We've been here before but not in such a focussed way and it is always worth comparing notes!
Sometimes I will have an idea or a story to tell but it only really lifts off with a tune. Sometimes it is just the tune. My recent song 'Annie Moore' (which is in the Plucky Duck forum) came from noodling. The tune I was playing seemed to me to be a song and not a pure tune. I played around with it for a while and a first line came out. That suggested some themes (I was somewhat obsessed with the Donald at the time), I did some Google research and there was the story. The lyric was completed and then the tune fine tuned, tuning settled on, best key for singing identified and so on.
So, more often than not it is the tune that drives.
Occasionally, I do start from a mainly lyrical position and this is always harder.
I have two songs at the moment that started lyrically and that have proved difficult. The first — The Ballad of Denmark Street — focuses on the redevelopment of an area that was very important to me in my young years. I struggled with verses three and four and a middle eight. Finally, I knuckled down and finished the lyric and then went back to fine tune the tune. The middle eight looked good on paper but it was crap and I can't sing it. It is still there waiting to be finished.
The second — John Adams — is an attempt to write a type of traditional sea faring song. This came out of a holiday in Dartmouth and it is based on a real event. The tune is really a rhythm (a la Carthy or Nic Jones) and the thrust of the song is the lyric. I know the story, where it has to go and where it has to end but it is proving to be very difficult. I will finish these songs. The Denmark Street song will never be as good as it was in my head. The John Adams song might work but at the moment there are too many sub standard lyrical lines.
Thinking about both of these (and you prompted me to do so) the absence of the focus on the tune simply means the whole thing doesn't flow properly. From this I guess that the tune is the most important component for progress.
Tunes don't have to be complicated but they do have to work. When I am playing live my Baltimore song (also in Plucky Duck) always goes down very well. It is a simple tune but one which drove the lyrics. I wrote it very quickly and without a great deal of thought. The popularity seems to come form it being country-tinged. In the last few days — struggling with another idea — a similarly simple country tinged tune came into my head, this time based on Pittsburgh (which I visited a year or so ago). I reckon this will be finished in no time at all (I'll try to finish it on Friday).
So, the tune rules for me. I have fragments of lyrics and storylines all over the place. Everyone and then one steps forward — but only when the tune becomes obvious.
I'm only a hack songwriter but I've seen similar comments from others who I really admire.
Finally, I am like you in that songs often come from the stories of the world around me. An idea, an issue, a rant — all of these make sense. But they only begin to shout out to be born once that tune emerges.
Thanks for the reply Andy i will take a look on plucky duck later still fairly new to the forum but seems to be some sound advice and feedback
I don't take my songs seriously just a bit of fun often enough they remain unfinished a work in progress lol.
I write a lot of poetry aswell because i'm not a particularly good Guitarist hence just for fun best of luck with your future songs cheers Bob