Reflections on the Art, Craft and Magnificence of Rhyme

“I really like rhyming. Are you aware there are poets who don’t rhyme? Shakespeare didn’t rhyme most of the time, and that’s why I don’t like him.”
– Chuck Berry

Welcome to Part Two of our exploration and celebration of the use of rhyme in songs. The problem raised in Part One, whether or not songs require rhyme, and, if that’s the case, in the event that they should be good rhymes or not, is one that is still unresolved as there isn’t any definitive reply.

However a side of music rhyming that’s not in dispute is that it’s pleasant to rhyme. Songwriters, upon discovering a rhyme that’s sudden, but does every little thing and extra for the music they hoped, know the genuine exultation such discovery can carry.

And as songwriters work within the rhyme trenches 12 months after 12 months, they turn into much more adept at discovering these rhymes, those which full the thought, full the sound, and add a brand new dimension to the entire. It turns into, as Lin-Manuel Miranda stated, a particular energy you possess that the opposite people don’t.

“Making phrases rhyme for a dwelling is one of the good joys of my life,” Miranda stated. “That’s a superpower I’ve been very acutely aware of growing.”

A superpower. Whereas such language might sound overblown to a non-songwriter, to those that stay within the creation of songs each week of their lives, it’s a really actual dynamic. The capability to rhyme, and to instill these rhymes right into a music, is a real drive that songwriters can make the most of. As a result of rhyming, like songwriting itself and the composition of melody, concord, rhythm and the remaining, is a course of of some thriller. A songwriter can’t merely calculate rhymes randomly or prematurely of the music itself. The rhymes have to be found, whereas immersed within the river of music creation. Rhymes emerge from the method, after which influence that course of.

A great, if easy, instance is the music “The Phrase” by The Beatles, written by Lennon & McCartney. Recorded in 1965 and included on Rubber Soul, it was attributed to each Paul and John, as have been all their Beatles songs, however was largely John’s creation, triggered by his love of the phrase `love’ and all it signified.

“We wrote ‘The Phrase’ collectively,” Lennon stated, “but it surely’s primarily mine… It type of dawned on me that love was the reply, after I was youthful… My first expression of it was a music referred to as ‘The Phrase.’ The phrase is ‘love.’ …

“It looks like the underlying theme to the universe,” Lennon stated. “All the pieces that was worthwhile bought right down to this love, love, love factor. And it’s the wrestle to like, be cherished and categorical that….

“No matter else love is, and it’s many, many issues, it’s fixed. It’s been the identical without end.”

Say the phrase and also you’ll be free
Say the phrase and be like me
Say the phrase I’m considering of
Have you ever heard the phrase is love?

It’s so effective, it’s sunshine
It’s the phrase
Love

From “The Phrase”
By Lennon & McCartney

The phrase ‘love’ in English, as talked about in Part One, has only a few rhymes. But, as songwriters know, limitation creates type. Relatively than really feel restricted by the paucity of out there decisions, he finds a conversational manner of organising the rhyme that flows in an natural, unforced manner, anchored on the phrase ‘of’.

Such is the ingenious brilliance of a grasp songwriter: “Say the phrase I’m considering of/ Have you ever heard the phrase is love?“

It’s value noting that Lennon understood a basic fact about music rhyming right here: that when utilizing two rhymes, it’s smart to at all times place the lesser rhyme first.By doing so, the songwriter ensures that the listener has no clue that it’s a set-up, in order that when the following line is available in pure rhyme, it appears inevitable and proper. And, sure, good.

It’s the identical right here. However Lennon additionally makes use of an interior rhyme, an old school stalwart of Tin Pan Alley songwriting through which additional rhymes are included earlier than the ending rhyme. Right here we get “Have you ever heard the phrase is love?” Matching ‘heard’ and ‘phrase’ inside a line provides additional momentum to the road, and is pleasant to the ear.

But to reach at that, the songwriter doesn’t start with an equation containing interior rhymes, and write from there. He doesn’t invent that rhyme, he discovers it. And that dynamic of discovery, versus invention, distinguishes the dynamic of being a songwriter, without end fishing within the river of music, not sure what, if something, is perhaps caught there. In relinquishing management of the method, and being open to that which emerges, is each the enjoyment and problem of songwriting.

It’s, as Leonard Cohen stated, like being “married to a thriller.” And so long as one can joyfully and patiently have interaction with that thriller, by no means realizing the place it can lead, if wherever in any respect, one can co-exist in concord with the unknown, which is the final word supply of all music.

Bob Dylan, who stays one of probably the most miraculous and influential songwriters of our time, did impact a profound change within the arc of well-liked songwriting. Lennon was at all times vocal about Dylan’s affect on his songwriting. Earlier than listening to Dylan, Lennon stated, he by no means thought of he may carry his actual life to music, and merge it with poetry. His music “Assist,” he stated, was an genuine cry for assist which emerged straight from this sense of liberation he present in Dylan’s songs. And The Beatles, clearly, modified the world with their songs.

Nevertheless it’s instructive to understand that, though their songs have been bravely revolutionary, neither Dylan or The Beatles reinvented songs by allotting with all of the outdated kinds to forge new ones. As a substitute they used the prevailing kinds with nice love and reverence; the standard music constructions of verse, refrain and bridge, in addition to the craft parts of melody, rhyme and meter. Inside that slender type, they created complete new universes.

The use of rhyme in songs is a dynamic intersection of the artwork and craft of songwriting. Art results in the selection of phrase, the excellence of the picture and its place on this rhythm. Craft is available in the way in which one units up that rhyme, and makes use of it inside the line, and the complete music.

It’s not not like organising a magic trick, through which some playful sleight-of-hand early on permits the actual magic to happen. In music, it doestn’t matter how superb a rhyme is perhaps, if it isn’t arrange in a well-crafted manner that, like that sleight-of-hand. units up the magic earlier than you understand it.

The songwriter’s job, then, requires contriving one thing in order that it appears uncontrived. Each rhyme is considerably of a contrivance, but the problem is to make use of them in a manner that they appear pure, intrinsic to the music, and unforced. Which requires, often, an inventive and artful set-up rhyme.

A well-known instance is Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America,” which, though written within the early 20th century by successful songwriter, resonates as deeply in our tradition because the nationwide anthem. Like Sammy Cahn with “My Type of City,” Berlin correctly didn’t even try a rhyme for `America,’ as none exists that may not be clunky at greatest.

He accomplishes this by touchdown on a picture: ‘the oceans, white with foam.’ Figuring out that a picture is at all times compelling, he provides the thoughts an image which evokes an emotion, this oceanic majesty, though ‘white with foam’ is a arrange for ‘dwelling candy dwelling.’ The culminating line is “God bless America, our dwelling candy dwelling,” with the phrase requiring the set-up rhyme being ‘dwelling.’ Therefore, the froth.

Clearly, when one thinks of America, it isn’t foam that’s foremost. But used as a set-up — the rhyme earlier than the rhyme — its placement isn’t suspect, and the entire of the music concludes with a melodic cadence aligned with the ultimate culminating rhyme, ‘dwelling candy dwelling,’ that merely appears good. But its perfection has lots to do with the songwriter’s artwork in concealing its contrivances. 

From the mountains to the prairies
To the oceans white with foam
God bless America, my dwelling candy dwelling
God bless America, my dwelling candy dwelling

From “God Bless America”
By Irving Berlin

Songs nonetheless depend on rhymes, particularly with regards to organising the title. So many songs are constructed across the title, each lyrically and musically, and when the musical cadence agrees with the rhyme in touchdown on a title, few issues are sturdier. In Dylan’s “I Shall Be Launched,” for instance, the refrain is anthemic, and the title is ready up with a cinematic sweep of gentle throughout the entire nation.

“I see my gentle come shining
From the west unto the east
Day-after-day now, each day now
I shall be launched.” Though he by no means deserted rhyme, or different craft parts which maintain songs collectively, Dylan did turn into more and more extra adventurous and playful with rhymes, displaying songwriters and the remaining of the world one can use these forces which have existed for hundreds of years, however in fully new and important methods.

“Maggie comes fleet foot
Face full of black soot
Talkin’ that the warmth put
Crops within the mattress however
The telephone’s tapped anyway
Maggie says that many say
They have to bust in early Could
Orders from the D.A.

Look out child
Don’t matter what you probably did
Stroll in your tip toes
Don’t attempt No-Doz
Higher steer clear of these
That carry round a fireplace hose
Hold a clear nostril
Watch the plain garments
You don’t want a weatherman
To know which manner the wind blows…”

From “Subterranean Homesick Blues”
By Bob Dylan

On this famously virtousic and exultant use of rhyme, Dylan’s unbridled brilliance shines. But he does it inside the historical type of good – and near-perfect – rhymes.

Do not forget that the artwork of rhyming doesn’t require a remembrance of all nice rhymes previous. It has to do with how one makes use of these rhymes. Many verses in songs because the 1960s are composed of quatrains — 4 traces — and the commonest rhyme scheme we hear in quatrains is abcb, through which the second and fourth line rhyme, and the primary and third don’t.

However there are extra intricate ones. Dylan has used the identical precise rhymes, typically, that 1000’s, if not thousands and thousands, of songwriters, have additionally used. However his brilliance and nice artistry lies not merely within the selection of rhyme, however of their utilization. A remarkably ingenious rhymer since his first songs, he didn’t devise new rhyme schemes, however used ancent, and infrequently intricate, ones. In lots of songs he makes use of the abab, which requires every line to rhyme, and intertwines these rhymes.

In contrast to the widespread and oft-used abcb sample, through which solely the second line (b) and last line (b) rhyme, on this scheme and in addition aabb, each line requires a rhyme. And it requires that intricate rhyming to be achieved in a manner that appears pure, though rhyming isn’t really pure. That is the place songwriting savvy and brilliance are available.

Dylan has used the abab rhyme scheme many instances, and at all times so fantastically. For instance, this verse from his epic music “Sara,” from the Want album:

Now the seaside is abandoned apart from some kelp (a)
And a bit of an outdated ship that lies on the shore (b)
You at all times responded after I wanted your assist, (a)
You gave me a map and a key to your door. (b)

Or this verse from his music “Isis,” additionally from Want, which he wrote with Jacques Levy:

Isis, oh Isis you’re a mystical baby (a)
What drives me to you is what drives me insane (b)
I nonetheless can recall the way in which that you just smiled (a)
On the fifth day of Could within the drizzling rain (b)

Although Dylan has employed the abab rhyme scheme typically, it’s not often utilized by different songwriters. It harkens again to romantic poetry, utilized by Shelley, Keats and Byron. In Byron’s poem “When We Too Parted” you’ll be able to see the seeds of multi-rhymed Dylan wordplay, and an abab scheme:

Once we two parted (a)
In silence and tears, (b)
Half broken-hearted (a)
To sever for years, (b)

Pale grew thy cheek and chilly (a)
Colder thy kiss; (b)
Actually that hour foretold (a)
Sorrow to this. (b)

By Lord Byron

Within the 1991 interview I carried out with Dylan, I discussed that this sort of rhyming was widespread amongst romantic poets, although not amongst many trendy songwriters. Instantly he recited a verse by Shelley, from the poem “Males of England,” that confirmed that which is already well-known: Dylan is aware of poetry properly. From all ages, and romantic poetry appears the closest to his personal lyrical spirit. His love and data of it explains the grace and ease he’s at all times had with intimate rhyming patterns. It additionally employs the intertwining abab rhyme scheme.

Have ye leisure, consolation, calm,
Shelter, meals, love’s mild balm?
Or what’s it ye purchase so pricey
Together with your ache and along with your concern?

By Percy Bysshe Shelley

In music, the intricacy of a rhyme scheme, although spectacular, doesn’t equal music, any greater than any craft ingredient does by itself. The rhymes are half of the entire, of the momentum of the rhythm and melody, and development of a narrative. They supply lovely completion to his typically advanced, poetic language, at all times folded completely into the meter. However they’re created to not impress with virtuoso rhyming, however to hyperlink with melody, concord, lyrical expression, phrasing, singability and extra to type a stable music structure.

It’s that stable underpinning of music parts that instills timelessness into music so it will probably have a protracted life, which is the purpose, as Sammy Cahn reminded us. Songs must be constructed to final in order that, because the legendary Van Dyke Parks stated, “they don’t collapse like an affordable watch on the street.”

Dylan’s additionally been good – and playful – with rhymes, however at all times in service of the music. An excellent instance is his basic anti-hero music “Joey,” additionally from Want, in regards to the mobster Joey Gallo.

He makes use of the  aabb rhyme scheme, linking ‘fork’ and ‘New York’ within the last verse of this epic narrative, after which introducing a couplet based on two easy lengthy `e’ rhymes — ‘Italy’ and ‘household.’ In a single of his most cinematic verses, he provides us the dying of Joey Gallo.

At some point they blew him down in a clam bar in New York
He may see it comin’ by the door as he lifted up his fork
He pushed the desk over to guard his household
Then he staggered out into the streets of Little Italy

From “Joey” by Bob Dylan

(By the way, after I talked about “Joey” to Dylan, he was shocked as a result of many individuals castigated him for writing a music a few horrendous human being. “That is one,” he stated. “You already know who bought me singing that music? Garcia! He informed me it’s one of the very best songs ever written.” )

These are rhymes which emerge from the momentum of the melody and groove — versus present on a web page to be learn — and sung with rhythm and soul, in order that the result’s an easy, quite than pressured, use of rhyme. The rhymes are seamlessly folded into the imagery and motion, all in beautifully-metered rhythm, to create a powerfully visible impact.

In our 1991 interview, which is included in Songwriters On Songwriting, Dylan mentioned rhyming at some size.
A meticulous craftsman who is thought to rewrite songs even after they’re recorded, he’s at all times been an impressed rhymer.

Requested if rhyming was enjoyable for him, he stated, “Effectively, it may be, however you understand, it’s a recreation…It provides you a thrill to rhyme one thing you would possibly assume, properly, that’s by no means been rhymed earlier than.”

He then expounded on his methodology of combining the dictates of the craft with the spontaneity of this artwork.

“My sense of rhyme was once extra concerned in my songwriting than it’s.  Nonetheless staying within the unconscious body of thoughts, you’ll be able to pull your self out and throw up two rhymes first and work it again. You get the rhymes first and work it again after which see if you can also make it make sense in one other sort of manner. You may nonetheless keep within the unconscious body of thoughts to drag it off, which is the state of thoughts it’s important to be in anyway.”

Requested if working backwards like that was one thing he typically did, he stated, “Yeah, lots of instances. That’s the one manner you’re gonna end one thing.”

It’s an understanding that’s key to the conception and completion of music – one works backwards and forwards on the identical time, a lot as a rhyme concurrently propels the listener of a music backwards and forwards. As songwriters know, to create a verse with a rhyme construction, one typically has to place rhymes in place first, and work backwards from there.  In order that to find the set-up rhyme — comparable to Berlin’s foam — we regularly uncover the center of songs. Within the obligatory contrivance the artwork is found, and that’s the soul and genius of songwriting, through which all its elements come collectively organically and dynamically.

The purpose is to contrive this rhyme sample in a manner that appears uncontrived, in order that the rhymes fall naturally in phrases of phrasing and meter, however don’t name consideration to themselves. It’s the intention of the songwriter to create phrases which circulation with an inevitability – as if they’re merely the precise line, meant to be in that place – that conceals, seamlessly, the songwriter’s hand.