Literal Repetitions

The name says it all: Literal Repetitions are literal repetitions of a part of the lyrics. One very much used example is called the Chorus. It's one of those old-fashioned elements of a song which hardly no-one dares to let go. I wonder why (NOT!!). The chorus is the most important part of the song, whether you like it or not. It's that part that will almost always be first remembered of a song. Notice that all the classics are songs built around a good sturdy chorus. They can come in all kinds of forms: a chorus doesn't need to be very complicated at all. Take a look at the lyrics of one of the most catchy choruses ever: the one of the song Child in Time by Deep Purple. Gillan probably took a day off when the lyrics of this chorus were written but it sure proofs the fact that a chorus is good as long as it's recognizable throughout a song.
Usually a chorus doesn't change during a song, and if it changes, it only changes slightly and it will probably be at the end of the song. An example of this can be seen in the song Autumn which we discussed in the first lesson. Notice that the last chorus has changed, but very slight: "they" changes into "we", that's all. A chorus shouldn't change too much, otherwise it won't be recognized as the chorus anymore.
Of course, the music is an important factor in recognizing a chorus, but remember that a good songtext is still interesting and meaningfull without the music!!
Remember when you start to change a chorus, be sure the change is logical. You can change a chorus more drastically without sacrificing the link with the other choruses, but you will need to use the so-called seemingly repetitions for that. I will discuss that later....
It is also possible to use literal repetitions in a verse. A lot of the advantages will count for this option too. By repeating lines or parts of lines it will be much easier to build a complete songtext and it should enhance the logic of the lyrics. But watch out for the pitfall of making your song too simplistic!! Many songwriters make the mistake to repeat large parts of text, and thus making the song dull or even worse: hard to understand. This trick might work in a poem but it usually doesn't work in a song, and certainly not a rock-song. Use it sparsly and subtle.
An example can be found in the following exerpt of the song "Live it Up" which I wrote for the second cassette of the Stag, named "Winds of Pain".
 

1)
The life you live, just seems alright,
but if you bust the shell, you can smell the stench inside.
you're just filled up, with all your happy memories,
you're living in the past, but you never get yourself released.

 3)
The life you live, just ain't alright,
and you know, you rot away inside.
Just enjoy all your happy memories,
but don't forget to live your live, and never get yourself released.

As you can see, there are quite a few literal repetitions! I coloured the repetitions for convenience. Some parts of lines from the first verse have been copied to the third, after a slight change. Take a look at the tails of the lines of these verses: they are almost identical. This is a dangerous trick because the result might be you ending up with a song which seems to have nothing to say. To avoid this, keep in mind the following rules:

Place the repetitions as far away from each other as possible.

For example, use the last verse to copy parts from the first verse as in the example

Try to avoid copying whole lines.

Your verse might become a fake-chorus.... Use single words or parts of lines instead.

If you do it alright the audience/reader wouldn't notice at all the verses are almost identical. They will only think the last part sounded familiar (if they aren't drunk, stoned or deaf of course!!!) and that was just your intention, wasn't it???
Using literal repetitions in a verse can be okay but it's better to use seemingly repetitions. As you will see later, the above example also contains examples of seemingly repetitions. So I guess it's time to tell you more about that now!