Grade Three put their song writing questions to Melbourne musician Walt

Do people sing about real and imagined places?

Why do songwriters include real places in their songs?

People sing about both real and imagined places. 

Octopus’ Garden by the Beatles is a great song but I think it’s very unlikely Paul McCartney ever visited an actual Octopus’ Garden. This can be really interesting for a listener to share in imagining the Octopus’ Garden described in this song. The listener can use their own imagination to visualise their own version of this imaginary place. 

Another song ‘Take Me Home, Country Roads’ by John Denver is written about John Denver’s love for his home state West Virginia in the United States of America. You can hear in the song that John Denver loves his home and there is a real sense of longing to go back to this real place. Most people understand the feeling of missing their home or feeling homesick, maybe after a long holiday or having been away for a while and even though the listener might not have been to West Virginia they can understand the feeling and be moved by a song like this. 

Do people write about things that are important/unimportant?

Yes. A songwriter can write songs about whatever ideas are exciting to them or whatever motivates them to create something. Some songwriters would struggle to write a song like Happy by Pharrell as it might seem trivial or unimportant to them. The same songwriter might find writing a love song to be a more engaging idea for them. Some songwriters might like to write some songs that are about things that are important to them and other songs that are about things that are less important to them. For example John Lennon from the Beatles wrote some songs that are about serious topics such as war (Imagine, I don’t wanna be a soldier) and others that are quite fun and silly (I am the walrus). Likewise Paul McCartney wrote the songs Hey Jude and Monkberry Moon Delight. These songs are quite different in mood and topic and yet are both great songs that offer the listener very different experiences. 

Why would people write songs about animals?

Animals are really beautiful and interesting living creatures. Most people have spent at least some time around tame animals or pets like cats, dogs or maybe fish. Animals are really interesting in the way they look and behave. Animals also seem to experience similar emotions and live somewhat similar lives to humans. They eat, they snuggle, they move, they play, they communicate but we can’t understand the way that animals think about the world around them and so it can be really interesting to use song to play with this idea. 

Why do people make songs rhyme?

Rhyme can be a pleasing sound to the ear. Often songwriters will use tricks from other written forms such as poetry or story writing to help create interest not only in what the words mean but also how the words sound. Rhyme can be a really great way of doing this. Some songwriters also use near-rhyme where a word has a similar sounding vowel but doesn’t completely rhyme. This can also create interest. Rhyme can also help make song lyrics easier to remember because the first half of the rhyme might prompt the listener to remember the second half of the rhyme. 

Why do songwriters include complicated words in songs?

Songwriters might use complicated words in songs for many different reasons. 

Some of these reasons might be – 

To set the tone of the song. 

To create interest. 

The complicated word might have a very unique sound. 

To try to get the listener to engage or think in a certain way. 

An interesting thing to consider when writing lyrics is how you want the information to be received by the listener. Sometimes it can be useful to consider whether the language is the focus in which case using complicated or interesting choices of words might be really fun and engaging. Sometime a songwriter might want to talk about a complex idea, in which case using simple language might help the idea be understood more easily and by more people. Bob Dylan has written a lot of long story songs and often uses very simple language so that the story and ideas can be understood and followed. 

Do some songs change the person who is singing?

Yes. You can write songs from many different perspectives and different voices. Some songs are written using a narrative voice. These might be written in first person, second person or third person. They might tell a story or express an opinion. A song can be used to convey any sort of information in the same way a conversation might. Some songs might change the narrator or perspective during the song to effect the listener in different ways. Some examples of songs that have interesting narrator choices are;

Shallow – duet – changes narrator, one from male perspective, one from female

Fairytale of new york – The Pogues – changes narrator, one from male perspective, one from female

All along the watchtower – Bob Dylan/Jimi Hendrix – Verse 1 and 2 are a conversation between the Joker and The Thief

The Boxer – first person perspective – most of the song, 3rd person in the last verse

The Partisan – Leonard Cohen – changes language

Father and Son – Cat Stevens, some verses are from the father’s perspective, others are from the sons

Do all songs need to have meaning?

Some songs will have meaning to one person and not to another. This is fine. A song might also have different meanings for different people. In terms of the songwriter, a song only needs to have an interesting enough idea to carry the songwriter through the writing process. Different songwriters will have different processes and one songwriter will also often have different processes for writing every different song they will ever write. Some of these processes might be very similar and some of these processes might be drastically different. So one songwriter might need to write songs with a lot of special meaning to them in order for them to be interested in writing the song and to have enough of a creative spark to finish the song or idea. For another songwriter a song might not necessarily have to have a deep meaning or special meaning for them. I have found that songs will have a really wide range of meanings. I equally enjoy writing songs with silly meanings or fun jokey ideas as well as really special and meaningful songs and everything in between and I find if the idea of the song is interesting to me, whether it be a lyrical angle or just a musical idea (such as melody, chords, rhythm, groove, instrumentation etc.) I can normally generate enough creative momentum to finish the idea well.