Poetry& Lyrics of Rock's blog

DELIVER THE WORD - Focus on Lyricists (Melody Maker 1973)

Dec15th 1973 Melody Maker published a series of articles on lyricists such as Pete Brown (who wrote lyrics for Cream and Jack Bruce), Pete Sinfield (who wrote lyrics for King Crimson, ELP, PFM), Bernie Taupin (who wrote with Elton John), Keith Reid who wrote for Procul Harum), Clive James and Larry Beckett.

The Introduction read -

DELIVER THE WORD - Melody Maker Dec 15th 1973

Bernie Taupin

The sheer musicality of pop has broadened and deepened so much in the past decade that it's focused most of the critical attention upon itself to the comparative exclusion of the lyric.

Considering the number of books multiplying each year on the pre-rock and roll writers like Ira Gershwin, Lorenz Hart and Johnny Mercer, it's surprising that the pop lyric hasn't come in for more examination.

Of course, there was a time when an evaluation of rock and roll lyric would be based on the somewhat flip belief that "it's so bad it must be good"

This campy notion still holds true for much of pop, whose inherent instincts are for the instant and disposable, but the change in attitudes to the lyric has nevertheless vastly altered in ten years.

Lyricists, especially Robbie Robertson, have tried to unfuse an awareness of tradition and cultural

Pete Brown

values outside pop have begun to appear, and the general appraoch among writers intersted in craft is to make lyrics more concious.

Whether pop lyrics are art is a moot point. Pop has always been at its most critically vulnerable when it's self-concious, largely because its writers aren't usually equipped to craft these new ambitions onto a form that's dependent on commerialism when it gets right down to it.

But Dylan, who opened up these possibilities, has been the forerunner of a whole clutch of contemporary lyricists anxious to graft new sensibilities, vocabularies and themes onto pop.

The MM spoke to 6 of these writers, whose commercial success has been of varying degrees, and whose approach to lyric writing and lyrics in general is radically different.

Pete Sinfield

We choose them specifically because their primary role is as a lyricist, and they work with one or more melodists. It's significant of the change in pop that a few years ago such writers wouldn't have existed

Larry Beckett

.

Keith Reid

Clive James

Something in the Way She Moves - James Taylor

Something in the way she moves

Theres something in the way she moves,
Or looks my way, or calls my name,
That seems to leave this troubled world behind.
If Im feeling down and blue,
Or troubled by some foolish game,
She always seems to make me change my mind.

Chorus:
(and) I feel fine anytime shes around me now,
Shes around me now
Almost all the time.
(and) if I'm well you can tell that shes been with me now,

James Taylor - Something In the Way She Moves - Live Concert

(and) shes been with me now
Quite a long, long time
And I feel fine.___________

Every now and then the things I lean on lose their meaning,
And I find myself careening
Into places where I should not let me go.
-- she has the power to go where no one else can find me,
Yes, and to silently remind me
Of the happiness and good times that I know, you know.
Well I said I just got to know that:

It isnt what shes got to say
Or how she thinks or where shes been.
To me, the words are nice, the way they sound.
I like to hear them best that way -
It doesnt much matter what they mean,
Weh (when/well? ) she says them mostly just to calm me down.

Chorus:
n(and) I feel fine anytime shes around me now,
A-shes around me now
Almost all the time.
If Im well you can tell that shes been with me now,
And shes been with me now
Quite a long,
Long
Time -
Yes, and I feel fine.___________

 

One of the most Beautiful love songs by James Taylor which influenced George Harrison's song Something

It Ain't Me Babe

This song is apparently a parody of the Beatles She Love You Yeah Yeah Yeah with its retort of It Ain't me Babe No No No -

IT AIN'T ME BABE - DYLAN

Bob Dylan - It Ain't Me Babe

Go 'way from my window,
Leave at your own chosen speed.
I'm not the one you want, babe,
I'm not the one you need.
You say you're lookin' for someone
Never weak but always strong,
To protect you an' defend you
Whether you are right or wrong,
Someone to open each and every door,
But it ain't me, babe,
No, no, no, it ain't me, babe,
It ain't me you're lookin' for, babe.

Go lightly from the ledge, babe,
Go lightly on the ground.
I'm not the one you want, babe,
I will only let you down.
You say you're lookin' for someone

The Beatles - She Loves You (Manchester '63)

Who will promise never to part,
Someone to close his eyes for you,
Someone to close his heart,
Someone who will die for you an' more,
But it ain't me, babe,
No, no, no, it ain't me, babe,
It ain't me you're lookin' for, babe.

Go melt back into the night, babe,
Everything inside is made of stone.
There's nothing in here moving
An' anyway I'm not alone.
You say you're looking for someone
Who'll pick you up each time you fall,
To gather flowers constantly
An' to come each time you call,
A lover for your life an' nothing more,
But it ain't me, babe,
No, no, no, it ain't me, babe,
It ain't me you're lookin' for, babe.

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Which Side Can You Be On suggests that this is an obvious parody of She Loves You - structured around a 'Go between' - 'She said she loves you and you know that can't be bad'. Dylan's song, although one of his 'personal' songs is revolutionary and as much a 'protest song' as Master's Of War. His song breaks with the precepts of Courtly love that still permeates most pop love songs today. The tradition where the male protagonist is expected to be 'strong' and defend the female 'whether she is right or wrong', 'to gather flowers constantly' etc. His revolutionary (for the time) song juxtaposes a strong sense of indviduality, anticipates the free love relationships of the 60's and even feminist sensibilites. He challenges the stereotypes of bourgeois sensibilities. Dylan's protagonist is clearly not going to play the game. His finger points not at the woman but the conventions which dictate romantic behaviour. The song is structured around a folk song but transforms it into a powerful new and assertive statement.