Lyrics

Songs I Like – Enough To Be On Your Way

Posted on by IJ

Song: Enough To Be On Your Way Artist: James Taylor (Originally published Sept.20, 2012)

I recently watched James Taylor perform at the DNC on television and it reminded me of one of my favourite songs of his. I’ve mentioned it before in my blog article My 10 All Time Favourite Songs but I think I’d like to go into more depth here about what I like so much about this song.

What I think I first fell in love with in this song was the melody and chord progression and the instrumentation…it’s a sad song and a powerful one.  I didn’t find out until later that James wrote it about his brother who passed away.

James changed the gender of the main character in the song (good idea to do that when you’re writing about something or someone personal to you!), and I’m sure he changed some other details for the sake of the song.  When I found out it was really about his brother, it explained a lot to me.  First of all, songwriters are always told “write what you know”.  I’m sure this applies to other types of writing, but the truth is that when a lyric is real, people feel it.  When you’re really writing from the heart, it connects a lot better than something totally made up.  Now, I’m not advocating the idea of making your songwriting a diary of your life, but the more truthiness there is to it (I know, borrowed word and not in the dictionary!), the more your audience can relate.

Here are some of the lyrics:

The sun shines on this funeral
The same as on a birth
The way it shines on everything
That happens here on earth

It rolls across the western sky
And back into the sea
And spends the day’s last rays
Upon this fucked up family
So long old gal

The last time I saw Alice
She was leaving Santa Fe
With a bunch of round-eyed Buddhists
In a killer Chevrolet
Said they turned her out of Texas
Yeah she burned `em down back home
Now she`s wild with expectation
On the edge of the unknown

CHORUS:
Oh it`s enough to be on your way
It`s enough just to cover ground
It`s enough to be moving on
Home, build it behind your eyes
Carry it in your heart
Safe among your own

The chord progression in the verses is sentimental and soft, beginning with a Gmaj7 to an A/B (all relative to the capo on the 3rd fret).  Major 7th chords have always been some of my favourites, as was evidenced in the first few songs I wrote once I discovered them.  They are often used in jazz, but are not as difficult to play as some jazz chords.  The A/B chord is simply an A with the added B bass note, which gives a kind of anticipatory feel to the lines.  He plays those two chords once each in the first two lines, then starts the third line, which is twice as long, with the same two chords, progressing to F#m7, Bm7, Em9, A, D/A, A. James likes to keep his bass lines moving which make his guitar progressions intricate and interesting.

My favourite progression, however, is in the chorus. It starts with Bm7 to Em7 to F#m7 and back to Bm7, but the second line takes a twist.  It picks up at the Em7 to F#m7 again, but then it moves to a Gmaj7…a major 7th chord, giving it that emotional punch just at the right time.  His melody moves eloquently over top, with the melodic and lyrical repetition of “it’s enough” at the beginning of the first three lines.  It’s enough to be on your way, it’s enough just to cover ground, it’s enough to be moving on.

When I first discovered James Taylor back in the 70’s, what impressed me most were his chord progressions and melodies.  I didn’t even think about or pay attention to his lyrics until later.  But I have to say I’ve never heard him swear in a song :-).  In the first verse of this song, he opens with the idea of how the sun shines on the funeral, as it shines on everything, implying a kind of indifference to the drama that’s going on beneath it.  The last line hits home with “and spends the days’ last rays upon this fucked up family.”  I wonder if James ever wondered whether or not he should use that word!  On the other hand, there’s an element of “real” to it, isn’t there?  Don’t we all feel that way about our families sometimes?  I think he was bringing his real life into that line.

Have a listen to Enough To Be On Your Way in the YouTube video below.  

I love this song…when I bought the album, it was one of those songs that grew on me the more I listened to it.  For me these days, that is rare.  It may be only because I am unable to find artists that appeal to me in order to discover those gems, and the places where I might hear them on a regular basis (like radio used to) don’t exist.  But there is nothing more beautiful than a song that reveals itself more and more over time.

~ IJ

Songs I Like – A Team

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Song: A Team Artist: Ed Sheeran (Originally published May 7, 2012)

This is another song discovery that came from one of my guitar students, a young girl of course :-).  Ed Sheeran is only 21 years old but he already has a maturity in his songwriting and guitar playing far beyond that.  He’s from the UK, which is obvious when you hear him sing certain words.  This particular song is about a young woman who has been brutally beaten up by a world of drugs and prostitution, but instead of telling you anything beyond that, I’ll post the lyrics.

White lips, pale face
Breathing in the snowflakes
Burnt lungs, sour taste
Light’s gone, days end
Struggling to pay rent
Long nights, strange men

CHORUS:

And they say
She’s in the Class A Team
Stuck in her daydream
Been this way since 18
But lately, her face seems
Slowly sinking, wasting
Crumbling like pastries
And they scream
The worst things in life come free to us

‘Cause we’re just under the upper hand
And go mad for a couple grams
And she don’t wanna go outside tonight
And in a pipe she flies to the motherland
Or sells love to another man
It’s too cold outside
For angels to fly
Angels to fly

Ripped gloves, raincoat
Tried to swim, stay afloat
Dry house, wet clothes
Loose change, bank notes
Weary-eyed, dry throat
Call girl, no phone

[REPEAT CHORUS]

BRIDGE:

An angel will die
Covered in white
Closed eyes and hopin’ for a better life
This time, we’ll fade out tonight
Straight down the line

[REPEAT CHORUS]

LAST CHORUS:

And we’re all under the upper hand
And go mad for a couple grams
And we don’t wanna go outside tonight
And in the pipe, fly to the motherland
Or sell love to another man
It’s too cold outside
For angels to fly
Angels to fly
Fly, fly
For angels to fly, to fly, to fly
Angels to die

The two things that appeal to me most about this song are Ed Sheeran’s voice and guitar playing.  But there are some interesting he does with the lyrics, especially this section:

Been this way since 18
But lately, her face seems
Slowly sinking, wasting
Crumbling like pastries
And they scream

This is a series of five lines that rhyme;  not perfect rhymes on all occasions, but each two syllables long whether they are one word or two.  And on each of those he uses the same two notes, higher than any other note in the song.  Now my rule of thumb has always been to only repeat something three times or it starts to feel like too much, but in this case that rule appears to go out the window.  It just works.

I also like the phrase “in a pipe, she flies to the Motherland”…there are a lot of visual elements in the verses, which have short, descriptive phrases in contrast to the chorus which expands into longer lines and phrases. One of the things songwriters often struggle with is the idea of contrast;  you want the verses and the chorus to be distinct from each other (and other song parts like pre-choruses and bridges too), and there are a number of ways to achieve that contrast.  One obvious way is by creating distinct melodies and chord progressions, which this song also does.  But look at this first verse:

White lips, pale face
Breathing in the snowflakes
Burnt lungs, sour taste
Light’s gone, days end
Struggling to pay rent
Long nights, strange men

You don’t need to watch a video to get a sense of a cold and tired person and difficult circumstances.  Line 1, 3, 4 and 6 are mostly two sets of adjectives and nouns (white lips, pale face, where the words “white” and “pale” are the adjectives and “lips” and “face” are nouns, for those of you who forget those terms!).  Simple, but powerfully succinct writing.  The chorus begins with shorter lines, but then builds into longer ones as the chord progressions.  It’s almost like the first 8 short lines are actually a pre-chorus and some might label them as such.  However, they contain the title of the song, which some might argue denotes the chorus.

When I worked this song out, I instinctively put the capo on the 2nd fret because I could hear the bass run down from a “G” to an “Em”, and in watching a solo acoustic version of Sheeran performing it, I saw that he had his capo exactly there.  He has a nice, percussive style of playing, where he’ll throw in a chord or bass change for a beat or two just to make it more interesting.  In fact, I chose to show that video below as opposed to the fancier, produced version, because you get a sense of how a great song stands on its own with the right performance of it.

I certainly recommend listening to the recorded version as well.  Nothing in the production gets in the way of the song.  I’ve listened to his song “Drunk” and was not as impressed, but I’m certainly going to check out some of his other songs.

In the meantime, have a listen to the song in the video below.

~ IJ

Songs I Like – Wichita Lineman

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Song: Wichita Lineman Artist: Glen Campbell (Originally published March 5, 2012)

I recently saw Glen Campbell perform on the Grammys and was struck by his courage to be out there performing even though he has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease.  One of the interesting things about the brain is that when you learn music, or a musical instrument, your whole brain is engaged, as opposed to just part of it devoted to something like speech or face recognition.  So Alzheimer’s patients will often remember lyrics and melodies to songs (or remember how to play piano for instance), well after they have forgotten who their closest family members are.  It’s an interesting aspect of music that I also see with my father who has Alzheimer’s.  He still remembers me at this point, but much of his personality has been destroyed by the disease.  Still, he can remember old songs with little or no effort!

But that’s not what this post is about :-).  This is about one of my favourite all time songs, Wichita Lineman.  It was written in 1968 by someone who many songwriters consider to be a songwriting guru, Jimmy Webb.  The song became a hit for Glen Campbell on the pop, adult contemporary and country charts that year and certified gold in 1969.

Part of the charm of that version was, of course, Glen Campbell’s wonderful voice and guitar playing.  The story behind the song, according to Wikipedia, goes as follows: “Jimmy Webb’s inspiration for the lyrics came while driving through Washita County in rural northern Oklahoma. At that time, many telephone companies were county-owned utilities and their linemen were, in fact, county employees. Heading westward on a straight road into the setting sun, Webb was driving through an endless litany of telephone poles, each looking exactly the same as the last. Then, in the distance, he noticed the silhouette of a solitary lineman atop a pole. He described it as “the picture of loneliness.” Webb then “put himself atop that pole and put that phone in his hand” as he considered what the lineman was saying into the receiver. Glen Campbell added in a statement to the Dallas Observer that Webb wrote the song about his first love affair with a woman who married someone else.”

As a songwriter, one of the interesting aspects for me is that the song has no chorus, although it does have a repeating phrase “the Wichita lineman is still on the line.”  The music is dotted with minor 7th and major 7th chords, the latter of which give it that plaintive, bitter sweet feel.  Recently, when I went to see James Taylor live in my city, I was over the top when he started to perform his version of Wichita Lineman, and it has, indeed, been recorded by many artists over the years.  In fact, I’m think I might like to do a recording of it myself some day!  

Have a listen to the song in the video below, and here are the lyrics:

I am a lineman for the county 
And I drive the main road 
Searchin’ in the sun for another overload 

I hear you singin’ in the wire, 
I can hear you through the whine 
And the Wichita Lineman is still on the line 

I know I need a small vacation 
But it don’t look like rain 
And if it snows that stretch down south won’t ever stand the strain 

And I need you more than want you, 
And I want you for all time 
And the Wichita Lineman is still on the line 

And I need you more than want you, 
And I want you for all time 
And the Wichita Lineman is still on the line 

It just gets me every time 🙂
~ IJ

Songs I Like – Edith And The Kingpin

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Song: Edith And The Kingpin Artist: Joni Mitchell (Originally published Feb.27, 2012)

Recently there was a popular hash tag on Twitter regarding your favourite lyrics. I don’t normally participate in those (perhaps I should!), but this time I decided to post a couple of lines from a song that I’ve always loved because of the lyrics. It’s a Joni Mitchell song called “Edith And The Kingpin” from her 1975 album, The Hissing of Summer Lawns:

Anyone who knows me, knows that Joni Mitchell is one of my favourite songwriters, and this lyric to me exemplifies her poetry-that-comes-alive-with-music talent.  There are many poets out there and many lyricists, and more often than not, they are not interchangeable.

A lot of poetry just doesn’t work with music, but Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan were poets who were able to put music to their poetry seamlessly.  The poetry has to be approachable, and the music has to be perfectly married to the words.  This is a jazzy Joni Mitchell album, with Edith and the Kingpin being one of it’s smoother pieces.  One of the passages that gets me is this one:

His eyes hold Edith
His left hand holds his right
What does that hand desire
That he grips it so tight

Joni has a way with visual lyrics…I can “see” his grip on his own hand, there’s an intensity about the idea of his eyes holding Edith and the his obvious desire for her.  Even the fact that she uses the word “grip” instead of “hold” or any other choice, gives it that added intensity.

In the chord progression, it slips into a Bb6/9-5 to an Em7/A.  Now if that throws you, Joni actually plays in an open tuning of: D A E G C E so creating these jazz chords takes on a whole new dimension.  Don’t worry, you don’t have to know how to play guitar to read the rest of this, but when you listen to the song, moving into that passage has the effect of a bridge or a pre-chorus, although there is no chorus in this song.

In another “bridge”, she sings:

Women he has taken
Grow old too soon
He tilts their tired faces
Gently to the spoon

That line “He tilts their tired faces gently to the spoon” is, again, so visual for me.   The fact that he’s in charge of them, that they are obvious addicts and totally under his control comes together so well in four short lines.

If you’ve never heard the song, listen to it on the video below, and here are the lyrics for you to read along with.

The big man arrives
Disco dancers greet him
Plainclothes cops greet him
Small town, big man, fresh lipstick glistening
Sophomore jive
From victims of typewriters
The band sounds like typewriters
The big man he’s not listening

His eyes hold Edith
His left hand holds his right
What does that hand desire
That he grips it so tight

Edith in the ring
The passed over girls are conferring
The man with the diamond ring is purring
All claws for now withdrawn
One by one they bring
His renegade stories to her
His crimes and his glories to her
In challenge they look on

Women he has taken grow old too soon
He tilts their tired faces
Gently to the spoon

Edith in his bed
A plane in the rain is humming
The wires in the walls are humming
Some song some mysterious song
Bars in her head
Beating frantic and snowblind
Romantic and snowblind
She says his crime belongs

Edith and the Kingpin
Each with charm to sway
Are staring eye to eye
They dare not look away
You know they dare not look away

Love it!
~ IJ

Songwriting Topics

Posted on by IJ

writeI have written about this before, but thought I would do so again after reading another songwriting blog that suggested what the five “most successful” songwriting topics are.  They were listed as “love, country, religion, nature, sports”.  I want to take each of those topics and discuss them a little further.  These are my opinions, of course, you might want to argue with me in the comments section below :-).

First of all, I’m assuming that the writer is talking about “success” in some sort of commercial way, or least in terms of popularity on YouTube or other digital means. Success can be a pretty relative thing, but I’ll go by that assumption.

I can certainly agree with “love” being a successful topic.  I don’t think I’d be exaggerating if I guessed that probably 75% of the songs you hear on the radio are about some aspect of love;  new love, lost love, jealous love, old love…the list goes on and on. You can’t go wrong using love as your songwriting topic.

The second, country, was actually described as “about the country”, basically describing songs about patriotism. I don’t think you’ll find too many songs on YouTube or on the Billboard Top 100 on a REGULAR basis, that are patriotic.  So I would broaden that topic to “places”.  Places can be anything from a city (there have been lots of famous and successful songs over the years about cities!), to a spot where you used to meet someone (okay,  that’s bordering on a love song, I know), to a neighbourhood you grew up in, to your room or even a job place.  Patriotism might feel good to you, but it can often become cheesy, so be careful with that topic on its own.

The next topic was described as religion and religion is a subject that is rather audience specific.  For instance, there are Christian songwriting websites and messageboards out there, so I am certainly aware that there are songwriters who write solely in that genre, and it is indeed a genre.  Within the Christian community there are radio stations with hit songs and big name artists.  I do remember a time when gospel songs were occasionally on the playlists of mainstream radio, but that doesn’t happen any more.  Country radio often has its share of songs with religious overtones, so a person might have some success with a country audience.  So I’m on the fence as to whether this topic can be potentially successful outside of its specific audience.

Nature is the next topic.  Oddly enough, the first song that comes to mind is an old one written by Eddie Rabbit and performed by Elvis Presley.  I don’t know why, but “Kentucky Rain” just popped into my head!  It’s really not about rain, though, or Kentucky.  It’s an excellent title, but it is…guess what?  A love song!  Nature in and of itself seems a rather benign topic.  Another one that comes to mind (sorry, these are all old!) is “Rocky Mountain High” by John Denver.  It takes place in the Rocky Mountains, but it is really a coming-of-age song.  So I think that nature is probably used more as a metaphor for something else, rather than a topic in and of itself.

Here are the most recent (as of 8/20/14) Billboard  top 5 hot pop songs and their topics:

  • Rude! by Magic – love song about a guy asking a girl’s father for his daughter’s hand in marriage
  • Stay With Me by Sam Smith – love song
  • Am I Wrong? by Nico and Vinz – about trying to stand up for what’s right, a philosophical song
  • Latch by Disclosure – love song
  • Boom Clap by Charli XCX – love song

And the hot rock top 5 songs:

  • A Sky Full of Stars by Coldplay – love song
  • Habits (Stay High) by Tove Lo – love song
  • Pompeii by Bastille – believe it or not, a song about Pompeii.  Imagine that!  You could put this under my category of “place”
  • Come With Me Now by Kongos – a song about overcoming obstacles
  • Ain’t It Fun by Paramore – a “you’re a jerk” song

The hot country top 5 songs:

  • Burnin’ It Down by Jason Aldean – love song
  • Dirt by Florida Georgia Line – well, it’s about dirt, but as a metaphor for “this is where I grew up and want to come back, get married and build a house” .  I like the lyrics. This fits in with my idea of “place” as a topic.  It’s a bit of a stretch calling it a “nature” song.
  • American Kids by Kenny Chesney – now this one definitely has religious references and patriotism like “We were Jesus-save-me, blue-jean-baby, born in the USA”, but it’s mostly about the past and growing up.
  • Drunk On A Plane by Dierks Bentley – a breaking-up type love song
  • Bartender by Lady Antebellum – a “pour me a drink so I can forget him” love song

Okay, so let’s compare with the original list of five topics.  Out of the three genres with fifteen songs in total, I’ll see which topics are included:

  1. Country (patriotism) – 1 (well it wasn’t the actual topic, but because it was referenced to, I included it.
  2. Religion – 1 (I counted that too, in the same song)
  3. Nature – 0
  4. Sports – 0
  5. Love – 9!
  6. Other – 6

So what do we learn from this?  First my statistics were off a little.  I said that 75% of the songs out there are love songs.  Nine out of fifteen songs makes it closer to 60%.  But you’re pretty safe writing a love song.  Religion, country, nature and sports, not so much.  And, there are a lot of other topics to write about…even Pompeii!  So push the envelope, be imaginative, write about what you know (or make it up!) and don’t restrict yourself.  Your idea might be better than any other song idea on the charts!

IJ