As part of the series “Songs from Scratch,” MPR’s Nikki Tundel profiles Stephen Burt, a poet turned lyricist. Burt shares thoughts on writing lyrics and how they interact with the music.
Burt is the author of two poetry volumes, "Popular Music" and "Parallel Play." He's the former chair of the English Department at Macalester College, and he starts teaching poetry in fall 2007 at Harvard University.
There's something magical about a great song, whether it's Stravinsky or Springsteen. But where do great songs come from? How do they go from words and melodies to something more? To find out, we gave three local bands -- The Owls, The Roe Family Singers, and Matt Wilson -- two weeks to take one set of lyrics and put it to music. “Songs From Scratch” follows all their scribbling, singing, strumming, and doubting to get a first-hand look at how a song unfolds.
This is the first in a five-part series.
Click links below for other reports in series:
part 2: https://archive.mpr.org/stories/2007/08/14/songs-from-scratch-the-bands-get-their-first-look-at-the-lyrics
part 3: https://archive.mpr.org/stories/2007/08/15/songs-from-scratch-songwriting-begins-in-earnest
part 4: https://archive.mpr.org/stories/2007/08/16/songs-from-scratch-the-bands-record-their-afternoon-songs
part 5: https://archive.mpr.org/stories/2007/08/17/songs-from-scratch-what-does-the-lyricist-think-of-the-songs
Awarded:
2007 Minnesota AP Award, honorable mention in Series/Special - Radio Division, Class Three category
2008 MNSPJ Page One Award, second place in Radio - Mini-documentary/In-depth Series category
Transcripts
text | pdf |
NIKKI TUNDEL: There was a time when Stephen Burt dreamed of being a rock star.
STEPHEN BURT: I could kind of play some instruments, but I was having more fun and getting better feedback when I did things that just used words instead of words and amplifiers and a lot of chords and stuff that had to go into vans and move from place to place.
NIKKI TUNDEL: Eventually, Burt chose scripting stanzas over strumming guitars and schlepping gear. Today, he's a published poet, and he just traded in his role as English professor at Macalester College to teach poetry at Harvard University. But the wordsmith never lost his love for music. So when we invited him to serve as the lyricist for our songs from scratch series, he jumped at the offer. Of course, before he could start hammering out the hooks, Burt had to figure out just what distinguishes a song from a poem.
STEPHEN BURT: When I read lyrics by some of my favorite lyricists, you wouldn't want to read that stuff over and over on the page if you didn't know how the music went. It's not especially successful as poetry. It's not interesting to read. Sometimes it's just banal.
NIKKI TUNDEL: Just as good lyrics don't always make for a good poem, a good poem doesn't always make a good set of lyrics.
STEPHEN BURT: Effective lyric writing now, if I know anything about it, and I may not, requires room left for the music to do things to the words. That means not nailing down everything, not making the rhythms as dense as possible, often leaving in cliches.
NIKKI TUNDEL: For Burt, an example of successful song writing is the tune Books From Boxes by the British band Maximo Park.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
(SINGING) Night falls, and towns become circuit boards
We can beat the sun as long as we keep moving
STEPHEN BURT: If I were to see this on paper without ever having heard the music, I would not think anything of it, I suspect. But as it is, you see the ways in which space has been left for the music to complete the words.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
(SINGING) Warning signs in the air we breathe
Right now, I feel each and every fragment.
Some of the most effective lines in there are consequences of the interaction between the words and the vocal delivery and the music. The pounding rain continued its bleak fall, and we decided just to write after all. That's something that could be improved and would have to change to work on the page. But it's perfect with that singer with that arrangement.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
(SINGING) The pounding rain continued its bleak fall
We decided just to write after all
NIKKI TUNDEL: Using indie rock as a teaching tool, Bert began molding his words into bridges and refrains. Within two weeks, he'd completed the lyrics for a tune he titled Afternoon Song.
STEPHEN BURT: So these are the lyrics meant to be set to music-- "Take a blade of grass between your teeth. Check the sun. It's all alone and blue with nothing underneath." See, they don't sound right recited. That's the point.
NIKKI TUNDEL: To make his writing more music friendly, Bert threw in more rhymes than he's typically comfortable with. He also tried to make the verses less complicated, cutting out what he refers to as the $5 words. But he acknowledges a few of the lines may still be a bit of a mouthful.
STEPHEN BURT: Chris Pollan interference patterns like, "A crowded pool see nature starting up or shutting down at summer school. Kids on skateboards take the residential corner so fast. They watch each other like a comet from the distant past."
NIKKI TUNDEL: Some writers might have a hard time turning their words over to a bunch of musicians to interpret as they please. But Stephen Burt isn't one of them.
STEPHEN BURT: Once the words are turned in, they really do belong to the bands. They belong to the people who are going to be creating the music. I suppose if I have a fear, it's that the musicians were giving these words too will say, I can't work with that.
NIKKI TUNDEL: The first time Songsmith says he's just praying he doesn't get emails from the musicians asking, "How could you do this to me?" Nikki Tundel, Minnesota Public Radio News.