[GTR] 9•10-2017 | Page 50

if there was any way to reconnect. Other than
“…pickups by Lollar was like
stumbling upon the
Unified Theory of Tone.”
SIMPLICITY
“Hello,” notice the alliteration in each of these
hooks, too.
All great songs have deceptively simple hooks.
“Stop in the Name of Love” (Holland, Dozier,
UNIVERSALITY
Holland), “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room”
(Mayer), “Shape of You” (Sheeran), and Dolly
– Dave Depper, Death Cab for Cutie
The
greatest
hooks
capture
something Parton’s mega-hit “I Will Always Love You” all
universally felt, known, or believed. We all share this trait and invite us into their sentiments
need and want friends and a lot of us have with deceptively simple hooks.
fallen for a one-way infatuation and felt the
Handmade in the USA
lollarpickups.com
206.463.9838 Tele Set ©2017 Lollar Pickups All Rights Reserved
sting of rejection. One of my favorite examples The more complicated an idea, the greater
of capturing an enormous listenership with a the need for simplicity. The greatest speakers,
single hook is Trainor/Kadish’ “All About That teachers, and songwriters learn to break
Bass” that not only has the juicy alliteration, but complex ideas into simple phrases if they
so aptly caught the near-universal emotion of hope to communicate to the masses. The
the plus-sized girls, becoming their anthem of best motivational speakers, for example, break
liberation and “bringing booty back.” their speeches into pithy bullet points, punchy
phrases
IMAGERY
“Once you’ve had a taste,
it’s hard to turn back.”
– Bill Frisell
that
are
memorable,
emotional,
universal, imagistic, and simple. Then they get
the audience repeating with them for all the
The mind thinks in words, but the heart thinks in
same reasons we use them in our songs.
pictures. Our memories are stored in pictures,
like snapshots or mental movies, and never in Another example that springs to my mind
words. Songs are much more effective when now is that ubiquitous infomercial where the
images are attached, whether they’re story host says repeatedly, “Set it and forget it!”
songs with some kind of plot or a torch song They use simple, alliterative, punchy phrases
filled with wrenching passion. to accentuate their messages just like we use
hooks. Those phrases are their hooks and they
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Charlie Christian ©2017 Lollar Pickups All Rights Reserved
Sometimes imagery is sneaky, like Irwin/ drill them into the audience by repetition and
Chisolm’s brilliant Blake Shelton hit, “Bet You getting their listeners engaged by shouting
Still Think About Me.” The second verse goes,” them out over and over. And, don’t we all want
Are you driving up the coast?/Are you wearing a million or so people shouting out our hooks?
any shoes?/Did you outrun all your ghosts?/
“Lollar Imperial humbuckers and
P-90 for Humbuckers have brought
my guitars to life!”
–Jimmy Herring, The Aquarium Rescue Unit
Like you were always trying to do?” Notice the Capturing these five elements in your hooks
images of the coastline (my mind went to the and titles isn’t always easy, but increasing your
A1A), her bare feet, her trying to outrun “ghosts” awareness of them will begin to elevate the
from her past. All brilliant images nuanced into quality of your songs immediately. Even just a
the lyric in the form of questions. little more thought about making your ideas,
hooks, and titles more memorable, emotional,
Another example from the list above is the great universal, imagistic, and simpler will bring
Bonnie Raitt hit “I Can’t Make You Love Me.” exponential results in your songwriting and a lot
This is the song we all wish we’d written, right? more people will stand up and take notice. Work
“Turn down the lights/Turn down the bed/Turn a little harder than the next guy on these and
down these voices inside my head.” Sheer you may just wind up with a hit on your hands.
brilliance. Alliteration galore in the verses and
images off the chart and off the chains. These
writers deserve the millions of dollars they
earned writi