A page back when we were talking about the song, "Oh Arizona", I briefly mentioned how great lyrics "show" you the story instead of just "telling" you the story. So, If I may, to respond to a good friend of mine, I would like to re-visit that and start another discussion. To me, even though you might include visuals in your lyrics, there is still a significant difference between telling and showing a story.
So, what I would like to do is take 2 lines from a current #2 song, "Die A Happy Man", by Thomas Rhett, co-written with Sean Douglas and Joe Spargur, and use those lines, along with 2 I will make up, to help explain the difference between tell and show.
My 2 lines:
Baby that red dress sure looks good on you
Oh and your black one makes you look sexy too
The 2 lines from the song:
Baby that red dress brings me to my knees
Oh but that black dress makes it hard to breath
So, if you analyze my 2 lines, I use the visual of the dress colors to "tell" you what she looks like. Yes, the visuals help you see this girl, but so what. They're still just telling you what she looks like. They don't really "put you in the picture".
Now, analyze the song's lines. The same red dress, black dress visual, but look how it is used. They don't just "make her look good" The red one "brings me to my knees", and the black one, "makes it hard to breath". All of a sudden, the listener is IN the picture, NOT just looking at it.
And there folks is the difference between "telling" and "showing", and the difference between "good" and "great" lyrics.
phil g.