IT'S THE WORDS THAT MAKE A SONG

Sometime back, I came across this old Victorian adage, "Kissing a man without a moustache is like eating an egg without salt." Add a beard and the dish is complete with pepper and sauce! 

I am clean-shaven but am thankful my wife is a vegetarian.

Songs definitely need good words, or lyrics as they say, to make them more listenable and meaningful. A song cannot be whole and evoke its intended range of emotions without appropriate words. As the old group Ink Spots sang in their number "To Each His Own", "What good is a song if the words just don't belong". 

Back in the first half of the Nineteenth century, the famous composer Felix Mendelssohn composed a series of short piano pieces which he titled "Songs Without Words". Efforts were made to set lyrics to them but Mendelssohn objected as he said words would make the music he wanted to express 'too definite'. So his composition, though brilliant, remained in the category of 'instrumental music' and not quite 'songs' which should have expressive vocals.

Remember Francis Lai's music in "Love Story" which won him an Oscar? After the movie was released, the lyricist Carl Sigman gave words to its theme and Andy Williams sang the super hit, "Where Do I Begin" which when listened to even now, would flash touching scenes from the movie in the mind and leave one teary-eyed. Some lyrics-

"Where do I begin to tell the story of how great a love can be

The sweet love story that is older than the sea....

She fills my heart with very special things

With angel songs, with wild imaginings

She fills my soul with so much love that anywhere I go, I'm never lonely....

How long does it last? Can love be measured by the hours in a day?

I know I'ii need her 'til the stars all burn away

And she'll be there."

The Bee Gees put all their belief in words to win someone's heart in the romantic ballad titled...."Words", what else! Barry Gibbs sang in his unique falsetto voice, "It's only words, and words are all I have, to take your heart away."

Songs are mostly about 'love', from being attracted to someone, to falling in love, partings, heartbreaks and all. So let me run through the words of some of my favourites to see how emotions are conveyed.

We start with the sound advice in the song "Some Enchanted Evening" by Ezio Pinza in Rodgers and Hammerstein's "South Pacific"-

"Some enchanted evening, you may see a stranger

You may see a stranger across a crowded room

And somehow you know, you'll know even then

That somewhere you'll see her again and again....

Then fly to her side, and make her your own

For, all through your life, you may dream all alone

Once you have found her, never let her go."

The Beatles had a tremendous talent for simple, short lyrics that would immediately appeal to young and old alike. So they sang "I Saw Her Standing There", "She was just seventeen, you know what I mean, and the way she looked was way beyond compare. I could have danced with another, but I saw her standing there."

To advance love, their song "I Want to Hold Your Hand" says shyly, "I think you'll understand, when I say that something, I want to hold your hand, I want to hold your hand. Oh, please, say to me, you'll let me be your man. And please, say to me, you'll let me hold your hand."

Louis Armstrong takes it further in "A Kiss to Build a Dream On", "Give me a kiss to build a dream on, and my imagination will thrive upon that kiss. Sweetheart, I ask no more than this, a kiss to build a dream on."

The Rolling Stones go all the way with "Let's spend the night together, now I need you more than ever, let's spend the night together."

And then love happens. In the musical "Oklahoma", the two lovers start by warning each other to be discreet lest people misinterpret their intentions. But finally, they decide to throw caution to the winds unmindful of what people may say:-

"Don't sigh and gaze at me, your sighs are so like mine

Your eyes mustn't glow like mine, people will say we're in love....

Let people say we're in love

Starlight looks well on us, let the stars beam from above

Who cares if they tell on us

Let people say we're in love."

A couple can't always be together. Parting is 'such sweet sorrow' and painful though the pain is alleviated with the promise of a return. Al Martino or Englebert Humperdinck in "Blue Spanish Eyes"- "Teardrops are falling from your Spanish eyes. Please, please don't cry, this is just adios and not goodbye. Soon I'll return, bringing you all the love your heart can hold. Please say 'si, si', say you and your Spanish eyes will wait for me."

It could get worse if one party was not willing. The Beatles in "Hello Goodbye"- "You say 'goodbye', I say 'hello, hello, hello', I don't know why you say 'goodbye', I say 'hello'."

In "If You Go Away", English version of the French song, "Ne Me Quitte Pas", the singer urges the loved one to stay while fearing that the latter has already decided to go-

"But if you stay, I'll make you a day, like no day has been or will be again

I'll sail on your smile, I'll ride on your touch, I'll talk to your eyes, that I loved so much

Oh, but if you go, I won't cry, though the good is gone from the word goodbye,

If you go away, if you go away, if you go away."

Love can have a fierce stranglehold on one as Shirley Bassey sang in "Never, Never, Never", this time an English version of the Italian hit song, "Grande, Grande, Grande" which I first heard on a visit to Rome in 1976:-

"You make me laugh, you make me cry, you make me live, you make me die for you,

You make me sing, you make me sad, you make me glad, you make me mad for you.

I love you, hate you, love you, hate you, but I'll want you till the world stops turning

For whatever you do

I never, never, never want to be in love with anyone but you."

Remorse over love gone wrong is painfully expressed in "Yesterday" by The Beatles and in the Tom Jones version in which he seems to be actually crying; "Yesterday, love was such an easy game to play, now I need a place to hide away....Why she had to go I don't know, she wouldn't say. I said something wrong, now I long for yesterday."

Another heartbreak song: Sinead O'Connor in "Nothing Compares 2 U"- "It's been seven hours and fifteen days since you took your love away....I can see whomever I choose, I can eat my dinner in a fancy restaurant, but nothing, I said nothing can take away these blues. 'Cause nothing, I said nothing compares to you." 

If love was true, the lovers would realise that they must return and be there for each other. Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell sang:

"You're all I need to get by

Like the sweet morning dew, I took one look at you

And it was plain to see, you were my destiny

With my arms open wide, I threw away my pride

I'll sacrifice for you, dedicate my life for you."

We are now all set for a 1957 song written by Burt Bacharach and sung by Marty Robbins, "The Story of My Life"-

"Someday I'm gonna write the story of my life

I'll tell about the night we met and how my heart can't forget

The way you smiled at me

I want the world to know the story of my life

The moment your lips met mine and that first exciting time

I held you close to me

The sorrow when our love was breaking up, the memory of a broken heart

Then later the joy of making up never, never more to part."

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