Songwriting expert Robin Frederick interviewed by TAXI’s Michael Laskow
Michael Laskow: So what's the number three mistake that songwriters make?
Robin Frederick: Number three: Telling not showing! Okay, so everybody's heard the old “Show, don't tell” thing. And what the heck does that mean? My writing teachers, all my life told me to show, don't tell… show, don't tell! And they never told me what the heck that meant. And I know it seems obvious, but I didn't get it for the longest time. But basically, it means things like. If I write a song and say, “I love you a whole lot, I love you, I love you, I really, really love you,” in the lyric, that doesn’t work very well for listeners because we don't know what you mean. I love you a whole lot. Well, I'm not in the mood to feel all loving. And the last time I fell in love, it broke up, and I was really pissed. And then they start thinking about how bad they felt until that time. They fell in love and, and so you lose your listener because you just told them something and, and you allow them to run with it wherever they were going to go with it. You didn't take them where you wanted them to go. And when we show them where we want them to go, then they go there.
So again, we're talking about communicating with listeners, because all of this is about communicating with listeners. Saying what we want to say in a way that listeners can understand. Understanding and feel! So, if I say I love you a whole lot, there are other ways to do that. Ways that show them what you mean and make them feel it. So you can use the measuring stick, which is one of my favorite ones, which is: “I'd cross an ocean for you.” “I'd start a riot,” which comes from a song called, Start a Riot. This is from Phillip Phillips: “If you fall like a statue, I'll be there to catch you.” One of my favorite rhymes. That gets us into comparisons. And this whole world of comparing emotions to something else is one of the great tools that you can use when you write universal lyrics for film and television.
ML: Give us an example… say that sentence again. Comparing emotions to something.
RF: Comparing it to something else is one of the tools. One of the most important tools!
ML: Does it have to be a physical thing that you're comparing it to?
RF: A lot of times we'll compare it to an image, to something physical. “When we get together, we're like gasoline and matches.” That's a Country song that has been used in film and TV because it's a comparison. It's got a wonderful image in it, but we're not saying, “Yeah, I'm at the gas station here, and I'm going to light a match. We're not saying that, and we're not giving story details. But we are saying our relationship is like gasoline and matches, and then the listener goes, “(Ooh), gasoline and matches. I know what that is… that's explosive. That's really, oh, that's hot.” And the listeners are with you, because they're not going to go argue with that one. You can't argue with gasoline and matches. You know what that is!