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Guitar chord forum - chordie → Chordie's Chat Corner → song titles?
i was writing a new song and came to a quandry...when looking for a title for the song would you use the "hook"? or a discriptive title?
i would be very interested in your thoughts on this matter.
ta
phill
Do what you want. It's your song.
thanks zurf, i was hoping to start a discussion but it seems you've cut it off at the short and curlies.... 
I'm certainly not a songwriter, and am gob-smacked by anyone who has the talent for it. I guess choosing a title would amount to a word or phrase which best summarizes the central them of the song? This seems to be the most common way of doing things. Now ... how people choose titles for instrumental pieces is quite beyond me!
OK, discussion wise, I think John Prine has some excellent titles for songs. He does it both ways. Some songs need a title that tells a little bit about the song from the writer's perspective. Other times, you just need a daggone name for the thing and what the heck, there's the hook right there.
So, I'd say, it depends on the song, the songwriter's motivation for writing the song, and a certain degree of "Idunno."
I always pick two or three words at random from the dictionary. I'm currently penning my latest opus... "Lithologically Cantion Sailboat."
It's about a cat stuck in a tree.
A line from Silence of the Lambs Marcus Arrilious "what is its nature what dose this man you seek do?" or what is this song about?
As most say, sometimes I use the hook or part of it, but then sometimes I use one word out of the song. Mother (A punks ballad) the song is about a mother who is a wreck but tries to be strong for her children, also just the main topic of the song which is how aI came up with a title. THinking on it i usually use a hook more often than not.
therin lies the nub! if you have a good hook, the listener will remember the song from the hook, eg "lying eyes". other songs/music use the descriptive "apache" which has that native american beat. on the other hand...beethovens 5th?
Why not post your song on the forum and let your Chordie family pick a title for you.
We used to play a song called "Circus Song" because it started with a bit of an up tempo finger pick over a dom7 chord, which gave it a bit of a jingly calliope feel. The song had nothing to do with the circus, though.
"You can have it all," says that voice in your head
That's what it tells you because that's what you read
If you ever learned what this life was all about
You wouldn't be so satisfied with all the stupid little $&!% you've got....
Then there's always Black Dog by Led Zeppelin that has nothing to do with dogs of any color, or anything to do with the color black per se.
i had already decided to call the song "any minute now", which is the hook, i couldn't name it after the story (theme) as it hasn't really got a story line. it's not quite "do wah diddy diddy dum diddy doo" or "the birdies dance" it's slightly more intellegent, i just thought it would make a nice talking point.
I usually have no trouble naming songs with lyrics I just call it what says on the tin simple but true for me.
Naming instrumentals songs to me are a lot harder mostly I have no clear idea what song is about though occasionally I start with a name. Some songs I've never named they just have a date. Mostly I just listen to finished song and see what pictures it paints in my mind and take from there...it doesn't always work.
ark
AS for an instrumental. I like Jerome's idea, flip out a dictionary and put your finger on a word - LOLOL
my one instrumental though is named after its inspiration Reverse Rocket. taken from Rocket Ride,
As far as having titles that don't ave anything to do with the song, we have lots of songs that make no sense. For example, a lot of YES's music were simply words linked for their tempo or feel", but no meaning was intended. Their "Tales from Topographic Oceans" starts like this:
"Dawn of a light lying between silence and sole sources,
Chased amidst fusions of wonder,
In moments hardly seen forgotten.
Colors in pastures of chance dancing leaves cast spells of challenge,
Amused but real in thought, we fled from the sea ... whole."
Etc., etc., etc. Even the best chemical therapy of those times wouldn't enable any meaning to be discerned.
jon anderson paints beautiful pictures with his words; "mountains come out of the sky and they stand there..." he is well known for using words that sound good rather than have deeper meaning. though when you first read them they sound soooo deep and meaningful.
i've done a couple of instrumentals which i've dedicated to people rather than named them for how they sound or what they remind me of...
I once knew an arranger and composer. He guest directed an orchestra I was in. We played one of his songs for which he had no title. He changed it every performance, and usually to something weird. The one that stuck in my mind was Space Monkey Boogie. The program called it Blank.
Juliet:
"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."
Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)
We'll maybe that's true for songs are names really so important. I guess the contents are what's matters. Songs like people become their name even if perhaps the title is meaningless.
Ark
hi ark, yes it's true what you say, but how many times have you heard a song on the radio for instance and when you go to find it, it's not called what you thought it was, ergo; the hook! so the song was mistitled?
This is somewhat like picking a name for a band 
I can see your point Phill and I guess it could frustrating but I don't think a songs name has ever held the song back if it's a great one.
Bohemian Rhapsody springs to mind I don't think it's even got a hook.
Anyway just whip out your iPhone and Shazam it instant recognition mind you have to fast. LOL..
ark
Bohemian Rhapsody springs to mind I don't think it's even got a hook.
That's because it's a song chock full of hooks!
"Momma, just killed a man...."
"Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango?"
"Nothing really matters, Anyone can see, Nothing really matters, Nothing really matters to me."
Guitar chord forum - chordie → Chordie's Chat Corner → song titles?
