Object Writing - Exercise Your Metaphor Muscles

One of the basic building blocks of songwriting is, of course, metaphor. A simple object or image can convey the emotion or whole focus or story of a song.

For example, here are some songs with objects at the heart of them, most of them big hits.

Time in a Bottle – Jim Croce; Message in a Bottle – Sting; Longneck Bottle – Garth Brooks

How about a Firework? – by songwriters Esther Dean, Mikkel Eriksen, Sandy Wilhelm and Katy Perry

Max Martin, Johan Schuster and Taylor Swift got a whole song out of a Blank Space.

Chrome Fish became a song about how some Christians with that emblem stuck on their back bumpers have pretty bad manners behind the wheel. (by Joe Beck and Billy Sprague, two of our faculty writers)

Object writing has created hit songs for decades from common things like a bikini, chewing gum and even road kill.

Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini - Bryan Hyland 1960 Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor on the Bedpost Overnight? 1959 by Lonnie Donnegan, later recorded by the Muppets Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road – Lowden Wainwright III 1972

From a simple ring: This Diamond Ring – Gary and the Playboys; Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It) – Beyonce

To a car: Little Duece Coup - Beach Boys; Mercedez Benz – Janis Joplin; Pink Cadillac – Bruce Springsteen; Little Red Corvette – Prince

Or a bird: Black bird – the Beatles; Hummingbird – Seals and Croft; Bluebird - Sara Bareilles; Rockin Robin - Bobby Day; Mockingbird – James Taylor; Fly Like an Eagle – Steve Miller Band

Take a look and listen to the song Bus Stop by the Hollies. The writer, Graham Gouldman. got a whole love story out of a bus stop. It begins:

Bus stop, wet day, She's there, I say Please share my umbrella Bus stops, bus goes, She stays, love grows Under my umbrella

An object might kick off a song.

“There’s a black hat caught in a high tree top/that’s my soul up there” from Sting’s song King of Pain. Instead of saying, “I feel useless, misplaced, out of reach” the emotion is conveyed in a compact way - with an object.

An object might be the central theme of an entire song.

The Rose, written by Amanda McBroom and made a hit by Bette Midler, goes the entire song without using the word “rose” until the very end of the last line of the song. This brilliant song is packed with wisdom, insight, emotion, poetry, all derived from an object, a flower. But the song is really not even about a rose. It centers around the nature of love and the hope that love never dies. Amanda did that without even using the word hope. Did I mention, brilliant? This song would make a great song study. So many things are so right about it. And it doesn’t even have a chorus! Search it up and learn from it.

Because of copyright restrictions we can’t include the entire lyric here but it begins:

Some say love, it is a river, that drowns the tender reed Some say love, it is a razor, that leaves your soul to bleed…etc

Three stanzas later it ends:

Just remember in the winter, far beneath the bitter snows Lies the seed, that with the sun's love in the spring becomes the rose

Well, you get the point. Objects can spark amazing songs. Here’s one last great example of how a song came from a simple object.

One of our faculty hit writers, Jim Weber, was shipping a pair of old hiking boots to his son. He noticed a of lot of dirt packed in the tread of the soles. Trying to scrape out the dried mud, Jim got an idea for a song.

Here are two of the stanzas:

I miss playing in the backyard of my red brick Nashville home, Green tomatoes from the garden, and the smell of new cut lawn, Digging holes to plant and water, digging holes to bury pets, Playing ball out with my daddy, till we had to catch our breath Falling down on that green carpet in the arms of Mother Earth With the sky and clouds above us and our backs against the Tennessee dirt.

When I die pack up my body, ship it anywhere you like. Let it float upon the ocean. Let it burn and light the night. Cause my soul will travel freely from the west back to the east, Where the fireflies all flash an endless summer evening peace. And I’ll wander golden pathways, paved like heaven here on earth And sing glory hallelujahs for the memory of Tennessee dirt.

Tennessee Dirt © 2019 Desperate Heart Music (ASCAP) by Jim Weber all rights reserved; used by permission

Look at all those pictures and images, sights, sounds, smells, relationships - like home movies - all the memories, panorama of time and hopes, longings, life and death. All that came from dirt stuck on the bottom of hiking boots! Pretty cool and effective, huh? And very well-crafted. Jim gave us permission to post the mp3 here for you have a listen. Thank you, Jim Weber.

Next time you draw a blank for a song idea. Just look around. From the birds in the sky to the ring on your finger (or absence of it) to the dirt under your feet, the stuff of songs is everywhere, just waiting for an observant songwriter to turn into a song.