The Fine Art of Lyric Writing

Bo Bice and Carrie Underwood will be separately releasing singles of "Inside your Heaven", the "coronation song" of this year's American Idol 4 finale. It's strange that AI/19E decided that both should release the exact same song, although with different B sides. They have never done this before, so perhaps they feel that the two fanbases are mutually exclusive and this was a perfect way to get maximum sales. It's also likely that the other "original" songs they sang during the finale were such horrible dreck, they couldn't imagine anyone ever buying them. Actually, all the songs are equally bad, so I am not sure there's an argument to made any way on the basis of musical or artistic merit. Bo's producer's choice was called "Long, long Road" and was truly an interminably long song; at least it's aptly named. The other song that Carrie sang was called "Angels Brought Me Here", which at least is a better title than "Inside your Heaven". That's just taking the idea of "personal faith" a little too far.

I am glad Bo got a chance to release a single and later on, an album, despite coming in 2nd. That said, it would have been nice if his first single wasn't this awful miscarriage of song-writing. The tune is execrable, but what really irritates me are the lyrics.

Chorus:

I want to be inside your heaven
Take me to the place you cry from
When the storm blows you away
I want to be the earth that holds you
Every bit of air you're breathing in
A soothing wind
I want to be inside your heaven

It's no Gershwin, is it? And the syntax is more than a litte R-rated, even if unintentionally. Since when is "my heaven" the "place I cry from"? It makes no sense at all. Inside "my heaven", there's lot's of wine, chocolate and cheesecake, everyone speaks with a crisp English accent and the temperature is a constant 19 degrees celcius. Certainly no storms there, never mind any that will "blow me away". Also, the singer says "I want to be .... Every bit of air you're breathing in". Okay, with all the pollutants, bateria and assorted germs in the air we breathe, this is just downright NASTY.

And I could not resist a comparison to the immortal Ira Gershwin, who wrote lines of such brilliance in "Porgy and Bess" and various classics of the American Songbook.

Verse in "Inside your Heaven":

When minutes turn to days and years
If mountains fall
I'll still be here
Holding you until the day I die

Let's compare this to how Ira Gershwin did it in "Our Love is Here to Stay".

The Rockies may crumble
Gibraltar may tumble
They're only made of clay
But our love is here to stay.

Essentially the same sentiment, pulled off with so much more sheer panache and style. Lyric writing is an ART, and there is nothing artistic in "If mountains fall, I'll still be here".