There are many songs with embarrassingly bad song lyrics. For example, I have always enjoyed the music of the Electric Light Orchestra, but Jeff Lynne’s lyrics sometimes are a bit middling to be kind. For example, one of my guilty pleasures is ELO’s song “All Over The World.” I love the catchiness of the tune, but those lyrics …

“Everybody walkin’ down the street
Everybody movin’ to the beat
They’re gonna get hot down in the U.S.A. (New York, Detroit, L.A.)
We’re gonna take a trip across the sea
Everybody come along with me
We’re gonna hit the night down in gay Paris (c’est la vie, having your cup of tea)”

They’re bad, but this new series of blog posts isn’t about making fun of the lyrics of successful musical artists. It’s about my song lyrics. Many decades ago, I was a teen full of angst (good name for an album or band), writing songs about the cruelty of a life I had barely started living. I had no clue how cruel life could actually be until I had 5 kids, 4 dogs, a mortgage, car payments, and a leaky basement.

Anyway, I was thrilled when I found my notebook of songs I had written starting when I was still a feckless youth. Thankfully, I eventually got some feck. Anyway, they are dated, unlike I was at the time, chronicling my lyrical atrocities beginning at age 16.

Now at age (number obscured to keep Jim from throwing up in his mouth while typing), I consider myself a halfway decent writer. I was in a songwriting mood a few years back, and I wrote some song lyrics I like. But my lyrics from decades ago? Bad. Very bad. For example, from the unrecorded potential hit single “Lady of the Island” comes these lyrics …

Continue reading “Bad Song Lyrics – Sneak Preview” →