Of course, one of your jobs,
maybe even your main job as a songwriter,
maybe not your main job,
but one of your jobs is to keep your listener
interested in the beginning of the song all the way through the end,
and it takes timing.
You don't have to say everything in your first verse.
In fact, you shouldn't say everything in
your first verse because if you do, then guess what?
The song is over. And then the rest of it is
simply going to be repetition of that same idea.
So you pace yourself as you're developing the song,
and you create a journey for your listener.
Keep your listener interested all the way through the song.
Now, that's what a producer tries to do.
When the producer is in the studio creating the flow of the song,
you have this kind of energy graph that producers are fond of,
where the first verse comes in,
and there's not very many instruments.
And it's kind of low key,
and then you move up to the first chorus,
and there's more energy there.
And then maybe a background vocal comes in,
maybe a cello comes in or something.
And then the second verse,
which moves down a little from the energy of the chorus,
but it's still up higher than the energy of the first verse.
And then the second chorus,
that's when the timpani come in and four background vocalists and so on.
And the chorus rises,
and then you move into the bridge,
which now starts rising,
rising, rising, rising, rising,
and right at the climax of the bridge,
when it enters the chorus,
the London Philharmonic Orchestra,
the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, everybody comes out.
Bam! And that's the climax of the song.
Now, that's the producer's job.
But if your song,
if your lyric has everything you have to say in the first part of the song,
then the rest of it is simply going to be propped up by the producer,
where you're saying the same thing over and over again,
the same idea over and over again,
and yet there is nothing that the idea is
adding that's going to match the way that the song is climaxing.
Now, the producer's going to do that no matter what.
The producer's job is to create that journey.
Wouldn't it be nice if the song did the same thing?
So let's talk about the sort of development of that journey,
the creation of a journey in your song.
Let's take a look at these boxes.
This is actually the way I think about developing an idea.
Note, that the first box is small.
It's connected to the second box,
and the second box is bigger.
The second box is bigger because it has the whole room for
the first box plus whatever else I have to say in that second box.
And note that the third box is the biggest of them all,
it weighs the most.
Because it not only contains its own information,
but the first two boxes fold into that.
So here's my first box.
Are you really happy?
I'd just like to know.
That's the song idea.
So, now, we move into the second box.
When you left me, did you know
that that you were going to move in with him and do it so fast?
When I was out on the road,
did you invite him over to your place?
And I'd just like to know.
And so, now, the second,
I'd just like to know means more than the first one,
which was simply "Hey, you look happy."
So that we can say that the second one has gained weight.
And I like that metaphor,
the second time you hear that idea that it means more,
that it gains weight.
And so you can see that the first box, "Hey, you look happy",
has folded into the second box saying,
"Did you cheat on me?", "So, what's up?
Did you cheat?". I just like to know.
And so the idea,
the journey has moved us forward now.
And then into the third box could be something like,
when we first got together, I said it to you.
I said I just want to be able to tell you everything,
and I want you to tell me everything.
I really want this to be an open and honest relationship.
You could have told me about him.
It's not like I would have tried to stop you.
I'd just like to know.
I just like to know.
And so, now, we've moved through this journey of the song with,
I think, at least in my opinion,
the biggest idea of this whole thing about honest relationships et cetera,
being sort of the why of the song,
being the big idea,
being the place that I want to arrive at.
So think about that.
This whole notion of finding ideas is that can gain weight.
How do they gain weight?
Well, sometimes they can gain weight by
moving forward in time.
So let's say that I write my first verse.
My first verse is something like,
I used to be so lonely then I met you,
and, now, things are wonderful.
Love, love, love, love, love,
love, yeah, love, love, love.
Now, I'm not really sure
where that second box is going to be now after I've gone through that.
And so perhaps you can separate them out,
and write your first verse about when I was younger or before I met you,
I was so lonely.
I spent my days and my nights thinking, wishing,
longing, hoping for love,
love, love, love, love, love.
Yes, love, love, love.
And, now, I've met you,
and here we are together,
blissful, sitting under the willow tree, having a picnic,
watching the ducks on the lake,
in love, love, love.
The ducks and us, in love, love, love.
Yes, love, love, love.
We can do this forever.
We'll go through our lives, always,
always in the brilliance of love,
love, love, love, love,
love, love, love, love.
And so there we go, past, present,
future as the development engine of the song,
rather than, as the first version of it,
I was so alone before I met you.
Now, you're here, and we'll be happy forever in love, love, love, love, love.
No place on that song can go,
at least, not easily.
So past, present, future,
an engine for developing ideas.
Or it could be something like,
