The Lyricist's Lament

I had an interesting conversation with an artist last week in Las Vegas.

This gentleman is a very successful Big Band vocalist with a Sinatra-esque style. He was commenting on the demise of great lyrics and lyricists over the years--from the days of Tin Pan Alley to the present. Like Sinatra, this artist chooses standard classic songs to perform and record because, as he said, he wants to "say something" when he sings. Commenting on today's hits, he questioned whether lyrics were even important in most current pop songs--whether most new releases on the radio today depend on the groove or the beat to carry them--and whether most listeners even care at all about the words.

I agree that many of today's songs DO depend on catchy rhythms and studio "bells and whistles" to grab the listener's ear, but I also have to say that when a great groove and melody are combined with well-crafted lyrics that start with a great idea and a clever hook/title, and contain fresh vocabulary and unexpected rhymes, you then have songs we call "timeless"....songs like those that flowed from the Motown writers, and from world-changing craftsmen like Bob Dylan, Michael Jackson, James Taylor, Sting, Billy Joel, Jimmy Webb, Paul Williams and so many others.

While it is so true that a song can exist without words, lyrics cannot exist without music. Without a melody, lyrics become poems. As they say, "You can't whistle a lyric!" But words become extremely important when a singer is delivering the song. The singer must OWN the song as his/her message. What kind of singer can you hear singing your songs? If they are great melodies with equally captivating lyrics, artists will return again and again to your songs just as my Las Vegas friend returns again and again to the standards of the Twentieth Century.

Let me hear from you! Are you a serious lyricist? Or do you think lyrics are not that important anymore?