Between the Lines
Browse through our articles on songwriting and master your craft.
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- Hurt by Nine Inch Nails / Johnny Cash · 30 Oct 2026Almost identical words, two performers decades apart — and the same lines end up meaning something close to the opposite of what they meant the first time.
- Wichita Lineman by Glen Campbell / Jimmy Webb · 16 Oct 2026Jimmy Webb ran out of words to finish this song as planned — and left it as is. Sometimes the incomplete version is the more honest one.
- Strange Fruit by Billie Holiday · 2 Oct 2026A protest song that never raises its voice — and that quiet restraint is exactly what makes it unbearable.
- Tangled Up in Blue by Bob Dylan · 18 Sep 2026Dylan wanted this song to feel like a Cubist painting — the same story seen from several angles at once, none of them quite lining up.
- Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen · 4 Sep 2026Cohen wrote somewhere between 80 and 150 verses before settling on one — a single word made to hold almost everything a word can hold.
- Fast Car by Tracy Chapman · 21 Aug 2026No chorus hook, no key change — just a story told in order, with a point of view that shifts under you without you noticing. A masterclass in narrative songwriting.
- Hurt by Nine Inch Nails / Johnny Cash · 30 Oct 2026Almost identical words, two performers decades apart — and the same lines end up meaning something close to the opposite of what they meant the first time.
- Wichita Lineman by Glen Campbell / Jimmy Webb · 16 Oct 2026Jimmy Webb ran out of words to finish this song as planned — and left it as is. Sometimes the incomplete version is the more honest one.
- Strange Fruit by Billie Holiday · 2 Oct 2026A protest song that never raises its voice — and that quiet restraint is exactly what makes it unbearable.
- Tangled Up in Blue by Bob Dylan · 18 Sep 2026Dylan wanted this song to feel like a Cubist painting — the same story seen from several angles at once, none of them quite lining up.
- Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen · 4 Sep 2026Cohen wrote somewhere between 80 and 150 verses before settling on one — a single word made to hold almost everything a word can hold.
- Fast Car by Tracy Chapman · 21 Aug 2026No chorus hook, no key change — just a story told in order, with a point of view that shifts under you without you noticing. A masterclass in narrative songwriting.