CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

SONG FORMS:

(IM)POTENT PACKAGES

Song form should be your friend, helping you deliver your message with power. But too often, an inefficient or inappropriate form weakens your message, weights it down, and drags it helpless and sagging into the dust. Beware, oh beware, of song form. Consider it carefully before you choose.

Verse / verse / chorus / verse / verse / chorus is a common but relatively impotent song form. We've all used it, but, if your experience is anything like mine, too often you've gotten mixed results. This song form probably attracts more of the dreaded “seems too long” comments from friends, co-writers, publishers, producers, and even mothers than any other song form does.

There have been some great songs written in this form, so why pick on such a successful form? What makes it inefficient?

Simple; v / v / ch / v / v / ch repeats the same melody, chords, phrase lengths, and rhyme schemes four times. Four times is a lot. You risk boring your listeners when you make four trips through the same structure. Your verses, especially the crucial fourth verse, had better be very interesting to risk all that repetition. At best, if your message is powerful and compelling, the v / v / ch / v / v / ch song form won't get in the way, but at worst, you risk it working against effective delivery of your message.

Look at this version of Jim Rushing's “Slow Healing Heart,” arranged as a v / v / ch / v / v / ch lyric:

Using two verses before the chorus runs a small risk. Sometimes publishers (bless their hearts) might say “it takes too long to get to the chorus.” But here, the problem comes more from “commercial considerations” than boredom.

After the chorus, verse three starts the second system:

Now the crucial fourth verse. Here's where you run the risk of making the song seem too long:

Now, go back and read the entire “Slow Healing Heart” lyric without the interruptions. Does it seem too long? Maybe, maybe not. The answer can vary for individual listeners. All I know is that it's a risk — even if verse four is killer, it's still a risk. If you can avoid the risk effectively, you should. There are three risk-avoidance techniques outlined in this chapter. Get familiar with all of them.

First Risk-Avoidance Technique

Try dumping a verse. This is not as easy as it sounds, because unless you've written a real dead dog for one of your verses, you probably need at least some of the material in each one. So try to select the most important stuff, on a sort of “best of” principle, and distill one verse from two. Let's try it with verses three and four. How about this as a distilled verse:

Or how about this:

Now, go back and substitute each one into the lyric. Read the whole thing together. Why did you keep reading? Go back and read the lyric with each distilled verse.

This resulting verse / verse / chorus / verse / chorus song form is more streamlined. It gives the second chorus a boost by seeming to get to it early — a distinct advantage. And the distilled verse is often stronger than the two separate verses it came from.

EXERCISE 47

Second Risk-Avoidance Technique

Turn one of the verses into a bridge, making the overall form fit the following structure:

Be careful with this option. A bridge is a contrasting element, both in structure and in content. You'll have to change both the structure and the kind of information you give.

Maybe this will work:

The move to future tense in the bridge helps shift away from the verse material. Shorter lines and a three-line unbalanced section (rhyming AAA) change the structure.

Now, take a minute to go back and read the whole song in the new form. Whad'ya think?

EXERCISE 48

Third Risk-Avoidance Technique

Keep all the lines, but restructure both verses into a single unit. Of course, this means more than not skipping a space between verses on your lyric sheet. It means changing the form of the verses so they don't repeat each other. Here's the actual full lyric by Jim Rushing:

Look how the verse structure works:

The first half is basic common meter, in three-quarter time, with a rhyme acceleration in the third line. The second half moves two by two in four-stress couplets, creating a whole diff erent feel (which will force a musical change). Rushing creates two interesting, unified verses rather than four helpings of the same structure. Big difference.

Any of these three risk-avoidance techniques solve the problem created by the verse / verse / chorus / verse / verse / chorus form. They will help structure work for you, rather than risking songs that seem too long. Even if every line of all four verses is to die for, you can reorganize them into a form that delivers power rather than sags. All it takes is time, energy, and — most importantly — focus on the importance of potent song form. It's worth the work.