Lyrically Speaking

A couple weeks ago, I got the Fargo Special Edition DVD. On this DVD is a little documentary feature entitled "Minnesota Nice" which talks about the making of the movie but with a greater cultural context, that cultural context being everything Minnesotan. Now while some have quibbles with the accuracy of cultural context of the film, the documentary pointed out some interesting things about writing, songwriting in particular. The Coen brothers, Peter Stomare and Frances McDormand all commented on the structure of the script, particularly with the way the lines were written. For example, Stomare has a line towards the beginning that says "Where's pancakes house?" which he thought was a typo. As it turns out, that's how the Coen brothers wanted the line to be said. Such little things (along with all the "yah"s) are what both made it clear what the brothers wanted the characters to be and helped keep the budget relatively low.

Now what does this have to do with lyrics? Well, at least when you're posting lyrics for the public and all they're doing is reading them, it might be helpful to physically depict how you hear the song in your head. One of the reasons I occassionally rate lyrics on the low side is because there's nothing giving my musical/aural direction. Such things as placing apostrophes in place of missing letters and punctuation give the reader a better idea what's going on with your lyrics, much like specific spellings and word repetition gave the actors in Fargo a clearer idea how to become their characters.

So when you're looking at your lyrics, see if maybe there are some ways to spruce it up to give the reader a better idea how it might sound as they read along. You just might find someone who appreciates it



















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