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| WORKSHOPS + Anatomy of a Song + The Art of Writing  + A Note on Workshops + Songwriting Exercises + Develop Your Songwriting Skills |
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| Anatomy of a Song (part one) By Tom Prasada-Rao - www.tprworld.com When Love's Not Worth It Anymore Editing is the one of the most important aspects of songwriting. It's the way that you turn an idea (however big or small) into a great song. I'm not sure that this is a great song - I hope it is but it's not for me to say. My intention on this page is to outline my process of lyric writing and editing in the hope that it might be helpful to others who want perspective on the process. 2004 has been a slow songwriting year for me - after 4 straight years of writing like a fiend. I've gone through these spells before, and so I counseled myself not to worry, that my life right now was all about doing the laundry, and that my creative side just needed the time to reload. Most of the writing that I've done lately has been co-writing with my partner Cary Cooper who is one of the best writers I've ever collaborated with. But I felt the need this time to jump-start myself, and when this idea came to me based on a conversation that Cary and I had, I knew I wanted to write it myself - to get a sense of personal accomplishment. First, some thoughts about lyric writing: Usually I write a lyric before the melody and harmony. I feel that this is the best way for me to say what I want to say without the artificial confines of rhythm and meter. I want the lyric to have it's own rhythm and meter, and then from there create the melody and guitar part. Doing it this way has benefits later on in helping to create a melody based on the emotional and rhythmic content of the lyric. There are a lot of traditional literary devices that I consider important in lyric writing: A definable meter, rhyme, phonetic alliteration, metaphor and simile, pictures, and colloquialisms are some of them. I personally could care less about grammar. I just want to know however abbreviated or slaughtered it might be, that my language isn't confusing. One device that I think a lot of writers give up on is repetition. When you think about it, no song survives without it. Take virtually any song you know, and if you remember it, it's almost always because of this most basic of tools. This usually doesn't win you a lot of fans in literary circles, but if it's good enough for the Motown writers, medieval bards, and Joni Mitchell - it's good enough for me. On the song below I ended up (after several revisions) using repetition in the last line of each verse. Sometimes I have a habit of torturing a metaphor, but that doesn't stop me from trying. I am increasingly inspired by the Pierce Pettis song that goes: "She walked away just like Jim Brown." And I realize that the songs I love most have those kinds of really cool unexpected images. I also realize that I am more visually driven in songs, and that it's my window into the emotional world I want to reach. But, it usually takes something other than emotional words for me to get there. With all that in mind, here's how I tried to get there - often breaking my own rules. (You can find these rules such as they are in the page: "The Art of Songwriting"). From start to finish I guess this song took several weeks to write punctuated by Tom Kimmel and Robin Andrew's wedding, recording Andrew Gregory's new album, and a very long weekends' worth of Dreamsicles gigs. Sometimes Love's Not Worth It Anymore 1st draft VS1 sometimes loves not worth it anymore sometimes it's too hard to say you're sorry sometimes the ghosts of those you've loved before whisper sometimes loves not worth it anymore VS2 sometimes loves the hardest thing to ask sometimes hard's the only way that matters sometimes when you say hard people laugh and then it's hard to say it's hard after that VS 3 sometimes you're afraid of every word sometimes you just don't know what to call it BR (it's hard to admit that you're lost in the process shining your flashlight into your closets) BR it's hard to admit that it's hard to let go of the wounds that you wear like a blanket that you're like everyone else you want love for yourself and if that's what you want you can have it My thinking in outlining the song was to have all the lines start with "sometimes", and in the second verse go to humor, this time sexually suggestive, hoping to use laughter to convey a serious topic. Kind of how I did (much better I feel) in Survivor off the 2nd Dreamsicles album. I worked on the love/hard euphemism for a long time before I realized that it wasn't the point (pardon the pun) of the song, and that this time it probably wasn't going to work. I kind of rambled on the attempts at the bridge, thinking that I really wasn't going deal with it until later. 2nd draft: VS1 sometimes love is love because you lose it but sometimes it's impossible to prove it especially what the ghosts of those you've loved before whisper sometimes love's not worth it anymore VS2 sometimes love's the last thing you should ask for (sometimes love's not quite the thing you asked for) it's not something you figure out the math for it's not like you can plan for what's in store (but it case you wanna plan for what's in store) just know sometimes love's not worth it anymore After going to a house concert at Tom Noe's house in Wylie TX, I quickly re-wrote the second verse. 3rd draft: revision of second verse: VS2 sometimes love is not the thing you asked for even einstein couldn't figure out the math for but five will get you ten here's what's in store there'll come a time when love's not worth it anymore My thinking here is that the love/hard lines weren't working, so I wanted to figure out a new angle. I knew that the first line and the last line of the 1st verse shouldn't be the same, and I was giddy about the new first line I came up with, acknowledging the truth of it for myself. At the house concert the day before a storyteller (Mary Ann Blue) used the colloquialism "five will get you ten." And I just loved the sound of it - ending up with a whole new math/addition angle that I proceeded to torture for a while. I'd been wanting to get Einstein in a song for a while too, and I thought this might be a good place. I dropped the idea of every line starting with "sometimes" and also started to struggle with the specific meter of the lines. 4th draft: working on the bridge and last verse: BR you lose your way there's hell to pay when all that's holy slips away and all you really want to say is i ain't leaving baby no i ain't leaving baby VS3 (sometimes it's not over when it's over sometimes there's no way to ever know) VS3 sometimes at the end there's still a sequel the images still flicker on the screen even when the credits start to roll even when love' not worth it anymore I had the first two lines of the last verse then stumbled onto a long theme of love as a movie. I really thought I had it then and started to work on putting all the pieces together. I always had a bridge in mind but waited to write it knowing that those are my favorite parts in songs to work on. Bridges for me are the place where I usually say what I want to say, spell it out unequivocally, get to the point - yada, yada, yada. I started writing out lines and when I got to the" I ain't leaving baby" line, I had to stop and cry for a few minutes, thinking about my ex. I went over to Cary's house and was dying to sing it for her. Here's what I sang: 5th and almost final draft: VS1 sometimes love's not love until you lose it most times love's impossible to prove when the ghosts of those you've loved before remind you love's not worth it anymore VS2 sometimes it's too late to say you're sorry sometimes you don't even get that far but five will get you ten you're out the door if ever love's not worth it anymore BR you lose your way there's hell to pay when all that's holy slips away and all you really want to say is i ain't leaving baby no i ain't leaving baby VS3 sometimes at the end there's still a sequel the images still flicker on the screen even when the credits start to roll even when love's not worth it anymore Usually when you sing a brand new song for someone for the first time all you want to hear is: "This is the best song I've ever heard". And this time was no exception. The difficult thing, though, about playing a song for someone who's really in tune with you and in tune with the process of songwriting is that it often times runs at cross purposes with your basic ego needs. When Cary had questions about the last verse, I was hurt initially, then realizing that (1) the song wasn't about her, and (2) my only intentions were writing a great song and writing my truth - I knew I still had some work to do. I worked on the last verse some more, going back to some lines that I originally thought were throw away lines, kind of a twist on a famous Yogi Berra quote. I realized that the song wasn't about finding someone else after love wasn't worth it anymore, but rather just acknowledging the fact that love doesn't end even after it's not worth it anymore. We all have the need to wrap our lives up in tidy little bows. But most times that's not the way it works. So I figured that I'd narrow the scope of the song, and not make it quite the universal feel-good ending that the Barry Manilow in me really wanted. This is one of the hardest parts about editing - giving up your favorite lines, the ones you think show off how great a writer you are. Here's where you have to decide if it's about the song, or if it's about you. There is a difference. When you finish a song, I think it's really important to take pride in it, so forgive me for being a little self-indulgent. I'm really proud of the rhyme scheme, and the chords and modulation along with the melody of the bridge. The rhyme scheme in the verses has a twist that makes me feel good - A A B B. [I'm just chuckling to myself about the end of the previous paragraph] The twist comes in that the rhyme in the first line is on the penultimate syllable, rhyming with the last syllable on the second line. I especially loved rhyming "sorry" with "far". It was so much fun to write. Back to teaching mode for a second: Remember that most times in songs the rhyme that counts is in the vowel - not the syllable. This is where a lot of your creativity as a lyricist comes into play. "Playful" being a very important concept especially for serious subjects - double check the songs of Pierce Pettis, or the poetry of Billy Collins if you don't believe me. I'm also really proud of the first line in the song (first lines being perhaps the most important lyric in a song), and I'm also proud of writing a truth for me, one that I've only recently been able to say out loud without apology. Maybe that's the thing I'm proudest of here - that in the context of a very committed and loving relationship with Cary, that I could tell the truth about my failed marriage. I hope that there are other people who have similar experiences in their past to whom this song may speak. One thing I know to be fundamentally true is that no song really has power unless the writer is willing and able to make herself or himself emotionally vulnerable. And whatever deficiencies this song still has, I know I've done that here. I think the song with the lyric revisions is less picturesque than I hoped. It's simpler, but perhaps because of that simplicity might be more honest. I hope it works this way. I'm not sure that it's finished, and I have no idea how it's going to play to audiences. This is where every writer has to ask "so what?" I don't know what the answer to that is yet. when love's not worth it anymore sometimes love's not love until you lose it sometimes love's impossible to prove when the ghosts of those you've loved before remind you love's not worth it anymore sometimes it's too late to say your sorry sometimes you can't even count that far but five will get you ten you're out the door if ever love's not worth it anymore you lose you way there's hell to pay when all that's holy slips away when all you really wanna say is i ain't leaving baby no i ain't leaving baby sometimes love's not over when it's over even as the credits start to roll even when you know you know for sure that love's not worth it anymore tpr 10/25/04 dallas
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