Song lyrics - an attempted defintion

[busker]

I define song lyrics as “words set to music that need the music”

Take Lennon’s “Mother”
The lyrics by themselves are nothing special beyond the first two lines in S1 and S2, but Lennon made them one of the greatest songs of all time by setting them to music. The same words WITH the raw intensity of the song create a classic for the ages 

Mother, you had me
But I never had you
I, I wanted you
You didn't want me
So, I
I just got to tell you
Goodbye
Goodbye
….

Or take Dylan:

Everybody knows
That baby’s got new clothes
But lately i find her ribbons and her bows
Have fallen from her curls 
She takes just like a woman
She makes love just like a woman
And she aches just like a woman
But she breaks just like a little girl 

Now take Shakespeare:

Tell me where is fancy bred
Or in the heart or in the head
How begat, how nourished?
Reply, reply…

Or 

Come away, come away death,,
And in sad cypress let me be laid.
Fly away, fly away, breath…

Or Shelley,

The flower that smiles today
tomorrow dies
All that we wish to stay
Tempts, and then flies
What is this world’s delight?
Lightning that mocks the night
Brief, even as bright 


The difference between Shelley, Shakespeare, Yeats, etc ie lyrical poetry and Dylan, Lennon, etc in the above examples is that the song lyrics of the latter are brilliant when partaken with the song.

The lyrical poetry of Shelley is poetry. It lends itself to calm contemplation. But Dylan’s is not about calm contemplation. It is about getting lost in the swirl of words and music.
Shakespeare’s lyric above was actually meant to be sung, but we know what pansies they were in the Elizabethan era, before Newton and Darwin and colour television, so their songs don’t count 

[CRNDLSM]

In a sense here, without knowing Lennon or Dylan, they've both written lyrical poetry of different styles, on paper it's no different from the Shelley and Yeats. Whether it needs music or not, once it has music, they're now lyrics

[busker]

But Shelley’s poems weren’t set to music, so they’re not lyrics, but lyrical poetry
Yes, that’s what I’m saying

The quality of a lyric is tied to the music and its placement in a song.

Note: edited earlier post

[crow]

I define song lyrics as “words set to music that need the music”

All lyrics are song lyrics. They are defined as “sung text.” 

More formal requirements are suggested by modern usage. 

Specifically, lyrics are two things: syntactically, lyrics are a script meant to help the composer and then later the performers to execute the lyrics as a sung melody. As such, lyrics must be formatted optimally to aid those collaborators.

This performative text has four authors: the lyricist, the composer, the singer, and the audience. In practice, the composer, performer, and, most often, the audience can erase or rewrite text. In the case of erasure, the lyric becomes muted syllables, but they are not mooted. 

Each performer contributes to the interpretation of the meaning of lyrics.

Sometimes, lyrics can be performed and interpreted differently by different audiences. Sometimes, lyrics have a steadfast meaning.

Usually, lyrics are most concerned with facilitating the performative audience. To be metaphorical, verses orbit the chorus. In its most practical form, modern lyrics progress as follows: [Verse 1], [Chorus], [Verse 2], [Chorus], [Bridge], [Chorus]. (A side note on syntax: If the chorus text varies slightly, the chorus is denominated [Chorus A], [Chorus B], etc. Similarly, if the verse text varies only slightly, it is denominated, [Verse A], [Verse B], etc. If the Verse text is unchanging, [Verse] is most appropriate.)

With that having been said, the interpretation of lyrics requires analysis, just like a poem. Typically, this analysis centers on pronouns. Pronouns in lyrics have an ordinal quality: “I” then “you” then “he/she” then “they” then “it.” 

Sings with an “I” and a “you” can be interpreted according to their verbs. 

“Baby’s black balloon makes her fly,
“I almost fell into that hole in your life”

is an I–you lyric. This dense and admirable lyric describes a heroin addiction, getting high, and a protagonist avoiding the consequence of codependency. This is a song where an entity overcomes an obstacle. The obstacle is a bad relationship. 

We should anticipate a chorus that maintains the themes of verticality, addiction, and a breakup. The chorus reads: 

Comin' down the world turned over
And angels fall without you there
And I go on as you get colder
Or are you someone's prayer

The protagonist suspects the obstacle is dead and hopes that she has become an angel in heaven. If she went to hell, he thinks she’s incited a luciferous heavenly revolt. 

These are excellent song lyrics. 

——————
That’s brain farts. I don’t think they’re useful. Maybe they can jog an intuition that lyrics are worth a long discussion, and that a comment like this isn’t helpful to a novice.

[busker]

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I define song lyrics as “words set to music that need the music”

All lyrics are song lyrics. They are defined as “sung text.” 

More formal requirements are suggested by modern usage. 

Specifically, lyrics are two things: syntactically, lyrics are a script meant to help the composer and then later the performers to execute the lyrics as a sung melody. As such, lyrics must be formatted optimally to aid those collaborators.

This performative text has four authors: the lyricist, the composer, the singer, and the audience. In practice, the composer, performer, and, most often, the audience can erase or rewrite text. In the case of erasure, the lyric becomes muted syllables, but they are not mooted. 

Each performer contributes to the interpretation of the meaning of lyrics.

Sometimes, lyrics can be performed and interpreted differently by different audiences. Sometimes, lyrics have a steadfast meaning.

Usually, lyrics are most concerned with facilitating the performative audience. To be metaphorical, verses orbit the chorus. In its most practical form, modern lyrics progress as follows: [Verse 1], [Chorus], [Verse 2], [Chorus], [Bridge], [Chorus]. (A side note on syntax: If the chorus text varies slightly, the chorus is denominated [Chorus A], [Chorus B], etc. Similarly, if the verse text varies only slightly, it is denominated, [Verse A], [Verse B], etc. If the Verse text is unchanging, [Verse] is most appropriate.)

With that having been said, the interpretation of lyrics requires analysis, just like a poem. Typically, this analysis centers on pronouns. Pronouns in lyrics have an ordinal quality: “I” then “you” then “he/she” then “they” then “it.” 

Sings with an “I” and a “you” can be interpreted according to their verbs. 

“Baby’s black balloon makes her fly,
“I almost fell into that hole in your life”

is an I–you lyric. This dense and admirable lyric describes a heroin addiction, getting high, and a protagonist avoiding the consequence of codependency. This is a song where an entity overcomes an obstacle. The obstacle is a bad relationship. 

We should anticipate a chorus that maintains the themes of verticality, addiction, and a breakup. The chorus reads: 

Comin' down the world turned over
And angels fall without you there
And I go on as you get colder
Or are you someone's prayer

The protagonist suspects the obstacle is dead and hopes that she has become an angel in heaven. If she went to hell, he thinks she’s incited a luciferous heavenly revolt. 

These are excellent song lyrics. 

——————
That’s brain farts. I don’t think they’re useful. Maybe they can jog an intuition that lyrics are worth a long discussion, and that a comment like this isn’t helpful to a novice.

I don’t think these are useful at all

You’re over intellectualising something that we know from experience doesn’t follow a process of craftsmanship any better than “hey, have reasonably short lines, bonus points if they rhyme”.

We know of popular songs with lyrics that are just an excuse to say something to accompany the music  (Suzanna, I’m crazy loving you) and those with lyrics that are fine as stand alone poems (The times they’re a-changing).

Songs usually - or often - start with a bar or two and the lyrics are written to fit the music. Eg “Yesterday” was originally “Scrambled eggs”

Now if you had a theory that could write the best poetry lyrics to a given tune, optimising for breath intake, ease of singing, letting the music flow without too many consonants getting in the way etc - you’d be on to something. Otherwise, you’re trying to solve a problem that isn’t there.

[busker]

I'm working on a song based on Yeats's two Byzantium poems. The first stanza of Sailing to Byzantium is gorgeous, but the rest of the poem falters. All of 'Byzantium' is beautiful. However, neither lends itself to song. To make them singable, lines have to be chopped and changed.

I got the first stanza (rewritten) as:

That’s no country for old men.
The young in their hearts, the bees,
birds in the trees,
The salmon-falls and mackerel-crowded seas.

The original was:

That is no country for old men. The young
In one another's arms, birds in the trees,
—Those dying generations—at their song,
The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas...

Interesting.

[CRNDLSM]

I'm working on a song based on Yeats's two Byzantium poems. The first stanza of Sailing to Byzantium is gorgeous, but the rest of the poem falters. All of 'Byzantium' is beautiful. However, neither lends itself to song. To make them singable, lines have to be chopped and changed.

I got the first stanza (rewritten) as:

That’s no country for old men.
The young in their hearts, the bees,
Song birds in the trees,
The salmon-falls and mackerel-crowded seas.

I think keeping the young/song rhyme would help
I am very interested in youre arrangement,  composition, you know...

The original was:

That is no country for old men. The young
In one another's arms, birds in the trees,
—Those dying generations—at their song,
The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas...

Interesting.

[busker]

Nice one!

[tun]

My thought is that you can set a poem to music, maybe successfully? But when a songwriter composes music and words, as you said - the music can resolve a failure of unity or completeness that the words may seem to have, when seen on their own. The music can make such unities in the text unnecessary or superfluous, or even an inconvenient encumbrance? The most devastating example of this I have noticed is - 'My Beautiful friend' by the Charlatans.

I mean a poem requires a density of meaning (and also of formal integrity) that can sustain it - but music can sustain the meaning of something less dense (or formally integrated) as text, than the poem needs to be?