“I can’t believe she said that to me!”
That’s what I heard a lady say the other day while munching my lunch.
It’s amazing how stuff you hear can be turned into songwriting fodder.
This lady was talkin’ ‘bout her trip to Victoria’s Secret to purchase a bra.
Okay, I’m a dude. I know nothing about these babies, other than the obvious…
…never mind.
This lady goes on how the sales person brought one which sounded to me it was like shoving a couple red kick balls into Dixie cups.
Little bit of a tight fit.
Then came another one too big it sounded like it could double for wearable carryon luggage…
Jiggling them around like a lopsided washer in spin cycle.
It was a hoot listening to her go on.
The salesgirl evidently went on to tell her…
“Well, I see you are like me, big chested and have trouble finding one that fits.”
This lady said…
“Well I’ve been accused of many things in my life ma’am, but I have to say, big chested has never been among them.”
So, the lady gave up on finding a bra, and asked about swimming suits.
The sales lady evidently gave a little peak around the caboose and said…
“Oh, with a butt as big as yours, you’re going to need a double or triple X and you’ll have to get that on-line.”
First of all, I’m not sure you make salesperson of the month by making false compliments on a chick’s boobs and insult to her bootie. She knows what she’s got either way, right?
And, this girl had nothing close to a bottomless bottom anyway.
So what’s the songwriting take-away here?
Besides knowing the product, in our case, song topic; we need to know how to talk to the listener.
With things like…
- Chronological order.
• Believability.
• The right language.
• Proper and consistent tense.
• Perspective or what person it’s written from.
• What is universal detail and what is not.
• When personal detail draws a listener in and when it turns them off.
And stuff like how personal stories are told, so if a listener isn’t terminally ill, they can still want to live each day like it’s their last.
For instance, it makes a huge difference what person you use if writing about topics like physical abuse in a marriage.
One perspective will draw people in like fuzz to a vacuum, and another will repel them like a nose to curdled milk.
That’s the kind of songwriting stuff we cover in issues of Tune Booster. This month it’s about song titles. It’s still available without back ordering it, but not for long. https://www.tunesmithtips.com/newsletter/