Here is No Why

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Lyrics

June 25, 2007 2:02 AM

think I'm a pretty decent writer. I mean, one of the things I spend a lot of time doing is editing other peoples' work, so I have to be decent at it, right? I think that, where prose is concerned, I can express my ideas in a coherent and compelling way. And I also think that I can write music pretty well, actually. The original songs I've put up here don't represent my best efforts, unfortunately, but I think that I can write pretty decent music.

What I can't write to save my life is lyrics. I think everyone, during their "difficult" teenage years, writes poetry or lyrics or something. I certainly did. And, like everyone else that did it, reading it now is extremely painful. And everytime I try to write lyrics, I look at them and I think "holy fuck, I can't sing these in front of people--everyone would laugh. And they should, I'd deserve it."

I've got a few problems, I think. First, I'm too direct. I generally don't like lyrics that say what they mean as much as I like lyrics that are vague or obscure. For example, what the fuck are "Monkey Gone to Heaven" or "Caribou" all about? I have no idea. But they're awesome songs.

Another problem is that I have a distinct inability to express meaningful or important concepts succintly. Look at Neil Young's lyrics from "Keep on Rockin' in the Free World": "That's one more kid that will never go to school, never get to fall in love, never get to be cool." Those are just awesome lyrics! Or how about Radiohead in "Fake Plastic Trees": "If I could be who you wanted, all the time." Again, simple but just touching and awesome. And then there's "The Boxer": "In the clearing stands a boxer, and a fighter by his trade . . . ." The whole song is an exercise in lyrical mastery.

I can't do that. I'm working on something right now that might not suck. But I still wish I could write better lyrics. Unfortunately, I don't think this is something where practice makes perfect.