In Which We Discuss Song Lyrics

Song lyrics are a kind of writing, different from that in books, or scripts. You're limited with the words you can choose - they have to scan, for a start. So, the best song lyrics are ones that manage to evoke strong images or feelings with only a few words, taking advantage of the music to carry the meaning instead of just relying on what is being said. Most songs today don't seem to even try to reach the pinnacle of song-writing - they just talk about how much they'd like to have sex with another person, and don't even bother with clever wordplay.


A few songs are interesting. Take Big Girls Don't Cry - although those four words are continually repeated, closer listening reveals that big girls do cry, and that the narrators belief that they don't is false - and this comes across despite the story being told from his point of view.

However, my favourite Four Seasons song is actually Oh, What a Night. I'm not sure how many people notice this, but about a minute and a half in (1:47), after the line "I felt a rush like a rolling ball of thunder, spinning my head around and taking my body under, oh what a night!", the song has around fifteen seconds of instrumentals. And if you listen closely to these instrumentals, you can hear the "bom-chicka-wa-wa" of seventies porn. Fantastic. Why don't more people do things like that?

Duets are also sadly neglected. Many of them just consist of two people singing alternate verses. Things like Baby it's Cold Outside, or even A Place For Us, performed by Leigh Nash and Tyler James - I love the way their voices intertwine. Going back to Baby it's Cold Outside, well that's just a classic.