floyd and Greg,

This is outstanding. The music, the lyrics, floyd’s singing, the production, everything! radiates with the phrase “first-class professional and then some”.

I really liked it when the conga drums entered. I’m a huge fan of these. To my ears, congas add an element of casualness and friendliness to a backing and that makes it just a little bit more engaging. And ‘engaging’ is what’s needed for a song with a message as powerful as this.

As is always the case with everything you do, these lyrics not only made me think from a content perspective but also from a “why was it done that way?” perspective.

One of the things that I’ve picked up from reading lyric-writing theory is that lyrics that address a cultural or social problem and want others to join together and mend the problem can very easily become ‘preachy’. In The Next Big Thing, any sense of preachiness was very skilfully avoided and the lyrics come across as seeking co-operation rather than demanding action.

As I sit here listening, the reason these lyrics work so well for me is because of three major considerations. These are...

ONE
The chorus provides a very stark contrast against to the verses. In the verses you show us mankind’s enormous capabilities, Then in the chorus you ask us how is it that we can do so much, but when it comes to something as simple as treating fellow humans with decency and respect, we cannot do that? The effect is vivid.

TWO
The first two choruses ask questions. This is very clever. By using the question as a lyric device, all sense of preachiness dissolves. When a question is asked, generally people answer it either out loud or in their mind. So when your lyrics asked me, “Why can’t love be the next best thing?”, my brain kicked into action and thought, “Yes! Why can’t it?” What a seriously great hook! It didn’t stop there, though. The first two choruses are composed entirely of questions.

That last chorus, when the question adroitly becomes the suggested solution with the change of just a couple of words, is an excellent pay-off.

THREE
Using first person plural – i.e. we, our, us – puts the singer in the same boat as the listener, and all of a sudden, any sense of preachiness again dissolves. As a curiosity, I rewrote your bridge so that it was in second person just to hear the difference. That is…
Quote:
open up your heart
you all must do your part
so get to it
you can do it
you can rise above it all

When I did this, it was so easy to hear the bridge go from seeking co-operation to demanding action and taking on the tone of the 'pep talk'. Using we, us and our is so much calmer and so very much more inviting.

I really enjoyed this. It’s wonderful writing by two very competent composers.

All the best,
Noel

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