In songwriting, what's a hook?

When I was starting out as a songwriter, this was one of my most frustrating questions. I would meet with publishers and record companies, and they’d say, "Great lyrics, nice music—where’s the hook?"

I’d say something like, "What’s a hook."

They’d answer back that it was that, you know, thing you could "hang your hat on" or other such garbage.

Simply put, a hook is something that stays in your head the first time you hear the song. It can be a repetitive lyric/music combination, or it can be a musical figure like the slide guitar in George Harrison’s "My Sweet Lord."

There are some tricks to coming up with hooks. It’s worth taking a minute to define one of the classic kinds of hooks that works so often in formulaic writing. You can find a lot of lyric/music hooks in the choruses of songs. They often are, or contain, the name of the song. Some examples:

Bridge Over Troubled Water – Simon and Garfunkel
It Only Takes a Minute, Girl (to fall in love) - Tavares
She’s Gone – Hall and Oates
Take it Easy – The Eagles
Peaceful Easy Feeling – The Eagles
Bad, Bad, Leroy Brown – Jim Croce
One Thing – Finger Eleven
Calling All Angels – Train
Another Day in Paradise – Phil Collins
American Pie – Don McLean

The list could go on and on, and there's a reason for that. If you can come up with a hook, you know what your song is headed. Without it, you are meandering all over the place until you find one, so I like to have the hook figured out first.

Take a look at this:

When you're weary, feeling small
When tears are in your eyes, I will dry them all
I’m on your side, when times get rough
And friends just can’t be found

Like a bridge over troubled water, I will lay me down
Like a bridge over troubled water, I will lay me down

*from Paul Simon, Bridge Over Troubled Water

Notice that, since the hook, "Like a bridge over troubled water, I will lay me down,' is SO strong, that it becomes a sort of psychological magnet that encourages every line to lead up to it. This is the magic of a good hook. It helps the song almost write itself.

Don't get me wrong, I’m sure Paul found lots of challenges for his formidable songwriting talent to turn this song into the masterpiece that it is. But I submit that it was probably easier to write if he came up with the hook first.

Pay attention to that the next time you write. Try to find a phrase, as I mentioned in another post (Where do ideas come from?) that encapsulates the idea of the whole song. Then make sure every line of the verse leads up to that payoff, the chorus (and the hook line).

What not to write about

When I was 19, I had just returned to my parent's house in Alexandria, Virginia, after spending most of the year unsuccessfully shopping my songs in L.A. My hair had grown so long that my dad joked, "They told me Jesus was coming back, but they never said he was going to live at my house."

But I digress. On returning to Northern Virginia, I lucked into a connection with Columbia Screen Gems Music through one of their New York staff writers who happened to be my friend. I spent the next few years being mentored as a songwriter by two great people: Lanny Lambert and Irwin Schuster. To give you an example of their stature, Irwin, as a senior vice president for the company, had just signed the publishing rights for a new band by the name of Boston. In his career, he'd also had relationships with such diverse luminaries as Carole King and Todd Rundgren.

Irwin was mentoring Lanny, after a fashion--Lanny was an experienced songwriter already--and the two of them mentored me in turn. I say all this to let you know that many of suggestions I make come from very senior and experienced song-crafters; and in this blog I'm sharing some of their teachings with you (along with 30+ years of my own personal experience putting their tutoring to work).

The old rule for a "breaking" hit--something that might put a new band on the map--was that it had to be up-tempo, positive, danceable, and sexually oriented (boy/girl relationship, and a few sexy references would be helpful). Songwriters never seem to have a challenge coming up with stuff to write about, but "rules" like this provide a way to channel what you're doing. The publishers and promoters just saw a lot of evidence that this kind of a song would have an easier time making it onto the charts.

By comparison, in country the themes are usually:
-She loves me
-She left me
-She done me wrong

If you're going outside of these areas, you'd better have something good--maybe patriotic, maybe a song about your buds, or about your favorite dog. Okay, family, kids, mom and dad seem to have snuck in there lately, too.

You may have noticed that there aren't any examples of musician-oriented subjects in my suggestions above. You know, songs about how hard it is to write a song, or how tough it is to be a musician on the road, or how cool it is to live the rock and roll life, or how other people's songs aren't any good. One of the things that Irwin and Lanny used to beat me up about was how lame musician songs were in most cases. Now that I mention it, I can only bring a short list to mind if I think really hard.

-American Band (Grand Funk Railroad)
-Your Song (sort of...Elton John)
-Turn the Page (Bob Seger)
-What's Your Name (Lynard Skynard)
-On the Road Again (Willie Nelson)
-Open Arms (Journey)

Here's a challenge...can you come up with any more? Post 'em here as a comment and let's see what we've got!

Okay, back to my point. There is a reason songs like these are discouraged by publishers, producers, and record companies. It's because, unless you've got a LOT of momentum (see the list above), a lot of fame, and you're in that sweet spot where your fans are actually paying attention...NO ONE CARES how hard it is to be a musician, how fun it is to be a musician, or how much you hate or like someone else's stuff.

To put it succinctly, write about what you want, but don't write about things that nobody cares about. And while you're at it, be careful with the really contrived references. I recently heard a sample from a young group here in Dallas that made reference to being in the back seat of his "SUV" with his girlfriend. My God, how could anyone ever thing that "SUV" could sing well is beyond me. In any case, it came off something like this: "I'm 17 and can't afford an SUV, but people my age think SUVs are cool, so I'll mention it in my song like I really have one and people will think I’m cool."

PUHLEEZE... The Beach Boys had their 409 and Woody Wagon, Vanilla Ice had his "Five-point-oh," and somebody was going to have fun, fun, fun till her daddy took the T-Bird away...but an SUV? How blandly urban.

Okay, I'm better now.

Where do ideas come from?

Who knows. I've had some of my best while I've been doing something mindless, like ironing, showering, or washing dishes (yes I do those things, despite rumors to the contrary).

In Nashville songwriting circles, "ideas" are those unique phrase turns, exploded clichés, and "wish I'd thought of that" moments. There are a million of them, and they go from the ridiculous to the sublime.

An old lost friend of mine, Nashville songwriter Rick Giles, teamed up with Eddie Rabbitt to write "I Love A Rainy Night." What made that an idea worth using? The answer is that it gave the songwriters something that they felt they could expand upon--and other ideas that supported it. It's simple, but if you listen to the song, you can almost see them sitting in a room with a couple of guitars or a piano, thinking of all the reasons they loved a rainy night. It spoke to them, and they were able to make it speak to us.

An idea for a songwriter has to either be unique, or has to be something that inspires them to explain it in a unique or new way. "Beer for my Horses"? Now that's unique. How about "I'd rather have a bottle in front of me, than have frontal lobotomy?" It's Five O'clock Somewhere, if I told you you had a beautiful body, would you hold it against me?, she's got to be somebody's baby, Magaritaville, Lord have mercy on the frozen man, I've got friends in low places--and all the lyrics buried deeper in well-written songs. One of my favorite ideas was from Paul Simon (despite its musician-oriented focus), "I was underneath the stars, playing my guitar, just thankin' the Lord for my fingers."

I have a few tricks for coming up with ideas, but it is going to depend on you as to how you use them. Different phrases will speak to me than will speak to you. It's what gets your creative juices flowing.

When I'm dry of ideas, I do a lot of reading. Sting used to read the classics--even the Bible, though he's not very religious. I used to read a lot of self-help stories (and not just about sex) in women's magazines, because I thought it helped me develop a more sensitive approach to my writing. It worked pretty well, too.

One day I was walking by a bookshelf at a savings and loan where I worked. There were a bunch of old, out of print books on the shelf just for effect. I read "Give Sorrow Words" on the spine of one of them. I had to write the song, and I never read the book. Another was an article about women fighting abuse and rape. It was called "Take Back the Night." I used it in a totally different way, but what a great phrase.

Another source of ideas can be your own vision. What sort of title would look good on a CD cover? When you come up with the title, do you see a video or pictures in your mind? It helps you come up with ideas that have gravitas, bold and weighty.

I've been talking about mostly titles, but there are ideas deeper inside the lyrics, too. My song, Man on the Moon--written years before REM's--has some okay examples:

"I'm makin' love to you and you're here, but you're gone
It seems like we're both in tune, but we're singing different songs"

That's a real oldie for me, but in context of the time and the song, it was pretty good.

I've discovered a really interesting source of ideas recently. Horse names. Go to the paper right now and look at the section on local horse races. A lot of effort went into naming these horses, and I'll bet you'll get some ideas just reading them.

Every once in a while, I'll tune in Delilah's syndicated romantic request show on the radio, just to hear people's stories. A few months ago I was driving home late, and a guy came on the line. She asked him to tell her about his girlfriend. He said "If God could sleep, he'd dream of this woman" because she was so beautiful. I had the chorus written before I pulled into the driveway (see www.RyanRocks.com/videos.htm).

Let's write some songs...

I’ve noticed some real schlock songwriting out there lately, and my friends have been pestering me to teach songwriting classes…or at least a master class. When I realized that some of that schlock was my own songs, I figured it was time to re-examine the basics. This is gonna help me as much as it’s gonna help you…I hope.

Teaching songwriting is like teaching judgment or creativity, it really can’t be done. It is up to the individual to figure a lot of these things out for themselves. However, a mentor can at least tell you when you’ve got a good idea, have turned a clever phrase, or have lost your audience because you’ve gotten undisciplined or confusing.

In subsequent posts, I will talk about hooks, ideas, rhymes, structure, and a few tricks to keep you from writing yourself into a corner.

Do you have a lyric, demo, or recording that you want someone to critique? Send it along or post it here. I’ll be honest and gentle. I’m no Paula, but I’m no Simon either.