Definitely Jobe

Song Analysis Worksheet: Case Study

Here is a Johnny Cash song called Flesh and Blood covered by one of my favorite bands, Annuals.

Here is the original

Lyrics

Title: Flesh and Blood can imply a lot of the things just from asking questions around the tile. Fortunately, the intro to the song in the video explains how the song came about leaving out the guess work for us. For me, Cash’s little speech is relatable and I could easily see how the song was written around the sentiment of, as Cash said “God, if you will,” for lack of a better word. Basically the interconnectedness of things. Flesh and Blood is sort of a cliche now days, but you can transform cliches into fresh imagery or statements. Cash saved it with adding, “but you’re the one I need.” This adds depth to the cliche and adds a dimension no one else had. For me, since I love the song, the phrase “Flesh and blood needs flesh and blood, but you’re the one I need” is resonating and moving enough that I can easily see it as the hook of the song. Always write around your hook phrase, or title.

Tone: The song definitely has a particular mood and style. First, it has that country swing to it. Then, it has a sort of observatory appreciation of life in it through the setting and a lot of sense focus making it a happy sort of outside feeling song

Hooks: Different things stick out as attention grabbers for different people, but for me the bass holds the song down. It’s hypnotizing. There’s also background vocals in one part, I love BG vocals. The lyrical content here is the main hook for me. Of course the payoff in the chorus repeating.

POV: he could be talking to a lover, or god or whatever. It’s obvious he wrote it through personal experience as stated in the intro. 

Verse: This is important. Right out the gate Cash hits you with one of the Five W’s with a “where.” The first line of the song pulls you in through setting. “Beside a singin’ mountain stream, where the willow grew.” Notice how the rest of the verses contain mainly action, description, and details with specifics and each verse adds a scene, or a chapter if you will, to the big picture that is the chorus.

Chorus: Same as the title since it’s pretty much repeated. The addition to the cliche makes the chorus the payoff and gives the detail in the verses purpose and meaning.

Theme: (idea+opinion) He tackled a big one here. God. He broke it down into details and focused on a particular experience he had and built it back up with small pieces. The end result is context anyone can relate to. Nature, Need, and in the bridge a little despair.

Images: It’s everywhere in the song. Images are accomplished through sense detail and are external detail, not abstract like love, happiness, loss, or other things. Look to the verses for things like the leaf detail, cardinal detail, flock of geese, carved a whistle from a reed. Any description can serve as a valid image. This also links to specificity. What kind of geese did he mention? “a northbound flock of geese.” What kind of whistle? one made from reed. What kind of sky? Baby blue. If it’s in the song, it deserves a specific name.

 Powerhouse Words: This can change your writing forever and make it more vivid. This song uses PW extensively. notice the action in the song in particular. For any writing, something has the be HAPPENING. Few songs are merely streams of consciousness. Make something happen. Some action words in the song are sparkled, braided, leaned, breathed, carved, sang, thanked, and more.

Sense detail: Notice how he includes sound (cardinal sings), the word feed is in there, but a bulk of sense detail in this song is sight related because it’s centered around an observation. Don’t be afraid to try others though. For instance, don’t say it rained, say how it felt(touch), or how it sounded. Show don’t tell. 

Structure: I’ve never been too good at noticing when somethings a chorus versus just the end of a verse(refrain). The main idea is that you recognize the difference between the sections at least, because a refrain serves the same function as a chorus, the payoff. notice the repetition and order of the verses. Not he could have easily made the 2nd verse the 1st, or any number of combinations.

Rhyme: I don’t care. This song is awesome.

Notes: The whole song is a setup. It gives you a strong feeling that nature is at the core of the lyric, but the chorus addition, along with the bridge, change the song focus. That’s the job of a bridge. To provide a fresh perspective after being stuck in the mindset of a song. It’s a fresh step away from the song. Consider the rule of 2’s. It’s the repetition rule. don’t repeat something more than twice before you change it or you risk boring people. ConsiderThe Beatles song girl. The first two lines of vocal melody are the same, but the third is changed. This also works on a grander scale with verse - V, chorus - C, and bridge - B. Consider the song structure examples and see different variations of the 2 rule on a bigger scale.

V V C B C      the verse is done twice before the chorus. don’t give us another one, switch to the chorus.

V C V C B V C  Here V+C acts as a single unit. so we have (VC) once then (VC) again so change it up with a bridge! then bring us back. It’s the “Vacation Rule” in songwriting

an important part I forgot to mention in the worksheet would be Subjects. Some subjects in the song are of course the “I ” in the song, leaf, cardinal, day, Twigs, honeydew, geese, and more. With a simple list of thoughtfully chosen, or randomly chosen subjects(nouns) verbs, and adjectives (Powerhouse words) you can write a free write and gain an abundance of raw material to mine and sift through.

Try this exercise. choose about 8 action verbs, subjects, and adjectives at random and do a free write on them. You may arrive at something you didn’t even know you had to say.

Thats the gist of it. Hope this is helpful.