Gary Ewer's blog post "It's Always About People" is well worth reading and remembering.

When Titanic the musical opened on Broadway in 1997, it closed a couple of years later after running for 804 shows. It lost money, even though it picked up 5 Tony awards. It wasn’t a huge hit, getting some positive but mostly negative reviews.

When Titanic the movie opened later in 1997, it was a smash box office hit. People couldn’t get enough of the story. It eventually earned 2.18 billion dollars.

There’s a big reason why when you say “Titanic”, people are as likely to think about the movie first, then the actual disaster. And almost no one talks about the musical.

It has to do with people.

To put it succinctly, Titanic the musical was about the Titanic. The writers told the story by focusing in on various characters, but few of the personal stories were compelling or at all powerful.Their story was about the ship, and it was a story that everyone who had even just a shallow knowledge of history already knew.

But Titanic the movie was primarily about an intense, over-the-top love affair between Jack and Rose. It focused on those two characters as the main story. Yes, it was taking place on the Titanic, and everyone knew what was going to happen to the ship.

But they didn’t know what was going to happen to Jack and Rose. In the telling of that story, audiences experienced every possible emotion that comes from that kind intense love affair: love, hatred, jealously, tenderness, abandonment, and sadness.

Oh right… and a ship sank as well.

And now, songwriting: If you’re planning write a song where the main focus of your attention doesn’t place people front and centre, you’re going to have the same problem that the makers of Titanic the musical had.

Many songwriters write about love, and so it’s easy to keep an emotional leash on your listeners. But if you’re writing about the following, your listeners may appreciate your writing, but lose interest:

◾Social justice (e.g., rights and freedoms)

◾Climate change

◾The poor and homeless (particularly if we sing about the homeless as objects as opposed to people)

◾Grand buildings and other edifices

◾The beauty of nature

These are all great topics, but will fail to make a connection unless listeners have people to whom they can relate. Everyone can get comfy with the sentiment of a song message that calls for universal freedom, but you need to do more if you’re going to really make a connection.

So if you plan to write a song that addresses one of the above topics, you have to immediately place a person, couple or group at the front of that story:

◾Social justice: Who is being wronged? What pain are they feeling? What rights are they being denied? What is their story?

◾Climate change: Who is this song about? Is there possibility of a personal story to focus on? Instead of singing about clouds that won’t give rain, sing instead about someone, and the pain and anxiety they are facing when the clouds won’t give rain.

◾The poor and homeless: Tell someone’s story. Create a name. Where did they come from? Where is their family? What happened to get them out on the street? Show a tender side, a loving side, a sad side… tap into your listeners’ emotions.

◾Grand buildings and other edifices. So you want to do a story about the beauty of the Statue of Liberty? Give her a name. Tell her story. Invent thoughts and feelings. Or describe a relationship between a visiting child and the statue in which they actually communicate with each other. Pull emotion out of the story.

◾The beauty of nature: Nature is beautiful because people see its beauty. So a song about nature will succeed if it’s a song about a person, and their relationship with someone else in nature. Make nature, and the nice things you say about it, a poignant backdrop for a more powerful story.

Show me a list of the best songs ever written, and I’ll show you a list of songs about people and their personal interactions with others, and then the results of those actions.

Remember, it’s always about people.



Tons of great stuff on Gary's site;

http://www.secretsofsongwriting.com/

What I Mean To Say 

Maureen Ryan Griffin 

How have I never noticed

a gull partake

with such nonchalance

of its sunrise breakfast,

clamping its prey

in its mouth to carry

it from the ocean’s edge

before beak stabs

again and again

into body, plucking

meat from a crab

that does not go gentle into

being eaten, jerking, waving

its claws in what looks

to me like protest

and still I don’t step away

until the gull finishes,

not long after

the crab’s shuddering

stops, leaving

a small litter

of shell and cartilage

I wouldn’t recognize

for what it was

had I not been standing here

as the sun kindles

the morning, here where

I came to drink in

a glorious dawn.

float·ing

ˈflōdiNG/

adjective

1.

buoyant or suspended in water or air.

"a massive floating platform"

synonyms: buoyant, on the surface, afloat, drifting

2.

not settled in a definite place; fluctuating or variable.

"the floating population that is migrating to the cities"

synonyms: unsettled, transient, temporary, variable, fluctuating

Double Rainbow

Ravi Shankar

Speeding, without destination, after dark

torrents have poured & been returned

at home, the skies above mirror my mood,

windshield wipers knifing through sheets,

back roads slick with pooling, when a shard

of cloudlessness opens. Pulling over, cutting

the ignition, I unstitch myself from the humid

seat, still fuming, to greet a full spectrum

of color arcing past the treetops in lockstep

with its fainter inverse. Archer's bow, hem

of the sun god's coat, bridge between worlds,

reconciliation & pardon. They don't last.

Immigrant Picnic

Gregory Djanikian   

It's the Fourth of July, the flags 

are painting the town, 

the plastic forks and knives 

are laid out like a parade. 

And I'm grilling, I've got my apron, 

I've got potato salad, macaroni, relish, 

I've got a hat shaped   

like the state of Pennsylvania. 

I ask my father what's his pleasure 

and he says, "Hot dog, medium rare," 

and then, "Hamburger, sure,   

what's the big difference,"   

as if he's really asking. 

I put on hamburgers and hot dogs,   

slice up the sour pickles and Bermudas, 

uncap the condiments. The paper napkins   

are fluttering away like lost messages. 

"You're running around," my mother says,   

"like a chicken with its head loose." 

"Ma," I say, "you mean cut off, 

loose and cut off   being as far apart   

as, say, son and daughter." 

She gives me a quizzical look as though   

I've been caught in some impropriety. 

"I love you and your sister just the same," she says, 

"Sure," my grandmother pipes in, 

"you're both our children, so why worry?" 

That's not the point I begin telling them, 

and I'm comparing words to fish now,   

like the ones in the sea at Port Said,   

or like birds among the date palms by the Nile, 

unrepentantly elusive, wild.   

"Sonia," my father says to my mother, 

"what the hell is he talking about?" 

"He's on a ball," my mother says. 

                                                       

"That's roll!" I say, throwing up my hands, 

"as in hot dog, hamburger, dinner roll...." 

"And what about roll out the barrels?" my mother asks, 

and my father claps his hands, "Why sure," he says, 

"let's have some fun," and launches   

into a polka, twirling my mother   

around and around like the happiest top,   

and my uncle is shaking his head, saying 

"You could grow nuts listening to us,"   

and I'm thinking of pistachios in the Sinai 

burgeoning without end,   

pecans in the South, the jumbled 

flavor of them suddenly in my mouth, 

wordless, confusing, 

crowding out everything else. 

             

     

                   Daddy Why Are You Crying                   

Walt Sample

Daddy I have to pee 

How much farther will it be 

Where are you taking me 

Daddy why are you crying 

Mommy said they sent you away

For a law you disobeyed

I’d knew you come back one day

Daddy why are you crying

Her boyfriend said you were bad

Called you a deadbeat Dad

I knew you’d be back I’m so glad

Daddy why are you crying

I have so much to tell you

Cake is still my favorite food

Will things be like they used to

Daddy why are you crying

Am I still your little princess

Remember my bright red dress

Thanks for loving me you’re the best

Daddy why are you crying

Daddy I have to pee

How much farther will it be

Where are you taking me

Daddy why are you crying