The other day I took my 13 year-old son out to buy shoes. Before finding the perfect pair, he tried on another that was almost right.
"Maybe these just need breaking in," I wondered. So we put them on hold with the saleslady, planning to come back for them if we didn't find anything better.
After looking around at several stores, we finally found a better pair: one that fit right away.
Even though the first pair might have done in a pinch (literally) and the breaking in might have helped, they still might have felt uncomfortable. That's the way it is with lyrics too.
Sometimes I write a line that looks really pretty on paper, but I try to sing it and it's just not comfortable. I stumble over it no matter how many times I sing it. When that happens, I know I have to keep looking for the phrase that truly fits, and sometimes that process (like shopping) can be maddeningly time-consuming.
But it's worth it in the end.
(This morning, my song-of-the-week for "Take5" on CIUT 89.5 fm is a historical song--a challenging form for me--about an old railway hotel being turned into a homeless shelter. Two of the lyrics, in particular, required a lot of "shopping".) Here's how the song came out! The New Edwin Hotel .
No comments:
Post a Comment