Can a song be too honest?
| Posted in Writer's Block
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Tags: how to write a song, Songwriting, writing a song
So how did the song go down?
I think honesty in songs is interesting, because once you start being completely laid bare you\’re also opening up speculation concerning any other song you write.
Lyrically I\’m not shy about expressing myself (natch) but it\’s meant in the past that when I\’ve just wanted to write a sad ballad for fun, people have appeared at the end of the gig and gone \"which ex was that about then?\"
It doesn\’t always occur to people that someone can write honestly and hypothetically at once, maybe because the idea of someone who can do both with the same sincerity is an unsettling prospect?
Rob Sandall
I have a tiny theory about this one… My take is that it’s OK to write deeply personal songs BUT you should never forget your audience isn’t really interested in sharing your pain. What they’re looking for is something THEY can latch on to. So by all means write from personal experience, but translate the experience so it can be related to anyone’s life. Even better, find something in your story that lifts the listener. Most people, when they go to the cinema, expect a happy ending of some sort, even if they have to go through two hours of tragedy to get there.
MarkG
Tough one isn’t it! After all, you can only write about what you know about and most of our experiences concern ourselves. But I always assume audiences are more interested in themselves than the songwriter, which I mean in a good way. I agree with Mark G. What I try to do is initially write the song in the first person, to get the emotion and sense of depth, then transpose it into the second or third person to make it seem less personal and more accessible for others to relate to themselves. If the words ‘me’ and ‘I’ are fundamental to the sense of the lyric (I’m a bit too brutal with myself about avoiding them) then I try to phrase it as if I were a story teller, a device which can help make the lyric seem still further removed from more private corners of one’s own soul. Sting and Ray Davis can both be particularly good at that device. Finally, if its one of those songs that explore ‘the human condition’ as so many songs are, I try to look at it through 360 degrees, so the lyric considers as many possible view points as you can reasonably stuff into three verses and a chorus. This can often provide the perfect opportunity to offer that lift/smile at the end, bitter sweet but still up the creek etc…. Just as well we’ve got the music as well to help get the original emotion across and the audience from not become suicidal!
Francis Power
It’s ALL about storytelling. Spot on with Ray Davis – Waterloo Sunset is almost the perfect example. There’s sadness in there; there’s a songwriter speaking in the first person; but we’re totally wrapped up in Terry and Julie’s story. And how does it end? ‘Waterloo Sunset’s FINE’…
MarkG
I’ve always wondered if there are any sad singalongs out there… most of the choruses people below out are always positive, but there’d be something touching about a mass crowd outro with a bitterly maudlin lyric!
Rob Sandall
I wouldn\’t say that. Look at Kid Cudi
Art Vein