Lyrics?

people with exploding body parts or smoking weed

I genuinely lol'ed at that.
I have a similar problem though, most of my songs seem to be all about insulting the listener for their supposed bad taste/feeble-mindedness, with a lot of swearing mixed in. I'm trying to write as often as I can, hopefully I can get it out of my system. Also several ILXors are doing NaSoAlMo, which kicks off at the beginning of November. I'm betting that by picking a theme for my album that I'll be able to write lyrics that are a bit more erudite than "you wear crap jumpers, you're watching shit reality TV, AARRRRGGHH!!!".

I think it's ok to have themes. All of my songs are about complaining about getting old but also making fun of teenagers and college kids.

I maybe use alliteration too much though.

I am really lazy about writing lyrics though. I used to be better about carrying around my notebook and writing stuff down when I thought of it and actively working on lyrics, but now I just wait until we have a song almost done and write lyrics on the last possible day.

I find myself using the word "just" rather a lot. I do the notebook thing, writing as much as possible on the basis that if I write ten songs, nine will be rubbish and one will be reasonable enough to continue working on. My latest theme trick is to write songs that are all connected to a certain location, so I have several songs with different viewpoints on the same thing.

this is what i'm talking about- i think i need to do more of that, carrying around a notebook and then start sorting through the stuff later. i think sometimes it's really easy to spontaneously jam out on the guitar and come up with progressions and cool guitar licks just for the hell of it, but it's harder to get in the kind of habits that produce bitchin' lyrics. none of this is that profound, i'm just sayin'

btw, what is NaSoAlMo?

also, yeah, themes are good. i think FF have been working a rich vein for a while, and the complaining about getting old thing pairs well with the making fun of teenagers thing.

Eh, it's kind of a gimmick. Basically a way to write songs about teenagers, which is lame when you're getting close to 30, but with the excuse that it's from an "adult perspective" or whatever. I want to write more songs that are actually for/about adults but it's hard when you're in a dumb pop band.

NaSoAlMo = National Solo Album Month. Basically the idea is that a bunch of people are supposed to write and record a full album in November, without worrying about it being too polished or even good, as a way of just writing a bunch of music without worrying about it too much.

Plus I don't really know what songs for/about adults entails.

http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/B000003YSX.01._SS500_SCLZZZZZZZ_V44642679_.jpg

When I thought I had to be transgressive and weird with my lyrics, they were just awful. Later, when I thought they had to be abstract and meaningless, they were just stupid. I finally found my niche when I decided that I could have a little fun with my songs. Now, I mostly write lyrics from the perspective of paranoid or crazy people who believe various conspiracy theories, and I like the results 90% of the time, although they usually go through 5-10 drafts while I'm teaching the song to the rest of the band and figuring out how to sing it.

btw, what is NaSoAlMo?

Their website is here:
http://www.nasoalmo.org/

There's also the RPM Challenge [Record Production Month] and FAWM [February Album Writing Month] - both of those happen in February.

One other thing I do is to use the idea "writing is rewriting". I don't remember where I heard it but it originally applied to writing novels. Basically it means approaching lyrics writing with the attitude that anything I write I'm going to have to rewrite anyway. I used to get stressed about writing lyrics, but now I just think "I'll write something, and if it's rubbish, I'll just rewrite it". Consequently I've managed to get a hell of a lot more lyrics completed because the pressure is completely off.

Yeah, my philosophy is that it's never too late to rewrite, be it a song, lyric, or whatever. Granted, my mates can get pissed if I do this too radically too late in the game.

Reading more helps my writing. Especially reading J.L. Borges. Also Leonard Cohen. Mmm, lyrics.

Lyrics are weird. It's just kind of strange to think that I know dudes who are musicians through and through, don't read a lot of books, etc., and then they're expected to do this other thing with words that is not exactly writing music, except it is. And also that I love reading, and writing, and playing music, but don't write lyrics at all (I mean wtf am I supposed to be Neil Peart or something over here).

That's kind of why I'm angry at the Beatles for destroying the concept of songwriters outside of bands. It used to be a cool thing to do, to get Neil Diamond or whoever to write your songs, but since the Beatles it's been "inauthentic" to not completely write your own songs. But this idea is kind of dumb, since obviously there are bands who are awesome but can't write lyrics or even songs worth a dang.

i mean, yeah, we obviously need some sort of a revival where it becomes okay to match songs to bands the way they use to do it in motown. maybe this is happening now, but we're just not into the kind of music (shitty r&B, shitty country).

there are times when i've thought about sitting down and trying to write some kind of straight-ahead songs to try and get someone more polished to play. doing this poem-to-song thing (this funny thing me and roommate are doing where we get heartland-types to send us their poems, and we turn them into songs for $40) has made me realize that it's really fun to put words that aren't even yours to music that you would never perform yourself.

All of my lyrics are conceived from the standpoint of telling a short story or conveying a specific mood. Once I get the story behind the song down, it becomes a question of shaping the words to the melody I have in my head; that's usually driven by how the cadence of the words I'm considering fits rhythmically and whether I can place those words correctly while singing so I don't sound too classical while at the same time staying in tune.

but since the Beatles it's been "inauthentic" to not completely write your own songs

Eesh. Well over half of the modern country records I've bought this year are chock full of outside songwriters.

There's a lot to be said for "shitty R&B" and "shitty country."

fair enough. shouldn't probably have slagged something i know actually quite little about.