Lyric writing 101

How to get started when you’reunder pressure of deadlines.

Point of view• First person narrative:

One – Metallica

• Two narrators:Somebody that I used to know - Gotye

• Second person narrative:Wicked Game – London Grammar (Chris Isaak)

• Third person narrative:A-team – Ed Sheeran

Tell a familiar story• Proserpina – Martha Wainwright

Wainwright tells the Greek myth of Proserpinathrough the person of her desperate motherDemeter. She’s even added a Greek choir tosing the chorus.

• Exit music - Radiohead (Romeo and Juliet)

Flip perspective in the narrative, e.i. Malificent.

Be PlayfulFind links between lyrics and music:• One – Metallica has machine gun rhythms• This is not a Love Song – PiL is a happy tune

but the lyrics are sung whiny.• Money – Pink Floyd uses cash registers to

create rhythm

Add a choir or backing vocals in the chorus• Happy – Pharell

• Continue on the meaning of a word:I dreamt you were a cosmonautof the space between our chairs

(Armchairs – Andrew Bird)

• Flip an idiom: Food for thought / Thought for foodAbsence makes the heart grow fonder /Fondness makes the heart grow absent

STUCK?

Reference books / sites

• Rhyming dictionary• Thesaurus

Emergency fillers

• Repetition:

Get Lucky – Daft Punk & Pharell

Can’t stop the feeling – Justin Timberlake

500 Miles – The Proclaimers

• Nonsense words:

Lalala, ooh oooh ooh, obladi obladah