Song Club #60: Ordinary Language
Writing songs that say it plainly
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In an interview in Paul Zollo’s Songwriters On Songwriting, Paul Simon explains how he juxtaposes poetical language with colloquial speech in his lyrics. The book appears to be out of print now and I lent my copy to a friend who appears to have kept it, so I cannot quote him directly as to why.
My memory is that it has to do with balance and relatability. Regardless, as an approach it has stuck with me all the years since. I love it because my experience is that I try a bit too hard to write lyrics that are clever and beautiful, and sometimes as a result they end up being very much not that.
Beyond balance and relatability, using ordinary language invites a natural rhythm and lightness to the way a song’s emotion is expressed. Said a different way, sometimes saying it plainly just hits harder.
Take this opening verse from Simon’s ‘Crazy Love, Vol II’
Fat Charlie the Archangel
Sloped into the room
He said I have no opinion about this
And I have no opinion about that
Sad as a lonely little wrinkled balloon
He said well I don't claim to be happy about this, boys
And I don't seem to be happy about that
You immediately see this slouching, defeated individual in the rich opening lines, and later with ‘lonely little wrinkled balloon’ but you really feel the defeat in the more colloquial lines surrounding — they’re flat, repetitive, tossed off. You can imagine the conversation.
Adrianne Lenker also does this beautifully. For instance, in these lines from ‘Jonathan’
John, it's time
Let me be the moon you shine
Let me be the honest home where you can rest your tired mindYou know me
Knew, knew me well
When I was just a girl, only 19
Twisted in my head
In the second stanza above you can hear the narrator correcting themselves in the repetition of ‘knew’, just as you might when speaking the sentiment in conversation.
If you’re someone who sweats lyrics, taking this approach can be a relief. Just sing it how you’d say it, and that’s good enough. If you don’t sweat lyrics, then this approach might provide a bit of a formula.
This week, a handful of ‘Entry Points’ around using ordinary language in songs.
Once more with feeling,
Lucy
‘Entry Points’
#1
Sing it like you’d say it: Pick a song idea or story and speak it out loud as if telling it to a friend. Don’t filter or polish—just speak. Record yourself, transcribe what you said, and then try to shape that into lyrics. Keep as much of the original phrasing as you can.
#2
One poetic line, one plain one: Write a lyric using a simple rule: every poetic, metaphor-heavy line must be followed by one that sounds like something you'd mutter at the kitchen table. Use contrast to create tone, tension, or humor.
#3
Text thread test: Imagine your narrator is texting someone they trust. Write out the lyric as if it’s a string of text messages, including hesitation, abruptness, bad punctuation, too many “I dunno”s. Then, keep the ones that feel real.
#4
Voice memo vibes: Record yourself singing scratch lyrics over chords or a beat, letting yourself say exactly what you feel or mean, however awkward or ordinary. Don't stop to fix anything. Then listen back and mine it for lines that surprise you by how honest they sound.
#5
Break the beautiful Take a lyric you’ve already written that feels too “pretty” or clever, and rewrite it using words a 12-year-old could understand. Don’t worry if it sounds plain. That plainness might hold the feeling more clearly than what you had before.
How does it feel to focus on using plainer language? Do you feel extra vulnerable without reaching for poetry?