How I wrote the lyrics to "A Song"

I finished composing all of the music to what became "A Song" before I wrote a single lyric. At that time, I had no idea what to write about. I even considered keeping it as just an instrumental. But the more I listened to it, the more I felt the musical structure needed words to accompany it.

I had previously taken stabs at writing poems, but this was the first time I was writing song lyrics. The music I was hearing as I listened to it sounded vibrant and inspirational. So, I tried to come up with lyrical concepts that reflected those moods. My initial concepts were scattered all over the place and just lacked any kind of direction.

Later, I began to think it might be more effective to focus on events in my own life. Shortly after that occurred to me, the idea light in my head turned on and I was able to narrow down the concept to what I should write about: MUSIC and how songs I listened to when I was growing up had inspired me in so many ways.

At that point, things slowly started falling into place. But I came to realize that it would be pointless to write only about myself. It was important for me to reach out to other people as well.

That led me to be a little more imaginative and to present A Song as a kind of force that can take You to soaring heights and anywhere else You want to be. In writing this way, I was making use of a literary device called personification. All that was left for me to do was to make sure these words complemented my music effectively and that I was able to sing them credibly.

That pretty much describes in a nutshell how I wrote the lyrics to "A Song." The whole process took me about two months. And here are the lyrics for your convenience:

Once, I heard a song
The radio play
Its music moved
My spirit
Took me away

And the energy
Of its melody
Seemed to bend
Space and time
Left me reeling
With a restless
State of mind

Heard the sound
Of the music
Charging in
To pull me through
And set me free

The song
Carried me
High in the sky
To get a
Bird's eye view
Then I searched
Among a thousand
Faces until
I found you

Do you
Feel the force
Of the music
Charging on
To rescue you
And set you free?

Let the song
Set you free
The music will
Take you anywhere
You want to be

Your spirit
Takes on the world
Recharged
Every time
The radio
Plays the song

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it.

Sam Bhattacharya
http://www.sambhattacharya.com