STRATEGY THIRTY THREE
The Need to Escape as Plot Device

The Background

Although they may appear to be unrelated, the existence of the coffee break, the “happy hour,” and the expression “Thank God It's Friday” all ratify our innate need for escape from routine fully as much as the lure of Disneyland or a Royal Caribbean cruise. Naturally, this basic need—one identified by Dr. Henry Murray—expresses itself in song.

Some Escape Titles
Up, Up and Away	Somewhere
The Far Away Hills	Let's Get Away From It All
Sailing	Beyond the Blue Horizon
Sail Away	Over the Rainbow
Never Never Land	Escape (Pina Collada Song)
Yellow Submarine	On the Good Ship Lollipop
Downtown	There's a Small Hotel
I Want to Get You on a Slow Boat to China

Styles of Escape

Some escape songs picture realistically attainable interludes like the bright lights of “Downtown” or the dunes of Cape Cod (“The Piña Colada Song”). Some reflect the singer's romantic longing to run away with a singee (“Somewhere”/“Small Hotel”). Others fantasize such Utopias as “The Good Ship Lollipop.” Perhaps more than any other song, the enduring appeal of “Over the Rainbow” testifies to our need to believe that somewhere there's a land where “dreams that you dare to dream really do come true.”

Prewriting Suggestion

In case you haven't a getaway plot or title poised for takeoff, some free associating might produce a launchable idea: Try clustering from the word “Escape” encircled in the center of an unlined sheet of paper. Be playful. Let what comes, come uncensored until you fill the page.

Small Craft Warning

Whatever style of escape hatch you choose, beware of blurring the song's innate literary mode: Take care to shape your plot into one of the four major modes: Realism, the way you see it actually is; Romance, the way you feel or hope it could be (if you're lucky); Fabulation, the way you imagine it might be (though it's highly improbable); or Fantasy, a fanciful notion that can't be. Choose one: Again, the key words are discrimination and consistency. (For an extended discussion of the literary modes, see CLW.) Here's an escape lyric that puts desire into action:

Escape: Example No. 1 (Verse/Chorus/Bridge)
MIAMI INTERLUDE

Palmy days and balmy nights
Under semitropical skies.
Steel guitars and sequin stars
Reflected in the ocean in someone's eyes.

I need a MIAMI INTERLUDE
Time to leave the real world behind.
I need a MIAMI INTERLUDE.
I've got a southern destination on my mind.

Fizzy gin and sunburnt skin,
Fragrant jacaranda in bloom.
Coral shells and pink hotels
With a Magic Fingers mattress in ev'ry room—

(repeat chorus)

Hold all my calls—
Cancel each appointment.
I'm puttin' my money into volleyballs
And zinc oxide ointment. I've got my

Radio, I'm set to go
Sink into the sugary sands.
You can reach me at the beach
Soakin' up the sun and readin' Judith Krantz—

(repeat chorus)
^© 1986 Maureen Sugden. Used with permission.

Comment

The first verse dives right into the subject and leads quickly to the song title, satisfying that music business caveat: “Don't bore us, get to the chorus.” Palmy introduces the sunny subject with a pun—clearly suggesting both its meanings—shaded by palms and glorious. The first verse's compact simile (sequin stars) continues by adjectivizing the drink gin fizz to fizzy gin and links the anticipated oral, olfactory and tactile treats by alliteration fizzy/fragrant/fingers. Palmy days/balmy nights and steel guitars/sequin stars present coordinated ideas in a parallel construction for emphasis and memorability. The bridge appropriately gives multiple contrasts: attitude—focusing on ‘here and now’ rather than ‘then and there’; viewpoint—addressing some unseen secretary; rhyme—from masculine to feminine, appointment/ointment. The last verse has a bookend compound metaphor (sugary sands) to link to the first verse's sequin stars. The compact metonym song title gets a coordinated metonymic allusion to author Judith Krantz—the creator for the creation. The Miami tourist bureau doesn't know what it's missing! Here's a different motive for escape.

Escape: Example No. 2 (AABA Variant)
DISAPPEAR

DISAPPEAR
That's what I'd like to do
Cut out and fly with you
Far from here …

DISAPPEAR,
Run from the prying eyes,
Run from the need of lies,
Run to a place where
You can be part of me,
Living and loving free
Far from here …
DISAPPEAR …

Somewhere,
It must be somewhere,
One piece of sunshine
That we could call our own.
Somehow,
We'll get there,
But now
Don't let the faces that frown on us
Spoil what we share.
Though they look down on us
Try not to care …

Hold me near,
Kiss me again and say
We're gonna find a way,
Some way to work it out
Very far from here …
Show them that they are wrong
Show them that our love's so strong
That we're
Gonna make
All our fear
DISAPPEAR
DISAPPEAR
DISAPPEAR
^© 1986 May Caffrey. Used with permission.

Comment

The classic theme of ill-fated lovers motivates this singer's urge to escape Given its one-word synopsizing title and focused simplicity of statement, “Disap pear” has the potential to speak for a multitude of teenagers. Now, a fresh treat ment of a classic situation.

Escape: Example No. 3 (Verse/Chorus)
I WON'T BE IN TODAY

It's five forty-five on my radio clock
The weatherman's callin' for rain.
I roll out of bed in the cold and the dark.
Need some coffee to jump start my brain.
I shave and I shower and throw on some clothes,
Heave a sigh and head out the door.
Soon the boss'll be screamin' and I'll be dreamin'
Of bein' a free man once more.
And I'm thinkin' how sweet it would be
To pick up the phone and say, “Listen to me–

“I WON'T BE IN TODAY.
I won't be in tomorrow.
Won't be in the rest of the week.
I might be in Aruba, might be in Bermuda
Or Puerto Vallarta or Martinique.
I need relaxation, so I won't be returnin',
Till spring, maybe summer or fall.
I've had all I can take; now I'm takin' a break
I'll be workin' on havin' a ball.”

Out on the freeway it's bumper to bumper.
(Walkin', I'd make better time).
I got ten miles of traffic jam stretchin' before me
And ten more stretchin' behind.
Guess I'll be here a while, so I manage a smile
And let my mind take me away
To a strip of white sand, a cool drink in my hand
Beside a tropical bay.
Maybe someday I really will go.
I'll call up the boss, say, “I think you should know

“I WONT BE IN TODAY.
I won't be in tomorrow.
Don't look for me anytime soon.
I might be in Tahiti or Maui or Fiji
Might be in Caracas or in Cancun.
I need relaxation so I won't be returnin'
Till spring, maybe summer or fall.
I've had all I can take; now I'm takin' a break.
I'll be workin' on havin' a ball.

“I WON'T BE IN TODAY.
I won't be in tomorrow
Don't know how long I'll be away.
I might be in San Juan, I might be in St. John.
The Bahamas, St. Thomas or St. Tropez.
I need relaxation so I won't be returnin'
Till spring, maybe summer or fall.
And if I find me a lady, a sweet island baby,
I may never come back at all.
Yes, if I find me a lady, a sweet island baby
I may never come back at all!”
© 1991 Daniel Fox. Used with permission.

Comment

This lyric exemplifies how to get to the universal through the particular. Fashioning a filmic script of one's man's nine-to-five bumper-to-bumper frustration, Dan Fox, with consummate SF craft, speaks for millions. The changing chorus of “I Won't Be In Today” illustrates how the verse/chorus song can be exploited to the fullest and build to a payoff line–“I may never come back at all!” Sounds to me like a contender for a future airlines commercial.

WrapUp

While title hunting, why not employ the strategy of place names for your jetaway and choose some unsung tropical refuge from the morning alarm. Remember the success of “The Isle of Capri,” “Bali Ha'i,” “Poinciana,” “Tropicana,” “Veradero”….

STRATEGY THIRTY-FOUR
An Archetypal Portrait as Plot Device

Some Background

Just as songwriters may use forms of metonym and synecdoche in their lyrics without necessarily being familiar with those terms, so too do they draw upon archetypes of all kinds–music forms, plots, characters, settings–without being conscious of it.

A definition: From the Greek word meaning “original pattern,” an archetype (ARK-a-type) is a basic model from which copies are made. For example, the basic stages of life are archetypal: birth, adolescence, adulthood, marriage, parenthood, old age and death.

Archetypal Personalities

Certain personality types are considered archetypal: the self-made man, the miser, the bigot, the cowboy, and so on. When you practiced antonomasia and started a list headed “Characteristic/Quality,” you were drawing on your knowledge of archetypal personalities. And had you listed in your left-hand column those just cited, you might have paired them with such embodiments as: Horatio Alger, Scrooge, Archie Bunker and Roy Rogers.

Archetypal Situations, Settings and Images

In addition to archetypal life stages and personality types, there are archetypal situations: The tension between parent and child, the rivalry between brothers, the search for the father, the young man from the country arriving in the city. Again, common stuff of lyrics–especially story songs.

Then there are archetypal images–particular colors, animals, products, and so on, which have become symbols. For example, white = purity; dog = faithful friend; beer = middle class; BMW = success. These are images that lyricists readily employ. Actually, the forty lyric strategies outlined in this book draw upon forty archetypes–or basic models. So as you've been practicing such plot devices as the inherent need for sex, or friendship or escape, you've been applying archetypal themes.

Being Archetypal by Design

By an archetypal portrait, I mean one that characterizes some basic type familiar to all. So the idea now is to be archetypal by design, rather than by accident. Successful lyricwriting can be said to depend to a great degree on the ability to transform a personal experience into a recognizable (archetypal) situation and setting.

Titles of Lyrical Archetypal Portraits/Situations
Desperado	Rainy Day Woman
Arthur and Alice	Coward of the County
Foxy Lady	Georgy Girl
Valley Girl	Bad Bad Leroy Brown
Hard-Hearted Hannah	Big Spender
Maneater	Old Hippie
Harper Valley PTA	Cat's in the Cradle
Mr. Businessman	Rose's Turn

The country classic “Coward of the County,” for example, came into being from the desire on the part of each of its co-writers, Billy Edd Wheeler and Roger Bowling, to employ archetypal themes: Billy Edd told me of his desire to write about an “underdog–somebody who comes from behind” and of Roger's to tell the story of “a promise.” The song embodies both.

Prewriting Suggestion

You might begin your plot/title hunt by checking the Antonomasia page in your ideabook to see how many stock characters you've listed. Then try to add to them. To help get your archetypal entrainment chugging along, here are a few more: the nagging wife, the wanderer, the siren, the big-hearted whore, the braggart, the snoop, the know-it-all, the rebel….

Some archetypal portraits are first-person narratives (“Cat's in the Cradle”); many are written in the second-person talking voice addressing a singer–entreating (“Desperado”), or admonishing (“Gloria”), or warning against a third person (“Maneater”); others are told from the third-person camera eye (“Old Hippie”/“Arthur and Alice”). Consider your viewpoint options before you begin.

Small Craft Warning

Two inherent pitfalls accompany the archetypal portrait. One is the danger of being judgmental–placing the singer on a court bench looking down on the characterized subject. “Mr. Businessman,” a 1968 hit by Ray Stevens, is a rare recorded case in point that accused an entire segment of society of being immoral and neurotic (with their ‘harlots’ and their ‘charlatans’); in this case the recording artist was also the writer, hence no cool editorial eye suggested a toning down of the harsh judgment. Then there are those workshop first drafts which, despite a well-crafted portrait of a recognizable archetype, lack a point. The safeguard is to ask yourself, why do I want to tell the world about this person? With what idea/emotion do I want millions to identify or empathize? Here's a role-model example that asks us to empathize with the singer's weakness for a drifter.

Archetypal Portrait: Example No. 1 (Verse/Chorus)
THE DRIFTER

He's a six-foot hunk who hails from Amarillo
And anywhere he hangs his jeans is home.
And he shared my dreams and also shared my pillow.
But he rolled on 'cause he's a rollin' stone.

He's a DRIFTER,
He's a dreamer,
He's around a little while
'N' then he's gone.
He's a lover
Who's a loner
'Cause he never got the hang
Of hangin' on.
He's a knight in shinin' Levis
In a rusty, dusty Chevrolet.
He's a DRIFTER,
And Oh, Lord,
I wish he'd drift on back again my way.

He's a tumbleweed who tumbles with the breezes.
He moves around from town to town to town.
'N' his good looks take him anywhere he pleases.
And nobody'll ever pin him down.

(repeat chorus)

When I think he's gone for good 'n' I'll forget him,
He blows on back 'n' needs a place to stay.
And he talks the sweetest sweet talk, so I let him
Take up where he left off some yesterday.

(repeat chorus)
© 1985 Lyric by Jim Morgan/Music by Alan Cove. Used with permission.

Comment

That's a classic country theme featuring two archetypal characters–the waitin woman and the wandering man. Morgan's alliterative opening lines link the mail thoughts (hunk/hails/hangs/home) and set the style for a lyric notable for its unifyin literary devices. They're worth identifying because they're worth emulating:

• Alliteration: drifter/dreamer, lover/loner, blows/back

• Contiguous rhyme: rusty dusty

• Paragram: anywhere he hangs his jeans is home; knight in shining Levis

• Parallelism: shared my dreams/shared my pillow

• Polyptoton: rolled on/rollin', tumbleweed/tumbles, sweetest/sweet

• Sequential Pun: hang of hangin' on

Archetypal Portrait: Example No. 2 (Verse/Chorus/Bridge)
SATAN IN A SATIN DRESS

There's a sexy lady running 'round destroying men
A hard-hearted Hannah with a devilish plan,
A maneater posing as an innocent gal
You better beware of this femme fatale.

She's SATAN IN A SATIN DRESS.
She'll mesmerize you with her kiss.
She'll seduce you with her sweet caress.
She's SATAN IN A SATIN DRESS.

Like Lorelei, she'll lure you from the shore
With a siren song you've never heard before.
She'll steal your heart and leave you lost at sea.
And I oughta know, 'cause she did it to me.

(repeat chorus)

She's like that Foxy Lady you've heard about,
A real Dolly Dagger, so you better watch out.

(repeat chorus)
© 1991 Cory Morgenstern. Used with permission

Comment

Topped with an original and compelling tide, Cory Morgenstern's archetypal portrait weaves into the warning the tides of four (!) well-known femme fatale songs—“Maneater,” “Foxy Lady,” “Hard-Hearted Hannah,” and “Dolly Dagger.” And by additionally linking the legendary Lorelei to his roll call of fatal females who metaphorically lure … and leave you lost at sea, the writer further strengthened his archetypal design.

To see more of Cory's lyrics and hear cuts from his CD “Big Bang,” visit his Web site <www.soularsystem.com>.

WrapUp

Consciously thinking in archetypal terms serves as a safeguard against writing the “private” lyric which, though meaningful to the writer, lacks identification for the audience. The next strategy takes archetype to the ultimate.