Photographic Lyrics
Do you ever listen to music casually, maybe while driving or while enjoying a cup of coffee, and realize you have no idea what the song is about? I’m guilty of it…the music (instruments, melodies, effects) sweeps me away and carries me somewhere else.
This isn’t a bad thing, and it’s not a bad way to listen to music.
But the artists who inspire me most are the ones who can write [words / lyrics] freely and without pause. They’re the artists who can take simple, everyday ideas and use words to paint a picture so beautiful it sends shivers down my spine.
Great lyricists are like great photographers. Anyone can take a picture of a bug on a flower, but a photographer knows how to capture a dirty gutter and transform it into something with meaning. Obviously the tools they have to capture the moment and polish it once it’s captured are important, but if they don’t have the right lighting, or the right angle, the right….vision…. everything else is null.
A small list of photographic lyrics:
“There’s a hole in the drywall, still not fixed. I just haven’t gotten around to it, and besides, I’m starting to get used to the gap.” —Julien Baker, ‘Turn Out The Lights’
“Music is like magic, there’s a certain feeling you get when you’re real and you spit and people are feeling your shit.” —Eminem, ‘Till I Collapse’
“She wore faded jeans and soft black leather. She had eyes so blue, they looked like weather.” — Tom Petty, “It’ll All Work Out”
“…I woke up in my childhood bed, wishing I was someone else, feeling sorry for myself, then I remembered someone’s kid is dead.” —Phoebe Bridgers, ‘Funeral’