Pamela Phillips Oland - The Art of Writing Great Lyrics

THE ART OF WRITING
GREAT LYRICS

THE ART OFWRITING
GREAT LYRICS

Pamela Phillips Oland

To Mum, Who Gave Me the Words

To Dad, Who Gave Me the Music

To Bobby, Who Gave Me the Love

1989, 2001 Pamela Phillips Oland

All rights reserved. Copyright under Berne Copyright Convention, Universal Copyright Convention, and Pan-American Copyright Convention. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior permission of the publisher.

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Published by Allworth Press

An imprint of Allworth Communications

10 East 23rd Street, New York, NY 10010

Cover design by Douglas Design Associates, New York, NY

Back-cover author photo by Christine Loss

Page composition/typography by SR Desktop Services, Ridge, NY

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Oland, Pamela Phillips, 1947

The art of writing great lyrics / by Pamela Phillips Oland.Rev. and expanded ed.
p.cm.

Rev. version of the authors: You can write great lyrics, 1989.

Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.

ISBN 1-58115-093-8

1. Lyric writing (Popular music). I. Oland, Pamela Phillips, 1947 .

You can write great lyrics. II. Title.

MT67.O4 2001

782.421640268dc

212001022261

A revised and expanded edition of the book formerly titled You Can Write Great Lyrics.

Printed in Canada

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION: IF YOU CANT WRITE A LYRIC,
YOU HAVENT GOT A SONG

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I want to acknowledge everyone who has ever inspired me with a casual comment that Ive transformed into a lyric; I want to acknowledge all the pairs of lovers who have crossed my path and left behind a hint of their romance, the scent of an idea.

I take this opportunity to acknowledge a host of wonderful and talented collaborators whose imagination and inspiration has led me to explore my own potential. Thank you, each of you, for the fun of it, the joy of it, the great uplifting feeling of creating a work of art together.

I must acknowledge my incredible friendsin and out of the industrywhose affection and nurturing has uplifted my spirit while keeping my feet planted on terra firma.

Personal thanks to my publishing administrator, Dean Kay, who wrote the amazing Thats Life!a more honorable person never breathed. And I want to thank the never-to-be-forgotten Mr. Frank Sinatra for giving me my first big break, leading me to think I must be doing something right!

Many thanks to all of the many artists and producers who have chosen to interpret and record my songs over the years, for the incomparable delight of hearing my work take on a life of its own.

And, finally, a note to my publisher, Tad Crawford, who wanted to see this book back in print: Thanks for believing in my personal method for writing great lyrics, and giving it this terrific new forum and home with Allworth Press.

FOREWORD TO THIS
REVISED EDITION

T his book was first published in 1989. When Allworth Press invited me to create a twenty-first century edition of this work, I found that my voice had changed somewhat, and so went about revising and simplifying my original manuscript. What youll find here is a tried-and-true songwriting method that is hopefully even easier to understand and make your own.

It also seemed reasonable to change the title as long as the book was being updated. While You Can Write Great Lyrics is a mantra that applies to any writer who applies him- or herself to the process, that title doesnt address the fact that writing great lyrics is an art, every bit as much as painting, sculpting, photography, or ballet. Lyric writing at its heart is a personal expression of your very unique talent. You have a perspective on life, love, and the world that no one else on earth has. In these pages, secrets will unfold that will help you make a good idea a great idea, turn a moving poem into a wonderful song lyric, develop a thought that youve never really fleshed out, and watch it become a recordable song.

I wish you many happy hours developing your art as a lyricist, and great success as your reward; and I remind you that the one song you will definitely never get recorded is the one you never write!

PAMELA PHILLIPS OLAND
Los Angeles, California, April 1, 2001

INTRODUCTION: IF YOU CANT
WRITE A LYRIC, YOU HAVENT
GOT A SONG!

"I ts a terrific melody, but the words need work

Id publish that song in a second if you could just tighten up that lyrical concept

Wow! Thats a hot groove, but the lyrics dont quite make it for me

Great title! I love the hook! But the verses dont go anywhere

Id love to record itI mean, the melody kills mebut I just dont relate to the lyrics. Can you rewrite them?

Well, can you?

This book is for you if you are:

1. A composer who wants to write the whole song and have the lyrics come out as inspired as the music.

2. A lyricist who has fragments of good ideas but wants your work to be consistently excellent from the first to last line.

3. A songwriter who spends triple the amount of time trying to craft lyrics as you do pouring out melody ideas.

4. A lyricist who writes good songs but wants to write great songs.

5. Someone who writes marvelous poetry and has always wanted to master the art of songwriting.

6. A composer, singer, music publisher, A&R person, artists managerin fact, any user of music who wants a better yardstick by which to judge the lyrics that come into your hands.

7. A member of the music industry who needs to be able to make well-directed critiques and insightful evaluations that will make it easier for lyricists to better judge and, when required, rewrite their lyrics.

From my experience talking to hundreds of songwriters, I would say that writing lyrics is the area of songwriting that gives people the most problems. Many gifted songwriters can write a fantastic melody, program an amazing track, play half a dozen instruments, sing their heads off, arrange, produce, and score for days, but when its time for lyrics, the words just dont come.

Yet when you look at the problem realistically, it does make sense: Musical talent, no matter how profound, has no connection to the ability to manipulate language. Notes are one thing, and words are entirely another.

Then there are those of you who are stronger with words than music. But your terrific ideas and pieces of songs are bursts of inspiration that never quite hang together properly as viable commercial lyrics. You become very frustrated when a few industry professionalsto whom you happen to show your lyricsagree that something is wrong in the way theyre written, but unfortunately they cant actually verbalize what it is they dont like. You then blindly struggle to rewrite your lyrics to please a particular publisher/producer/artist/manager/A&R person. But when you dont know whats wrong in the first place, how are you supposed to fix it?

Many composers simply leave the lyrics to people who specialize in lyric writing, while other songwriters like to come up with the title, or the title and concept, leaving the actual writing of lyrics to a collaborator they trust. There are a lot of composers, however, who dont have much experience or skill in the art of lyric writing, but are scared of trusting their melody to someone else. So they grapple with the unfamiliar and uncomfortable world of words and syntax, when they would much rather be composing music!