In spite of the fact that most publishers state they are "seeking clever titles and concepts" not every title has to be all that clever to get the nod. For example, the Trisha Yearwood hit "Georgia Rain" has a simple, straightforward title. The concept is also direct:
The singer returns to the geographic area where she experienced a love relationship in her youth she apparently never fully got over and realizes that what she has been memorializing as possibly the "love of her life" with her "soulmate" was likely little more than a teen age fling to her ex-boyfriend. He moved on, she never really did.
The lyric of GR has movement in terms of time, place and the singer's internal thought processes, but throughout, the song's only real purpose is to capture the feeling she had at that moment of recognition of the truth. And that it does magnificently.
Shades of Deana Carter's "Strawberry Wine"? Absolutely, it delivers that same melacholy vibe. But GR is approached in such a different manner it stands completely on its own.
As the song unfolds, it's raining once again as the singer mentally visits the place she and the singee first made love one evening on the hood of a Ford pickup truck while the Georgia rain poured down. As she reminisces about their brief relationship, the words and music combine to create a cohesive package that invokes the intended response in the listener.
A huge part of what makes the lyric work (and stand out enough to be published) is the way the songwriters took what could have been very common cliched lines and instead found fresh ways to say them:
Instead of "The moon was out that night" they chose to present us with "half a moon peekin' down at us". It doesn't sound earth shattering, but to a song publisher looking for originality it's close to that. "Peeking out" is the perfect way to describe a moon that was partially obscured by clouds. And what better way to describe an entity that is witnessing two naked frolicking teens? "Don't peek now!" It reveals just how much thought went into that one short phrase.
But the lines that first clue us in to the fact that they made love in a very intense fashion is an undeniably awesome piece of writing: "And I don't remember what was poundin' more, Heart in my chest or the hood of that Ford..."
The listener immediately grasps not only what happened, but also how very deeply she felt about the experience. It's very easy to "put yourself there" and experience that combination of love and lust vicariously. As a side note, one thing you can learn from this song is how important it is to stay on point. If you find yourself trying to veer from your song's one basic concept, prune back and use the clippings to grow another song, it belongs to some other lyric.
This work is packed with vivid imagery and fresh takes on tired lines. You'd do yourself a great service to look it up and add this technique- replace average lines with fresh ideas- to your bag of tricks. Look over your lyric and, as often as possible, find a more interesting way to say it!
Bill Watson is the owner of http://www.playitagaindemos.com which is a demo service for songwriters and song publishers. He has also written magazine articles for publications as diverse as Small Business Opportunities, Entertainment Weekly and Sports Afield. His book "Guitar Shop: A Beginner's Guide To Learning Rhythm and Lead Guitar" was #1 in its category on Amazon.com for nearly two years.
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