Sing us a song, you’re the piano man!

I’ve been paying close attention lately to the words we choose in our conversations and writing. I’ve especially noticed it in the songs we listen to on Spotify, Apple Music or the radio. For example, in one of my favorite oldies, Billy Joel starts off singing in the Piano Man about working at the local bar. He writes: 

“It’s nine o’clock on a Saturday,
The regular crowd shuffles in,
There’s an old man sittin’ next to me.”

You know the next line. He doesn’t say the guy orders a bunch of drinks. He doesn’t even use the common name, Gin and Tonic, or a “G&T.” No, no, he makes you feel and see it:

“Makin’ love to his tonic and gin.” 

Image by Bryan Geraldo by Pexels.

Watching the scene play out in your head

Joel is a master. He could say that the old man feeds his tip jar to play a bunch of old songs. Instead, Joel uses a few simple words to paint a picture. He puts you right in the middle of the bar. If you never visited a piano bar in your life, you can still see the wrinkles on the old man’s face:

“He says, ‘Son can you play me a memory?
I’m not really sure how it goes
But it’s sad and it’s sweet and I knew it complete
When I wore a younger man’s clothes.'”

Making you take notice

Oh, I love the writing. It was good when it was released in 1973 and it’s still great stuff today. It’s not just Joel. Some people love country music, some people can’t stand it, but I love how George Strait makes a simple change in one of his songs.

In his 1996 hit, Blue Clear Sky, written by Bob DiPiero, John Jarrard and Mark D. Sanders, Strait sings about the power of love and how it comes out of nowhere. Instead of saying it’s like an unexpected “clear blue sky,” he changes the position of one word. 

“Ain’t love a funny thing
One day you’re givin’ up the dream
And the next you’re pickin’ out a ring 
Out of the blue clear sky.”

You get right away the meaning behind the meaning. Writing like that looks so easy. It’s one minor change, but it makes a world of difference. I can’t help but think of the Nathanial Hawthorne quote, “Easy reading is damn hard writing.”

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.

Writing that flows

I’m not much of a music critic, but I still see great song writing today. I tend to think of a few folk singers and others with less of a pop-music bent, but I certainly would include Lady Gaga and Ed Sheeran in that list too. For the sake of this piece, though, I pulled up Taylor Swift’s 2022 hit Anti-Hero.

Swift called the song earlier this year one of her favorite songs she has ever written. The song examines her mental insecurities and the power and struggle of being a celebrity. I seem to have heard the refrain everywhere this past summer and while I’m certainly no Swiftie — if I had to choose I’d probably chose Team Kelcie — the words just flow off your mouth.

“It’s me, hi, I’m the problem, it’s me
At tea time, everybody agrees
I’ll stare directly at the sun but never in the mirror
It must be exhausting always rooting for the anti-hero.”

Hey it’s me, I’m Brian, I’m looking for some great writing.