Song Narrative Quotes

I just always loved the storytelling aspect. Even with the production that's happening right now in music, I still think the core of country songs are very stripped down, and they tell a story in the most pure sense.

Every song in 'Groundhog Day' works to forward the story in a chronological, narrative sense, to illuminate the state of mind of the person singing it and comment on the world.

I've always hated narrative songs. I hate those songs where, basically, it's an unfolding of a story.

But I'm not adverse to the idea of Torch Song as a musical. It would just be different. Because the play will always be there exactly as it was, and in a musical you could tell a lot of the story through songs.

I think to me, all songs are stories.

One of the things that I think is such a constant in country music is that the song is so much a story. I believe it is supposed to be based around a story.

'Trapped in the Closet' is pretty much forever. I've got a leash on this thing now. I'm going to walk it.

What I love about 'Midnight Train' is that it's a song about a journey, but the music actually takes you on that journey. It feels like you're moving through the whole song.

For a song cycle to work, you have to feel these things when you hear them and you either have an emotional reaction to it or you don't. The plotline is something that gets woven together in the back-story.

I listened to a lot of Bob Dylan songs to see how he works. I've gotten into writing story-songs.

I love the story of the guy coming to Nashville and then kind of getting set down and told, 'This is how the town works,' which, I've totally been there. But the coolest thing about 'Out of Style' is it's a song within a song.

I hear a good song and I start thinking, 'Oh shoot. You know there's a story that can be told to this,' and whatnot.

I think that if you have a strong narrative, if the idea of the song can be boiled down to the basics, it won't change that much.

Songs need to have a secret, cryptic, thematic thing about them, otherwise they are just messy and all over the place.

The lyrics are different from Nick Cave songs and lyrics. His songs are very narrative.

Tone is an interesting question because part of the inspiration of looking to song is that Geisel himself - when you think about his animated version of The Grinch - embraced the idea of using songs in unconventional ways, as part of conveying a narrative. The use of music, in this film, is very unconventional, which I love.

The thing that I took away as an early fan from Bob Dylan was the storytelling aspects. He can tell some wicked stories.

I love it when people take contemporary songs and find a narrative or a theatrical way of telling it.

I think what makes compelling fiction or cinema is when you're basically taking the most intense moments of experience and you're creating a song or a narrative out of it.

It's funny: I look at songs, and I guess they each tell a story, and the different songs talk about different things. But they're unified by the rhythm underneath and the way that we decided to arrange and play them.

If you're dealing with a musical in which you're trying to tell a story, it's got to sound like speech. At the same time it's got to be a song.

Walt Disney was a great believer in the use of song to convey story. He was primarily a storyman & story-driven songs were his 'pets.' He always asked what was going on with the song - he hated 'singing heads.' He loved learning about character & motivation thru music & lyrics.

Country songs are theatrical songs, they tell stories, and wear the hearts on their sleeves and they have great melodies.

I don't think comic timing is the same as music timing, but I definitely find that I've learned from just writing in general that songs can be narrative without having a story.

We have Common on one song called 'Don't Charge Me With the Crime,' which is one of my favorite songs. It's a story song. It didn't really happen to us. But it's definitely fun to have him on the track.