Lyrical Hooks

[Rudi]

Thanks for your contribution Tony. Its a good take on the subject.

I forgot about this thread. Also I have not used hooks for ages now.

BTW, My former post re- Kevin Ayres. I had forgotten that the 'song' I Did It Again appeared on the ist Soft Machine album (Kevin's former band)

[tzer]

This topic - hooks, both lyrical and musical - is at the forefront of my current project.

I am working with a friend (Mr. I for the sake of anonymity) who has been writing songs for years. I find his songs to be very cool - off the beaten path, but not so far off that they are "weird" or inaccessible. They all tend to be in common time and don't try too hard to be different, so I have always been interested in playing them.

The trouble is that Mr. I is afflicted with "art is art" syndrome. He feels that his songs are very personal revelations and just because they are lyrically obscure, or metaphorically inconsistent, it shouldn't matter because they represent his feelings and that should be what counts.

And it does, if you don't care that other people just don't get it. But when you want to invite more musicians to play with you - you have to offer them something to hold onto. The promise that you will be performing in front of people who will enjoy it, buy it and come back for more. To that, if you want people to enjoy it, buy it and come back for more, I think you have to reconsider the expectation that people will eventually get it or eventually find some way to connect to your very personal and symbolically/metaphorically ambiguous experiences - You need hooks.

Now it is quite a different story if you are one of the rare few who automatically start with very hooky and catchy material. Another friend of ours (Mr. S) is that person. He cannot put pen to paper without nailing a hook! He plays an open-tuned guitar fretting chords with one finger and lays out hook after hook after hook - It is truly a gift - Mr. I is envious. But for the rest of us mortals, hook-crafting takes effort.

Mr. I puts on one of his own songs for me and asks, "what do you think?" My answer is always the same.

"I like it - what's it about? It has lots of potential! I can hear lots of parts for it..." I am a producer at heart - I always hear the potential - I almost always tell him that it's a "great start!"

He is always miffed that it is not a finished product.

"Sorry, man. I can't find what it's about and even though the chord changes are cool and that one lick is interesting, I don't get it. What's this one about? What is it about this song that you think I should dig?"

Mr. I puts on one of Mr. S's pieces and asks me, "What do you think?" My answer is always the same.

"I love it! That is a hooky song! It really goes straight to your brain! I am going to be singing that one on the way home tonight! Man, Mr. S has a gift for hook-crafting!"

Mr. I is always miffed about that. I tell him that he has every right to be envious. It is not fair that Mr. S does it so effortlessly. But it does not change reality - you need hooks if you want people to like it.

So I am pushing our project into an exercise where we take every singe one of Mr. I's songs (all of which we have been playing for years) and I make him answer two simple questions before we go further. Those questions are:

• What is the big hook?
  
• What are the little hooks?
  

If the answer jumps right out, then good - we know have a shared understanding as a group of musicians of what he considers the thing that is repeatable and broadly interesting about the song. If the way we are playing or singing it is not rising up to meet that criteria, we have to revisit our approach to ensure the hooks are getting delivered.

If the answer is not immediately forthcoming, we have some work to do. We must dig into the piece and see what sort of looks hooky and enhance it - or write new parts, unwrite old parts, recompile, reconfigure, we have work to do...

Good topic here.

[Nightwolf]

Nice!!

I totally understand Mr. I's point of view, I write my Songs for me, no one else. Art is Art and should stand on it's own without forcing it to conform to standards I didn't set!!! But dammit, I want other people to like my Music too! How do you reach the compromise of making it accessible to others without compromising the Art form? That is the question of the ages I'm afraid and only Mr. I can answer it for his material as only I can answer for mine.

I feel for you, I have an Art is Art Friend that comes up with some very interesting stuff from time to time. He is jealous of me as the riff master. If I try to incorporate some of my riffs in his Music and he fights me tooth and nail. His Music could be extraordinary, but as it stands, even as a Musician it bores me after a while because I don't get it. Is that my fault? I don't think so. Is it a problem? Not really, as long as he is happy playing his stuff by himself and can deal with confused looks from me when he wants to share it.

[tzer]

Nightwolf - clearly you can relate and I don't think this situation is unique by a long-shot. I think because music and songwriting can appear to be wizardry or magic - something other than a science - the minute a 'process freak' like me starts pointing at how there is a process we can follow to make music 'go up a notch' in that it can be made more broadly accessible - the first reaction by our 'inner artist' is that will somehow diminish it and make it 'formulaic' or 'less artistic'.

I feel that is naive. Because writing and playing things from the heart "feels good" and actually working on it to take it to new levels can feel like "work" or in other words, not be quite as much fun, people shy away from that exercise and proclaim, "It's art, damn it! You should like it because it is art!".

But I have been given an interesting opportunity with this project. Being that Mr. I and I are close friends and have a strong mutual respect for each other, he has given me permission to speak freely and to push him and his material around in an effort to make it more accessible to our small world of musical consumers here in St. Louis. I, in return for the opportunity to take already good material and try to improve upon it, have committed to be extra sensitive to the original intent - to make it a priority to ensure the 'art' does not get 'processed out'.

It's a great project! Long, long timeline - no deadlines - only goals to make really good music, great music. Can ya beat that?

[Nightwolf]

I look forward to hearing the result