- 350 Pages
- Published by F&W Publications
Product Description
With over 100,000 books in print, this successful author and songwriter provides a complete guide to writing words for and to music, showing how to create lyrics with universal appeal, choose a song form, and more. 350 pages. 6×9. … More >>
#1 by dlmorrow on April 24, 2010 - 12:24 pm
Sheila Davis has written a wonderful book. Whether you’re a pro or novice at the business of songwriting Ms. Davis’ has something for everyone here. It should be at the top of the required reading list for anyone aspiring to be a songwriter! Ms. Davis, kudos all ’round! Well done!
Rating: 5 / 5
#2 by Anonymous on April 24, 2010 - 1:44 pm
If you listen to the radio you’ll discover that there are no rules, no rhyme (so to speak) or reason, to successful songwriting. It helps to be lucky, well-connected, etc. Fate is fickle. If you want to be a GOOD lyric writer; that’s different. Practice writing prose as well as lyrics; listen to good lyrics–analyze them.
Recommended: “The Moviegoer” by Walker Percy (not to teach you lyric writing, silly!)
Rating: 2 / 5
#3 by John Berry on April 24, 2010 - 2:25 pm
Did you ever listen to the radio and wish you could do that, wish it were your songs played, celebrated, whistled and hummed across the nation? Would you like to be able to say, “I write the songs that make the young girls cry; I write the songs; I write the songs”? Well, now you can. Sheila shows you how–how you can make more money than you’ve ever imagined, how you can be adored by the masses, how you can make the young girls cry. Believe me, music publishers are constantly ploughing through unsolicited manuscripts desperately searching for hit songs. It’s gotten so bad that many popular music artists are starting to resort to writing their OWN songs! Seriously. And how much money can you make? Federal law sets royalty rates for recordings at about $.02 per record to split with your publisher, so if your song sells a mere one million copies, you stand to make an amazing $10,00! (That is, if you are both composer and lyricist, otherwise $5,000.) That’s enough to feed, clothe, and house you and your entire self for nearly six months! How does the author of “The Craft of Lyric Writing” know so much about song writing? She has actually LISTENED to popular songs; she has ANALYZED popular songs; she has herself WRITTEN…songs! No, this is one opportunity you simply can’t afford to pass by.
In addition to “The Craft of Lyric Writing” by Sheila Davis, I also recommend “The Craft of Lyric Writing” by Sheila Davis.
Rating: 5 / 5
#4 by Anonymous on April 24, 2010 - 3:42 pm
I agree that “obtuseness” “can never [or, at least, can only rarely] successfully pass for depth”, but I’m not so sure about vagueness. It seems to me that John Lennon and Bob Dylan in the sixties made something of an art of vague lyric-writing–to great commerical success and critical acclaim. (Paul McCartney likes to tell how John Lennon made him replace the lines “She was just seventeen/Could have been a beauty queen” with “She was just seventeen/And you know what I mean” and how afterward “You know what I mean” became a catch phrase in popular song. No one really knew for sure.) My point here is that there are a lot of ways to skin a cat. A true artist will invent his own. But the problem with this book is not that it wants you to write one way and not another; the problem with this book is that it really isn’t able to distinguish a good lyric from a bad lyric or to analyze a lyric profitably and that when you read it you aren’t getting advice from the horse’s mouth; you’re getting second-hand, watered down advice.
Rating: 2 / 5
#5 by Music Maven on April 24, 2010 - 6:39 pm
If you have reservations about buying this book because of the publishing date (1984) you should think again. This book has been revised and updated but some how, some way no credit is given. The author makes reference to songs written in 2006 by John Mayer and others!
As for the value of this book – it is absolutely wonderful. Just reading the first two chapters gave me countless ideas for new song lyrics.
The only thing I would change about this book is that the author gives examples of numerous songs by their titles only, assuming you know the songwriter and the lyrics. That doesn’t help if you don’t know the song.
And finally, I bought this book “used” but it is in perfectly new condition (saved alot of $$). Most likely due to the error in the publishing date, people think this is an old book. Enjoy!
Rating: 5 / 5