I figure this is just another love song, hard rock style.
SHOCKIN’ ME INSANE
I come alive in a chain reaction
Don’t you know you’re my main attraction
My mind is racing and my senses reeling
'Cos of you, I’ve got these feelings
Rockin’ city here we go tonight
And I got you right by my side
Turn the lights and let the show begin
Yeah alright! Well alright! Yeah alright! Well alright!
You’re shockin’ me insane
To a good place better
Than I’ve ever been
To a good place better, yeah!
I’ve been where cool streams were flowin’
But never saw
The things you’re showin’ me
Oh you give me anticipation
Between times of exaltation
Rockin’ city here we go tonight
And I got you right by my side
Turn the lights and let the show begin
Yeah alright! Well alright! Yeah alright! Well alright!
You’re shockin’ me insane
To a good place better
Than I’ve ever been
To a good place better, yeah!
Lyrics may be political but the assumption that they’re political can be a problem. For instance my lyric above, I’m fairly sure there’s speculation about the lyrics being political but they’re really not, most of it written years ago.
I try sometimes for that well known ‘interpretive’ ambiguous lyrics thing where it could be political, personal dilemma/relationship or whatever.
The track that these lyrics are for is a pop/hard rock hybrid, as such it wasn’t easy [for me] to find something neither too heavy or too light. Kind of like when you’re looking for a gtr sound with just enough crunch or something.
The inst tracking was mostly already done so fwiw I’ll post the entire thing soon.
tl;dr I wrote these lyrics -
System Override
I’m in a rush
But always gettin’ stuck
In overdrive
The scenes they flash by
And I can’t work out why
I’m losin’ time
Good thing I remember
How to
Believe there’s time to find
Where this bind can yet unwind
You sought out all those clues
Just tryin’ to get by
Contemporary rules
In system override
Yeah brace and hold on tight
I’m in a rut
And always
Getting stuck
Between the lines
I’m shakin my tree
And try to get free
But I’m losin’ time
Good thing I remember
How to make believe that I
Could find which hill to climb
You sought out all those clues
Just tryin’ to get by
Contemporary rules
In system override
Any of you think about it a bit like when you were a kid playing a video game? Back when video games were difficult platformers, for example. You would move along as best you could and die, then again, then again, eventually a little further, then maybe much further, trying something different each time at those points of difficulty until something worked. It was a pretty obsessive endeavor, a bit like an expanding loop. An approach I’m trying on tonight when nothing much is coming to mind.
Very good track, engaging from start to finish, I really like the vocal styles a lot. Shows what can be done with a good organic idea plus some tlc to round it out.
I think part of what happens with the ‘expanding loop’ approach is meaning coming from repetition of playing through what is more or less nailed down up to a given point. Something like when hearing a song with a highly repeated line, how the meaning begins to shift and expand. For example:
I switch on, I switch off
I switch on, I switch off
I switch on, I switch off
I switch on, I switch off
…
I guess the mind tends to do that pattern hunting thing with a repeating line, trying on different meanings.
So if I have some lines. A verse. I’m playing those lines over and over, until something of a new meaning emerges due to the repetition gaming the mind, establishing inspiration for new lines.
The second main track I’m working on sprang out of attempts to finish the first one. The first one though has imo a good middle eight solo break so Ima probably use it in the second [as I rate it better than first] IF I can somehow transition to it where it all sounds natural enough.
iow I’m treating everything that exists in the “two” songs as a pool of candidate parts for the arrangement in both tracks. There’s two definite tracks there, both being made in the same era or time window. So as the number of sections increase, so do the options.
To finish the [often difficult] lyrics for one track, I often drop the attempt altogether and write lyrics for an entirely new track, and it’s often then that the words for the first track show up i.e after getting out of the wheel ruts and venturing on a new tack. It all gets back to keep moving past the blocks, keep the riffs, chord progs, lyrics etc. coming.
It seems to be at least worth skimming over. Also, I never really did any writing exercises of the sort pointed out over there. Some of those might be worth exploring.
On the surface the greater site looks like a typical ‘Sign up for my free newsletter’ and get sucked into a subscription sort of site, as well as a typical ‘Learn how to write hit songs’ sort of thing. But after a little closer survey, there seems to be some useful stuff there. Or maybe I’m about to sign up for a paid newsletter on writing hit songs.
I think one thing to keep in mind on writing lyrics is that there is no end game (not telling any of you’z this). Like music, it seems to be more of a journey than an arrival. Not so much, do this, and do this, and do that, and you’re a songwriter from here on out. But it does seem to be a lot about looking at things from different perspectives and creative problem solving to get things done (like music) and sometimes just flailing. So I guess taking on someone else’s exercises in thinking about different approaches and finishing songs could be a good thing, keeping in mind the first thing about it not being an ultimate arrival. Or just looking over some of it might spur some personal exercises and approaches.
One exercise that I saw there, part of which has crossed my mind in the past but I never pursued, is taking someone else’s song that resonates with you and writing new lyrics to it. Then flipping that, taking the lyrics of the the song and writing new music to it. Then putting together the new lyrics and new music. That process could spur a lot of thinking about personally satisfying songs and why they work, with an approach in kind of the opposite direction of what we might typically aim for, being to stay far away from anything that might plagiarize someone else’s stuff. The exercise seems to be about using an existing song as a grease and framework to get the gears moving and working.
I’m going to have a go at it using, Tom Petty - U Get Me High. A simple song in terms of music and lyrical content, but a really good one nonetheless.
