do you write silly, nonsense lyrics?

[Archer]

I always seem to labor over each line of a song, trying to pour as much meaning and emotion as I can.

The other day I pulled out Yes' 90125 album and rediscoverd what a great album that was even though Yes' songs have little or nothing to do with meaningful content.

 

Does anyone just write songs that sound good lyrically without trying to be deep? If so how does it go over for the listener?

Do you feel you need to write about things of great importance or do you usually try to write songs of great importance and end up writing nonsense

[cherri]

I've written a few lighthearted songs with more double entendres than deep meaning. They are fun to perform, because it's a hoot to see people crack up over something you've written.

[strat0124]

Its subjective of course. However I do think that some folks ought to seperate themselves from lyric writing. Our front man writes the most juvenile podunk lyrics, and I always have to shape them up, make them flow better, and sometimes ditch the whole thing. Sometimes a killer guitar player, who sings well, does the same thing....case in point.....Phil Keaggy. I was hearing how great the guy is, and I went out and bought a CD. Great music, good singing, but some of the lyrics sound absolutely terrible.

Writing to be funny, tell a story, or just to make a point can be alot harder than love songs, and should be. Theres only so much I LOVE YOU a man can take in song lyrics!

[Lee Flier]

Originally posted by Archer:

Do you feel you need to write about things of great importance or do you usually try to write songs of great importance and end up writing nonsense

I think it's best not to TRY to write anything in particular. Just write what's on your mind. If it has some kind of "importance," fine, and if it's "nonsense" but the words sound good, that's fine too. I like songs that reflect real people... and real people are serious sometimes and goofy sometimes. So are great songs.

[coyote]

At their most basic purpose, lyrics are simply mouth-noises. There are countless examples from 17th-century opera to jazz to rock to music from around the world and throughout time where the lyric has no real content, and serves merely as a vehicle for a piece of music. That doesn't mean the nonsense lyric is unimportant! Quite the contrary - without it, there'd be no basis for the song being performed.

 

The world would be a dreadful place if every poem, every verse, every lyric were required to contain deep meaning. My conversation is generally kinda serious; I need to write silly music as a balance.

[Ouizel]

Yes is good for lyrics that don't quite fit a storyline, but that fit the rhyme and rhythm.

 

From "Love Will Find A Way", off of 'Big Generator':

 

Here is my heart

Waiting for you

Here is my soul

I eat at Chez Nous.

 

[skipclone 1]

there are two general kinds of nonsense lyrics-one, the more common, is where you take words that make sense by themselves but combine them in crazy ways. I have tried this in poems but not much in lyrics:

 

`the famous flapping birds will scan your sky ,/I]

in stereo the day will end your night`

 

those are the last two lines of something I wrote many years ago (can`t tell, can ya?)

 

then there`s total nonsense-this line came to mind a couple days ago:

 

`eck meng flapdoodle yakka ping moop

tang zip pollywong fizz inna hoop`

 

it fits a beat really well, doesn`t mean a dang thing. Although it`s painful to being up, the Spice Girls should get the Goofy Award from Disney, for this one:

 

"I really really really really wanna zig a zig Ahhh...."

 

some people can make a whole darn career on nonsense...

[Barandine Vondenger]

I wished to be like frank marinoish so in one of my early tunes i wrote the line:

{CARROT TOPS and the food we feed the dogs and all these things that keep us "down"} so it would rhyme with:{OF the many things that I could wish I wish I did not have to "frown"}

 

I routinely use the lines: {ROSES ARE RED VIOLETS ARE BLUE} to sing when I have no words. So much so that I have actually written several tunes with the lines:

{ roses are red and so is blood, how many people really practice brother hood},(Blood red: circa 2002)

and:{ NOT all roses are red not all violets they are blue}(slide song in G: circa 2003)

along with:{Roses now they are red sometimes red is all that I see}(rose red: circa 2002)

 

those three lines are from three different tunes.

 

I try to keep from getting too outlandish for goode taste.

I am constantly using those lines in order just to have words to sing in CADENCE with a new rhythm. It works most of the time to help me flesh out the tune mo' bettah'!

the rest of the time I just plonk down some lyrics and go with it.

I almost always edit and re-edit the words and sometimes the arrangement right up and into the recording process.