Even in Japanese, that’s a wordy song title. It translates to "words become swords that pierce the heart." Profound, no? Once again, I didn’t have a gimmick going in, so I wrote the first line — the first stanza, really — and let everything else come afterward.
When it reached a point where a chorus would come in, I pulled out that clever gimmick of the bilingual chorus. It will, unfortunately, pose quite a challenge when the music gets written.
Yearly Archives: 2007
「住んでいない」 (June 2007)
I usually have some sort of gimmick when I start writing a lyric — use no pronouns, start with a title, write in Japanese. Tonight, I had no gimmick, so I went with the old standby — write the first line and see what happens after. I ended up with something obviously in 3/4.
「結果」 (June 2007)
I set out to write a lyric which makes no reference to a perspective — no first-person, no second-person, barely a third person. It’s really harder than you think. As usual, I really make no effort to make much sense, although a friend’s bad news seems to have influenced some of the verses.
私は作詞者です
So I’ve updated this site more in the last week than I have since the beginning of the year. What gives? Well, I’m making good on a promise to write lyrics for the next Eponymous 4 project before I tackle the music. Now that I have a laptop, I’ve actually taken it to coffeehouses where I can do nothing but concentrate on the task. No TV to lure me away, no vast library of MP3s to distract me.
Back in high school, I was writing lyrics before the music because that’s how I thought Simon Le Bon of Duran Duran did it. I had a big binder of stuff, but I tossed most of it out by my senior year. I found them kind of trite. Not that I’ve improved much as a lyric writer in the convening years.
Honestly, I’m far more comfortable with prose than with verse. I can be breezy and informal with prose. But with verse, I can never shake this self-imposed requirement to go for the profound. And being restricted by the confines of rhythm? What a drag.
But I’m barreling ahead anyway, and I’m concentrating on quantity more than quality. In fact, I aim to write twice as many lyrics as required. I’m aiming for another 12- or 13-track album, which means I need to produce at least 24 to 26 lyrics. I figure a good number of them will end up with really crappy music, and whatever is left makes the album.
Here’s what I’ve managed to dish out so far. My gimmick is to title as many songs as possible in Japanese, even though I’m writing in English. It’s the inversion of Japanese songwriters who use English in their song titles. This list shows the Japanese title, the furigana reading in Romaji (where applicable) and the English translation.
「間違い」 (June 2007)
Yes, I am aiming for quantity, not quality. Because, really, most of these lyrics are really starting to sound the same.
「スレノヂー」 (June 2007)
Even written completely in English, these lyrics make absolutely no sense at all. And that’s how I like it. I seriously don’t know whether I’m using the correct Japanese sentence patterns. I’m fairly certain the stem+始める pattern is how I want to convey "starting to blank." And the informal use of しまった is meant to convey an unexpected happening, because the first half of each line describes an event, which the second half then contradicts.
If I screw up, then we’ll have Japoneezu — the Japanese answer to Engrish.
Oh, and the title is a transliteration of the word "threnody." It’s as good a title as any.
「しつれします」 (June 2007)
I’ve been writing in the first-person perspective so much, I figured I’d try something in the third-person. Ended up with an interesting story.
「文句、文句」 (June 2007)
Yeah, I’m just going to keep posting lyrics till I run out of steam. Most of them are kind of shitty anyway.
「聞いてはいけない、言ってはいけない」 (June 2007)
I’ve never written an overtly gay-themed lyric before. I don’t think I’ve actually done that now. Unless you count the title, which translates to "don’t ask, don’t tell".
「健忘症」 (June 2007)
As I mentioned before, I’m writing the lyrics for the next Eponymous 4 album first.