All those extra verses….

[Slothead56]

OK all you lyric writers…

I’m working on a song for my daughter’s wedding. The basic premise has been floating around in my head for a long time but I got serious last week and got to work. I have significantly more “good stuff’ than I need lyrically.

In the past when this has happened I’ve been able to cut through the clutter and hone down to take the song where it’s supposed to be headed. But this time I have way too much good content to just arbitrarily say “well, this is better and more on point so the rest goes in the waste can”.

It’s a nice problem to have I guess because it means I’m on the path to expressing what I want to express. Thing is, some of this content is really good and deserves to be given a chance later, meter and timing aside.

So what do you do with good content you can’t use in the moment?

[catdaddy]

How about a second song for your daughter's wedding.

[mrghostwalker]

Do what the John and Paul did, save the extra pieces for a later song.

[dnf777]

WRITE IT DOWN!
WRITE IT DOWN!!
WRITE IT DOWN!!!

That way, you won't forget it while you're figuring out what to do with it.
Write the song you need to for the wedding audience, and maybe write an "extended version" for your later needs, or a second song.

Seems that was Dylan's problem with "Tangled up in Blue". He's been adding and editing that song for 50+ years, and he says it still isn't finished.

[Dave Hicks]

When I've got part of a song and get stuck for the rest, sometimes I find parts of other unfinished songs that will fill the bill. Of course, things can get a little surrealistic that way, but I don't dislike that.

D.H.

[Glennwillow]

Hi Slothead,

Well, it's your song and your daughter's wedding, so you need to feel good about how this song of yours comes out. This is more of a personal thing, not a commercial venture.

On the other hand my own feeling and experience is that a really good song doesn't have too many words. A really good song can be summed up in one sentence. So it doesn't take a whole lot more words than that to round out and fill out a song. You need a good hook used repeatedly, two or three verses, a good chorus, maybe a bridge, and that's the most a really good song has, regardless of how many words or verses Bob Dylan used to write into a song.

Your approach here of gathering notes you might want to use in the song and then building the song from those notes is a great approach, one I have used over and over again. And it is better to have more stuff to work from than you need. Still, in the end the emotional content in a song has more intensity with fewer words. The three-minute song was a good idea in the past for a good reason. And there is not a lot of room in a 3-minute song for many extraneous words.

- Glenn

PS: By way of example, look how few words Jimmy Webb's "Wichita Lineman" has...

I am a lineman for the county.
And I drive the main road.
Lookin' in the sun for another overload.
I hear you singing in the wire.

Chorus 1
I can hear you thru 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.

Chorus 2
And I want you for all time.
And the Wichita Lineman,
is still on the line.

(Lead, then Repeat last chorus)

Note how powerful the lines: And I need you more than want you. And I want you for all time.