[Paul]

A discussion about song themes.  I'd love to hear what everyone likes to write about.  Any unusual ideas that your really pleased with? Thanks, Paul.

[tone]

Haha funny you should mention that - I've been thinking about this myself. But more along the lines of the themes I'm no longer so happy with. I went through a phase of writing songs based on a sort of obsession with the old religion and its relationship to christianity a while back. I still like the songs, but the lyrics are hard to sing, and make me feel quite self-conscious.

As for themes I like, I think personal experiences are my favourite. Songs about what the writer knows, where you can feel the honesty in them. Rufus Wainwright is a good example of this, songs like Dinner at Eight about his father, and Little Sister, surprisingly about his sister are fantastic. I'm not so good at this approach, but I'm working on it. I also like songs about the human condition (ok, maybe that's every song out there) but by which I mean the likes of Neil Finn's songs - Four Seasons In One Day and In My Command are great examples.

Also, I love the themes of a lot of Tom Waits' songs - which tend to concentrate on the darkness we all hide, and vagrancy, marginalisation and so on. Great stuff!

I can't really say I like to write about a single theme more than another. I tend to write whatever comes out - those songs tend to be quite heavily disguised very personal experiences. Loads of metaphor and ambiguity!  I think my favourite lyric/ theme has to be my song Pilgrim, which is about the journey into our own darkness, and how acceptance of it can actually be quite liberating, and even beautiful, if somewhat disturbing!

Great thread, this!

[Paul]

Thanks for your respose Tone. It would be great if one or two other writers would share their thoughts on this topic.  Religious themes can be difficult to tackle and may even upset people at times.  Still I'd be interested to hear what people have written about this theme!

I'd love to hear some more ideas about song themes including themes that people think established writers have covered really well.  What are your favourites? 

The Highwayman , written by Jimmy Webb on the theme of reincarnation is in my opinion genius writing! There are several versions of this song. If you have heard this recording, which one is your favourite? 

Paul

[DeeDeeHughes]

Hi there

This is an interesting conversational thread. I have found that most of the songs that I have written over the past 10 years or so have been variations of the theme of love. Love/hate, love/betrayal, love loss, pure love, tainted love... I decided that it was time I branched out a little, maybe introduce a little levity to my songwriting, and so I wrote a song about a cold sore! Further attempts to write about themes other than love, included a song about homesickness called 'The Homesick Blues' and my love of my hometown called 'Ode to Ontario'. I also wrote a song about heroin (from my experience of working as an addiction counsellor) and a number of songs about overcoming depression, seizing the day
and one called 'My Second Wind' about drawing on your inner resources during hard times.

[tone]

DeeDee, I'd like to hear your song about heroin. I recently wrote a song about this too. It's called 'the opium fiend' and it's about a young lad I used to know who became addicted to heroin and died age 25. A great tragedy.

[DeeDeeHughes]

  Such a devastating thing to happen! When you hear people's stories, you can see how easy it is to take the wrong path. I'd love to share my song Tone, but I'm afraid that, although I play the keyboard a wee bit, I don't have the skills to perform my own songs. This is why I get other people to make demos for me...and this song is just a lyric sheet at the moment. For what it's worth, it is called 'He shoots, He scores' and is very simplistic lyrically. Basically a love song about heroin, and the escape from reality that it brings.

[miletteriis]

This is probably different for everyone but I try to stay away from anything cliche. It seems to me all songs that are out right now are either about sex and partying, because some people think that writing about it in a song makes them cool, or soppy love songs like bruno mars and the script. If you're going to write about either of these two topics i would be cautious as you might end up sounding like every other aspiring musician out there.

I would say pick something very close to your heart, something original and personal to you. Yes, it won't appeal to absolutely everyone, but that's ok. Not everyone will be able to relate to your songs, but at least they will mean a lot to people who feel the same, instead of meaning very little but to everyone who hears them. Hope this helped xxx