged
The 'Queen of Hearts' still making tarts
And I not making hay
Oh, I loved too much and by such, by such
Is happiness thrown away
I gave her gifts of the mind
I gave her the secret sign
That's known to the artists who have known
The true gods of sound and stone
And word and tint I did not stint
For I gave her poems to say
With her own name there and her own dark hair
Like clouds over fields of May
On a quiet street where old ghosts meet
I see her walking now
Away from me so hurriedly
My reason must allow
That I had loved not as I should
A creature made of clay
When the angel woos the clay
He'll lose his wings at dawn of day
Thanks for this inspiration track. Lyrics are really motivational