Why, why do lyrics stick and others just kind of poof and they’re gone. So we’re gonna look at that. We’re gonna deconstruct things and just realize there are rules. What we’re, what I’d like to do is, I like to undercover patterns. So I don’t wanna say that there are rules, like if you do this, this will happen. But we, there are patterns that repeat in music, as well as lyrics. So here are some timeless themes. my favorite theme, honestly, is what I call the universal ache. It’s this, just this human condition.
You know, we are all born to live this time, whether it’s a long time, a middle time or a short time. And then pass to the beyond. The beyond and whatever that beyond is for each of us. And this ache, whether we’re looking back at the part of ourselves that we left behind and who we were and the dreams we had, or we’re looking forward to a better day. it’s exemplified like the song yesterday, looking Back and the song Some Somewhere Over the Rainbow to look ahead.
So that is personally one of my favorite. I just, those ache songs get me. But also the next one is where we paint a blank canvas where we don’t tell the person what to feel or think they’ve got a blank canvas and their own life experience gets projected onto that canvas. A great example of that is Elton John’s, your song When he sings. You can tell everybody this is your song. It may be quite simple, but that’s how it’s done.
I hope you don’t mind if I put down in words how wonderful life is while you are in the world. Here I go again. I, I get emotional about these songs. I’m really sorry. I think it’s ’cause I can’t see you all that I’m like tearing up. But, you know, wow, what a way to say to someone. Could be your wife, your husband, your dog, your grandmother, your best friend, just someone in your life who means so much to you.
And what’s great about this song is that it paints this canvas, you know, totally different direction. But same idea as Bob Dylan, you know, touched a whole generation in the early 1960s with his song Blowing in the Wind. He didn’t tell you what was blowing in the end. He just said the answer is blowing in the wind. And each person could, could find out what that means for someone who could mean, you know, they’re finally gonna leave home and step out into the world on their own and find their fortune and, and make their way in the world for another person.
It could mean we’re not gonna go to war anymore, or we’re not gonna take, you know, these politicians telling us what to do. We’re gonna protest for equal rights. So each person gets to project into that blank canvas themselves. I mean, that, that’s, that’s, that’s good eaten if you can do that. the next thing is also cultural themes.
You know, we’re gonna go from these iconic songs to no scrubs. And I have the lyrics later, so I’ll just leave that for a while. And then the last two I really had a hard time with. ’cause there are so many different examples that that spell very different things. You know, there are also story songs, very specific stories like Margaritaville by Jimmy Buffett. It made him famous. And boy did that guy not just write a good song. He, he created an entire billion dollar brand.
You know, that’s that. The, the, the starting gun was Margaritaville, you know, restaurants, Broadway plays, just merchandise everything. It’s a whole, the people who are parrot heads, which are his fans, they, they are, it’s a lifestyle. It’s not just a song, but, but that kind of vibe of like, I’m living life and I’m on vacation. I’m gonna let my hair down. I’m gonna have fun. Like, like that’s really specific. And then lastly, list songs. And what I mean by list songs are just where you have a whole lot of ideas being listed and then it gets to some big breakout chorus that’s just like the headline of a new paper article.
So I’m gonna just jump into it and I’m gonna be mindful of time. ’cause we can get stuck really easily. and I’m gonna read this. Everybody knows this lyric. if you are born, in the last a hundred years, and I’m just gonna read it, normally I do this in a class in person, and I have each person read and interpret.
So I’m gonna do, I’m gonna do your part, my part, but I’m, I’m gonna try to breeze through this home. La la de Felic. Alright? I’m warmed up somewhere over the rainbow way up high. There’s a land that I heard of once in a lullaby somewhere over the rainbow skies are blue.
And the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true someday I’ll wish upon a star and wake up where the clouds are far behind me. When troubles melt, like lemon drops way above the chimney tops, that’s where you’ll find me somewhere over the rainbow bluebird fly.
If they fly over the rainbow, why? Then a why can’t I, if happy little blue birds fly beyond the rainbow, why then a why can’t I, I’m gonna just, since I can’t hear you, very nice. lovely, lovely job. So anyway, this song was written during the 1930s and it was sung by this little girl dreaming, dreaming of someplace other than Kansas.
And she had this incredible adventure. And when you look at this song and how it touched people, you know, what was going on in the world reflected on some deep subliminal thing in people’s minds. There was war brewing in Europe. There was already World War II had started. It hadn’t come to America where this song was recorded and written, but there were dark clouds in the air in, in America at least.
We had a great depression. And husbands couldn’t, you know, parents couldn’t feed their children. People couldn’t find work. And so when this little girl came out and sang about a better place, she didn’t say those things. There’s war coming. And oh, you know, when my dad gets the job, we can eat, you know, potato soup again.
You know, it, it, she’s just singing about dreams in, in timeless images, stars and clouds and chimney tops and rainbows and skies. So it really touched upon people in a very general way where each person, as I mentioned, just like your son could, could project into the, into their mind and their heart, their own version of this somewhere. Or the rainbow might mean I go meet, you know, the person I loved when I go to heaven someday or hell depends on how much fun you’ve been having in life.
and, you know, here it is almost, you know, pretty soon, another decade, decade and a half, this will be a hundred years. This song has been written, you know, around. And we still have these dreams, these feelings a hundred years later. So this really struck a chord. It’s really why I wanted to talk about timeless lyrics.
And of course, it’s that this song in yesterday are two of the most recorded songs in history. There’s like 5,000 or more versions of somewhere of the Rainbow, including that great Hawaiian version where the guy is just kind of riffing and he’s like stoned or something, and he’s like, mixing up all the lyrics. It doesn’t matter. You get the same vibe from it. So moving right along, to your song, how we talked about songs that are a blank canvas, you know, so excuse, sorry, I think I have to have a drink before I do this.
Excuse me, forgetting. But these things I do, you see, I’ve forgotten if they’re green or they’re blue. Anyway, the thing is what I really mean, yours Are the sweetest eyes I’ve ever seen. And you can tell everybody this is your song.
It may be quite simple, but that’s how it’s done. I hope you don’t mind if I put down in words how wonderful life is while you’re in the world and wow. this song. You know, I, I don’t know how many of you play a piano or a guitar, but you know, I, I play both. And when I’m in any event, like a party or I’m at a bar that has a piano, when I sit down and play this song and it hits that chorus, everybody knows the words.
Everybody sings along. It doesn’t matter if they’re 14 or 84, they sing this. And what a great way to share that joy of being a human, of, of caring, even loving someone else so much that you write this great song and …
Universal themes, Emotional songwriting, Lyric deconstruction, Memorable songs, Song analysis, Music theory, Songwriting techniques, Creative process, Iconic songs, Songwriting inspiration, Elton John ” Your Song “, Bob Dylan ” Blowin’ in the Wind “, Cultural impact, Storytelling in music, Music history, Popular songs, Songwriting tips, Classic songs, Lyric writing
