Chapter 4
Domain of Lyrics: The Voice of the Song

This chapter examines the domain of lyrics.¹ An understanding of the content of lyrics (its structure, story and sounds), and how lyrics are transformed in performance (connections with melody, vocal qualities, intelligibility, style, etc.) will open one to a deeper recognition of the ways the record shapes the song. The recording can significantly shape the sounds, meanings and impressions of the performed lyrics; these will be introduced here, as an introduction to what will be presented in considerable detail later. This chapter seeks to set a context for engaging lyrics, and to define some fundamental concepts; it is far from an exhaustive study of song lyrics.

This chapter might seem incomplete to some readers. Established methodologies and approaches to examining the content of the lyrics are noticeably absent in this chapter. Further, there has been no coverage of how the lyrics are situated in culture, and the host of ancillary concerns. Many of the numerous disciplines introduced in Chapter 1 might be included in the examination of song lyrics. In fact, many of these disciplines have research methodologies that have been used in examining popular music, and some resulting important literature in this field. Lyrics may be studied from the vantage point of poetry and verse, literature and literary criticism, sociology and cultural studies, psychology and philosophy, and innumerable other disciplines and sub-disciplines. The strengths of each have been used to examine the lyrics, to attempt to study the social forces that produced them, and for a diversity of purposes. The reader is encouraged to engage those disciplines directly, from within their specializations.

The goals of an individual recording analysis may bring significantly different types of emphasis to the lyrics. The flexibility of the framework can be applied for different analytic purposes with lyrics, just as it can for other areas. Deconstructing the materials and interrelationships of music and lyrics may be central to some analyses, and the recording and lyrics central to others; in some analyses these may be more of a peripheral consideration, and some analyses might steer clear of lyrics entirely. The performance of the lyrics is shaped by the singer’s sound and style, and by the content of the lyrics; the recording captures and can enhance the performance. Social, cultural, philosophical and many other connections can emerge from lyrics, and be rightly incorporated into an analysis—as can the lyrics’affects. The unique qualities of the individual track reflect these. Again, the recorded song itself will determine how it might be most effectively examined—lyrics and vocal performance included.

The role of the song’s lyrics immediately seems clear, and mostly obvious. Lyrics speak to the listener; communicate the message or the story of the song. Yet there is more to lyrics; song lyrics are performed, and the performance is part of the communication. The singer not only communicates the lyrics, the singer also communicates through the lyrics. Lyrics reveal the persona and narrative of the singer’s dramatic role, and more. These become apparent in the contrast between performances of “All Along the Watchtower,” the original by Bob Dylan (1967) and the cover by Jimi Hendrix (1968). Meaning and story, ideas and emotions, word sounds and rhythms, listener memories and associations, listener interpretation and countless more, all blend into the expression and message that is heard.

This message can be direct and simple, with all that is intended clear to the listener—evident in many early Beatles songs such as “I Want to Hold Your Hand” (1963). As found in many songs, messages can be complex in content, containing layers of meaning encrypted in a maze of inter-textual references, symbolism and metaphors; all to some extent subjective, perhaps highly inter-subjective. Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.” (1984) communicates directly through some of these devices and in layers of meanings. In each of these, the singer’s voice might express a singular thought and emotion, then move quickly between various states of feeling, all the while expressing different views of the subject, and providing the listener with “not only comprehension, but comprehension accompanied by felt experience” (Oliver 1998, ix).

The message of the song is imbedded in the text. Message and its meanings are revealed as the structure’s organization unfolds; the lyrics’ language and poetic devices shape its content, word meanings, pacing, rhythms, rhymes and sound qualities. The text is further enriched by its delivery. The singer provides voice to the song, through their persona and their performance of the lyrics; their “recorded form embodies both singer and persona” (Lefford 2014, 56). Added expression and sound qualities enhance meaning, shape the message, and enrich the felt experience.

The voice of the song is manifest through the lyrics and in the singer’s performance. This holds whether or not the lyrics are accurately heard, understood, or the focus of listener attention. The message may be delivered regardless of whether the words are intelligible in performance or in the recording. The text does not need to be understood for the persona’s attitude and character to be recognized; the voice projects intensity and sound qualities as no other instrument can, and also exhibits the image and dramatic presentation of the main character. The human voice attracts attention above all other sounds, and in unique ways. “Pop songs celebrate not the articulate, but the inarticulate, and the evaluation of pop singers depends not on words but on sounds – on the noises around the words. In daily life, the most directly intense statements of feeling involve just such noises: people gasp, moan, laugh, cry, . . .” (Frith 1983, 35).

Acknowledging this, we will start discussion from the position of seeking to understand the literary and poetic content of lyrics. Following, we will examine how the lyrics are presented and are often enhanced in performance. The last section offers a cursory view of ways the recording brings drama and dimension to performed lyrics; this material will be explored again in Chapter 10. All this will be undertaken knowing at times the lyrics may not be understood by a listener, and may be misunderstood, or may contain few intelligible words and communicate little actual verbal meaning. The information on lyrics is related to:

• Message and meaning in the song
• Themes and stories, subjects and ideas
• Structure of the lyrics
• Contributions of poetic devices and references to outside sources
• Sound elements of the text (timbre, rhythm, pitch and dynamic inflections)
• Delivery of the lyrics
• Paralanguage and nonverbal vocal sounds

Since there has been song, music and lyrics have complemented one another. In interacting, bending to reinforce the other, contributing their individual unique qualities, and fusing into one, they create something much different and richer than what each represent separately. In the song, many expressive and communicative qualities emerge through the innumerable materials and interactions of lyrics and music—and from their performance.

The interaction of the song’s sung melodic materials with lyrics is crucial to the song’s overall character and message. A multitude of other characteristics are generated from the song’s sung text (in all its dimensions) within its musical setting (and its many elements). The song is a message or a story on a musical journey—its lyrics elevated, enriched or expanded by its musical context.

It is deeply apparent: the song contains much beyond its music. The recorded song—the record—is richer still. A glimpse of the interactions between the record and the lyrics will follow.

In engaging lyrics and the voice of the song, the analyst is drawn to question the contributions of the lyrics to the recorded song. Contributions that are sonic (rhythmic, dynamic, timbral), structurally related to sound and to ideas, concepts, drama, and more are potentially relevant. In this examination, an appropriate guiding question might be: How do the lyrics communicate by their substance and expression, and perhaps what they communicate—though ‘what’ lyrics communicate is (as we shall learn), in the end, our own interpretation.

LYRICS: MESSAGE, STORY AND STRUCTURE

Song lyrics often have some similarity to poetry. Both utilize a robust sense of language, and seek to engage the reader/listener on both emotional and intellectual levels. Many song lyrics carry strong traits of lyric or metered poetry, some only hints; other lyrics are more like prose. Dai Griffiths (2003, 42) recommends: “first and crucially, that we stop thinking that the words of pop songs are poems, and begin to say that they are like poetry, in some ways, and that by extension if they are not like poetry then they tend towards being like prose.” Perhaps some greater clarity of the qualities of song lyrics might emerge with a comparison to poetry, whereby we might seek the “borderlines which can and do become blurred” (ibid.) between the two.

Allan Moore (2012a, 113) offers: “Although lyrics are not poetry, and the two categories of expression should not be confused, some technical poetic devices can be found in lyrics, and can add a certain expressive quality.” The guiding concepts and principles of poetry, and poetic devices of all sorts, might provide a ‘point of reference’ whereby one might identify how a song’s lyrics ‘do and do not’ conform, to better observe and identify their qualities. Some of the terms and concepts used here, as we explore this connection, will reflect those of literature, and some will be unique to song lyrics.

The theme and subjects of poetry are often more abstract and complex than song lyrics, though this is certainly not always true. Song lyrics may have a strong message, tone or theme, but this is not necessary; they may have a story to tell, or song lyrics might convey little substance. Lyrics have the support of the musical setting to help communicate its theme and subject matter; some song lyrics do not communicate as well without music. Poetry speaks by itself; it stands on its own content to deliver its message and ideas. Poems are written knowing the reader may stop and reread sections as desired. Readers can study poems; they can look up terms and explore imagery and ideas, and more. Poems can be examined deeply outside real time.

Conversely, song lyrics must speak to the listener immediately. Some lyrics will yield a depth and complexity to reward additional listening, study or thought, though this is often not the case. Song lyrics must also quickly capture the listener’s attention in order to inspire their further engagement. Song lyrics pass in real time, incorporated into the performance of the track. Listener engagement and communication of message are often the function of the lyrics’ chorus or refrain; there the song’s idea coalesces, exemplified as a line from the Rolling Stones’ song that is also its title: “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” (1965).

Both lyrics and poetry are structured, incorporating word sounds and rhyming; poetics are often found in song lyrics, as well as point-of-view perspectives and tone. In contrast, the structure of song lyrics typically establishes a recognizable departure from literary poetry. Poetry can be of any length and structure, while song lyrics tend to be concise, efficient in their use of language. The prominence of recurring phrases, topics, words, sounds and rhythms of many song lyrics are simply out of place in the context of many forms of poetry. Further, song lyrics integrate into and/or complement the rhythm and structure of the music. Though some poems benefit from being recited, most can be read silently and be successful; lyrics are intended to be sung—they are conceived as sound events.

Structure of Lyrics

Many lyrics may share certain traits with metered poetry. Similarities can be visually apparent in looking at the layout of structure, as song lyrics are often clearly divided into stanzas, just as poetry. The first stanza in metrical poetry establishes an initial design of lines; the design is comprised of a recurring metrical pattern, a line length or lengths, and a rhyme scheme, or system of rhyme. This likewise is common within song sections.

Lines within the stanza have rhythm. Within the lines there exist metrical patterns, called feet. A foot is either two or three syllables in length, organized in patterns of two or three light and strong stresses. Scansions notate the metrical pattern of a poem, and can be applied to lyrics. The notation accounts for each syllable of every word. Syllables receive heavy or light stresses within meters; these are marked by strokes on heavy stress syllables and by curves on those that receive light stress (see Figure 4.1). A recurring metrical pattern is established as the feet are repeated within each line. The metric patterns of the feet generate a recurring rhythm that is similar to music’s metric organization based on the measure—a metric grid for the poem. (Oliver 1998, 7–28)

Scansions reveal prevailing patterns and their variations of meter within the poems by reading the line as naturally as possible. The meter of spoken text does not necessarily need to align with the meter of the music, though. The stresses of spoken or recited lyrics may appear differently within the performances of song lyrics—the stresses of the melodic line, musical expression, meter of the music, dialect, and so forth, may bring heavy or light stresses to syllables that differ from what would be heard in a reading of the line. This brings us to recognize, there is a subjective component of interpretation involved in determining these patterns; this is especially prominent when no strict metrical pattern has been established—such as in “Strawberry Fields Forever” (1967).

Figure 4.1 presents the scansion from the chorus and first verse of “Strawberry Fields Forever.”² Each of these stanzas has five lines. The opening chorus presents the two two-syllable feet (light+heavy and heavy+light) throughout. Exceptions to the two-syllable feet are the lines containing “Strawberry Fields” and “nothing is real.” Thus, a metric connection is made between them, which also links their content. The number of heavy stresses per line varies: lines one, two and five contain three heavy stresses, line three disrupts this pattern with two heavy stresses (omitting one heavy stress similarly to the fourth line of verse one), and the fourth line has a rather unusual heavy stress on the final “a-bout” which brings the line to contain four heavy stresses. Also within that fourth line, the words “to get” are an example of stresses that differ between the spoken word and the sung; speech would emphasize “get,” but Lennon sings “to” with the heavy stress.

All lines of the chorus end on a heavy stress, except the last; the word “forever” ends on a light stress, and the final line remains without closure (both metrically and philosophically)—forever. This is significant because it leaves the line and the chorus open-ended, aligning with the meaning of the line—structure and function supporting each other. There being no true rhymes in this stanza (the song’s chorus) also resists closure and emphasizes openness.

The verse (second stanza) presents a fairly regular four-beat line (one that is close to iambic pentameter) with the exception of the fourth line, though its stresses and syllables are somewhat elaborate. The many heavy stresses and syllables of the first three lines give them a meditative quality. In general, in poetry the more stresses there are, the more thoughtfully complex and reflective the line seems to become. The word “someone” at the end of the third line is rather difficult to interpret; it may be heard by some as a heavy stress on each syllable (giving the line five heavy stresses) or a light stress followed by a heavy stress (as notated in Figure 4.1), with the last syllable slightly more substantial than the first. The line “It all works out” contains three-beats of heavy stress amid the four-beat lines; this disrupts the meter of the verse, and gives a sense that something is missing; it also is less thoughtful, and though rather thrown out it makes an impact among the other lines that are more complex in meter and content. A pattern of light+heavy dominates all but the first line, which contains a rather floating (“living is easy”) impression from its heavy+light+light pattern that repeats until the line’s final word (“closed”) stops this patterning. The final line creates a sense of closure; it does this from its very regular four-beat light+heavy stress pattern, and from its rhyme—the only rhyme in these two stanzas, and the first rhyme of the song. These combine to make a strong sense of closure to both the line and the stanza.

Recurring metrical patterns typically dominate flow throughout a poem, as they often do in song lyrics. Though flow might be interrupted from time to time, and a different dominant meter may exist in different sections, an underlying flow and patterning serves as a reference. A prevailing metric pattern is commonly established that is similar conceptually to the prevailing time unit in music; though much more prone to disruption, it is a reference against which we are inherently aware of variation. In “Strawberry Fields Forever” we see patterns shift regularly, though an underlying pulse is discernible. The patterning of “Here Comes the Sun” (1969), once established, shifts much less. The number of feet per line is part of the structural patterning of the poem. Line length functions to organize the syllables of the line into a meter for the poem. Patterns of line lengths establish another layering of structure within the stanza. Notice the patterns of line lengths of “Here Comes the Sun” as shown in Table 4.5.

The four-line stanza quatrain is a common stanza length and line structure. Quatrain stanzas allow a variety of end-rhyme patterns. This stanza may have one pair of rhyming lines and one non-rhyming pair (abcb), or two rhyming pairs of lines (abab). Any number of other rhyme schemes combining the four lines are possible: (abba), (abac), (aabb), (abcc), and so on. Rhyme systems need not be this simple. Internal rhymes allow words within lines to connect with line endings, thus connecting words at different points in line and stanza rhythms. Off rhymes (or slant rhymes) are words that do not rhyme exactly; these bring a different sense of connection to words, sounds, and ideas. Examples of these devices in song lyrics are very common. While all these rhyme schemes may be formalized in metric poetry, they often appear with considerable flexibility in song lyrics.

Figure 4.1 Scansion notating the chorus and first verse of the Beatles’ “Strawberry Fields Forever” (1967). © 1967 Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC.

Turning to the structure of typical song lyrics, the similarities with metric poetry may be readily apparent. In most songs, text stanzas are comprised of a fixed number of lines in each repetition of the same section; the lines will similarly have fixed lengths, an established meter will be present, and a recurring rhyme scheme is common. Stanzas establish regular divisions of the lyrics. Stanza lengths and their line patterns (number of lines and number of syllables within lines) tend to repeat. Deviations from these line lengths and line sequences are notable departures that tend to be noticeable in their disruption of patterning. Contrasting stanzas are common in song lyrics—as verses and choruses are regularly at least slightly different in structure. Structural devices are commonly employed and alter metric, rhythmic or line length patterns in some way.³

Woven into these stanzas may be regularly repeated sections. These may work on a number of structural levels—a phrase, a group of lines, or a complete stanza. Some will represent refrains. Other repeated lines or sections might also be the song’s hook and/or repetitions of the line containing the song title; these anchor together the lyrics and music, and contribute significantly to song structure. The line and song title “If not for you” provides such an anchor in Bob Dylan’s song. The song title is the first line of each stanza and it is also the last line in each stanza—the first chorus is the single exception, using the word “true.”

Table 4.1 Structural components, patterns and relationships within lyrics.

Table 4.2 Rhyme scheme of “If Not for You” by Bob Dylan from New Morning (1970).

Table 4.3 Rhyme scheme of George Harrison’s cover of “If Not for You” from All Things Must Pass (1970).

The rhyme scheme of “If Not for You” (1970)⁴ by Bob Dylan (2016, 257) illustrates connectivity between the song’s verses and chorus. The sections all begin and end with the same rhyme; verses all end with the song’s title—a recurring line throughout the song—except section. The fifth line of the third verse ends with “rings true”; the line rhymes with the first line of the stanza, while the word “rings” rhymes with the second and third lines.

George Harrison covered “If Not for You” on All Things Must Pass (1970). He adapted the verses to follow Dylan’s first verse phrasing and rhyme scheme, modifying the lyrics of verses two and three slightly to create the pattern of the first verse. Through his performance, Harrison runs the first two lines of Dylan’s chorus into a single line, and thus shifts the rhyme scheme; as he also modifies the last line of the chorus, the phrase structure is now a more traditional four-line stanza, that contrasts with the five-line verse. Harrison’s structure is a more typical rhyme scheme and phrasing; further, he separates the presentations of the two choruses by the third verse, and repeats the third verse at the end. Dylan’s version disrupts or suspends typical phrase rhythms and rhyme patterns, especially in the fourth and fifth lines of the verses and the chorus. Here we can clearly observe Dylan’s ability to shape the structure of lyrics in unusual ways, bringing unusual qualities and variety to both lyrics and phrasings; this is in striking contrast with Harrison’s version that distils the song into a more common structure, and with lyric pacing that is also more readily anticipated by the listener.

Sting’s “Fields of Gold” (1993) represents a somewhat typical quatrain patterning of stanza lengths and line patterns; each stanza is four lines, deviations are very slight and are the result of repeating the last line (the middle eight is five lines with its last line is repeated, the final stanza is six lines with its last line is repeated twice). In terms of structure and content, though, the lyric is uncommon; its refrains are embedded within the verses. No rhyme scheme is evident within the stanzas, though a distinct patterning of line lengths is present. The recurring images of barley and of fields of gold anchor structure; these occupy the second and fourth lines of each stanza (except for the middle eight) and provide the character of a refrain. The first and third lines resemble an unfolding of story; through them time shifts and romance evolves, children run and seasons change; though these lines comprise only half of every verse these present the bulk of the song’s action.

It is not unusual for repeated phrases or words, syllables or word sounds to contribute to structural coherence. These might establish end or internal rhyme schemes. Though repetitions of words or sounds may function independently from a stanza’s established structure, they most often bring coherence to lyrics. Even lines, phrases or sections comprised of nonsense syllables work in this way—as in the coda of “Hey Jude” (1968).

Table 4.4 Sound elements of lyrics, and word sound devices.

Timbre, rhythm and tonal inflection of lines, words and syllables all contribute to the character and the sound quality of the lyrics. This may reach beyond message, often touching into the realms of the visceral or the aesthetic; still, a connection to the human voice will remain. Word play between characteristics of the words and other sonic elements commonly appears, and expression can be enriched or transformed; the sounds themselves are often manipulated in performance, potentially establishing patterning of word sounds. “The Boy in the Bubble” (1986) by Paul Simon exemplifies word play, shifting word meaning (meaning play), repetitive word sounds and more; much is packed within this short excerpt from one stanza: “It’s a turn-around jump shot/It’s everybody jump start . . . Medicine is magical and magical is art/The boy in the bubble/And the baby with the baboon heart.”⁵ Contrasting with patterning of conceptual ideas into “rhythms of verbal images” (Bradby and Torode 2000, 223), or a type of ‘image play,’ discussed below.

It is common practice for sections of lyrics and sections of the music to coincide, though “lyric structures do not necessarily correlate with musical structures” (Middleton 1990, 238). Griffiths (2000, 197) provides a clear example of rhyme scheme in opposition with melodic structure found in “The River” (1980) by Bruce Springsteen: “The rhyme scheme is aabb: across it the melodic structure cuts chiastically, ABBA.”

Song structures typically move through sequences of verse/chorus combinations of various sorts— perhaps broken by repetitions of either section, or by inserting a middle eight or bridge. These stanzas might form patterns establishing units larger than the sequence of individual stanzas of verse and chorus materials—an example grouping verses and choruses appears in “Here Comes the Sun,” Table 4.5. Its verse+chorus patterning emerges when one recognizes the first chorus is linked to the introduction and the final chorus is linked with the coda; between these are three verse+chorus pairings, with a ‘middle section’ interjected between the second and third verse+chorus pairs (between Verse2+Chorus3 and Verse3+Chorus4). Between all three verses only the second line is different; as verses accumulate the rhyme scheme of verses is abac, adac, aeac, if labelled cumulatively. In the table the labelling of materials begins anew in each stanza section; melodic lines are present for comparison. If melodic material was labelled cumulatively from beginning to end and across sections, we would be able to recognize the second phrase of the chorus (“do, do, do, do”) and the first phrase of the verse is the same melodic motive.

The overall shape of the song lyrics emerges in recognizing the relationships and combining patterning of stanzas. Patterns of stanzas combine in groupings, establishing ever-larger sections until arriving at the least number of combinations. An overall structure is thereby established at the highest hierarchical level, just as in musical structure. This structure of stanzas is articulated within line lengths, meters and rhymes—in combinations and in divisions.

Table 4.5 Outline of “Here Comes the Sun” stanza sections and sequence of lyrics, with syllables per line, rhyme scheme and relationships of melodic materials.

Free verse texts, and free sections within the lyrics, are certainly found, though these open structures are not as common in songs—Bob Dylan’s “Brownsville Girl” (1986) provides an example of stanzas of varying length (four, five and six lines). Less common still are sections or stanzas of text that overlap different musical settings, though this holds the potential for pre-chorus/chorus coupling. In some songs, if one is able to recognize the text of a pre-chorus and chorus as being a single stanza, perhaps an extended stanza section, their movement through different musical materials could serve as an example of this type of activity. An example of this occurs in the pre-chorus (of eight measures, beginning with “You just gotta ignite the light . . .”) and chorus extended stanza of “Firework” (2010) by Katy Perry.

Poets and lyricists (songwriters, playwrights, film writers, etc.) place concepts, ideas, activities, etc. at specific structural places to shape and control the unfolding narrative. When lyrics are considered for this literary shape and content, an overall structure of the lyrics’ concepts might emerge. The structure of the lyrics might be reshaped when factoring both the sonic and conceptual. “Rhythms of verbal images”—that is rhythms of ideas, concepts, and any literary aspect of the song—might be formed in the strata of the middle dimension, as well as the large dimension. The song structure might remain sectional (verses, choruses, etc.), though articulated within its subject matter or some other aspect of the text (perhaps different characters present in various stanzas, a different topic appearing at differing points in the text, perhaps defined by recurrent and differing imagery or symbolism) will be a structure of the unfolding story in all its dimensions. There is a potential for the structural shape of the lyrics to differ from the sequencing of literary content within that structure. Such a divergence often appears as a progression of some sort, typically driven by the narrative.

Bob Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” (1963) provides a clear example of rhythms of imagery; each line presents a different image rarely connected with those around it. Each stanza is framed by a two-line refrain at the end and with a two-line inquiry from the protagonist’s mother at the beginning; a question-answer antiphony between mother and son is established (Dylan 2016, 59). The internal lines answer the inquiries, and vary in number between stanzas. Most lines are complex and contain several images, and either add surreal detail to its image, present images of characters or of actions within an image of a scene, or multiple images. The number of images per line varies; though most lines contain two connected images, some contain a single image and others three or four. A pattern of speed of changing images is established between the beginning and end of each line, between lines and between stanzas. A number of images of the first stanza reappear in the last (mountains, forests, oceans); most images contrast with others, but pertain to the mother’s queries of “where have you been,” “what did you see,” “what did you hear,” “who did you meet,” and (finally looking to the future) “what’ll you do now.”

Subject matter within stanzas may be another organizing factor. Patterns of topics, of scenes of action, or of repeating refrains between stanzas reinforce the verse and chorus identities. The repetition of text for refrains and for choruses, and the common unfolding storylines of verse narrative solidify the linkage of the musical materials and the poetic topics. The unfolding musings of “Strawberry Fields Forever” verses are grounded by its chorus refrains; though it contains some rhyme, its poetic voice dominates and organizes its montage of imagery and ideas.

Message and Meaning

A difference between “meanings intended by the writer and those inferred by the analyst . . .” (Everett 2009b, 364) can be expected, though there are other points of view as well. Three vantage points of interpretation can seek the meaning of lyrics; each is capable of generating a different meaning. These interpretations are that of the author (lyricist, songwriter), of the analyst and of the listener (the intended audience of the song). Lyrics have surface meanings, and at times deeper meanings (both intended or by chance); searching for deeper meaning can be appropriate at times (or within certain tracks), and not at other times—a significant portion of the countless writings seeking to ‘identify the meanings’ within John Lennon’s or of Bob Dylan’s lyrics attest to how convoluted this can get.⁶

Unless the author is forthcoming with the ‘meanings’ that were meant to be present, any discussion of author intent is speculative. Songwriters are rarely so revealing. Analysts or lay listeners might be aware of the artist’s history and life situations, and thus inclined to read them into the lyrics; this knowledge does not, however, mean those events are present within the text. Such action seems akin to projecting one’s own interpretation onto the lyrics, into what the artist ‘was feeling or thinking’ at the time the lyrics were written. Even if a lived experience is present in the lyrics, the songwriter may willingly reshape reality. Further, a songwriter might understand an experience only after writing about it, or may not put the full experience into a verbal or sonic form; expression transforms the experience, and also the author; “songwriters . . . are often surprised at what they create and often only retrospectively comprehend what they were attempting to communicate” (Negus and Pickering 2002, 184). Even when the songwriter overtly shares, it can be through implication, with a more abstract poetic voice, or in any other way avoiding explicit communication; the lyrics wilfully open to listener interpretation, to make the lyrics somehow their own story. Of course lyrics can be fictional, and not at all autobiographical; a song might simply be a story.

The interpretation of the audience is highly individualistic; listeners seek meaning in lyrics with great flexibility, in a great many ways. It is important to recognize this is an intricate matter, and exploring this thoroughly is well beyond our scope. To identify a few central issues though, first we must recognize the listener can identify deeply with a song; Allan Moore (2004, ix) has noted “an unintended word can have life-long consequences . . . all these details can become part of listeners’ lives and identity.” Lyrics can invite listener interpretations to complete their narrative; Richard Middleton (1990, 173) proposes that in some songs it is necessary for listeners’ experiences to be used to complete the song’s meaning. Further, lyrics need not be taken at surface meaning, at face value, and such flexibility invites personal interpretation of phrases, scenes, story and moods by individual listeners; what the song means to one is likely not fully consistent to another. Lyrics (in tandem with their performance) speak to them personally, and what it says to them is based on their own experiences and perceptions. The recognition of what is personal, and what is cultural and shared with others is important to identifying an appropriate interpretation.

The vantage point of the analyst will be cultivated as we continue to explore the domain of lyrics. Here there may be some cultural universality, though even between analysts there will be justifiable differences; as we each can only interpret meaning from our own vantage point, “a perspectiveless perspective is impossible” (Moore 2012a, 330). In addressing the general audience listener (although he may as well have been addressing a fellow scholar), Allan Moore (2004, ix) has offered: “And there is no reason why mine [his sense of the meaning of certain lyrics] should be more plausible than anyone else’s.”

As is now evident, for the analyst, the process of determining the message and/or meaning of a text is fraught with potential subjectivity. Navigating this boundary between what is present in the text and what is personal in our hearing/reading of it can be challenging. Some subjectivity is inherent in the analysis process, as we bring our own life experiences, personal perspectives and sense of the world— and even misperceptions and misunderstandings—to the analysis. Conversely, some universality can be sought and a certain amount expected, as topics, ideas, concepts will generate common messages and meanings amongst listeners of the same cultures. Within the goals of the analysis is setting the balance of the universal and the personal in interpreting meaning.

Sub-topics, concepts, ideas, references, images contribute to shaping the lyrics and its overall concepts and meanings. Paul Simon’s Graceland—both the song and the album—are filled with examples. Figurative language devices pull the listener into more intricate relationships with the text, and connections with external sources (texts, images or ideas) push the listener outside the confines of the lyrics and the music to bring the work greater breadth and perhaps more substantive meaning.⁷

These can all work together, pulling the lyrics to establish meaningful connections, while generating imagery, feelings, and messages well beyond their few words. Lyrics may have “symbol-rich meanings that cannot be expressed in conventional words and thoughts” (Everett 2009b, 370). Indeed, lyrics can be crafted that bring the listener to engage or recognize abstract concepts, aesthetic dimensions and philosophical ideas—all generated from the sparse wording of the song. In some instances, meaning may appear concealed and unclear. Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” is one of many of his lyrics that can leave one wondering which of a myriad of possibilities to accept as its intended meaning; intention cannot be known, though (unless the artist shares it). Some lyrics open themselves to, or even invite, a wider interpretation.

The subject of these concepts, sub-topics and topics, ideas, images (etc.) may reflect or be placed within a specific time period (present, past or future). Popular song is often rooted in the time of its creation, reflecting the then current culture with references, language or topics of the day. The song “San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)” (1967) is unmistakeably rooted in place and time; Joni Mitchell’s “Woodstock” (1970), while also rooted in place and time, speaks to a broader context and with a more universal voice about an event she did not attend (Whitesell 2008, 33–38). A lyric might also present a message and ideas that are more timeless—a more universal context void of topical or cultural references, establishing theme and subject outside the constraints of time. Songs such as Bob Dylan’s “Blowing in the Wind” (1963) and John Lennon’s “Imagine” (1971) “while advocating political causes, employ nonspecific, even mythicized images and a rhetoric of metaphysical questioning rather than activism” (ibid., 47).

Dimensions of the Story

A common approach to theme in song lyrics is the narrative. The following are intended to assist interpreting the narrative song’s story, content, subject and perhaps message, in as much as might be present within an individual text.

Some dimensions of the narrative story (setting, situation and plot) are summarized here:

Table 4.6 Components of message and story.

The plot is the activities, action and events in the story. The plot is often organized toward a particular end; it typically incorporates unfolding drama and time lapse, placing the narrator or other characters in situations. Situation refers to the state of affairs present at a given moment in the story, and can refer to a character’s circumstances at any given moment. The setting frames the context for the song; it is the scene or the backdrop, in front of which the story unfolds—a memorable barroom setting opens Bob Dylan’s “Hurricane” (1976). Setting can establish a point of reference, and include a specific time and place in which the story takes place; it is also the physical environment in which a story or event takes place. Setting may also establish an atmosphere within which the story exists.

Stories typically include characters or imaginary persons (or other personified figures), including the narrator and the protagonist. These are the participants or actors of the drama and story; their presence typically provides central interest and meaning to the text.

The story’s narrator or speaker is integral to all aspects of the lyrics. If appearing as a character within the story, the narrator is a participant. A non-participant narrator is an implied character, or perhaps an omniscient or semi-omniscient voice or presence that conveys the story to the audience, though such a voice is not involved in the activities or story. The narrator gives voice to the lyrics. Through singing, rapping, speech, non-language sounds and more, the voice of the narrator may take many forms.

A narrator might project personality characteristics and traits of an individual through the singer’s performance; this narrator might be provided a history or some other backstory. In other lyrics the narrator may be a non-personal voice—an anonymous, detached, or stand-alone entity. The narrative of many lyrics is a voice within which a listener might project themselves (Durant 1984, 203). The significant majority of song lyrics are presented from the point of view of a narrator. This person’s presence is also known as persona—a concept explored in detail below.

A protagonist is typically (though not necessarily) the main character of story, and often the storyteller. The protagonist is at the center of the story; this character is making the difficult choices and key decisions, experiencing the consequences of those decisions, relaying thoughts and emotions of those situations and decisions. The narrator of a story can be the protagonist only when the story is told from the first person point of view.

The point of view of the lyrics establishes a vantage point from which the story is told. The narrative might be told from a first person, second person, or third person point of view. Each have unique vantage points that shape the listener’s experience of the text/lyrics, and may have a profound effect on the message of the lyrics, and the many dimensions of the recorded song. In this way, one step of the analysis might be to consider the pronouns one encounters. Who are the characters and how are they related? There is a level of distance or intimacy indicated, as an audience or an individual is the intended recipient of the discourse.

A first-person narrative is always a character within the story—as in Joni Mitchell’s “The Last Time I Saw Richard” (1971) or Bob Dylan’s “I Want You” (1966). Narrators refer to themselves using variations of “I” (the first-person singular pronoun) and/or “we” (the first-person plural pronoun). This brings the listener to experience the point of view of the narrator, such as their opinions, thoughts and feelings, etc., but not those of other characters.

In second-person, the narrator addresses “you,” “your,” and “yours”; the narrator assumes the position of speaking to the listener directly (though exceptions do exist)—as in Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” (1965). It can communicate an alienation or distance (this may also take the form of a detached formality) from the events being described, or from the listener/reader. Second-person perspective may be used to guide the reader/listener,⁸ or to address the audience directly. The second-person form is found with great regularity in song lyrics.

Alan Durant (1984, 203–204) identified four individual distinctions for “you” in rock music. Suggestions through second-person pronouns with unspecified or general direct addressee provide immediacy, and allow it to transcend limitations of formalism:

1. Addressed to one specified individual (clear in the context of the song),
2. Directly addressing any singular individual,
3. An address extending this sense to a general or universal listener,
4. Addressed to an addressee that is determined by the listener herself or himself, upon occupying the imaginary position of the singer.

The first-and second-person pronouns in rock songs bring forth a unique possibility of identification. Listeners may superimpose their person on the “I” of the singer; effectively the rock singer is singing out on the audience’s behalf. Alternatively, the listener might occupy the position of second-person addressee, to be the one addressed by the “I” of the singer (ibid.).

In third-person narrative, the narrator refers to all characters as “she,” “he,” “it,” or “they.” The narrator is an uninvolved person or an unspecified entity that conveys the story but is not a character within the story. In an omniscient third person point of view, the narrator knows the feelings and thoughts of all characters, and full knowledge of the situation and setting—as in Bob Dylan’s “Hurricane.” When the narrator only knows the thoughts and feelings of one of the characters—or in some way has limited insight into the situation or thoughts and feelings of some characters—the text is in the semi-omniscient (or limited) voice.

Songs often contain an alternating person point of view—Bob Dylan’s “Tangled Up in Blue” (1975) continually shifts between the first person and third person narration. This shifting is often reflected in a third-person commentary of chorus or bridge sections, contrasting with the unfolding of the story in verses that are written in a first-person voice. In this way, alternating person narratives will shift from one point of view to another; this is often present between the direct communication between narrator and listener that is quite common of verses, and the more detached and universal position of a chorus’ commentary.

More unusual in songs, some lyrics have multiple narrator points of view. Such songs illustrate storylines containing several narratives, and bring a more complex and non-singular point of view of the subject. The mother and son antiphony previously noted in “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” is one example. “All Along the Watchtower” is another example; a different speaker presents each of its three stanzas: a joker, a thief and an omniscient narrator. In Bob Dylan’s “Boots of Spanish Leather” (1964), a man and a woman alternately exchange points of view of one leaving to travel and one staying behind—though it is ambiguous whether the man or woman speaks first, as the one who is leaving (Ricks 2003, 404).

Shifting can also happen in other dimensions of the text. Similar to alternating person, narratives might instead shift narrative time, language style and tone—as in “All Along the Watchtower.” Shifting from one form to another may occur in several of these aspects simultaneously or each might change separately. These changes are most often found between sections—one stanza to another—but shifts might also appear between lines. This provides different sections with the potential of different point of view, narrative time, tone, or language—as is often found between verse and chorus, a middle eight, or a bridge.

Narrative time is the temporal setting of the narrative. This may be simply the point in time of the narrative, or refer to chronological, historical or cultural aspects of the text, or surrounding its events. The time of the narrative fixes the plot in either the past (occurring sometime before the time at which the narrative is expressed to an audience), in the present (events occurring ‘now,’ spanning an arc of real time explained as it seemingly takes place), or in future (events of the plot are set to occur at a later time). Time may progress in real time, speed up (action summarized), be stretched (action slowed down), be paused (story comes to a stand-still while a commentary is presented), or time shift (i.e., the storyline suddenly leaps ahead 20 years, or flashes back a century). The time shifting of Sting’s “Fields of Gold” provides several temporal settings for narrator and protagonist.

Language style of the lyrics communicates information about the narrator and possibly the singer; it also identifies the time period and cultural context of the subject or story. Popular song often represents a conversation and is mostly written using informal language. In using slang, and regional/cultural dialects (often grammatically ‘incorrect’), the text is highly reflective of the social origins of the narrator/ performer or of the subject matter. Language—especially informal language—can bring people and groups of people to unite and connect. It may also divide or distinguish groups, cultures and nations from others. Everyday language is brought into the poetic, and toward the potentially profound, within song lyrics.

This is in contrast to proper language of literature and formal interpersonal situations, which might project greater literacy and social correctness. Formal language minimizes group identity within cultures, and can establish a sense of detachment, as in a conversation between people who have just met. Language shifts can provide stark contrasts within lyrics, instantly transporting the narrative in setting, place and culture, and perhaps through time. Shifting language is evident in the lyrics of “All Along the Watchtower”; Bob Dylan juxtaposes conversational characters and an observational narrator, by using grammatically incorrect, colloquial speech and slang, contrasting with archaic word usage and precise formal language.

Tone presents an overall mood of the lyrics, enmeshed with an overall sound quality; it is an intricate web of feelings that stretch throughout the text. Tone is the lyric’s feeling or attitude as an overarching quality. The narrator’s demeanour, or perhaps the narrator’s attitude toward the subject or the audience will also contribute to the lyrics’ tone or mood—the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil” (1968) has a (strangely) unique tone and narrator. In this way, tone also exists as an overall quality of the song, present throughout, and it is a dimension of the track’s form.

Tone is also present in more subtle levels, where it can embody the lyrics’ feelings from one moment to the next. This mood is rarely static. Relating it to structure, a tone might be fleeting and last only momentarily in the words and phrases of the small structural dimension, or it may be reflected throughout middle dimension materials and sections, or shape the character of major sections. Following the unfolding narrative, tone might change as the song progresses—perhaps gradually, often suddenly. David Bowie’s “Changes” (1971) displays these shifts (‘changes’) of tone clearly within the lyrics, the music, and within the singer’s persona.

Persona: The Messenger, Story Teller, Narrator

The individual singer and their personal identity are entwined with the role they assume in delivering the song lyrics.⁹ Within this role, the individual that is the singer delivers the song by stepping inside a persona, perhaps assuming the lead character inside the song.¹⁰ This is clearly exemplified by David Bowie and his Ziggy Stardust persona.¹¹

‘Persona’ originated in early Latin as the term for masks that were used in Greek drama. It referred to the situation of an actor being heard through a mask, which represented a character within a play. Central to this concept, the actor’s personal identity could be recognized by the audience, the public; with their voice projected through the mask’s open mouth they became another—the character within the play (Perlman 1986). The mask provided persona. Here in the song, the singer assumes the role of a character in the song; the mask of Greek drama is transformed into a “vocal costume” (Tagg 2013, 360) that is the persona. “Song characters, then, live through the singer’s voices . . .” (Lacasse 2005, 12). While the performer is an individual outside the text, they establish a persona that exists within the narrative and gives it voice; the persona is the identity of the singing voice (Moore 2012a, 180–181).

The persona might speak from two basic positions in the song; these are vantage points related to the narrative points of view. A persona may either participate in the narrative, or be an observer of the narrative and perhaps the messenger of its subject. In order to better define the persona’s position within the lyrics, Allan Moore (ibid., 181–183) identifies its range of options around three questions:

1. Does the persona appear realistic, or overtly fictional? A realistic persona is perceived as emanating directly from the singer; a direct address from the singer. A fictional persona is much the same as an actor assuming a role; the singer unambiguously becomes a fictional character.
2. Is the situation described in narrative itself realistic or fictional? The realistic situation is one that might reasonably occur any day, either to the listener or to the larger community of which both the listener and the singer are a part. The fictional situation is beyond the experience of the listener and the singer; perhaps it is an imaginary, mythological world, or an historical context that provides the situation for the narrative.
3. Is the singer personally involved in the situation being described, or acting as an observer, external to the situation? The persona is inside and participating in the activities of the narrative, or is outside and observing the situation and plot.

These three positions are not all-inclusive; records are complicated and can defy clear categorization. These categories do provide a valuable reference for situating the persona within the greater narrative, though. They allow a meaningful examination of how the persona is placed and interacts with the narrative to emerge, and begins a definition of the image projected by the persona. Moore (ibid., 183) goes on to identify a ‘bedrock’ normative position (framework) that is very common for songs—a typical set of characteristics that are most common. The ‘bedrock’ position contains the attributes: a realistic persona; persona is in an involved stance; a realistic, everyday situation; the plot takes place at the present time; and explores feelings, thoughts, events of the moment, or a momentary situation. This normative position might establish a point of reference for identifying ‘who is talking’ and from ‘what position,’ as well as their relationship to time, setting, situation and plot. This connects what the persona contains and portrays to basic details of plot and situation.

Stepping outside the context of the individual recorded song for a moment, our sense of persona can be generated from our perception and knowledge of a wider perspective than the individual song. Entire albums (such as Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band) may exhibit qualities of a guiding persona that provides a consistent voice throughout. Further, a sense of persona of an artist or group might emerge from an historical reflection on their catalog—perhaps a number of consecutive releases, perhaps their entire catalog (such as Alice Cooper or Kiss). The sonic signatures of certain producers have generated personas that extend over any number of projects, over any number of artists. These greater contexts may be found useful to scholars, especially in examining stylistic decisions used by some artists/producers (such as Phil Spector or Brian Eno). This has much to do with a sense of tone—tone as an overall sound quality to which the recording contributes significantly.

The persona utilizes tone to project attitude; tone shades the text into an attitudinal position. The singer’s tone of voice communicates an attitude toward what is being said, and toward the subject of the lyrics. This attitude projects into all structural levels, from the topic of the moment through the overall concept of the text. One can ask, is the persona serious, reverent, glib, mad, pained, satiric, humorous, hostile, detached, intimate, loving, playful, ambivalent—or other? Is the tone in this moment, exhibited throughout this section, or an overall mood? The tone of the persona is an interpretation of the tone of the lyrics; these are two different opportunities for establishing mood. The tones within the lyrics and around the performance may be aligned or not; may be complementary or oppositional. Tone is manifest in subtle or pronounced timbre modifications, dynamic and pitch inflections related to linguistics and articulation of melody’s pitch and rhythm, and also in extra-musical vocal sounds. Tone is a product of the delivery, or performance of the lyrics—it is timbre and attitude, sound qualities and demeanor.

Sounds of Language

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) might be used as a tool for recording analysis; it can engage an array of language sounds and dialects, and much more. IPA can represent the sounds of language(s) and other utterances, and allow them to be deconstructed and opened for more thorough examination. It can also represent the nuances of the voice in a performance—nuances of language, abstract sounds or paralanguage and non-linguistic sounds.

Word sounds may function as abstract sound, and be separated from meaning. This can occur whether by nonsense syllables or by the sounds within words, and within phrases. The sounds of language, and other non-language vocal sounds, add substance to the record, if not also the lyrics. The sounds of language are quite complex, and the sound qualities of spoken and sung languages are richly varied.

It is a challenge to delineate the subtle sounds of language, given their great variation. Phonetics can provide some guidance to examine language sounds directly. Phonetics engages the sound qualities of the text itself. This represents the sounds and sonic structure of the lyrics, before it is transformed by the song’s setting of the text and the singer’s performance.

Since this book is written in the English language, within the conventions of English as used in the United States (and acknowledging a great many dialects exist), this is the point of reference for discussion.¹² Though other languages have different sounds, this section might serve the lyrics of other languages as well.¹³ Several phonetic alphabets and systems of symbols exist. The International Phonetic Alphabet was devised by the International Phonetic Association to bring the sounds of oral language into some standardized form. It has its origins in the late nineteenth century, and is meant to be adaptable for studying any language; this universal application is an advantage. The North American Phonetic Alphabet (or Americanist phonetic notation) is another system of phonetic notation that is in common use; it was originally developed for Native American and European languages, making the name ‘Americanist’ misleading. The IPA symbols will be used herein because they may reach a wider audience; either system is valuable for studying the sounds of language, as accurately as that might be possible.

The human voice is capable of making many distinct sounds, though only a select few contribute to constructing words in any language—and some different vocalizations will appear in individual languages. Utterances and stringing of select vocal sounds combine to form unique languages worldwide.

Words are the smallest meaningful element of language. They are used in defined grammatical structures, with rules of convention to formulate and communicate their meaning. In this section we are concerned with sound alone (the sound quality of words and language), not with meaning—though meaning does define the separation of words.

There is little universality here, even within the same language. Language sounds are inexorably linked with dialect; language sounds can differ widely while retaining meaning. The same words may have the same meanings but widely varied sound qualities between geographical areas, between different social groups, or ethnic groups—they may even be profoundly different between adjacent neighborhoods. The qualities that bring these distinctions are often clearly present in popular song; they may even be exaggerated. The context and meaning of the lyrics might bring one to extract meaning from dialect as well, though this is not our concern here. Here we are focused on the vast palette of sound qualities within and between the words themselves and how they are shaped by the fuller sound sequence of the sentence.

Words are built in combinations of phonemes, or segments of syllables. Phonemes are abstract units of sound, and the smallest part of a language that can serve to distinguish between the meanings of a pair of minimally different words, a so-called minimal pair. Notice how the words bat [bæt] and pat [p^hæt] form a minimal pair; the “b” and “p” sounds differentiate the two words (Chomsky and Halle 1968). The sound of the text using the International Phonetic Alphabet appears within the brackets. This represents a standardized representation of the sounds—a type of notation—of oral language. IPA symbols are composed of one or more elements of two basic types: letters and diacritics, which provide description of the letters. Depending on the level of detail one wishes, IPA symbols for the sound of the English letter “p” may be transcribed with a single letter [p] or with a letter plus diacritics [p^h] that signifies the “p” is aspirated.

Figure 4.2 Phonetic symbols for English vowel and consonant sounds. Adapted from the IPA Chart, http://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/content/ipa-chart, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Unported License. Copyright © 2015 International Phonetic Association.

The symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet include 107 letters that represent consonant and vowel sounds, the 31 diacritics that are used to modify them, and 19 additional signs that indicate the suprasegmental qualities of length, tone, stress and intonation.¹⁴

There are approximately 44 phoneme sounds in the English language. The 26 letters of the alphabet represent these 44 phoneme sounds, individually and in combination; their sound qualities will undergo some variation with accent and articulation. The phoneme sounds are divided into two major categories: consonants and vowels.

Vowel sounds are produced with an open, unrestricted vocal tract; there is no build-up of air pressure above the glottis, and the tongue does not touch the roof of the mouth, teeth or lips. Five or six letters (‘A,’ ‘E,’ ‘I,’ ‘O,’ ‘U,’ and sometimes ‘Y’) are used to represent 20 vowel sounds—‘y’ can be either a vowel (as in ‘sky’ or ‘fly’) or a consonant sound (as found in ‘yellow’ or ‘yesterday’). Consonant sounds (the remaining 20 or 21 letters) are produced by a partial constriction or a complete closure at some point in the vocal tract; these sounds are produced with the lips [p], with the front of the tongue [t], with the back of the tongue [k], in the throat [h], by forcing air through a narrow channel [f, s], or by air flowing through the nose [m, n].

Figure 4.3 Listing of diacritical and suprasegmental IPA symbols. Adapted from the IPA Chart, http://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/content/ipa-chart, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Unported License. Copyright © 2015 International Phonetic Association.

Vowel sounds normally form the nucleus (the center core) of syllables; consonants typically form the onset (beginning) of syllables and will form the coda, or end of the syllable, when one is present. This concept of segments of syllables is especially important when considering sung lyrics. Vowel sounds are the sounds most often sustained by the singing voice; the open vocal tract used to advantage for extending the vowel with minimal stress and effort to the singer’s body. These open vowel sounds are rich with potential for morphing between various forms and tones of the same vowels, and to alter pitch, dynamics, timbres and intensities of the sounds.

Consonant sounds typically articulate the first and last sounds of syllables and words, and punctuate word rhythms. Some consonant sounds can be sustained when singing (such as the “I” sound in “table”), and this aspect of vocal technique is common in records. In song, use of these consonants might imitate vowels, creating new syllables such as when John Lennon sings “fields” as “fi-Idz” in the song title appearing in the chorus’ last line: “Strawberry Fields forever.” In such cases, the sound of the recorded singing voice differs from normal speech and real-life experiences. Constrained consonant sounds do not project well in live (unamplified) settings, but are readily captured by a microphone; Frank Sinatra’s expressive shadings of ‘m’ and ‘n’ sounds are clear examples. While sustained consonant sounds typically cannot be altered as substantially as vowel sounds, they have the potential to change with unique characteristics; consonant usage is significant and worthy of attention in evaluating the sounds of lyrics.

Figure 4.4 Song titles transferred into the international Phonetic Alphabet.

The phonetic symbols for English using IPA symbols for vowels and consonants appear in Figure 4.2. To use the International Phonetic Alphabet, word syllables are divided into phonemes and then transcribed into appropriate IPA symbols. IPA symbols also exist for suprasegmentals, tones and word accents, and diacritics; these are added to the vowel and consonant symbols to further define word sounds. Especially relevant for lyrics analysis are vowel sounds as modified by suprasegmentals and diacritics, as appropriate. Diacritical marks are symbols added to letters; some diacriticals indicate a different pronunciation of a letter is in effect. There are instances when suprasegmental symbols might be incorporated to provide some useful information on the lyrics’ sound qualities. Symbols for tones and word accents are also incorporated in use of the IPA in language analysis. A listing of diacritical and suprasegmental symbols appears in Figure 4.3. A further defining of these symbols and their functions is beyond the scope of this writing but could be valuable to the reader; these are thoroughly covered in sources listed here.¹⁵

In using a phonetic alphabet, a significant amount of sonic detail can be extracted and notated. Detailed phonetic analysis can be a valuable supplement, allowing one to recognize sonic traits of the text.¹⁶ This may prove especially valuable in identifying or transcribing the sounds of sung lyrics and of paralanguage sounds.

Examining the sound of the lyrics can clarify how sound of the language has been utilized, and how the lyrics are structured related to sound. The sound qualities of the lyrics can be examined without the added layer of meaning. This examination can assist in identifying sonically connected words; word sounds that appear and reappear at structurally significant locations; word sounds with connections imbedded in lines and phrases; and syllables in repeating patterns of many types. Other sonic aspects of the text may likewise emerge, where detailed attention to the lyrics’ timbral qualities is given.

With this section, we have drawn a distinction between the sound of lyrics as written (read silently, originating internally), and the sound of the lyrics as sung (performed, originating externally). This distinction becomes clearer as lyrics and melody fuse into a single expression.

LYRICS IN PERFORMANCE: GIVING VOICE TO THE SONG

Alchemy of Lyrics and Melody

Obvious but significant: song lyrics differ from poetry in that they are written to be sung. This difference takes many forms. The singing voice is substantially different from the narrator of verse; the singer is external to the listener, the poem’s narrator speaks from within the reader. The singing voice represents an individual (and their personal interpretation) interjected between the author of the lyrics and the listener, while the poet (or the persona the poet crafts for speaking) is the narrator of the poem. Poetry is mostly read silently from written form (although many poets write with the spoken word in mind), and may be studied, reviewed, paused, contemplated; the song happens in real time, the singer presenting the lyrics within the performance of the song (Pattison 2009).

In song, the performance itself shapes the text. The drama and story of song lyrics are brought to unfold over time, and lyrics are articulated in time and rhythm. Their sound characteristics are shaped in performance, and perhaps reshaped; perhaps their meaning is enhanced or transformed.

The singer provides voice to the song, through the persona they establish and project, and in their performance. “Aside from their role in signifying ideas, lyrics also play an important role in enabling listeners to construct an image of the persona embodied by the singer” (Moore 2001, 186).

Lyrics and melody blend in fusion. Melody and lyrics form a natural linkage, which is symbiotic. It is sometimes difficult to distinguish where music (melody, plus other elements) and language diverge. Language itself has a musical side—in the hidden melody of pitch inflection and rhythmic pacing and patterns, sentences, words and even syllables have melodic traits. Some perceive certain languages as more melodic than others,¹⁷ and some people have speech patterns that are melodic, sometimes even ‘singsong-y.’ All these traits might be amplified within a vocal line, as melodic contours can seem to mirror the intonations of verbal phrases.

Especially common in song verses, melody can have linguistic pacing and inflection that reflects a narrative character; recitative lines are common, allowing the narrative or story to be emphasized over the music; in such cases little might separate speech and the sung lyrics. Here, the text can largely minimize pitch changes in melody, and bring melody’s content to be largely rhythm with dynamic and pitch inflections. A context of “speech rhythm” results, where the sung phrase appears much as it would if it were spoken (Bradby and Torode 2000, 214). At the other extreme, melody itself may take the musictraits of language to great sophistication; instead of mirroring speech, melody can magnify it. Melody can exaggerate the sounds, rhythms and phrasing of text; it may take language traits and rework them into musical effects, or into substantive materials.

While melody and lyrics inherently have great connectivity, in many contexts melody and lyrics will establish traits independent of the other. The two are just as likely to appear with different content and characters—from slightly varied to distinctly different to contrasting. Melody and lyrics may be contrasting or even oppositional in their content and characters, though they are most often complementary in some way, and to some degree. An effective song is likely to have a melodic setting of lyrics that together produce something wholly different than their independent contributions; melody and text working off one another, sharing and enhancing characteristics, bringing the concepts of the text into the activity and character of the melody. Lyrics are elevated by music’s content and context; music is elevated by the sounds and the meaning of the lyrics; together they fashion a more meaningful and more sophisticated voice.

Middleton (1990, 231–232) outlines a three-pole model to this melody and lyrics interaction that identifies how “the hybrid practices of actual popular songs come into being.” The model distinguishes between story, affect and gesture.

In the ‘story,’ words are in narrative form; the voice tends toward speech and can be prose-like; the lyrics direct rhythmic flow and harmonic movement. The text merges with melody in ‘affect,’ where words contain expression and the voice tends toward song, intoned feeling. Words functioning as sound qualities define ‘gesture’; as gestures, words are prone to being absorbed into the music, and the voice may resemble an instrument. While individual songs might not clearly fall into any one of these three practices, one trait is likely to dominate within any section or song. These concepts might help guide an understanding of the relationship(s) of lyrics and melody.

Dai Griffiths has identified the concept of ‘verbal space’ as an alternative approach to evaluating phrase structure of lyrics within the track. Verbal space is the result of “the pop song’s basic compromise: the words agree to work within the spaces of tonal music’s phrases, and the potential expressive intensity of music’s melody is held back for the sake of the clarity of verbal communication” (2003, 43). The idea is the music’s phrasing creates spaces, and the performed words occupy a portion of that phrase. The approach seeks to establish a ‘word consciousness’ to systematically explore how the words and lines of the lyrics work. Verbal space is explored more deeply in Chapter 5’s observations of lyrics.

Phrasing and the words produce lines, just as with poems. The prevailing time unit and hypermeter establish the clear dominant phrase length within which lines of text are contained. This phrase length is the basis for this examination. Griffiths conceptualizes pillars at each end of the phrase, with the lines of words unfolding in time, from left to right. Between these pillars there is a point where the words begin and where they end; this establishes the boundaries of the line of text.

Within these lines, phrases can be evaluated for their word content. Lines can be full or empty, and words can be positioned at various points on the line. How the words occupy the space is the central issue; compiling information on syllable count and placement of words allow the relative density within and between each line to be revealed. This ‘syllabic density’ (or syllable count) reveals important information of the word-presence in the line. This density is impacted by word rhythms and tempo, by the speed of a song and the way it is phrased. The approach offers a way to understand the relationship between lyrics and the relative speed of their delivery.

Changes in density as the song progresses can be telling; Griffiths (ibid., 47) notes a doubling syllable count in a middle-eight is common in some pop song styles. Patterns of density might emerge, along with other aspects of syllable density and rhythms. Verbal phrasing and musical phrasing will come together in many aspects of rhythm, as music and words trade off each other’s rhythm. Other characteristics will be readily apparent in the data collected here, such as a change in syllable count shaping a stanza, or propelling motion within a line.

This concept of verbal space has considerable potential for the collection and evaluation of other lyrics-related relationships, as well. Repeating words or word sounds might be identified in lines; literary information of story, subject matter. Drama and pacing of action can be collected and made evident as well; Griffiths notes “the return of the pillar can be a moment of some drama” (ibid., 43). This concept of verbal space might be broadened to determine what information is to be collected (beyond syllable count and placement); we can develop ways of evaluating and talking about the proportional relationships within the verbal space of any particular song that begin with syllable density and perhaps encompass word sounds and rhythms, meaning and story, and more.

Just as a prevailing time unit might flex, verbal space can be malleable. Verbal space can change position, both within the time unit and shifting to overlapping musical phrasing. It can extend or contract in time as the line is shaped. This can be a valuable concept, as one can readily observe how activities shift with and without the presence of the vocal, as well as observe central characteristics of the performance of the lyrics—and ‘anti-lyrics.’

Within the anti-lyric, the “emphasis shifts away from sonorous rhythm towards the detail of its statement, away from rectitude of rhyme and rhythm towards the novelty or interest of words and ideas” (ibid., 55). More prose-like lyrics loosen language and sound; here Griffiths describes Patti Smith in writing: “[T]he words are free to lose the markers of lyric, rhyme and syllabic consistency, in favor of a looser relation more akin to prose forms: less poem as analogy, then, and more short story, novel, letter, confession, manifesto” (ibid., 54).

Sound Qualities of Sung Lyrics

The singing voice and its musical line introduce characteristics and dimensions, and add many sound qualities to the lyrics.

To start, all human voices are unique; each contains a vocal timbre and speaks (sings) with a vocal style like no others. The unique sound of each voice is a one-of-a-kind musical instrument. A singer’s unique sound adds qualities to the song lyrics that are unmatched by any others. Each voice contributes in its own way to support the presentation of the text, and add to the character of the persona. In production, this brings great significance to matching the song (with its lyrics, music, persona) with the sound and character of the individual singer’s voice—and to the singer’s performance style and persona.

In the recorded performance the persona becomes more fully developed. It manifests as a synergy of the content and expression of musical material, the literary and dramatic content of song lyrics, and the expressive qualities of paralanguage, non-linguistic vocalizations and the real-life qualities generated by physical sounds from the singer (such as breath and mouth sounds).

We recognize the music domain of the sung line is most closely linked with melody, while other musical qualities (rhythm, dynamics, register, timbre) can be significant. The lyrics domain continues to carry the sonic substance of linguistics—the rhythms, timbres, inflections, accentuations and diction of speech—and layers of communication and literary meaning. This traditional connection plays out in the shaping of individual words and word sounds, the individual lines of text that are fused with lines of music, and the lyrics and the vocal line as a whole. The persona is deeply enmeshed with its delivery of the lyrics and its performance of the melody.

Returning to the singer, we recognize the sound qualities of sung lyrics are a blend of the timbre of the individual’s singing voice and the qualities of the language. This blend establishes the singer’s voice as a unique musical instrument, and the singer as a unique individual, capable of projecting a unique persona. Additionally, the individual singer has an inherent vocal technique; technique is often influenced by speech dialect, and will exhibit personalized characteristics of performance style and sound quality.

Everyone has a unique voice, owing much to physiological differences. Greatly simplified: vocal sounds are produced from a sequenced mechanism starting at the lungs and progressing through the larynx, resonated by the chest and head cavities, and articulated by the tongue, palate, teeth and lips; each individual has unique vocal folds (commonly called cords) and vocal tract. As small differences in human physique are reflected in different sound produced, it becomes clear how each individual has vocal qualities like no other. These physical differences create formant regions of accentuated frequency patterns; this acoustic resonance greatly distinguishes individuals by the tonal quality of their voice. Closer examination allows recognition of spectral envelope characteristics of the vocal formants.

Differences between singers’ voices are often clearly evident within particular word sounds. Distinctive timbral characteristics will appear most prominently in different phonetic sounds, and will vary between individuals. As vowel sounds are the phonemes most often sustained, the differences will either be quickly distinguishable or be rather blended. Often the most unique voices will have prominent formants in sustained vowels. Some singers have cultivated the technique of activating a formant region that is not naturally present in their voice. Further, use of falsetto and other vocal techniques extend the voice’s timbral characteristics and range of expression, while the persona remains identifiably the same.

Vocal timbre can impact the qualities of persona. For example, as timbre communicates a sense of intensity and energy when sound is produced, this can cast an impression of degree of urgency upon the persona, as presenter of the narrative. The vocal qualities of individuals may inherently project a sense of calm, grace, tension, aggressiveness, panic and so forth. These not only shape the persona, they impact the message or meaning of the song.

Lyrics as Mosaics of Moments and Tone, and Unintelligible Lyrics

Even after this lengthy coverage of lyrics, we must acknowledge lyrics are not always the first thing written in the song. Further, the content of lyrics is not always the primary consideration of songwriters, performers or producers. Ian MacDonald (2005, ix–x) noted:

The sound and tone of the lyrics, blended with vocal qualities and melody took precedence over story, for the Beatles; “Eleanor Rigby” (1966) is rare among their songs in its “sustained line of thought and expression amounting to a poem” (ibid.). Perhaps such lyrics might be conceived as mosaics comprised of disparate moments, connected by mood, sound, ideas. Whether or not lyrics are finely wrought hardly seems the point to popular song; just a few words can speak volumes when sung. Clearly, the Beatles’ lyrics (and those of many others) have communicated something special to many, through the moments, images and moods within the lyrics’ collage—aided by much else.

The Beatles’ lyrics are not unusual for having their “word-technique driven by sound” (Griffiths 2003, 53); such an approach to lyrics is common in popular song. Emphasis on content of lyrics certainly varies considerably from style to style—pop, country and rap might place greater emphasis on lyrics and what they say than perhaps rock and metal—and from artist to artist, and song to song, within genres. Even Bob Dylan has down played the importance of lyrics; in a 1984 radio interview he stated: “When I do whatever it is I’m doing, . . . It’s not in the lyrics.”¹⁸ In all this, song lyrics are clearly not poetry. While perhaps overstated, there is likely some bit of relevance in the view Theodore Gracyk (1996, 65) offers:

Some observers have extended this position to mainstream rock/pop lyrics as well, relegating them to banality and worthlessness (Shuker 2002, 181).

Richard Middleton (2000b, 163) identified “the axis can be seen as running from the idea—so popular in the sixties—of lyrics as ‘poetry’ to the argument that actually listeners pay no particular attention to words at all.” On the extreme opposite from Gracyk, of course, are opinions and writings based on the exact position that songwriters are poets (Goldstein 1969); still nearly all songs fall within the continuum between the two positions, as lyrics communicate within and are enhanced by the song. In reality, song lyrics are not intended to be poetry, and fundamental differences exist between the two. Simon Frith (1996, 182) notes:

The richness of popular song holds no single position related to the meaning, communication or significance of lyrics. Frith (1988, 121) suggests the critical question is “how do words and voices work differently for different types of pop and audiences?” As with all other aspects of the record, we can reach beyond the context of the song’s genre and culture to recognize each song is unique and carries its own relationship with words; the task becomes to identify the ‘poetic status’ of the lyrics, in order to approach the record appropriately.

The importance of words and lyrics also plays out in the intelligibility of lyrics, and the listener’s ability to understand the message (or language). A great many of us have had meaningful listening experiences without understanding the sung text. Unintelligible lyrics can result from a song with lyrics in an unknown language or dialect, whether a foreign culture or not; such lost words might also be the result of musical texture, of the mix, of the singer’s diction, or our own inabilities to decipher the lyrics (each might be caused by any one of a multitude of reasons).

At the end of the first verse of “Purple Haze” (1967) many listeners believe they hear Jimi Hendrix sing “‘Scuse me, while I kiss this guy”; his articulation of “the sky” is often misheard as “this guy”. Understanding lyrics depends on the listener; all interpretations are influenced by the listener’s experiences, attitudes, knowledge, skills, culture, etc.—and their perceptions. With unclear words, listeners are prone to use their frame of reference and experiences to quickly process meaning; with words and their meanings moving by quickly, and with the added information of a competing fabric of musical setting, little opportunity (mental capacity) is available to question and explore the uncertain. In these instances, communication relies heavily on the listener, perhaps more than on the singer. This difficulty in understanding song lyrics leads to misinterpretations by listeners, and sometimes to rather personal interpretations as listeners apply their own words to indistinguishable sounds using the tone of the voice and context of the music as guides. As just illustrated, misunderstood lyrics—even a single word—can radically shift meaning.

Diction and enunciation can play a key role in intelligibility of lyrics, and also vary between types of popular music. Gracyk (1996, 104) observes: “rock singers are notorious for injecting degrees of incoherence into their vocals . . . there may be no attempt at clear articulation.” We have all experienced singers who articulate clearly and those that do not. Cultural factors can enter here as well, as some people struggle to make sense of some genres of music that are clearly perceived by others.¹⁹ While singers play a role in intelligibility, the clarity of the vocal may result from the arrangement or the treatments of the vocal within the recording’s mix. The vocal (and its lyrics) might compete for its place in the track, and the listener’s perception—and not emerge clearly enough to be intelligible.

Unintelligible lyrics function as sounds in rhythm, perhaps with the sound of the voice functioning as an instrument without words—whether or not unintelligibility is intentional is irrelevant here. The lyrics of “Louie, Louie” (1963), as performed by the Kingsmen, have eluded generations of listeners, who were otherwise engaged with the song; this is a clear example of words not as important as rhythm and sound, of the voice communicating by its gesture and expression. Even when lyrics are unintelligible, or when lyrics are not correctly understood, songs are able to communicate directly. A “musicalization of the words” (Middleton 1990, 228) takes place that provides the vocal line with significant depth of meaning well beyond all other instruments. The persona of the singer remains, and the vocal’s sound qualities communicate a great deal beyond all instruments. Though language content of lyrics may be missing, masked or very largely unheard by listener, the lyrics’ rhythms, expression, energy, performance intensity, sound quality/timbre are perceived and communicate in place of words. The human voice travels deeply, even when void of language.

Paralanguage and Nonverbal Vocal Sounds

The recorded song embraces and elevates nonverbal vocal sounds. Daily-life vocal sounds are commonly incorporated into the performance; they become integral to the recorded vocal line. Other ‘noises around the words’—sounds generated by the physical act of singing and breathing—are also incorporated into the persona, musicality and drama of the performance, and thereby, the substance of the track. This is significant, as “non-linguistic indicators . . . are as efficient, if not more efficient, than language for expressing meaning” (Lefford 2014, 46).

Paralanguage—vocal components of speech that are non-phonemic and assist communication—is an important dimension of the vocal performance. With popular music anchored in recorded performance, its manner of delivery is central to its communication. Non-linguistic vocal sounds, are widely varied—some will be interpreted relative to cultural convention and some more universal—and are surrounding elements that “participate in the conveying of emotions in everyday communication activities” (Lacasse 2010a, 226). Popular song seeks ways of enriching language; at the same time it is deeply rooted in everyday language and human interaction and “popular singing acquires most of its inspiration from everyday speech” (ibid.). This is one of popular music’s great strengths for expression and communication, and connections with the listener; oohs and ahhs, exclamations and much, much more, all become integral, assimilated within the communication and language, the performance, and the track. Including these non-linguistic sounds within a particular analysis of lyrics or vocal performance might reveal unique qualities of the track.

Serge Lacasse (2010a)²⁰ has examined the very humanizing, everyday sounds of paralanguage. To offer a starting point for developing a theoretical framework for popular singing, he has adapted the work of linguist Fernando Poyatos (Paralanguage: A Linguistic and Interdisciplinary Approach to Interactive Speech and Sound). Paralinguistic features are classified in four categories: primary qualities, qualifiers, differentiators, and alternants. Any of these might be used within the delivery of the vocal line.

Primary qualities are predetermined by the physical, biological features that individuate voices and how those voices are modified. These are the timbral qualities that allow us to recognize an individual solely by the ‘sound’ of their voice. Other primary qualities include the musical elements of resonance, loudness, tempo, pitch and intonation, rhythm and duration, etc., but are “approached from a slightly different angle, according to whether they are considered to be predetermined (either for biological or compositional reasons) or altered by the singer” (ibid., 229). The distinction here is between what is within the music and what is inherent to the voice itself. Primary qualities establish a point of reference whereby we might witness: “the most interesting aspect of performance resides precisely in how a singer will alter these predetermined parameters” (ibid.).

Qualifiers modify the voice itself. The modifications are noticeable and may be controllable or uncontrollable, and are heard related to established social values, though some (such as the intimacy of whispering) are more universal. Many qualifiers exist:

• Breathing sounds (such as breathy voice, whispers)
• Laryngeal effects (such as falsetto)
• Pharyngeal control (such as opening the voice),
• Nasal sounds
• Sounds produced by the tongue, lips or jaw

Differentiators appear in conjunction with verbal language (such as yawning while speaking) or can appear as independent vocal sounds. These include laughing, crying, shouting, panting, gasping, coughing, throat clearing, and sighing (among many others)—all of which can be produced while speaking or on their own. Alternants is a broad category of vocal sounds that can only occur in isolation; they are set apart from speech or singing. Though alternants might appear within a vocal line, a demarcation will exist between these sounds and the music/lyric gesture; a few examples are hisses, moans, slurps, sniffs and snorts.

Table 4.7 lists some of these sounds around words. All of these sounds contribute to the singer’s image and persona. Critically, they also contribute substance and expression to the vocal performance and the vocal line. They can supply a deep connection to the performer and to their communication. When ‘inarticulate’ sounds are incorporated into the vocal they can provide a personal statement to or an intimate connection with the listener. They punctuate rhythms, add dimension to persona, clarify meaning and enliven language. Further, nonverbal vocal sounds provide a tangible representation of act of performance—lifelike qualities can thus be instilled within the performance, within the record.

Table 4.7 Select non-linguistic vocalizations, body-generated sounds and sample paralanguage.

The ‘sounds around the words’ are significant when they appear. Their existence is nearly always calculated and intentional, not accidental. The majority of these sounds can only be part of any vocal performance through recording; these qualities are typically exactingly crafted to contribute to the record.

Vocal Style

Vocal style shapes the fusion of lyrics and melody. How the line is sung is potentially as significant as its content. Serge Lacasse (2010a, 226) observes from watching his young daughter singing along to recordings: “[O]ne might be under the impression that the true content of the music she likes . . . lies not so much in the lyrics or in the melody, but rather in the way they are sung.” Material and its delivery will find a balance within the individual track; these too will become entwined as a single expression. As “in popular music, questions about melodic structure cannot be separated from questions about vocal style” (Winkler 2000, 39).

In performance, subtleties of sound qualities of both melody and language emerge (and merge) in vocal style. Those elements of music performance technique and expression that were identified in Table 2.2 are augmented here. The sung vocal exhibits additional activities and elements idiomatic of the unique qualities of the voice and those generated by the lyrics’ qualities.

Table 4.8 contains numerous qualities and techniques, many identified by Walter Everett in “Pitch Down the Middle” (2008, 118–123); there he provides brief, clear examples (encompassing many timbre-related qualities) and acknowledges his listing is necessarily incomplete. Everett notes at the end of his listing: “all sorts of approaches to articulation, phrasing, portamento, note bending and glissandi, dynamic shadings and matters of stylistic ornamentation (with Janis Joplin unmatched for her variety of high-voltage techniques applied to multitudinous contextual relationships, exhibiting both talent and control . . .).” Of further interest to style is his observation that “A singer’s level of ease or tension is palpable and an important conveyor of expression” (ibid., 119).

Allan Moore (2001, 45) has noted a void in how a multitude of factors are not embraced in characterizing vocal style and the voice’s presence. He has proposed four factors that should be taken into account in any analysis: (1) range and register, (2) degree of resonance, (3) the singer’s heard attitude to pitch and (4) the singer’s heard attitude to rhythm. In Song Means (2012a, 102–108) he frames these as “four positional aspects” of the singer’s voice. These are intended to allow the analyst to “determine whether the singer is conforming to the apparent meaning of the lyrics in the way they are delivered, or is perhaps clarifying them, whether the singer is equivocal about the lyrics . . ., or is even subverting them (ibid., 103).”

Table 4.8 Variables of vocal qualities and performance technique.

Peter Winkler performs a deep examination of Aretha Franklin’s pitch inflections and intonation, and intricate beat subdivisions and inherent rhythmic flexibility (1997, 186–191). Moore views attitude to rhythm in relation to singing exactly on the beat or ahead or behind it; attitude to rhythm might also include singing in a rhythm that approximates everyday conversation, or that might conflict with linguistic syntax. The singer’s heard attitude to pitch relates to singing ‘in tune.’ Singing perfectly in tune, flat or sharp by a slight or greater amount project attitude and vocal style. These performed pitch characteristics might be inherent to the singer; dramatically placed, the “approach may vary not only from phrase to phrase, but sometimes from moment to moment” (Moore 2012a, 103).

Currently, a prominent convention in mainstream popular music is to autocorrect vocal tuning; the natural singing voice is almost avoided in some styles, with only the beginnings and endings of pitches left unaltered and the sustain auto-tuned (pitch corrected). Pitch intonation is left unaltered from the performance in other styles (and before auto-tune became available and fashionable); it can appear in many forms from carefully in tune to rough approximations of pitch. Intonation might even be (somewhat) disguised by a vibrato’s wavering pitch. For many instruments pitch conforms unambiguously to scale degrees and to tuning. Pitch in vocal performance may appear precisely in tune from its first moment and throughout its duration; this creates an impression of exactness and formality. Exacting pitch intonation is not typical in popular song, though; in keeping with the casualness of popular music, precision of tuning is out of character, and often undesirable. Pitch gliding is a common part of vocal style—sometimes subtle, often somewhat pronounced; this reinforces the linkage with speech inflection. A few common shapes and uses of pitch glides²¹ (or bends) are:

• Pitch-glide beginning as note is attacked to resolve; glide is typically upward.
• Pitch is sustained from beginning of note, then gliding upward to resolve
• Glide between two pitches within the line, with the second pitch sustained
• Glide at the end of phrase, with the final note heard but not sustained
• Glide at the end of phrase, with the final note not clearly articulated

Alterations of pitch as much as a quartertone above or below the target pitch are common. These glides bring many qualities and functions to the music, and heighten the interplay of being ‘in tune’ with the affects (and the effects) of ‘out of tune-ness.’ For example, a sustained pitch that is slightly flat from the perceived, intended pitch creates tension that continues to increase the longer it remains. This un-resolved pitch is a suspension of sorts; considerable tension can be generated with this technique, as the pitch may never arrive at its destination, creating a sense of incompleteness, or may arrive after much time and establish a sense of finally having arrived. Other instruments, of course, can control pitch as exactly, but no others incorporate intonation quite so intrinsically into technique and performance style.

There are many nuanced aspects of vocalized lyrics. These subtleties appear in timbral qualities of phonemes, rhythmic placement and transitions between text sounds and nonverbal sounds, accents and dynamic shaping of individual syllables or words, and pitch inflection—to name but a few. As we seek to examine the vocal line and text fully, we observe and recognize great subtlety in the performance. Examined at a close perspective, we hear many dimensions, of the domains and elements in action; a multidimensional experience is presented by the vocal performance. The performance itself adds sounds and enhances the sound qualities of the lyrics; it adds layers of emotive and attitudinal interpretation that can transform its message; it adds dimension and drama with an unfolding of the text in time; and the performed vocal line becomes a musical idea, with all the elements of music present.

To illustrate some of these concepts, Allan Moore describes Joe Cocker’s performance of “With a Little Help from My Friends” (1968) as

So far discussion has emphasized individual elements and traits of the vocal line. Shifting to the perspective of the vocal’s overall quality, there is a ‘unified impulse’ of music and lyrics domains—alchemy of voice and melody at the core of the song. In describing Aretha Franklin’s voice in her seminal “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)” (1967) Peter Winkler observed:

‘A unified impulse’ is a striking description of the sung vocal line. Its many dimensions blending into an overall quality, the vocal is where the individual contributions of pitch and rhythm, dynamics and timbre, word sounds and expression dissolve; no longer discrete elements that built the melody-plus-lyrics vocal line, but rather a whole so well integrated one aspect does not stand out. While the masterful performance of Aretha Franklin is central to the richness of this integration described by Winkler, all vocal lines present some level of integration and a clear sense of an overall quality. All vocal lines present an integration of interpretation, pitch, intonation, rhythm, time, text, diction, drama, timbre, dynamics and intensity into a single coherent whole, into one ‘unified impulse.’

Examining Lyrics Within the Track

Interpreting, or making sense of lyrics is uniquely challenging. Performed song lyrics have many levels and dimensions, beyond message and meaning. Lori Burns (2010) has developed a detailed approach to examining aspects of the lyrics as they appear in song—that is, as they appear in the experience of the song. This approach may prove valuable to many analysts engaged in the complexities of lyrics.

In “Vocal Authority and Listener Engagement” Lori Burns proposes an “interpretive framework for the integration of musical strategies with lyrical narrative perspectives” (2010, 155) to study female pop-rock expression. It serves to bring considerable depth and clarity to her analyses. Her framework might be successfully applied to a wider array of pop songs to bring a functional approach to—or at minimum a meaningful guide towards—exploring lyric context (including meaning and message) and its relationship to the record.

Burns’ ‘narrative-theoretical framework for the interpretation of the voice’ incorporates theories of narrative authority, musical persona and agency, "the subjective layers of protagonist, character, and artist, defining those roles within narrative theory, . . . [and] expressive strategies of the female singer-songwriter" (ibid., 158). Recognizing the study’s “critical objective is to explore female vocal authority” is well achieved and significant; its more universal value is in what follows: “by examining strategies of narrative voice and vocal expression in four selected songs. The analyses will demonstrate how the strategies contribute to the sociomusical communication from artist to listener” (ibid., 156). The framework unfolds in four stages, from artist to listener, by way of implied author, narrator, narratee (the person “inside” the text to whom the narrator is speaking), implied listener:

1. Narrative agency: author-implied, author-narrator. In this first stage the ‘implied author’ establishes the norms of the narrative, and the distance (such as emotional, moral, intellectual) between the narrator and the implied author; the implied author is the sensibility (opinion, knowledge, intelligence, feeling) that accounts for the narrative. Through the way the author crafts the narrative voice the listener/reader forms an interpretation of the ideologies, values and authority of the persona that guides the narrator, which is the implied author. This is especially important in popular songs in which the artist uses personal voice
2. Narrative voice includes the narrator, character, and persona. Of central concern is ‘narrator status,’ which is informed by ‘narrator identity’ and communicated through ‘voice’: the identity of whose story is being told and by whom; contained in the identity is the reliability of the narrator, their honesty and sincerity. Narrator status might be deduced through questions such as: Is the narrator an observer or a character, involved in events? How does the narrator come to know the story? Narrative stance, or point of view, is the relationship of narrator’s personality and values (social norms) against the story. Voice is projected from this position. Forms of voice that are common are:
   • Authorial—third person and public narratives, omniscient narrator (reading to an audience), narrator and narratee both exist outside the story and are not humanized by the events
   • Personal—first-person, narrators telling their own story
   • Communal voice—narrative is a collective voice, or a collection of voices
3. Modes of contact occur between the narrator and the narratee. The critical questions about the narrator’s communication to the narratee are recognized with the assistance of narrative theory. Framed as opposites, these include:
   • Address: public (aimed at a broader readership) versus private (aimed at a specific character inside the narrative)
   • Communication from the narrator to the narratee: direct and active (with “I/you” communication) versus indirect and passive (through an accounting of actions, events and feelings within the narrative)
   • Expression: sincere versus oppositional (such as an ironic expression toward the narratee)
4. Listener engagement links artist to reader/listener. Using Andrea Schwenke Wyile’s (2003) concept of engaging narration, central “elements of narrative that develop the relationships between and among characters (including narrator and narratee)” (ibid., 165) emerge:
   • Proximity—a narrator can seem so close to the character that the listener might conflate narrator and protagonist, blending into one in many listener minds, though the ‘I’ who narrates and the ‘I’ who experienced the events are not one and the same
   • Sincerity—narrator relaying events and character experiences earnestly; a shift in engagement or perspective represents oppositional viewpoints, and might present two or more competing voices
   • Temporality—consonant (having no temporal interruption between events and their telling) versus dissonant (resulting from time-shifting techniques such as retrospection)

Table 4.9 presents a narrative-theoretical framework for “Strawberry Fields Forever.” Narrative agency is clearly first-person, addressing a second-person narratee, with a sense of detachment (perhaps emotional) separating them. Lennon (as narrator) is telling his story, and it is personal; he is a character in the story and his personality is enmeshed with what is shared; there is a sincere desire to share the experience and place of Strawberry Fields with the listener, narratee. The modes of contact see the narrator and listener in private interaction, directly communicating (though Lennon’s persona is hesitant, uncertain at times), and the narrator appears sincere, with some avoidance and oppositional positioning. Some distance (perhaps emotional) appears to separate the narrator and listener; the narrator is not engaging reality earnestly, so relaying of events may be distorted; activity takes place out of time, with no temporal sequencing.

To these examinations of narrative, this approach explores musical expression and interpretation to reveal how narrative elements are developed in the musical realm. Interpretation focuses on the details of vocal expression bound to the four narrative elements, and is supported by music analysis of relevant materials. The musical elements in her interpretations are: vocal quality, vocal space, vocal articulation, texture and recording techniques. Burns notes: “For each of these musical layers, the listener interprets the extramusical connotations of musical gesture within the context of style and genre” (ibid., 166). This flexible yet focused process represents a tangible framework for interpreting the lyrics’ narrative, and its unfolding story, perhaps revealing stated and implied concepts within the lyrics—one that will fit well with our recording analysis framework.

Table 4.9 Narrative-theoretical framework for “Strawberry Fields Forever” by the Beatles.

LYRICS IN RECORDED SONG

The recording represents an additional layer of sonic dimensionality and interpretation to the song’s lyrics and vocal performance. Recording elements can provide lyrics with drama and motion, they can support meaning and expression, and they can add color to and create a context for the lyrics. This section is intended to provide some grounding of the lyrics in the track by introducing some examples of how the recording might enhance lyrics and enriches its story and communication; notice that these discussions largely emphasize timbre and spatial qualities. The recording, lyrics and the performance are in confluence within track; they fuse into a single statement, into one complex voice.

This confluence is apparent in Bruce Springsteen’s narrator in “Born in the U.S.A.” (1984); a title he brings “to sound like both a sentence of doom and a hopeful declaration of optimism” (Himes 2005, 19). The protagonist speaks his story directly to the audience, in a voice that often is as much a yell as singing. The story is not of overt patriotism; it is rich in ambivalence. Woven against the backdrop of working-class struggles and limited opportunities, are the bleak social challenges that greet the narrator upon returning from the Vietnam War—no jobs, a Veterans Administration unable to provide support; his story arrives at “nowhere to run” and “nowhere to go”; with more than a little sense of defiance he stands his ground, still seeking the life he deserves (ibid., 9–35). The recording supports this, as Springsteen's character struggles to be heard above the noise, struggles to establish his own place in the track (to carve out his own place in life and country). The mix and arrangement place the lead vocal at a distance from the listener and at a lower loudness level than others. With a snare drum processed to create explosions of dense sound, a piano that is distinct in its clarity, and synthesizer sounds creating timbres in detail that assert a dominating repeating pattern; even within the sparse texture of the first verse+ chorus sequence the vocal must exert itself to compete with the others, and in the mix. The extreme performance intensity of the lead vocal is not the loudest in the mix, other sounds playing at lower levels of physical exertion (though they may be high, as the drums, they are not higher than Springsteen’s vocal) are louder, some only at times. Further, the lead vocal is the sound furthest from the listener; the piano and synthesizer sounds contain more timbre detail and are more immediate to the listener, the snare drum is somewhat ambiguous, though its density of sound information brings it a sense of being nearer than the protagonist. Once the second verse starts, the vocal must compete harder, and with the third verse harder still, as throughout the track the instrumentation and mix become increasingly dense and complicated, and the sound stage gradually becomes more complex until the track obtains its full texture. This relationship of the lead vocal to the ensemble is the result of crafting loudness levels of sources in the mix, and also of modifying timbres to create a sense of depth of sources; here, recording shapes and enhances vocal qualities and its relationships to other sounds. Recording provides a context against which the vocal asserts itself against many forces and challenges—the narrator never backs down, nor does he triumph.

The stereo image of David Bowie’s character Major Tom fittingly travels through space in “Space Oddity” (1969). The lyrics’ first line is presented in the center of the stereo array and with considerable width. The second and third lines are sung by two Bowies, one hard right and a higher doubling on the left. Each image is narrower (occupies less space) than the vocal image of the first line; the effect is that these two voices are not more substantial than the single voice that preceded. Line four returns to a single voice centered, with characteristics like the first line, as the spoken countdown begins in the left channel (with an image similar to the second and third lines). The lead vocal is located in the right channel for lines five and six, with the same qualities as lines two and three; the left channel continues the dispassionate countdown (image unchanged) until “lift off” during the sixth line. The chorus follows with left and right channels performing the same line roughly in unison, with slightly different interpretations. Verse two opens with a single centered lead vocal, which then resumes two right and left channel vocals—this time with the lower line in the left channel. The result is not having a fixed point of reference for the lead vocal; the vocal is moving in space, it is surreal. Major Tom is moving, his presence is changing sizes and locations; at times he seems duplicated and split, though in mismatched proportions. These changing physical locations and sizes of image all support the story and the drama of the lyrics.

In contrast, the listener is transported between two distinctly different places within the first line of “Hello” (2015) by Adele. The first word, “Hello” contains contradictory spatial information—a reverb tail of a large space and an early time field of near walls that provide a sense that the voice is coming from a different place, perhaps a different time; the spatial character of the word provides a sense it is directed to the listener from a rather detached (but still close) position within the listener’s personal distance. Immediately we hear “it’s me” arriving from another place—it is a smaller space, noticeably different, less reverberant (though clearly reverberation remains) and more naturally proportioned; one may imagine this voice in the same room as the listener, with the protagonist leaning in and entering the listener’s intimate space—breaths and mouth noises are audible. While the first word “Hello” has larger substance, the following words “it’s me” are clearer and piercing. The remainder of the verse continues the character of these two words, in a voice that seems to penetrate deeper than the first; it is more immediate, and it cannot be ignored. After the second verse, a pre-chorus brings a shift to the voice and a more urgent intensity builds from a slightly more detached distance; the chorus erupts “from the other side” with a high intensity vocal, from a place that is more distant than the verses but not the place of the first “Hello.” In the chorus all words are within a consistent distance location, and clearly at a more polite social distance that is well outside conversational speaking range.

This shaping of distance and environments is not at all unusual; “Hello” is filled with the drama, motion, direction and expression provided by the recording that has carried many tracks, though it (of course) has unique qualities. The verses have a different spatial, loudness and timbral profile from the chorus (plus, in this case the pre-chorus)—verses more intimate, chorus noticeably more detached, pre-chorus builds energy and provides a different and intermediate set of spatial relations, the return to the verse after the chorus is like turning the page at the end of a chapter, and back to a familiar scene. Qualities of the performed lyrics very often shift between verses and chorus, and support the content and expression of the lyrics; recording elements reinforce structure and fuse with the performed lyrics (voice) as it shifts from one set of relationships to the listener to another—here these are a sense of intimate verses, a more detached chorus and a sense of movement from one to the other.

“You Oughta Know” (1995) by Alanis Morissette follows a very similar shape of intimate verse, more detached and more animated pre-chorus, and an emotively intense chorus with increased separation between the listener and the singer’s persona. The qualities of the voice and how the intimacy and distance translates into the communication of the lyrics are different between these tracks. The deeper breath sounds of the first verse carry an anger and energized restraint, where Adele had vulnerability and perhaps regret. Morissette’s vocals utilize image width changes and voice in two channels that (similar to “Space Oddity”) provide an unsettled place from which the lyrics emanate—exacerbated by distance locations that also shift unpredictably. Image size and proximity to the listener are used to emphasize certain words and feelings. At times the text can appear menacing, in stark contrast to the emotional detachment of Bowie’s track. A rich set of connections are present in the way the recording enhances the performed lyrics and also non-language vocalizations; the vocals in the 16-measure bridge provide shifting distances from very close breath sounds and some from greater distances, and vocalized sounds that exceed the distances of human interaction.²²

Vocal performances do not need pronounced recording-element qualities for their lyrics and expressions to be transformed. In Joni Mitchell’s “The Last Time I Saw Richard” we hear her delivery coming from a realistic place, and the narrator does not move in distance or position. We do hear changing energy in her performance and the shifting ranges of her voice that result in loudness changes, though the changes are not proportional to the performance—in other words, the recording process shapes the loudest and softest parts of the performance into a smaller dynamic range, reducing the loudest sounds and increasing the softest ones. Further, we hear Mitchell’s voice up close, with tongue clicks, saliva sounds, cracks in her voice, unpitched sounds in the back of her throat—all sounds that shape the timbres and expression of the lyrics, and that would be utterly inaudible in live, unamplified performance.

Subtle qualities of recording elements are also found in Bob Dylan’s “Simple Twist of Fate” (1975). Like Mitchell’s track, Dylan’s vocal is closer than a live performance could be and all instruments carry similar space information as the vocal. Loudness levels vary with performance intensity, like Mitchell’s, though the performed dynamic range is narrower—that is, until the peak point of each stanza. At those dramatic moments the voice suddenly increases in loudness and in performance intensity and the room’s reverberation is excited; a new sense of much larger space is introduced. Out of an unforced, fluid presentation the end of the last phrase within the fourth line of each stanza quickly grows in loudness to provide strong emphasis of the words “straight, freight, gate, relate, wait, late” (Dylan 2016, 334). Those six words generate a significant shift in reverberation as well as loudness and timbre; they are the highest pitch and are the words that set up the rhyme that connects the verse lines to the song’s refrain that closes each stanza. These words set apart by reverb, loudness and performance intensity close the story, action and concepts of each verse. The significant amount of room sound and the size of that space add unmistakable emphasis and substance to those words; their reverberant sound contributes drama to these lines. The reverb tail brings the words’ impact to linger after their sounds cease; as the words dissipate and return into the original performance quality—into the final line of the stanza—each of these words introduces a different take on the song’s core idea and its song title.

This final section has introduced select qualities of recording elements to help the reader connect this chapter on lyrics to the core topic of this book—the recording elements. The recording elements and related concepts introduced in these few paragraphs will be more fully examined in Chapters 6 through 9—along with the remainder of recording elements. Chapter 10 will present detailed analyses of recording elements and will explore ways these elements shape lyrics, and the song as a whole.

CONCLUSION

This chapter has explored how lyrics exist within the song, as well as how they communicate. It has sought to articulate how lyrics are fundamentally linked to performance; that musical materials and vocal performance styles shape the content and character of lyrics—and that the recording participates.

The framework for analysis offered throughout this book can embrace methods such as Lori Burns’ approach to the interpretation of the voice and all it generates (2010), as well as other approaches looking at the analysis of lyrics as they are situated within the track. It can also embrace the sonic qualities of the lyrics and the performance, the energies and expression of vocal lines and their impacts. Existing methodologies from disciplines that specialize in the examination of lyrics and poetry, of how lyrics are situated in culture, and the host of ancillary disciplines that can look deeply into the language and communication of lyrics, and their social and psychological dimensions may also find space in the framework that is offered. Any of these might be used to supplement, enhance or add considerable substance to the analysis of lyrics within a track, and of the track itself.

In addition to all this, we remember: song lyrics are not poems. Lyrics are meant to be sung. They are written to communicate with their sounds and through their performance as much as their language— sometimes more so. What lyrics communicate and how lyrics communicate differ from poetry.