Songwriting Partnerships

Watched "Music and Lyrics" on the strong recommendation of Shorty.

I think some people have formed songwriting partnerships, because their talents complement each other. Some partnerships are divided upon pretty clean lines. Like Elton John writes the music, Bernie Taupin writes the lyrics. Burt Bacharach writes the music, Hal David writes the lyrics. Rodgers and Hammerstein.

Then there are other songwriting partnerships where there is a collective agreement, that if any one of those members writes a song, it gets credited to the group. REM and Sonic Youth have this arrangement, and it certainly didn't hurt the longevity of the band. Lennon / McCartney and Jagger / Richards had collective songwriting credit even after they've stopped writing together.

Then there are bands where 2 songwriters contribute to the ouevre of a band. This has often resulted in splits. After the Bell and Chilton axis drifted a part, Chris Bell left Big Star. After Jeff Tweedy and Jay Farrar found their styles incompatible, that was the end of Uncle Tupelo (but the beginning of Wilco and Son Volt). Even when you had Bob Mould and Grant Hart who wrote songs that were compatible with each other, the band could fall apart due to personality differences. But there is also the example of Teenage Fanclub, who have 3 different songwriters (although I can't really tell who wrote what by listening to the songs) and are still going strong today.

Partnerships weren't really meant to last. Jazz bands are much more promiscuous than pop bands, they typically don't last much more than 1 band. I think that most people consider themselves as session musicians. Or maybe the rules of bebop are well known enough to everybody that they can just slot themselves in anywhere and jam along.

But perhaps songwriting is an activity where the partners need time to get accommodated to each other. It’s fairly unusual that a novel will be co-written with anybody else, so songwriting must be slightly different.

In that movie, Drew Barrymore says (but this is improbable: she seems to be lecturing somebody 10 years older who had been a star, and who’s sold millions of albums) that melody is like the great first impression that you make, and lyrics are more like the content of the song. In a way she is right: it is possible to write a song in 5 minutes, but not the entire lyrics of a song. But sometimes melodies also create a lasting impression. You can read some words once and after that it’s just not the same anymore, because you got the meaning already. Whereas you can play the tune over and over again and not get tired of it, almost as though it were like doing a physical exercise, or like you were fucking somebody.

Speech has an accent (accent is about where you came from and how you speak but it is more precisely about which syllables get how much emphasis). A melody also also has certain notes which get emphasised more than others. The idea of matching music to melodies is to match the patterns of emphasis.

I've been reading a book about the Beatles so I can see a songwriting partnership in action. Lennon and McCartney are unusual in the sense that both of them write music and lyrics. Usually in other collaborations one is the composer and the other the lyricist. (Bacharach / David, Elton John / Bernie Taupin, Joe Strummer / Mick Jones). When one writes the lyrics and the other the words the division of labour is straightforward. In the case of Lennon / McCartney anything goes. Some songs which are labelled like that are real collaborations but most belong to one of those two, with the other one offering some tips and suggestions.

Then there is Manic Street Preachers where 2 of the guys write the words and the other 2 write the music. But they are not very good at fitting the music to the words. Radiohead is another band that does not bother too much if the words do not fit the music.

I've never written lyrics before the music. But I read a comment by Mick Jones of the Clash. He looks at the lyrics, and the accent of the words are so strong and rhythmic that a melody suggests itself. "Alfie", which Burt Bacharach lists down as his favourite composition, was an example of how the words were written first. But when you hear it now, the amount of melodic invention in that one is remarkable.

I think that one of the hallmarks of a good song is that it has an interesting chord structure. It is like saying that a model is beautiful because she has beautiful bones. That is not easy. Lou Reed, when he was writing for the Velvet Underground said "one chord is fine. Two chords you're pushing it. Three chords you're into jazz." Fine, the Velvet Underground has a reputation for using very few chords. But how many chords does "I'm Beginning to See the Light" have?

This is combinatorics. The more chords you play with, the more likely you will find something interesting. One of the examples I can think of is "Yesterday". Remember how every chord change triggers a change in emotions. By that measure, "Yesterday" is a roller coaster ride. Every note in the scale appears in the baseline at least once. Consider:

Yesterday, (mood: contemplative)
Love was such an easy game to play (mood: tragic)
Now I need a place to hide away (mood: here you release the tension of the tragic chord)
Oh yesterday (mood: somber)
Ended suddenly (mood: a slight lift as you resolve to the tonic)

(tonic in musical jargon means you are at home base again)

Why she (mood: tension. Stand by for descending bassline)
Had to go I don't know (mood: melody and bassline go in different directions. Drama.)
She wouldn't say. (mood: a series of resolutions brings you back to the tonic. Repeat this again.)
I said something wrong now I long for (mood: same as above)
yesterday (mood: there is a similar resolution here as the last line, but it is higher. This resolution is more resolute. Chorus is over, go back to the beginning.)

Notice that just as in sex, there is a series of alternations between cranking up the tension and releasing it. It is possible that humans were made to understand the joy of music so that they can also understand the joy of sex. This also explains why, once you are a rock star you can basically fuck anybody you want.