STRATEGY THIRTY-TWO
Song, Music, and Dance as Plot Devices

Some Background

Because we so commonly use both music and dance as metaphoric, euphemistic or symbolic stand-ins for a variety of concepts, those words often appear in lyrics figuratively to suggest something other than their literal meaning. For example, in the title “Make Your Own Kind of Music,” music acts as a metaphor for “be your own person.” In “I've Heard That Song Before,” song—as in the expression “don't give me that song and dance”—acts as a metaphor for insincere talk. In “Do You Want to Dance?” dance acts as a euphemism (metonym) for the four-letter vulgarism for sex. “Dancing in the Dark”—the Dietz/Schwartz standard—symbolically implies that the singer tries to face life's uncertainties with grace.

This strategy challenges you to design a lyric around the literal use of music or dance—its charm, its romance, its redemptive power. In addition to using one of pop music's archetypal themes, a secondary benefit accrues from reinforcing the distinction between literal and figurative.

Prewriting Suggestion

As you can see from the foregoing examples, the names of dances—real (“Break-dance”) or fanciful (“The Carioca”)—top the list of dance plot strategies. Another aspect of music you might treat would be the sheer appreciation of it as evidenced in such songs as “Fascinating Rhythm” and “I Love a Piano.” Then there's the power of music to evoke stored emotions (“Please, Mister, Please”) or to match current ones (“Clarinet,”).

Small Craft Warning

As in previous guidelines, I urge you to discriminate between literal and metaphoric uses of your subject and not to mistake alternating between the two as evidence of “layered meaning.” (A rereading of the section on symbol, may be useful before you begin to write.)

Here's a lyric that transports us into a jazz club.

Music/SonglDance: Example No. 1 (Verse/Chorus/Climb/Bridge)
SAX MAN

When the room's abloom with cigarettes,
Come and share a drink between your sets.
If you need fortification,
No need for conversation.

You're perspired and tired; you feel your age.
But the years drop off when you take the stage.
As you begin performing
I can see you transforming

And it's Paris again, long before I was born,
I'm transported the minute you pick up your horn.
There's so much that I missed but you bring it all back
Oh yes, I do love the sax.

SAX MAN, do your job,
Make my senses throb
And my spirit soar.
Let the music pour.
Oh, SAX MAN, fill my head with honey,
Fill my ears with pearls.
Guess I'm one of those girls
Who can't resist a SAX MAN.

First you blow as slow as summer rain.
Then as light as bubbles in champagne.
And then your magical bebop
Takes me as high as a treetop.

Now you've found all the secrets I keep in my heart
I don't know how you do what you do with your art:
Turn my soul into flame
Turn my knees into wax.
Oh yes, I do love the sax

(repeat chorus)

Words can never say what you tell me when you play
Volumes of emotion float on every liquid note.

SAX MAN, do your job,
Make my senses throb
And my spirit soar,
Let the music pour.
Oh, SAX MAN, roar like the north wind
And purr like a lamb,
Make me lose all discretion
And forget who I am,
I was brought up a lady
But I don't give a damn.
I just can't resist,
I can't resist a SAX MAN.
© 1987 Maureen Sugden. Used with permission.

Comment

The external details of the smoke-filled room, the aged, perspiring performer counterpoint against the singer's orgasmic reactions to the soloist's performance. “Saxual” music appears to transport Maureen Sugden straight to her limbic system: Make my senses throb … fill my head with honey, ears with pearls … turn my soul into flame … my knees into wax … roar … purr …

The lyricist, a former jazz singer and devotee of the late Dexter Gordon ('Roun Midnight), conjures up the power of music to transport us into another realm. Topped with a simple metonymic title, “Sax Man” paints a memorial musical portrait. Now from jazz in particular to music in general.

Music/Song/Dance: Example No. 2 (ABAC Variant)
TRY A LITTLE MUSIC

TRY A LITTLE MUSIC when confusion
Comes aknockin' at your door.
Play a happy tune when disillusion
Has your chin upon the floor.
Try a cheery hum when you've been dumbish–
Something with a ho, ho, ho,
Try a little strum when life's hum drumish,
Pluck it on your old banjo.

Tap a little toe 'cause you will mope less
When you do an old soft shoe.
Don't give up the ghost when things look hopeless–
Blow it on your old kazoo.
Do re mi is magic on the menu
When you want to chase the blues:
Give a little whistle and you'll see,
This'll be a simple remedy,
TRY A LITTLE MUSIC
Whatcha gotta lose?

TRY A LITTLE MUSIC, that's my theory
When your troubles multiply.
TRY A LITTLE MUSIC when you're weary
'Cause your luck is runnin' dry.
Give yourself a beat when you're defeated,
Try it on your xylophone.
Give yourself a treat when you feel cheated,
Blow it on your old trombone.

Thump upon a drum when hopes has crumbled,
Bang a hearty bam, bam, bam.
What's the use of grumbling when you've stumbled,
Give a tambourine a wham.
When you're up to here in apprehension,
Tense enough to blow a fuse,
Pick a piccolo or castanet,
Toot upon a flute or clarinet:
TRY A LITTLE MUSIC—
Whatcha gotta lose?
Words by Sheila Davis/Music by Paul Murphy
^©1977 Solar Systems Music. Used with permission.

Comment

The tune, an infectious soft shoe, came first and seemed to require a theme to fit the melody's virtual insistence on interior rhyme. The song, in its 4-part choral arrangement, has become a favorite in elementary schools.

Here's a lyric that combines the subjects of dance and music and illustrates the universal power of both.

Music/Song/Dance: Example No. 3 (Verse/Chorus)
MUSIC IS THE LANGUAGE OF THE WORLD

I got a friend, he likes to dance,
Dance the night away.
He met a girl the other night.
But he didn't know what to say.
He can't speak Spanish,
And she can't speak English,
Yet they danced the whole night long.
That DJ must have been real sharp:
He played the perfect song.
It went like this:

La Musica Es El Idioma Del Mundo.
MUSIC IS THE LANGUAGE OF THE WORLD
La Musica Es El Idioma Del Mundo.
MUSIC IS THE LANGUAGE OF THE WORLD

As she smiled he knew this was a sign
That sparks were beginning to fly.
He found some paper; she wrote her number
As he looked in her deep Spanish eyes.
There was no need for a word to be said
'Cause the rhythm felt so right.
He went home dreamin' of the time
When he would hold her tight.
He went home singing:

(repeat chorus)

Now, my story's got a happy ending;
(Maybe you guessed it at the start.)
He learned some Spanish. She learned some English.
They learned the pleasures of the heart.
So if you find you're at a loss for words
'Cause you don't know what to say,
Let the music take your thoughts
And express them in a special way.
Ole!

(repeat chorus)
Words and Music by Carrie Starrier
^©1987 EDC Music (ASCAP). Used with permission.

Comment

The lyric epitomizes the mythic power of music to communicate, and its bilingual chorus suggests both a useful strategy to broaden a song's audience—and a potential trend. In addition to its status as a 1988 Billboard Song Contest winner, “Music” was one of three songs performed by Carrie in the syndicated TV series “Rap to Rock” which spotlighted the lives and music of emerging songwriters and performers. To learn more about Carrie's burgeoning career in Nashville (under the name Carrie Mills) and to sample her CD “Looking Through Windows,” visit her Web site <www.carriemills.com>.

WrapUp

If you haven't come up with a song or dance title or concept yet, there's a whole subdivision yet to consider: vignettes about musicians and songwriters. Think about “Piano Man,” “Mr. Bojangles,” “She Believes in Me,” (“He Plays for) Free,” “Daddy Sang Bass,” “Mr. Tanner”….