Lyrics in Progress

I don't know where Google got its estimated 10,8 million hits for the phrase "make no prisoners" - which would be the same expression as in German - versus 1,08 million hits for "take no prisoners" (today the hit counts are VERY different, yet "make" still 'scores' better). You see, I use Google as a 'testing tool' for phrases and common expressions. Now the natives from a discussion board convinced me that the English speaking people might be slightly irritated by my preferred phrasing, so I will make it "TAKE no prisoners" after all and live with the repetition:

I take no prisoners

I take no hostages

yet I will take your life

when I make you my wife

I'm also nearly done with "silver stream". I'm awaiting Ethan's reaction, though, to see if the text still needs some 'tweaking'.

Cheers,

Bernd

I am done with the lyrics index and only intended to add a few subject indexes over the weekend to make it easier for composers to identify viable lyrics for their project. Yet meanwhile four more lyrics are written or in the pipe-line:

After "dirty Dick" there are also "she keeps a cool head" and "I make no prisoners" (though no verses yet), and a text I promised to write for Ethan.

Have a great weekend!

While I am - still - working on my all-engrossing lyrics collection I am kind of raising an inventory as a sideline.

I discovered one dublicate in my Excel-Sheet, another text was not a song text at all but containes four short 'narratives' I once wrote for Martin from Austria, so there are 'only' 336 unique lyrics (plus several rewrites). To date 48 songs have been registered with PROs - these are the ones that are being performed or are meant to be produced professionally, the 'commercial' ones. I will list 103 more songs that have been published on the internet, and several that haven't. These are the privat projects of musicians who use my lyrics including myself (where the term 'musician' might be a little far-fetched). There may be more songs with my lyrics somewhere on the net that I haven't heard of yet. There certainly are several more that I know of yet couldn't find.

Browsing through my partner's links I discovered that KOMIR have meanwhile produced and published 26 songs with my lyrics. That should be reason enough to draw some attention to their site:

Komir (it's in German; there are many more songs than the 26 I just mentioned; most English ones use my lyrics)

If you prefer videos (and BEAUTIFUL videos they are):

Komir on YouTube

I 'talked' about the importance of the meter in lyrics every once in a while. Actually, the most important aspect to achieve consistence in your lyrics is having consistent endings in corresponding lines. Lines can end on a stressed syllable or unstressed.

tires screeched, I heard a bang and some crunching noise
somebody screamed, then there was a timid, whining voice
it just happens, just like that, someone may be blamed
you can reason, you can argue, the result's the same

All lines end on a stress here. But the beginnings differ. In most cases it's okay to add an unstressed syllable at the beginning of a line. In the music this will have to become an upbeat, a note (= syllable) that is sung before the first beat of the next bar. The first line begins with an accented note, the second needs an upbeat to match the pattern (just imagine that the first syllable - "some" - was not there to see what I mean).

I need to spill blood
rub your face in the mud
won't give a shit 'bout your pleading
dance with glee while your bleeding

Here, we have the same rhyming pattern as in the first example - AABB - yet different endings. The 'A'-rhymes (blood - mud) are stressed, the 'B'-rhymes are unstressed. Both lines begin with upbeats. Let me indicate the beginnings of the bars to show you:

I # need to spill blood

rub your # face in the mud

You can also add extra notes (or - on the contrary - a rest) within the line:

# tires screeched

I # heard a bang

# and some crunching

# noise

some#body screamed

# then there was

a # timid, whining

# voice

In this verse -

I'm a#fraid, we'll  never # know
that the # truth will never # show
and our # memories will never # go

three - short - notes are needed for "memories" where only one note represents "-fraid" or "truth".

Note, that rhyme structure and meter also should correspond. If, for example, you tried to rhyme simple words like "me" or "sea" (stressed) with an adverb like "absolutely" (unstressed) the meter would be 'off' although the rhyme seems to be there.

The first two verses that I wrote read

when she is angry
she strikes out at who gets close
she doesn't care 'bout guilt or cause
she hits hard, if just verbose

when I try her patience
I'll earn her contempt and spite
but I will be compensated
when we make it up at night

Since I didn't care much for the word "verbose" I replaced that respective line with "her words like punches on your nose". The short first line matched what I had in mind musically. But after writing another verse I decided to make the first lines the same meter as the others. The new verse goes:

when I have trouble at my work
she does not take me seriously
there's not a hint of sympathy
instead, she's making light of me

The rewritten verses now read (I also fixed the line "but I will be compensated", that also didn't meet the meter):

when she is angry or annoyed
she strikes out at who gets close
she doesn't care 'bout guilt or cause
her words like punches on your nose

and

when something has got on her nerves
I will get her scorn and spite
but later she will put things right
when we make it up at night