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Singer in my band quit, fuzz fest is in a week, so I'm taking the role of singer. (I apologize to anyone who is going.)

anywho, I can't write lyrics. or maybe I can. I don't really know. I just suck at it. How do all of you go about writing lyrics?

The ways I try (I have thus far only written one full set of lyrics so, I'm not sure I'm the example to follow) are:
1. start with a title and write like poetry
2. write a short story and put it in lyric form
tip: Write songs non-conducive to lyrics so you can get away with writing one or two lines.
tip: Vocal effects; use them. You can mask some less than stellar lyrical moments with tremolo and reverb; giving you a very experimental sound.
tip: Know what you want to write (generally speaking) gibberish is something very few people can pull off.
big tip: Find out how you sing; no sense writing lyrical rhythms and melodies you won't be able to follow.

Here is a fantastic example of, "less is more," in the vocal department:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJGLp33KsFE[/youtube]

bob the r0bot wrote:The ways I try (I have thus far only written one full set of lyrics so, I'm not sure I'm the example to follow) are:
1. start with a title and write like poetry
2. write a short story and put it in lyric form
tip: Write songs non-conducive to lyrics so you can get away with writing one or two lines.
tip: Vocal effects; use them. You can mask some less than stellar lyrical moments with tremolo and reverb; giving you a very experimental sound.
tip: Know what you want to write (generally speaking) gibberish is something very few people can pull off.
big tip: Find out how you sing; no sense writing lyrical rhythms and melodies you won't be able to follow.

Here is a fantastic example of, "less is more," in the vocal department:

I was thinking about going the John Dwyer route and only write four lines of lyrics and just repeat them...

i used to just write for a few minutes before going to sleep every night, whatever was on my mind, or just random prose i guess. i wouldn't go back and read any of it until much much later, and when i did, i noticed definite progress in the way of things that sounded stupid vs. things that sounded cool. it wasn't necessarily for lyrics, just a creative exercise, but it led me to think that if you can be okay with the fact that you're gonna write a lot of really bad stuff and just work past it, you'll get to a point where you're much happier with much more of your output.

i guess basically i'm saying it takes practice.

esquisite corpse and/or bibliomancy

it worked for talking heads

If you're trying to write lyrics to put "on top of" an already finished piece of music, try to feel what the music is already saying. First the song as a whole. This will give you a general idea about the subject of the song. Then listen to each individual part. This will tell you what goes where.

Is your verse sort of stupid? Your chorus is kinda pissed off-sounding?

Your verse is an impression of Sarah Palin. Your chorus is "I want to f**k up Sarah Palin's c**t with a big f**king knife".

Sorry for the example, it was the first thing I thought of.

Write a poem on the subject you'd like to use. Then try to sing it to the music. You'll notice immediately how you have to lengthen or shorten lines, or where you should repeat a line. Keep tweaking it till it fits, and you have your lyrics.

Step one: Acquire notebook, pen, bowl of weed
Step Two: Smoke Bowl
Step Three: Write down things
Step Four: Shout them over the guitars.

^In an old band we pretty much did exactly that, me and the lead singer just wrote words down, they didn't necessarily make any sense or relate to any other words in the song. I guess we got high a lot and the band never really went anywhere. Saved us the annoying process of trying to write good lyrics though.

Definitely write down every idea you have, then leave them and come back later. Often I'll see a line/phrase/verse which I like in the middle of a horribly bad overall poem/lyric and then I pull it and base a song round it/slot it in somewhere else. If I do this often enough I sometimes cobble together entire songs that I think are at least passable lyrically, but I'm woefully behind songs I have music written for though, so maybe I should just start getting high more and stop caring about good lyrics.

I'm also a reluctant lyricist/singer because I don't have a band atm so it's the only way I can get singing done.

Birthday Boy wrote:If you're trying to write lyrics to put "on top of" an already finished piece of music, try to feel what the music is already saying. First the song as a whole. This will give you a general idea about the subject of the song. Then listen to each individual part. This will tell you what goes where.

Is your verse sort of stupid? Your chorus is kinda pissed off-sounding?

Your verse is an impression of Sarah Palin. Your chorus is "I want to f**k up Sarah Palin's c**t with a big f**king knife".

Sorry for the example, it was the first thing I thought of.

Okay, I'm going to ask you to ignore my previous example and think about the idea itself. This really works a lot better than it sounds like it might, at least for me. Can you identify some sort of attitude in the music? Is it sounding kinda clausrophobic or something like that? The song is most likely not about claustrophobia. Do you recognize the feeling from anywhere in your life? Dentist's chair? I personally hate anything clinical like that. Why? The sterileness (?) makes flesh/cells/organic matter seem sick and unnatural (yeah, wierd) by contrast, and those are already under question since I'm there. Still fitting the song? Good. If not, start over or make a new song out of it. Anyway, now you're starting to get some pictures to work with. Whose sick, unnatural flesh? etc

Association games + "logic" (some things will just follow naturally once you get going and apply it to the song structure etc). Just coming up with an adjective like that isn't really the point though. Unless you're drawing from the music along the way you'll lose the feelings it's giving you. The one reason this approach is helpful, at least to me, is that you end up with lyrics that are meaningful in some way (even if terribly abstract) in relation to the music.

When you start with poems or other things you've scribbled down you (I) often end up forcing them onto songs and end up compromising the feeling/message of both. Obviously this is all about putting lyrics on top of previously existing songs.

I hope this was remotely helpful.

Edit: I know that too sounds like it would make a terrible song, but the value of an idea in this case is only in your own ability to make a good lyric out of it. It may be a great idea or a shitty one in theory, but the important thing is your ability to turn it into a good lyric that fits the song; how it works with your writing style.

I used to walk around with one of those moleskin notebooks and a really tiny pencil in my pocket. No matter where I was or what I was doing if I got an idea for a line or whatever I would write it down. I personally ended up with a lot of garbage, but I got a few useable songs out of it.

aen wrote:Step one: Acquire notebook, pen, bowl of weed
Step Two: Smoke Bowl
Step Three: Write down things
Step Four: Shout them over the guitars.

BAM.

as long as it more or less rhymes and it's not incredibly stupid, nobody will care. look at grunge: is there a half-assed lyricist in that entire genre? no. and let's not even bring up heavy metal. unless you're a fool like me who wants to write art lyrics, just throw some shit over a rhythm and get with it. it's not fuckin' Shakespeare. i don't think Iggy labored over it that much.

dun dun dun dun dun dun WORD
dun dun dun dun dun dun WORD THAT RHYMES

it's not rocket surgery.

Develop a routine that works for you. I find throwing ideas down on a piece of paper and repeatedly rehashing them works for me.

dubkitty wrote:dun dun dun dun dun dun WORD
dun dun dun dun dun dun WORD THAT RHYMES

it's not rocket surgery.

Pretty much.

Fuck, Jim Morrison rhymed fire with... fire. But he delivers it incredibly, and that's all that matters.


Also:
Why don't we do it in the road
Why don't we do it in the road
Why don't we do it in the road
Why don't we do it in the road
No one will be watching us
Why don't we do it in the road

etc.