PG Music Home Forums General Discussion User Showcase Started Again (w Janice)

"you call, I come met you
we share a drink in some cafe
it's been a long day
you need a friend, a little small talk
we share some laughs"

This is incredibly relatable. I think everyone will or has gone through this at some point in their lives. Great writing and vocals.

Can't wait for more.

Hi floyd,

As I was scrolling back through the forum, I discovered that I completely missed this song when you posted it. As late as I am, and I sincerely apologise for being so far behind the 8-ball, I’m thankful that I managed to stumble across it.

As with all the works you post on the forum, this is outstanding! Your writing, your arranging, your performing and your producing consistently cross over into the realm of “ this sounds really, really excellent”. In all honesty, I never cease admiring your ability.

The way that you’ve constructed these lyrics was really eye-opening for me.

What really got me thinking was your lack of rhyme. Normally it is your rhyming that drives the flow of lyrics. In this song, however, it’s your lacking of rhyming that controls lyric movement. How impressive is that! With these lyrics, you’ve taken the concept of conversational tone to whole new heights (from my perspective at least).

I’ll try to explain what I mean by stepping back in time a little bit….

When I first started learning to write lyrics in the early 2000s, I found it one of the most challenging things that I had ever done. Looking back at that time, I now realise that part of the reason that it was so challenging for me was because I didn’t have an ‘ear’ for lyrics. As a consequence, I had no sense of how to link words together so that their sounds flowed smoothly, effortlessly and conversationally. Over the years, little by little, my ability has slowly developed in this area. Something that has also developed as I have become more and more attuned to the sounds of consonants and vowels is my appreciation of rhymes that occur naturally in conversation. These days, when I listen to people talking, I can hear various rhymes scattered throughout what they are saying. There is no obvious structure nor pattern to these rhymes.

When I listen to these lyrics of yours, that is how I hear them. The rhymes that occur seemingly lack structural design and, because of that, they flow in exactly the same way that they would were this is a conversation. It truly is amazing how you’ve managed to do this. Ever since I first heard these lyrics for “Started Again”, I’ve been going over and over in mind about how I might be able to write a song that has lyrics with no structured rhyme. I haven’t quite got my head around that one yet! (It’s a work in progress.)

While I ponder this, here are some songs that I’ve been listening to in the hope that they will inspire me…


Sweet Violets
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtnLvrmyh3E

“Sweet Violets” is an oldie but a goodie! I find it particularly clever in that it continually sets up rhymes that never come to pass and it uses this to create humour.


He Aint Heavy He’s My Brother
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svOX9dy0hyw

It wasn’t until after listening to “Started Again” that I discovered that “He Ain’t Heavy He’s My Brother” also only has conversational-like rhymes set in amongst prose. My thoughts are that it is because of this lack of obvious rhyme that the song’s lyrics are so very powerful.


The Lord’s Prayer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-LMVen7_X4

Sister Janet Mead’s version of “The Lord’s Prayer” is also quite minimalistic in relation to rhyme.


America
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFAoWwUwknc

Perhaps the most famous non-rhyming song that I know of is "America" by Simon and Garfunkle.


I can see that this journey that you’ve started me on is going to last for a while yet! Thank you for showing me this path! I’m looking forward to travelling where it leads me.

All the best,
Noel