I was in the car on the way home today when I heard a singer/songwriter on the radio sing these lyrics:
I like ice cream when it's cold I like old time radio It's funny but it's true These things I do
The last two lines I'm not exactly sure of the wording, I was trying to remember them because they got me to thinking about writing lyrics and how we need to pay attention to detail.
I've been working on music all summer, but not lyrics. I spent the late spring and early summer working on theme music and tracks for one TV series, and all of August on music for another series. I consider myself lucky to have the opportunity to have my music on television, even if in a small way, and even if it doesn't amount to much of anything money-wise. The biggest bonus for me was that it got me into writing again. Well, I shouldn't come to any conclusions, I've only started on one song, but hey, for somebody who has had nothing but a dry well to draw water from the last three or four years, it's something!
And that's why the above lines struck me today. You should read them again before I go on and see if you can spot the inconsistencies.
This is another song discovery that came from one of my guitar students, a young girl of course :-). Ed Sheeran is only 21 years old but he already has a maturity in his songwriting and guitar playing far beyond that. He's from the UK, which is obvious when you hear him sing certain words. This particular song is about a young woman who has been brutally beaten up by a world of drugs and prostitution, but instead of telling you anything beyond that, I'll post the lyrics.
White lips, pale face Breathing in the snowflakes Burnt lungs, sour taste Light's gone, days end Struggling to pay rent Long nights, strange men
CHORUS:
And they say She's in the Class A Team Stuck in her daydream Been this way since 18 But lately, her face seems Slowly sinking, wasting Crumbling like pastries And they scream The worst things in life come free to us
'Cause we're just under the upper hand And go mad for a couple grams And she don't wanna go outside tonight And in a pipe she flies to the motherland Or sells love to another man It's too cold outside For angels to fly Angels to fly
Ripped gloves, raincoat Tried to swim, stay afloat Dry house, wet clothes Loose change, bank notes Weary-eyed, dry throat Call girl, no phone
[REPEAT CHORUS]
BRIDGE:
An angel will die Covered in white Closed eyes and hopin' for a better life This time, we'll fade out tonight Straight down the line
[REPEAT CHORUS]
LAST CHORUS:
And we're all under the upper hand And go mad for a couple grams And we don't wanna go outside tonight And in the pipe, fly to the motherland Or sell love to another man It's too cold outside For angels to fly Angels to fly Fly, fly For angels to fly, to fly, to fly Angels to die
The two things that appeal to me most about this song are Ed Sheeran's voice and guitar playing. But there are some interesting he does with the lyrics, especially this section:
Been this way since 18 But lately, her face seems Slowly sinking, wasting Crumbling like pastries And they scream
This is a series of five lines that rhyme; not perfect rhymes on all occasions, but each two syllables long whether they are one word or two. And on each of those he uses the same two notes, higher than any other note in the song. Now my rule of thumb has always been to only repeat something three times or it starts to feel like too much, but in this case that rule appears to go out the window. It just works.
I also like the phrase "in a pipe, she flies to the Motherland"...there are a lot of visual elements in the verses, which have short, descriptive phrases in contrast to the chorus which expands into longer lines and phrases. One of the things songwriters often struggle with is the idea of contrast; you want the verses and the chorus to be distinct from each other (and other song parts like pre-choruses and bridges too), and there are a number of ways to achieve that contrast. One obvious way is by creating distinct melodies and chord progressions, which this song also does. But look at this first verse:
White lips, pale face Breathing in the snowflakes Burnt lungs, sour taste Light's gone, days end Struggling to pay rent Long nights, strange men
You don't need to watch a video to get a sense of a cold and tired person and difficult circumstances. Line 1, 3, 4 and 6 are mostly two sets of adjectives and nouns (white lips, pale face, where the words "white" and "pale" are the adjectives and "lips" and "face" are nouns, for those of you who forget those terms!). Simple, but powerfully succinct writing. The chorus begins with shorter lines, but then builds into longer ones as the chord progressions. It's almost like the first 8 short lines are actually a pre-chorus and some might label them as such. However, they contain the title of the song, which some might argue denotes the chorus.
When I worked this song out, I instinctively put the capo on the 2nd fret because I could hear the bass run down from a "G" to an "Em", and in watching a solo acoustic version of Sheeran performing it, I saw that he had his capo exactly there. He has a nice, percussive style of playing, where he'll throw in a chord or bass change for a beat or two just to make it more interesting. In fact, I chose to show that video below as opposed to the fancier, produced version, because you get a sense of how a great song stands on its own with the right performance of it.
I certainly recommend listening to the recorded version as well. Nothing in the production gets in the way of the song. I've listened to his song "Drunk" and was not as impressed, but I'm certainly going to check out some of his other songs.
In the meantime, have a listen to the song in the video below.
