floyd,
This morning, I noticed that "The Right Track" with Janice and Bud, is up to 999 views. That made me realise that I'm incredibly late to the party with commenting on "Stoplight On North Main Street". Believe it or not, I started writing about "Stoplight" quite a while ago. I think it's time to complete those notes.
"Stoplight" is such a great song. Like all your works that've come before it, everything thing sits together neatly and precisely and showcases both the individual and the whole. From your writing through to your arranging, mixing and performing, I can't imagine how any aspect of this song could be improved to strengthen it. It's a terrific listen.
Even though it's taken me a while to finish this post, after listening to this song, shortly after you posted it, I went on yet another journey of lyric discovery.
I guess I'd better follow Julie Andrews' advice in
The Sound Of Music and “Start at the very beginning”...
When I first heard 'Stoplight', the first thought that occurred was, “That's really very clever how floyd has used personification of the stoplight to capture the angst of young love.” As a consequence, I reached for
The Songwriters Idea Book by Shiela Davis and had a read through the chapter on personification (page 95, to be exact).
Davis talks about about personification as a sub-category of Metaphor and mentions three ways in which personification can be used.
OneThe first technique is to use verbs, and other attributes, that are related to human qualities and apply them to the inanimate object. These are usually simple phrases that are often only a line or maybe two lines longs long.
By taking an inanimate object (or maybe even an animal) and giving it human characteristics, the visual power of a phrase is enhanced. Depth of meaning is also increased.
For example, consider the phrase “the fire burnt the log”. If I use some personification, maybe I could say something like “The log screamed as it sizzled; flames snarling and biting into her flesh” - to my mind, that's much more sense-based even though it's still only talking about the log. Also, because the the phrase has become more abstract, it's well suited to verse development.
This approach applies personification to the entire lyric. Davis refers to “Blue Moon” as being a classic example of this application. It's a more advanced lyric writing technique.
ThreeThis third technique raises the bar even higher and the singer becomes the personified object. “I Write The Songs” is an example of this approach.
So, armed with the above, let's head back to 'Stoplight'...
By the end of line 2 of verse 1, the stoplight is “shouting” commands up Main Street... personification has begun! Because this occurs right at the start of the song, it now colours all lyrics that follow. What a fantastic way of setting the scene! By the end of this second line, the stoplight is an established character within the lyric in just the same way that the moon is a character in “Blue Moon”. Great writing
As I'm sitting here thinking about the closing lines of the chorus...
there's a stoplight on north main street
that keeps changing it's mind
… it seems to me that these serve three purposes.
1. They provide an effective long-distance relationship with the opening lines and help unify the lyrics.
2. Considering verse 1 and the first chorus together as a single song section, these last two lines of the chorus are the most powerful in the entire section. In this regard, these lines provide very effective lyric development.
3. The third purpose of these last two lines of the chorus is that they move the stoplight from being a purely personified object to a symbol that represents the ambivalence, joy, frustration of young love. Using metonymy in this way and taking an attribute of the (personified) inanimate stoplight and using that attribute to show the relationship between the two young lovers is a stroke of genius! Again, what great lyric writing!
My attempts at using personification seem to stop at the first technique. I've got a long way to go! You've inspired me to apply myself a little more enthusiastically to developing my ability in this area. Thank you for that!
I really enjoyed this song, floyd, and I greatly appreciate the lessons contained within it.
All the best,
Noel
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