Why Do Songs Have Lyrics?

As the world’s first UNESCO City of Literature, Edinburgh has teamed up with Glasgow - the UNESCO City of Music - to celebrate with a month-long event called ‘Let’s Get Lyrical’, kicking off with ‘Why Do Songs Have Lyrics?’

Providing insight are Kenny Anderson (aka King Creosote), Ziggy Campbell (songwriter of The Found), writer Ian Rankin and Simon Frith (Head of Music at University of Edinburgh).

The crowd is of all ages, and there is a palpable sense of excitement. Ziggy Campbell walks on with his guitar, he is professional yet remains intimate and disarming: when he forgets the lyrics to his own song the audience completely forgives him. One song which stands out is about a boy he knew that killed his own father: it begins, “What’s that? Listen, a frequency so sad it aches…’

The evening begins, we hear each panellist's favourite song lyric, and they quickly agree that Morrissey is one of, if not the, greatest lyricists of all time. His gift for humour, insight, and broad ‘songwriters dictionary’ means he ‘works on paper’, where apparently many don’t. Among many names dropped are Arab Strap, Belle and Sebastian, Neil Young. Leonard Cohen's ‘Suzanne’ is revealed to have ‘rhythm rather than rhyme’ which makes me desperate to analyse it. Sadly the conversation moves on.

Kenny points out that sometimes the lyrics you imagine are much better than the originals. Ziggy reveals that he writes the melody first and fits the lyrics around it. The panel talks about how if you’re happy, you’re much less likely to find yourself sitting at the kitchen table writing a song about it. We finish with a beautiful performance by Anderson. Although the evening is interesting, I find myself wondering where the burning insights, fierce debate and analysis of the world of words and music is.

However, this is the first one and I'm inspired, with a list of bands and songs to listen to, and still looking forward to attending as many 'Let's Get Lyrical' events as I can over the next month.