Sharing your lyrics with others

thecolourbox

Does anybody else get a bit uneasy or feel silly showing other people the lyrics you come up with? When I've written songs, I've felt fine about playing the songs to people but when I'm aware they're listening to the lyrics, or if they see the lyrics written down, I get all defensive and embarrassed even though I'm usually quite happy with them. My lyrics do tend to be a bit miserable, but are usually made up of fragments of stuff I've thought or heard in the past but not necessarily representative of me, they just fit the rhythm and imagery of the song at that particular moment. I seem to then get questioned by my nearest and dearest using the lyrics as a basis for concern that I'm not well!!

Case in point would be for my couple of Fretboard challenge entries where they've been proper songs, my girlfriend has listened to them and then started quizzing me about them asking about every line and where it came from apart from the most miserable potentially harshest sounding line that gets really obviously avoided - then I feel super conscious about it.

Am I being over sensitive? It's not like they're worrying words or anything it's just struck me as something that's annoying when showing friends and family. 

mart

I'm with you on this. But then, my lyrics are pretty crap.

Grunfeld

thecolourbox said:

Case in point would be for my couple of Fretboard challenge entries where they've been proper songs, my girlfriend has listened to them and then started quizzing me about them asking about every line and where it came from apart from the most miserable potentially harshest sounding line that gets really obviously avoided - then I feel super conscious about it.

I think this is bloody tricky.  You want to bare your soul, you want your lyrics to have resonance and authenticity.. and she's like, "Who are you writing about?"

Because the interesting women who make it into lyrics are not the sort of gf you sensibly settle down with.  No one writes a song about the girl who is "nice".  But the one who rips your heart to shreds and occupies every waking thought... she's worth a lyric.

deepblues

same. i dont like sharing lyrics, i think people are steeling them, but then again my lyrics are lame anyway.

Drew_TNBD

Grief
makes you sleep
gives you comfort

Grief
wide awake
takes your comfort

There's a sigh
There's a sigh

Fade


....


Nah. I don't have much of a problem with it. They're just words at the end of the day. It's the sounds and melodies that really matter.

thecolourbox

I agree Drew but try telling that to over sensitive family members!

Drew_TNBD

thecolourbox said:

I agree Drew but try telling that to over sensitive family members!

Just tell them it's how you deal with the constant trauma of having them involved in your life.

thecolourbox

gusman2x

Yeah, totally normal to be self conscious.

Winny_Pooh

When I was about 11 I wrote down the lyrics to Black Sabbaths Paranoid, it was idly lying around my room until my Mom picked up up and later came to ask me in a worried state if I was depressed or something LOL

Sambostar

Age 14 to 17 I used to write about naked chicks.  It was the only way I could successfully negotiate the feelings of my mum is she found them, which she would have as everybody always thought I was on drugs, although I wasn't all the time.  Seeds of successful repression planted right there.  Now I am free to write about diarrhoea and scat.  I can understand the concern.  Lyrics like 'She gave me earache all day, so I shat in her mouth while she slept'  or 'I have sexual feelings for my goat' can get you into big trouble if the wrong person reads them.

But seriously, lighten up, women are completely strange and secretive like that anyway and no one has the right to judge you on them.  There are just lyrics.  Just as chatting strange women up in broad daylight without having a drink isn't sexual harassment.

I'm lucky though, I've spent 26 years squeezing my dark side into the tiniest box I could find and locking it away so as a fully functioning two dimensional person I couldn't write anything profound or real if I tried.

Put it on the line, what's the worse that can happen?  Some will be good, some cringe worthy, but you shouldn't have to second guess what others might think or feel and edit them accordingly or be embarrassed about anything. That is repression.