anyone write their own lyrics?

[jzucker]

Soul Connection from my latest recording.

Once upon a time was looking for love
Couldn't find it though I was dreaming of her
Right before my eyes it was there in front of me
To see


Now I see her face in front of my eyes
Clear as day it shows as blue as the skies
Holding hands with her now she flies like little wing
With me


Look into her eyes again
Thinking of her lips upon my skin
I see and hear
Shed all my fears
For her
Window to her soul


Here and now I stand my soul on display
Smile upon my face connection in place
Spending my life time with this girl
She flies away
With me

Soul Connection on spotify

[John A.]

Soul Connection from my latest recording.

Once upon a time was looking for love
Couldn't find it though I was dreaming of her
Right before my eyes it was there in front of me
To see


Now I see her face in front of my eyes
Clear as day it shows as blue as the skies
Holding hands with her now she flies like little wing
With me


Look into her eyes again
Thinking of her lips upon my skin
I see and hear
Shed all my fears
For her
Window to her soul


Here and now I stand my soul on display
Smile upon my face connection in place
Spending my life time with this girl
She flies away
With me

Soul Connection on spotify

Nice. I write lyrics, mainly in a blues vein (though some of my songs have somewhat more jazz-like forms/changes)

[jzucker]

Nice. I write lyrics, mainly in a blues vein (though some of my songs have somewhat more jazz-like forms/changes)

Thanks, I write poetry but when I started prepping for this album, I tried taking my poetry and converting to lyrics and it was a disaster. It's obviously a sister to poetry but adding the poem to existing songs that were written as instrumentals was a real challenge.

[MinToyTot]

From Ira Gershwin's foreword to his Lyrics On Several Occasions: "Since most of the lyrics in this lodgment were arrived at by fitting words mosaically to music already composed, any resemblance to actual poetry, living or dead, is highly improbable."

[John A.]

Thanks, I write poetry but when I started prepping for this album, I tried taking my poetry and converting to lyrics and it was a disaster. It's obviously a sister to poetry but adding the poem to existing songs that were written as instrumentals was a real challenge.

For better or worse I don't write poetry, so I haven't tackled that particular problem much. For a music theory class in college I had to pick a poem and write a piece of counterpoint to it. I picked a Yeats poem (The Mask, IIRC). That's about as close as I've come, and I found it to be a real bear. My lyrics tend to be either very much form/genre constrained or more like story-telling (with rhymes) than poetry. But even there, I'll often write a lyric out completely and it will seem to work, but once I try to build it a song I wind up re-writing it almost completely.

[MarkRhodes]

Some songwriters write the lyrics first. Willie Nelson does that.
I don't.
Or only rarely.
I start with the guitar.
Early on, I ruined a lot of songs by trying to "sing the riff" when I wasn't a good enough singer and I always wanted to play the riffs fast but that made the words come out too fast and be unintelligible.
Live and learn. (Ocassionally.)

[Ukena]

Very few songwriters actually write poetry, and it is rarely expected of them. There are some, of course, like Joni or Tom Waits, but those of us who are merely mortals marry the words to the music or the music to the words. Then, of course, there were the Beat poets, whose poetry was synchronous with the jazz they were listening to – but you couldn't sing it to an actual tune.

I tend to write both in tandem, struggling to build the mosaic as it develops.

I don't have a Spotify account, and won't, so unfortunately I can't hear how your lyrics work in Soul Connection, Jack.

[PMB]

Yes, I wrote my first song at 11. These days, they're mostly instrumentals.

I resurrected a very old blues tune of mine for a gig recently. Time tunnel reflection, quite surreal in a way:

What Could Have Been

There's a part of my life, a time I'll always regret
Just a year or two that hasn't happened yet
It's a moment spent wondering about the things I should have seen
Looking forward to what could have been

It may be long dead and buried but it comes back in a flash
All those younger days when my hopes and dreams were dashed
In a moment spent wondering about the things I should have seen
Looking forward to what could have been

I've had enough of predictions, nothing ventured, nothing gained
'Cause right here and now is all that remains
From a moment spent wondering about the things I should have seen
Looking forward to what could have been

[ragman1]

I'm not sure I know what a jazz lyric is. I used to know singers who could really write them. They leap off the page and connect with you, and the same happens when they sing them. But they weren't jazz players.

My own feeling is that you've either got it or you haven't.

[jzucker]

Very few songwriters actually write poetry, and it is rarely expected of them. There are some, of course, like Joni or Tom Waits, but those of us who are merely mortals marry the words to the music or the music to the words. Then, of course, there were the Beat poets, whose poetry was synchronous with the jazz they were listening to – but you couldn't sing it to an actual tune.

I tend to write both in tandem, struggling to build the mosaic as it develops.

I don't have a Spotify account, and won't, so unfortunately I can't hear how your lyrics work in Soul Connection, Jack.

It's on all the major music platforms , for example tidal, amazon, apple, youtube, etc.

Unsupported browser
Jack Zucker - Apple Music
https://music.amazon.com/albums/B0F54QMYVF

Jack Zucker on TIDAL

[MarkRhodes]

Very few songwriters actually write poetry, and it is rarely expected of them.

True.
Also true, very few poets write poetry either.
Whether the lyrics or music come first in any particular case (-or as Sammy Cahn said, "The check comes first"), songs are a kind of music and music (which includes the vocal melody or tune) trumps the lyric.
Lyric writing is its own craft.

Here is a marvelous example of the craft from Cole Porter (one of the Great American Songbook figures who wrote the music and the lyrics).

[wolflen]

the discovery of new love..and the ever present old..

Here I go again
Living in wonder
and I want you to know
Im scared half to death

Here I go again
Hope I dont go under
But if I do
I've learned to hold my breath

Last time I went down
It was for a long time

[DawgBone]

I'm not sure I know what a jazz lyric is. I used to know singers who could really write them. They leap off the page and connect with you, and the same happens when they sing them. But they weren't jazz players.

My own feeling is that you've either got it or you haven't.

Songwriting is a talent, like the ability to play guitar, but it still has to fostered, practiced, and grown. While some may have a knack for it right off the bat it can still be developed to a high level by those committed to it.

[fep]

the discovery of new love..and the ever present old..

Here I go again
Living in wonder
and I want you to know
Im scared half to death

Here I go again
Hope I dont go under
But if I do
I've learned to hold my breath

Last time I went down
It was for a long time

I like those, simple and short. If the lyrics are too complicated and try to say to many things, the words get lost in the music and I won't know what the lyric was about. Simple is good, repetition is good.

[fep]

I decided to play and sing Honky Tonk Woman the other day. I've probably heard the song a hundred times, looked up the lyrics and was surprised. Goes to show, often times the lyrics go in one ear and out the other without really registering. And yet, I much prefer music with lyrics and singing.

"I met a gin-soaked barroom queen in Memphis." Now that's a lyric that paints a picture.

[ragman1]

Songwriting is a talent, like the ability to play guitar, but it still has to fostered, practiced, and grown. While some may have a knack for it right off the bat it can still be developed to a high level by those committed to it.

Of course, the skill has to be honed.