floyd,

Oh my goodness! Is this inspired songwriting at its very best or what? As others have noted, yet again you send the forum bar for good quality ratcheting its way up the notches. This really is an excellent write, an excellent performance and a first-rate production. The melody, the harmony and the instrumentation are all awesome.

As your songs always seem to do, you've caused me much thought from a lyric perspective.

I've been sitting here puzzling over why the chorus works so well. The hook features three times and the lyric pattern from a title/rhyme perspective is...

  • T a T a b b x T

...where T = title; a = first rhyme type; b = second rhyme type; x = unrhymed

What's puzzled me is that each time I've listened to the song, I feel a sense of closure at the end of the chorus. This is strange because:

(a) the title does not rhyme with any other line in the chorus and so it doesn't seem as though it's capable of creating aural closure;

(b) the penultimate line of the chorus is also unrhymed and, theoretically, this means it's also incapable of aural closure.

Even though this chorus finishes on the scale tonic, I wasn't convinced that this has enough aural clout to produce the sense of closure I felt. So I played around a bit and substituted the word “simple” in place of “easy”. This still fulfills the overall rhyme pattern, has two syllables with the stress on the first syllable, and more-or-less maintains the chorus's meaning. This gave me...

Quote:
she makes it look simple
like it's a natural thing to do
she makes it look simple
tearing my world in two
i never thought she had it in her to do it
she walked away like there was nothing to it
she's breaking my heart
and she makes it look simple


When I read this aloud, it sort of works even though it pales by comparison to your version. Having the open vowel sound at the end of the chorus is much nicer. The most interesting thing about the above modification, though, is that the sense of closure that I feel from reading your chorus aloud is gone when I read the modified version aloud. Hmmm.... this means that the power of the word “easy” is much greater than it initially seems.

Pondering the word “easy” for a while, I realised that it's unusual in that, if one stresses both syllables, the word actually rhymes with itself. Since I changed nothing else in the chorus, it must be this inherent quality of the word "easy" coupling with the music's finishing on the tonic that is producing the sense closure that I felt. Interesting. I never realised that rhyme closure can occur with a carefully placed single word. That's quite eye-opening and something I'm adding to my lyricist toolbox!

In his song “Recipe For Insanity”, Steve Seskin uses a similar principle to close his very last chorus by rhyming 'more or less' with 'happiness'.

Quote:
Three parts joy, two cups of understanding
A tablespoon of tenderness with the sweet taste of trust
They'll throw in some forgiveness and hope for tomorrow
Tears will turn to laughter and all blame will turn to dust
That's a remedy for insanity
That's a recipe, more or less, for happiness

Here's a link to the song: Recipe For Insanity

If you get a chance to listen to Steve sing this at the above Youtube link, you'll be able to feel the power of that very last rhyme. To feel the fullness of this power, though, it's necessary to journey through the entire song. When I heard him sing this a few years ago, the lyric strength of that last line resonated.



Ok … time for another listen to “She Makes It Look Easy”.

Thanks for today's lesson!
Noel

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