Writing Lyrics
I spent most of the weekend working on the lyrics for my ten contributions to the next Acoustic Disturbance CD, Last Past the Post.
Of all my various creative enterprises, I find writing lyrics to be by far the most difficult.
Novels, poems and prose allow much more linguistic freedom. When you’re writing in a genre like alternative rock, you have to avoid words that are too complex or have the air of pomposity because the contrast with rock sounds and rhythms is jarring on the ear. This is true even in pop and folk music—-Paul Simon always comes across sounding like a third-year English major.
In one song I’m trying out the word “phantasm,” because the meaning of the word is exactly what I want: “something existing in perception only”. Now I have to sing the song a few times to see if it truly fits (unfortunately, the line in question does not allow it to rhyme with orgasm, which would make for a good laugh).
I have eight pretty much done, one a word or two off, and one that’s giving me trouble. When that happens, all you can do is leave it alone, go have a laugh or a good fuck, and see if something snuck in while you were gone.
p.s. I took care of the one that was giving me trouble. I went out to the patio, watched the patterns of passing clouds for a while, went back to my keyboard, and voila! Done!
