Good posts, TR. Briefly on the sweepingly broad topic of drugs, I'll say that the facts about marijuana speak fairly well for themselves. It's a nonaddictive substance, powerfully medicinal, an excellent companion to creative work (though clearly not one's inner source of creativity), and also something that's not always appropriate nor desired. But which simply cannot be lumped in with hard, addictive drugs that really do wreck people's lives.
As John Popper (?) of Blues Traveller sang, "the hook takes you back". Although I must admit for many years I never knew that's what he was singing, because of the long note on "hook". I'd thought it was "heart". That gets into another aspect of getting musical rhythm to match up with lyrical rhythm. I can't remember the fancy word for it.
Every songwriter has a different process, but there are a lot of similarities as well. There are two basic stages to songwriting: the creative phase, and the crafting phase. Some people will go through these in linear fashion, others will bounce back and forth. But I think most will have a larger block of creativity come first, when the song first comes to you. In this stage, you really want to let it flow. Even if you have lyrics coming up that make no sense at first. Let it out with little or no judgments.
But first, it's good to have some idea what you're writing about! For me, it's usually coming from within: things in my own life being expressed, and hopefully, communicated.
So for me, I write from a more personal space, which a lot of writers do. I find the topics of my songs there. But Paul McCartney, for instance, mostly makes up his topics. So one choice is not better than another, but you do need to have something to say. Even if your song has abstract lyrics, you should have a good idea what it's about.
During the creative phase is where I find 90% of my hooks, and its often the first thing that comes. I'll live with that hook and play and sing it over and over and gradually branch out into whichever form the song is in.
A hook is generally lyrical, and most often is the title of the song. It either appears in the chorus, or in each verse. (There are no hard rules however) Where the hook appears relates directly to the FORM of the song. Familiarizing oneself with the forms is worth its weight in gold. Probably the most common song form is verse/chorus.
Examples of hooks in verse/chorus songs:
We all live in a yellow submarine, yellow submarine, yellow submarine A silly song, but a hit, and the repetition of "yellow submarine", and how the words move in rhythm along with the vocal harmony is brilliant.
And here's to you, Mrs. Robinson, Jesus loves you more than you will know... again the lyrical rhythm is perfect on "Mrs. Robinson", following speech patterns which helps the lyric be understood. (As opposed to "the hooooouuuuuuuu(k) brings you back")
I, Oh-ohhh, I'm stayin' alive, aaaa, I, ohhhh, I'm stayin alive (Pearl Jam) This one is another great example of compositional technique in a hook. The intervals in the melody are 100% evocative of the dogged determination of the hook's "I'm staying alive".
Another song form I overlooked for longer than I'd like to admit is the allmighty AABA, or AACA it's also called. This a song that has no chorus! It's also called 32-bar form, though that can be misleading. This is a very elegant, I feel challenging form to write in that really pays you back for the effort. Consider these hooks from AABA songs:
Somewhere over the Rainbow... Bam. One of the biggest and most well known hooks ever, absolutely sublime in its compositional match to the lyrics. Love or hate the song, you hear that octave jump and then the major seventh on "over" when you see those words. In AABA, the hook is generally either the first line of each verse, or the last.
With love, from me, to you This is an early, very tightly written Beatle (From me to You) tune in AABA where the hook is at the end of each verse. It's also in, I think, perfect 32-bar phrases.
Hey Jude, don't make it bad, take a sad song and make it better Here we have a huge McCartney tune (and hey, this one written from his life, singing to Julian and John) with the hook right in the beginning of the verses. Notice also how McCartney gives us the theme, what the song is about, all in that first line.
There are many variations - for instance also in McCartney's "Let it Be", he's giving us the hook line at the end of the verses, and then going into a chorus of more "let it be's".
In another huge hit, "The Sounds of Silence", Paul Simon is writing in AAAA form (all verses, no chorus/bridge) more common in folk music, and in this example we get the hook at the end of each verse, with the strong melodic interval of the perfect fifth. (within the SOUND...) and the melancholy minor third on "of silence" resolving it.
So, how to find a hook? It's whatever is within you when you're writing that most strongly comes to the surface. It can be very simple, it could be "I'm Mad as Hell (and ain't gonna take it anymore!)" (there's your next country hit)
It can be a truism, or something you hear, as what happened with Ringo's phrase "A Hard Day's Night". If you're a more external writer it can be something like "Walking to the Store", or McCartney's "Penny Lane" - a real place and time, or relate to a historical event. A hook can be anything. In many ways it is the main vehicle that carries what the song is communicating.
There are always exceptions. John Lennon's "Tomorrow Never Knows" has no hook other than its melodic and thematic qualities - a kind of subtle hook on the lines like "it is be -ing, it is be- ing" and "it is believ- ing, it is believ - ing." This is a great song of great impact, but it's probably fair to say it has a narrower appeal. I spent several summers landscaping and never once heard it on the radio, that's for sure.
So when we're writing songs, we have these choices to make. Is this a pitch that's down the middle, is it a graceful curveball, a slider, or is it one in which the pitcher sits down on the mound and starts chanting "ommm"? You can make great art with any of these. Look at an artist like Bowie. Listen to any album of his, and there are one or two that are "down the middle", like his song "Rebel Rebel". Other songs on that album are utterly weird, operatic, thick and dark, heavily rocking - sometimes the critics ****ing hate them and can't wrap their little minds around them because they're not easy pitches.
Maybe easy pitches are harder to throw? It's all relative. But writing songs with good hooks is a fun way to write that is accessible to your audience, while giving some ground or earth if you will to even your weirdest compositions.
(Apologies if the prevalence of Beatle examples doesn't work for someone. I haven't listened to them in years and am just discovering the mono mixes...)
