Product Description

Lyrics sheds light on all aspects of lyric writing. Topics explored in the book include channeling personal experiences into lyrics, overcoming writer’s block, the right lyrics for a bridge, the separation between lyrics and poetry, exploring imagery and metaphor, avoiding clichés, writing a lyric around a character, and how to create more original love songs. The book also offers tips on the various styles of lyrics, such as protests, spirituals, and confessionals.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #88895 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

About the Author
Rikky Rooksby is a guitar teacher, songwriter, and music journalist, he contributes to various music magazines.

Customer Reviews

This book is almost funny, with how much lyrical content it holds.
Rikky Rooksby has made some really great songwriting books. His best being "How To Write Songs On Guitar."

I flipped through this book at a local store and I was laughing to myself, at how much detail Rooksby goes into, as far as lyrical subjects are concerned.

He doesn't really go into full detail about how to write great lines, or how to write a life-altering song lyrically (that comes with a lot of practice and being an intelligent, perceptive person I think), but he does include a lot of cliches you should avoid at all costs... cliche phrases and word couplings, etc. Surely you've heard them on your local soft rock radio station or top 40 station.

The main strength of this book, I think, is that he gives you a TON of popular song examples that are about a specific thing.

And by specific things I mean:
Politics, Love, War, Loneliness, Anger, Frustration, Partying/Having Fun, History, stories/third person storytelling, Science Fiction, Science, Religion, Sex, Driving, Nature, and... Colors?

Yes, he even has a "Colors" section... each color (Blue, Red, Green, Yellow) etc, he lists about 10-15 songs with that color in the title, or songs that revolve around a color and what it has to do with the song's subject... and how the songwriters made it work. For example, with Blue you might have New Order's "Blue Monday", Joni Mitchell's "Blue", Elton John's "Blue Eyes"... etc (I don't know if those songs specifically are in the book, as I read through it a few nights ago), but that's how he mentions them). And then of course, with Yellow you'd have Coldplay's amazing song "Yellow", and then the Beatles' "Yellow Submarine", etc. Red would have "Little Red Corvette" by Prince, "I See Red" by Split Enz, etc.

This is the part of the book that made me laugh to myself and of course, had the biggest impact on me because I just wrote 100 words about it basically... haha.

The rest of the book is really, really informative. It's probably the best book I've found on lyric writing, and I own like eight of them!

To summarize, Rooksby's done a ton of research about lyric writing/subject matter in pop music. You can't complain about having writer's block, just thumbing through this book for five minutes. For $25, you can get this highly descriptive book, and a nice rhyming dictionary (I recommend The Complete Rhyming Dictionary by Clement Wood), and you'll never have writer's block again (at least, lyrically... musical writer's block, well, that's harder to overcome... at least for me).

:)

New ideas right off the bat...
Althought I haven't yet finished the entire book, I found the first sections of this work so inspiring that I thought they merited comment. What may seem common knowledge (or common sense) to an experienced writer, the ideas that were revealed in the first few sections of this book were eye-openers to me. Peppered with comments and insights from successful writers, the section titled "30 ways to find inspiration" was all I hoped it would be....and all I needed to push my creativity to a place it hasn't been in quite some time. A simple, productive kick in the pants for a writer like me who didn't know which way to go next. In the two weeks since reading this section alone, I've filled at least a dozen pages with new prospects. When this surge is over, I'll see what the rest of the book has to offer!

pretty basic stuff
There are a lot if interviews and tidbits about how certain songwriters write their songs, or how famous songs were written. not a lot of useful information about making your own lyrics better. this would be great for the absolute beginner lyricist