There are many marks of a clever songwriter. One is the quiet insertion of little details that you might not pick up on in a first casual listen. Take colors, for example. Colors are powerful symbols. They can trigger recognition, evoke memories, and stir emotions. Flags, holidays, religious rituals, even abstract virtues and vices are linked with certain colors. This is fertile ground for the songwriter. You can convey something specific or set a general tone with a little dash of color in your lyrics. Sometimes there is no particular symbolism to it—it just serves an end in itself as good poetry. Here are three examples:
Ilene
Writer: Benjy Gaither
She’s a firecracker on the fourth of July
With her red hair, white dress and big blue eyes
Her kisses are as sweet as apple pie
I hope I never have to hear her say goodbye
***
All I Really Want
Writer: Steven Curtis Chapman
Well I don’t know if you remember me or not
I’m one of the kids they brought in from the home
I was the red-haired boy in an old green flannel shirt
You may not have seen me, I was standing off alone
I didn’t come and talk to you, ‘cuz that’s never worked before
And you’ll prob’ly never see this letter anyway
But just in case there’s something you could do to help me out
I’ll ask you one more time
Chorus
All I really want for Christmas…
***
Storm
Writer: Fernando Ortega
Sometimes it takes a storm to really know the light,
The scent of rain, the weight of clouds pulling down the sky.
Sometimes it takes a storm to know how you feel
To understand indigo and the varnished sun lighting up the fields.
It takes the rain between the lines to know what sorrow finds
The way a cloud divides sometimes, the clearing and the blue
I love you.
I was just passing through and taken by surprise.
Between the black sky and the blue,
Between the black sky and the blue, I love you.
I love you.
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