Although a tune may come easily, words are usually more of a test. To find how it's done, Richard Walmsley pointed questions at some of the best

Writing something of any conceivable interest about lyrics is a daunting task. For every song there is a lyric, so writing about them all under a collective title is rather like comparing the music of Kiss with that of Barbara Dickson. Where does one start?

Well let's get a few home truths sorted out at least. First of all we're not talking about poetry here, a fact which became immediately evident as I immersed my head in countless album covers and back issues of teenage magazines. Apart from the fact that only a tiny minority of song lyrics have the sophistication of wordplay or richness of imagery that one would expect in a poem, a lyric is written to fulfill a different purpose. Poetry is spoken — generally against a background of silence — and the words themselves make up the complete artistic whole. Whereas song lyrics compete for attention with backing music, are often distorted through imperfect diction, and furthermore they are often written after the music itself has been completed.

You might think what with the lyric being written after the music, that it is less important than the music; you might expect instrumental music to have a greater appeal. You'd be wrong, however, because for the most part singers and lyrics remain an integral part of the Pop recipe, regardless of whether bands have anything to say or not.

What is the function of a lyric then, one might ask? I suppose the most brutal answer to this question would be, to give the singer something to do while the music is playing. But th is doesn't mean that song lyrics have to be meaningless or throw away, or that they can't have special qualities peculiar to the art of lyric writing.

What this does mean, I think, is that if you want to write a lyric that simply sounds good and forget about what it means, you can get away with it.

Sound a bit extreme? Consider the lines from Feed The World;

"Well tonight thank God it's them instead of you..."

These seem to express a most unchristian sentiment in the context of the song, and the words stick out like a sore thumb. However, Bono is good at singing phrases like "Thank God etc..." and so it does work better than might be expected. In writing lyrics the musical quality of the words is as important as their meanings.

Having said that there is good and bad in lyric writing, I may as well admit that I'm not going to put my head on the block and try to say what makes a good lyric. For a start, lyrical styles vary as widely as the music they are set to, to say nothing of the little matter of subjectivity.

But no matter what the style, there's one subject that is sung about everywhere, from Nashville to Glasgow, and there's no prizes for guessing that this must be love.

Love is a many splendoured thing

The key to writing anything that sounds vaguely new or exciting about this time worn and universal subject, is to recall the old cliche about love being a many splendoured thing. There's nothing to stop anyone from writing 'I love you baby,' and obviously sincerity must play a large part in writing a good love song, but unless you've got tunes that are hotter than Off The Wall you are going to find it hard to move the song — or anyone else. So unless you are a budding Michael Jackson you would do well to look at the subject from a lot of different angles.

For starters, not all love songs are about love. Some are about hate or resentment, or use these sentiments to express love; a negative image you might say. Jon Waite's I Ain't Missing You At AU, for instance, sounds at first like a very callous approach to a one time lover.

"I ain't missing you at all since you've been gone..." However the rest of the lyric reveals that he is missing the other person very badly, and the irony of the title makes the singer's infatuation seem far stronger and more poignant.

Then there are songs which do not actually address a lover etc, but describe an affair, Frankie and Johnny for example. Some people write songs about fictional or factual third persons. This style is much loved by 'rack' bands who create wet-dream women (hot, wild, devil or black magic, served with relish or salad) presumably as a foil to their own idealised sexual potency. Sade however, used this device in Smooth Operator, as did Carly Simon in You're So Vain, to make incisive and humorous comments about men.

Another type of love song is the kind where the subject is love itself. Sting's Set Them Free is a clear cut example of this approach, whilst Howard Jones, in What Is Love? combines two approaches.

"The answer is they can not love so much nobody can, this is why I don't mind you doubting..."

In other words if you can't think of anything to say to a lover, try giving him/her a lecture.

Having said earlier that the sound of the words matters as much as the sense, it is conceivable that just using the word love in the title of a song makes it more appealling. Call to mind a few song titles with the word Love in and you'll see that their use ranges from the banal to the idiotic; Slave To Love, Rage To Love, Prisoner Of Love, What Is This Thing Called, Love? You Make My Love Come Down. The same principle can be applied to lyrics themselves. The way Howard Jones scans the words in What Is Love? you find that 'Love' is one of the only recognisable words, and he uses it 19 times in a 24 line song.

One might have thought, bearing in mind that top recording artists are now permitted to be openly gay, that more daring attitudes to sexuality might emerge in modern love songs. But one thing that must be taken into account is that fact that the appeal of a love song tends to depend on its universal message; if a punter can't imagine singing it to a lover, or having it sung to him/her by a lover, then it doesn't work. This perhaps accounts for the success of songs like Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?, I'll Tumble 4 Ya and Victims by Boy George which, in spite of his own avowed sexuality, do not imply a particular category of sexuality.

Politics and Dancing

After the lovesong, probably the most common category of song today is the dance song. In general this type of song tends to be pretty vacuous and the lyrics say nothing beyond the fact that you're supposed to be having a good time.

"Celebrate, Holiday..." (Madonna)
"Celebration time come on..." (Kool and the Gang.)

Or the lyrics may consist of a number of dance floor imperatives such as "Get on up" or even "Get on down." Sometimes the words don't have anything to do with the dance at all.

Some bands like Shreikback, Gang of Four and others, have rejected the vacuity of dance lyrics and attempted to fuse the power of the music with words which have deeper social or philosophical meanings, but for my money, the most satisfactory effect comes about when the writer immerses himself in the whole spirit of the dance, its absurdities, and the mating ritual it forms part of.

"We can dance if we want to, we can leave your friends behind..." (Men Without Hats) and "There's a brand new dance... It's big and it's bland, full of tension and fear, They do it over there but we don't do it here..." (Bowie) have both interest and meaning, and reveal more about the dance than meets the naked eye.

Protest songs make irregular inroads into the charts, and whilst the tide amongst artists and public is swinging away from songs which deal with painful realities, this didn't stop Frankie from holding the No 1 position for weeks on end with Two Tribes, or Billy Bragg from gaining decent chart positions with his — Between the Wars EP.

However, it seems there are one or two taboo subjects in this area, for instance, whilst Paul Hardcastle's 19, and The Specials' Free Nelson Mandela both enjoyed chart success, songs which are a bit closer to home, ie about Northern Ireland, (UB40, Funboy Three, Paul McCartney,) seem to fare very badly on the whole.

Leaving aside the question of specific types of song, there are also various aspects of writing lyrics which are common throughout all different types of song and which are a source of both interest and difficulty.

Rhyme and reason

Of all the problems which have bugged poets, songwriters and advertising executives, the search for a good rhyme must have caused the most headaches. Not everyone in Pop music these days bothers with rhymes, but as anyone who has had their head invaded by infuriating advertising slogans knows, rhymes aid memorability, and that is why they continue to feature in much successful pop music.

Now some people can rhyme in their sleep, but others are not so gifted, so if you are having a problem with rhymes you can always try using oblique rhymes. (In other words, cheat!) Not only is this technique useful forgetting round words like; Else (?)

"Cause I have this feeling from nobody else. Got to have your tenderness all to myself..." (Billy Ocean, Loverboy) and Matter (Hatter, Patter, Flatter?!)

"Do the things that just don't matter, laugh while others look in anger..." (Colourfield, Thinking of You), but they can also be used to add touches of humour and sparkle, pitching words like Hospital and Popsicle against each other.

Oblique rhymes are also often introduced towards the end of a song that has begun with a precise rhyming scheme. However, if you can't get your words to rhyme at all, you can try completely subverting the sound of the words to fit your purpose.

"I yam a nantichrist, I yam a nanarcheist..."

Rhyming may add sophistication and impact to a lyric, but it is also at the root of some of the worst cliches that occur in Pop Lyrics. Rhyming schemes which include dead ends like Higher/Fire/Desire, are a constant blight on the face of Pop. Mind you, that didn't stop The Boss from using them in one of his best songs.

"I got a bad desire, Oh I'm on fire... I can take you higher, Oh I'm on fire..."

But then The Boss can do that sort of thing I suppose, and of course what really bites is using the Eurovision pronunciation; Hiyah/Fiyah/Desiyah...

Other Pop deities are also clearly above this kind of consideration. Take Say Say Say for instance, which sees Michael Jackson sitting all alone by the phone waiting for his baby, wondering what he can do to get through to you, while Paul McCartney hopes that "You'll see things girl like I do..."

Of course it's not what you do but the way that you do it. Michael Jackson can thrill millions just sitting by the phone, others can't. But it's a shame more people don't realise this fact, because then maybe we would get fewer identikit lyrics appearing in music.

Say (hear me... )
Play (A game we... )
Pray (I hope and... )
Day (each and every... )
Way (Find a... )
Game (It's just a... )
Same (It's not the... )
Name (Call your... )
Blame (Take the... )

Just take your pick, or fill in the spaces!

Cliches never stopped a song from hitting the heights. In spite of containing such corkers as "Got it all worked out..." "My life was meant to be..." "Can't take no more..." Vince Clarke's songs Never Never and Only You both hit Number One within weeks of each other. (Funnily enough they both refer to a game that he plays, it's not scrabble by any chance?)

But when does a cliche become a cliche you might ask? When a writer uses it repeatedly? Or does this simply imply a perfectly sincere obsession on the part of the lyricist? Would it be fair to say, for instance, that Morrissey has an obsession with vintage cars?

"Why pamper life's complexities when the leather runs smooth on the passenger seat..." (This Charming Man.)

"It was dark as I drove the point home and on cold leather seats..." (That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore.)

Mind you, some of the most original lyricists have stopped making sense altogether. Way back in 1979 David Byrne used the Dada poem I Zimbra as a lyric on the Talking Heads' Fear Of Music album, whilst Blancmange's Neil Arthur used a plethora of heavy duty cliches such as "Out of the fire/Full of desire/You fall into my arms/I just can't see..." to conclude that "That's Love That It Is." (And if you had read as many Pop lyrics as I have this week you wouldn't doubt it either!)

Other bands such as the Cocteau Twins and Simple Minds seem to use words simply for their musical characteristics. Whether Elizabeth Frazer's lyrics are ever intended to convey any meaning we are never likely to know for sure, and as for Jim Kerr's lyrics, I defy anyone to make sense of, "Get in get out of the rain. I'm going to move on up to the waterfront. Step in step out of the rain, etc". The words always appear to be used to evoke some sort of other worldly state which seems to be at the core of Jim Kerr's performance.

So at the end of the day you might say, anything goes. It's not what you sing it's the way you sing it. I feel sure, although I may be in a minority of one here, that video is having one of the most profound effects on lyric-writing at the moment, even if it's only because it takes up a certain part of the artist's creativity that would previously have gone into writing the song or the words. 19 also seems to bean indicator of what might be to come, although in a sense that record could be considered as an instrumental more than anything else. But whatever happens on the surface, the fundamentals are likely to remain the same. In the year 2000 if you hear a singer singing about what he needs most you can be sure it's L-L-L-Love.

Since the Lemon Fire Brigades of Haircut One Hundred, Nick Heywood's lyrics have always had a certain distinction. Whether it's because he sings about love by rivers as opposed to love in the Disco or because of his cheeky vocal style, his words have always added a good deal to the character of his songs.

IM: Do you ever start with a lyric?

NH: "I used to write from a title, but on this album I haven't done that at all. Warning Sign I wrote from a rhythm, which I've never done before; the lyrics came later, I just had the chorus. Other times I generally write the melody first which is annoying because you've got to fit lyrics to it. It's a backward way of working really."

IM: Do you think the sense of the words is as important as how they sound?

NH: "I think all of it is important if the song's really going to go worldwide".

IM: Do you find it strange singing other people's lyrics?

NH: "Sometimes if you've written a song you may not be the best person to deliver it, maybe you're too caught up with the melody and will sing it more as just a tune rather than getting the feeling in the song."

IM: Do you think video is having an effect on lyrics these days?

NH: "We did one video where it went along with the words. Some bright spark thought it was a great idea; I think it's crap."

IM: Do you think it matters if the audience don't understand the words, or does it just matter that you sing them with conviction?

NH: "Yeah, as long as you put it over."

IM: What do you think makes a great lyric?

NH: "Directness, and something that gives off something different. The Talking Heads' '77 album had me falling about in laughter; "Damn that television, what a bad picture..." and all that. But when I got my own thing together I realised I wasn't writing things like that. They're a personal thing and you can only write what your brain's thinking and what you're capable of."

Heaven 17's lyrics are among the most well crafted in Pop music today, mixing sophistication, humour and a certain degree of social comment as well.

IM: Which comes first, lyric or music?

GG: "The lyrics are always the last thing we do. On odd occasions one of us has gone in with a finished lyric, but most we write them together, locked in a room in the studio. We discuss every line and every word and what they mean to each of us. It sounds a bit pretentious really, but it also has inspiration as well, because sometimes you come out with three lines and everybody goes — 'Yeah, that's the one'."

IM: So it all happens there in the studio?

GG: "What happens is that all through the year when you get those mad moments of inspiration in a coffee bar, or drunk under Charing Cross bridge, you jot 'em down on a bit of paper and shove it down your sock. And then three weeks before you write lyrics there's a mad search through all your cupboards, and you get all these things out — just like words and phrases — and write them down, then we just get down to putting them together bit by bit.

"What we also do, is let people hear the lyrics and write them down, and you sometimes get really interesting little things that they've got wrong, but actually sound really good, and we sometimes use those."

IM: Does it matter to you whether the audience can understand the lyrics?

GG: "We like it to make sense to us, event though it might seem very difficult to make sense of it at first reading."

IM: Does that mean that the sound of the words is as important as the sense?

GG: "Yes, and we take that into consideration. It's on a dual level really. There's either the fun or the message in it, but there's also the kind of humming along bit that you can do."

IM: Do you consciously try to avoid cliches?

GG: "When we're writing lyrics we have a list on the wall which grows longer and longer throughout the time. It's the 'Words you can't use' list. The word 'Game' is always up there, and 'Love' is often up there. It gets so long that we finally end up not being able to use anything, but by then we've finished the album anyway."

IM: Do you find it strange singing lyrics written by a non-singer?

GG: "Sometimes you write a line and it sounds fine, but when you sing it you can't do it because you can't get enough power behind it. Like the word 'Offer'. It's really hard to get a lot of feeling and power behind a word like offer...

IM: Do you plagiarise at all?

GG: "Yeah, we nick stuff all the time... but I'm not telling you where from!"

Since the departure of the band's principle songwriter Mike Barson two years ago, Madness have carried on with lyrics by Suggs and saxophonist Lee adding a new and slightly more poignant character to their music.

IM: How do you go about writing lyrics?

S: "I don't find it really natural to write lyrics, I have to keep going back and changing it. I try sometimes to sit in parks and things, but it never seems to work. I think you have to have a place of work and that's usually where you can keep books like your rhyming dictionary... and pencil sharpener!"

IM: Do you try to rhyme very much?

S: I don't think rhymes are important. I do write songs that don't rhyme sometimes, but I feel uncomfortable doing it, because your mind becomes accustomed to hearing a rhyme at the end of every line. But if you write and rhyme, you can often think of a word that rhymes with the line before that wasn't really the word you intended to use and it can spark off different ideas. It can draw you away from getting stuck literally writing what you mean."

IM: What do you think makes a great lyric?

S: "One of the hardest things to be in a song is funny. I try to get a bit of humour in if I can; it proves that you're not too precious about your art. I like Ian Dury's songs because they're really simple sentiments and they're written really honestly."

IM: Do you think terms of video when you write a lyric?

S: "We've never really followed the lyrics literally in a video, but like in It Must Be Love, on the line 'I never though I'd miss you half as much as I do," someone came up with the idea of having it in a grave, which is sort of following the lyrics, but obviously it isn't."

IM: Do you think lyrics are as important as music these days?

S: "I don't think the cleverness of lyrics is enough to sell a song, I mean I certainly didn't like Motown for the lyrics. I think melody is 60% of the music, rhythms and harmonies 20%, and only 20% for lyrics. I hope I got the sum right!"

Anyone who has heard Blancmange's Living On The Ceiling, or Blind Vision, can not fail to be struck by Neil Arthur's puzzling and humourous lyrics. Eccentrically English, they defy interpretation whilst nearly always keeping clear of pretention.

IM: How do your lyrics start out?

NA: "I might be singing a melody line that doesn't 'ave lyrics, and the melody line is metering because of the way I'm thinking about a particular topic at the time it might come about that way. I find it much easier if I've got an idea for the lyrics before the music, but a lot of the time they come at the same time. But I always have an idea of what the lyrics for each song are going to be about anyway."

IM: What sort of lyric style do you like best?

NA: "Simplicity is the word of the day as far as I'm concerned. You don't need to have verbal diarrhoea to have a strange situation lyrically. The thing is I don't sit down and philosophise over it, I just get on with doing it. If the lyrics sound strange that's basically because they are. I don't try and make them strange.

IM: Do you try to avoid cliches?

NA: "Noo, I use all the cliches, any old fucking cliches, put 'em in there... No, on the last album I wanted to get 'love' and 'baby' in as many times as I could. I just did it because I'm perverse. When I do the lyrics I think — 'Here we go, let's see how many words I can get away with here'. So that's why on 'That's love That It Is' I just thought — 'Well someone's going to have a job singing it if they try and copy it'. It's got Lurve and Baby, Fire and desire... I mean if you've got any spare words, send them to me, I'll put 'em in a song.

"But I don't think one particular word can be cliched, it just depends who's singing it. I could sing about how I did the washing this morning and if I sang it in a certain voice it would be convincing. I mean have you ever analysed the songs Frank Sinatra sang? He's got the most beautiful voice, but if you start reading the lyrics! It's total delivery; having a total commitment to the most ridiculous lyrics."

IM: Do you steal things from other people's lyrics?

NA: "I wouldn't say I stole anything... I've never been arrested. I'm quite influenced by Fats Waller... Lyrically I like Eno's ambient music!

IM: What do you think makes a good lyric?

"I like to set people thinking it's one thing and then behind it there's a completely different story. Like I Sing The Word which starts off "I've seen people laughing in churchyards," cause I have and that's why I wrote it. But I knew people would think it was another doom laden Joy Division song, and to answer that, the next line was "Screaming and shouting in my backyard" which I have done as well. I get a lot of questions about lyrics and I don't particularly enjoy talking about them. I'd rather read than be read; I'm always afraid of being misquoted.... Maybe I'll write a song about what you make up..."