How To Borrow A Little Songwriting Power From Bob Dylan
This is a guest post by my talented friend Mr Ben Connor… you can follow his musical adventures here.
Two chords, no chorus and a whopping eight verses, Bob Dylan’s ‘Masters of War’ goes for four and a half minutes and still keeps me interested.
How can that be?
Last night I spent two hours, guitar in hand, analysing the lyrics, chord progressions and melodies of songs in the Bob Dylan Little Black Songbook.
Aside from confirming that Dylan is a lyrical master who despite occasional use of two chords has also been the progenitor of some wonderful chord progressions, the experience brought to light an often ignored fact:
Bob Dylan’s fundamental draw is his melodies.
And Masters of War is a perfect example of this.
The lyrics to the song are undoubtably impressive. A direct address of a disgruntled citizen to the world’s leaders, almost every phrase gets to the emotional core of the issue with elegance and wit.
But write the best lyrics in the world and sing it to a crap melody, derivative melody or non-existant melody (as the case may be), and no one will listen.
The reason, I concluded, that Masters of War works is the melodic arc in the phrasing of each verse.
It’s by no means complicated.
In fact, it’s as simple as they can get.
But one thing that many songwriters, myself included, regularly fail to do with their melodies is to take them on journeys with phrases (or movement) concluding (or resting) in places at variable distances from the satisfying, but monotonous comfort of home – the root note.
Have a listen here and continue reading below (There is a little “X” in the top right hand corner to skip the AD)
WARNING: As much as the video depicts the horrors of war, there is some incredibly gruesome footage in there. So I made it very small so as not to disturb our younger readers. (Click the little “X” in the top right hand corner to skip the AD)
The phrasing goes like this:
First Phrase: Starts on the root note, ends on the root note
Second Phrase: Starts on the fifth, ends on the fifth
Third Phrase: Starts on the fifth, ends on the eighth
Fourth Phrase: Starts on the fifth, ends on the fifth
Fifth Phrase: Starts on the fifth, ends on the eighth
Sixth Phrase: Starts on the fifth, ends on the fifth
Last Phrase: Starts on the fifth (possibly the fourth), ends on the root note.
In other words, you start walking across a plain, at sea level, to a mountain. You make a steep climb to a plateau where you have a picnic with a great view of the surroundings. You then climb to a mountain peak and feel exhilarated (and strangely it feels like home). Then you stumble down to another plateau and catch your breath before climbing another equally high peak. Then it’s time to go home. You descend to another plateau and have afternoon tea, before descending, with the joy of the return, to a seaside town for some satisfying ales and righteous indignation.
Admittedly, you then need the motivation to take this journey eight times.
To achieve this, Dylan’s lyrics turn you into a hobbit on a quest to destroy the ring of power and reward you at the end by placing you over the grave of the evil one.
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Ben Connor
