Tag: Songwriting

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Song of the Day: “What’s This?” (Danny Elfman)

The podcast Song Exploder recently devoted an episode to “What’s This?” by Danny Elfman. The song, from the 1993 classic film The Nightmare Before Christmas, expresses the excitement of the protagonist, Jack, as he experiences something he never had before, namely Christmas. We will be looking at this song mainly through the lyrics and how they work along with the rhythm to help build the energy of the song.

In terms of form “What’s This?” is fairly straight forward. It features only verses and middle eights. The two work together seamlessly to portray the character and his reaction to a new, exciting experience, yet structurally the two are very complementary. Stylistically speaking “What’s This?” is a patter song where Jack quickly lists the sensory information he is experiencing. Patter songs are a standard of musical theater that feature complicated lyrics delivered at a rapid pace almost like a manic tongue twister.

The central feature of the verse is the exclamation “What’s this?” suitably expressing the protagonist’s amazement. This title line functions somewhat as a refrain for the verse. That being said, its delivery is somewhat unpredictable. The first verse features this lyric five times, with the first four and the final two words of the verse being repetitions of the phrase. In the second verse “what’s this?” is featured six times, including the first four and final four words of the verse.

After the first appearance of the middle eight, the third verse only features “what’s this?” only appears twice. Rather, those words are replaced by other questions and exclamations, such as  “oh look,” “they kiss?” and “inspired!” Verse four continues this trend with only two appearances of the lyrics, as the first and last lyric of the verse.  Instead, it includes more questions and exclamations, including “in here,” “how queer,” “and why?” In the fifth verse “what’s this?” only appears once at the end of the verse.  Again, we have more questions and exclamations: “oh my,” “what now?” “but look,” and “no ghouls.”

The final verse of the song appears right after the second middle eight. This verse only features the title lyric once, at its conclusion. Instead the exclamations “the sights,” “the sounds,” “around,” and “before” are used.

As a patter song, the verse of “What’s This?” has a very modular feel to it. Each verse has a slightly different rhyme scheme, and even often has a different number of lines to it. Musical phrases in the verses are often extended or shortened by two beats giving the verse a somewhat frantic rhythmic profile.

Contrastingly, the song’s two middle eights of the song are very rhythmically predictable. As the term middle eight suggests, each is eight lines long, with the second and fourth line rhyming, as well as the sixth and eighth lines. In both cases, each slows down dramatically at the end of the section, providing a brief rest before jumping back into the frantic pace of the verses.

Ultimately, “What’s This?” not only of a patter song, but a song that establishes the narrative , as well as establishing character. The frantic nature of the verses not only establish Jack’s excitement, but the rhythmic unpredictability of the song suggests Jack’s non-conformist nature.

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Song a Day: “Please Please Me” (John Lennon)

When I teach songwriting, typically the first project I assign is to write a song that uses a refrain instead of a chorus.  A refrain is kind of like a mini-chorus.  It is a single line that typically appears as the last line of every verse.  That line is usually the title line of the song, and it serves to frame or contextualize each verse.

The example I use for a song with a refrain is “Please Please Me.”  Credited as being by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, the song is generally understood to be written primarily by John Lennon.  We will be investigating the song in relationship to its lyrics.

At first glance, the lyrics to “Please Please Me” seem pretty lazy.  There are only two verses (the first verse is repeated as a third verse).  Furthermore, the rhymes seem lazy. It appears that he rhymes girl with girl in the first verse, love with love in the second verse, and you with you in the bridge.

However, the real rhyming in the lyrics are internal rhymes.  The first verse rhymes “my girl” with “try girl.”  In the second verse Lennon rhymes “way love” with “say love.”

These simple internal rhymes become more involved and playful in the bridge.  “Sound complaining” at the end of the first line rhymes with “always rain in” in the second line.  Furthermore, Lennon tags the end of the second line with “my heart,” which softens the sing songy quality of the multi-syllable rhymes.  The following two lines also use multi-syllable rhymes, ending with “pleasing with you” and “reason with you” respectively.  The bridge ends with the single syllable rhyme “blue.”

“Please Please Me” is at its essence a cute, novel teenage rock and roll love / lust song.  However, its effectiveness is not by accident.  These multi-syllable rhymes lend the tune its playful nature, hiding carnal urges behind flirtatious banter. This, in turn conformed perfectly to the Beatles early fun, clean cut, boy-next-door personas.

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Song a Day: “Kiss Me” (Matt Slocum)

Welcome to the first installment of Song of the Day.  I present one song per class period in my songwriting course.  This is the song that I cover on the first day of class.

You may know Matt Slocum’s “Kiss Me” as being that hit song by Six Pence None the Richer.  Slocum, the band’s guitarist, released the song on the band’s 1997 self-titled album.  While the arrangement and production of the song are both notable (check out the inclusion of the melodica, and the use of filtered, musical echo on the song’s title lyric), we’ll be examining the song in relationship to the lyrics.

The song has only two verses and a chorus, but the lyrics are chock full of descriptive imagery:  “milky twilight,” “moonlight floor,” and “fireflies dance, silver moon’s sparkling.”  This imagery hits every sensory path:  sight, sound, smell, and touch.  It even hits a kinesthetic note with “swing me on its hanging tire.”

The song generally steers clear of rhyming, avoiding a potential sing-songy nature.  The verses use only remote rhymes.  The first verse uses a consonant rhyme with grass and dress (lines 2 & 4), while the second verse uses a family rhyme with hat and map (lines 3 & 4).  The only rhyme in the chorus is an internal one, “lift your open hand, strike up the band, and make the fireflies dance, silver moon’s sparkling.” Furthermore, dance could be considered an assonance rhyme with hand and band.

The strong imagery of the lyrics not only help establish an emotive quality to the song, but they also hint at details of the narrative.  The dress mentioned in the line, “you wear those shoes and I will wear that dress,” suggests a pulchritudinous garment that twirls in a satisfying manner when the protagonist dances.

Ultimately the song is about dancing as much as it is about kissing.  In chorus the singer commands, “lead me out on the moonlit floor.”  Furthermore, the following line, “lift your open hand,” directs the object of the singer’s affection to invite her to dance.

The second verse continues with somewhat cryptic imagery that is rich for interpretation. The verse starts out with a nostalgic note, “Kiss me, down by the broken tree house,” which simultaneous points to the remoteness of childhood while still evoking it.  This line in tandem with the following, “swing me upon its hanging tire,” suggests a playful aspect to the romance at hand.

The most cryptic line of the song is the last line of the verse, “we’ll take the trail marked on your father’s map.”  This line, like the trail it describes, could lead any number of places.  On face value, the couple could simply be going somewhere remote, like a place you’d need a map to get to, in order to canoodle (as the young folks say).

However, the fact that the song specifies that the map belongs to the father of the singer’s sweetheart has always struck me as interesting.  Here Slocum could have used any two-syllable possessive (brother’s, cousin’s, best friend’s, etc.), but he settled on father’s.  Invoking the father suggests a generational aspect that potentially places the trail into the world of metaphor.

In such an interpretation, the trail represents a life path, and the statement, “we’ll take the trail marked on your father’s map,” becomes, “we’ll do what your parents did . . . get married / have children.”  Set only three lines away from “the broken treehouse,” under such an interpretation, the romance presented in “Kiss Me” is more than a fun, sweet dalliance, it is an important milestone in life, namely falling in love (for a lifetime).

Suggestions of matrimony in pop music were much more common in the fifties, when they reassured listeners of noble intentions of teenage Romeos.  With the notable exception of “All the Single Ladies,” matrimony is a much less common subject of songs in recent years.

Slocum’s “Kiss Me” manages to do the unlikely.  It suggests a long term relationship (marriage) in the midst of a song that evokes imagery related to new romance in a manner that does not scare off, or moralize to the listener.  The song balances the physical delight, pleasure, and sweetness of young romance, while suggesting a love that may last a lifetime.