Page 79 - Song Maps - A New System to Write Your Best Lyrics - Simon Hawkins

Proud Of", it's a father and son.
2. Although it's tricky to demonstrate this without hearing the tune, the timing in the Chorus
melody mirrors the time and space in the lyric (time, time... space, space).
3. The Bridge provides the payoff – building on the idea that 'time is a healer', it goes one step
further to say time is the opportunity to find someone who loves without regrets or doubts. Too subtle to call it a twist but it's going in that direction.
Variations on roles
While it is logical to assign a different role to each Verse, recoloring the title as the song progresses, there are some alternatives to this.
For example,
Two roles woven into each section in either a conversational duet or expressing the same thing from two different points of view (e.g. "Summer Nights" from the musical Grease)
Assigning V1 and V2 to two different people with the Chorus assigned to a third but common person (e.g. V1 a son, Chorus the father, V2 a daughter, or V1 poor man, Chorus God, V2 rich man)
To mash up Roles with Timezones and have the same person address the same title but from different ages or times in their life
Assign V1 to a person, V2 to the group the person is part of (e.g., Beth Nielsen Chapman's brilliant "Child Again")
Commercial examples of Roles
Great commercial examples of Roles across the various lyric-driven genres of songwriting include:
Country
Montgomery Gentry are masters of crafting hit songs with Roles. "Something To Be Proud Of" is a great example of this at the same time as touching a great universal emotion–having purpose and pride in what you do with your life. V1 is role 1–the singer's father who tells stories about flying F-15's in the war– before the Chorus which sums up what it means ("that's something to be proud of") with some lovely examples of what it looks like ("chins held high as the tears fall down") before setting up the rhyme agent for the title ("in the arms of the woman that you love"). Great crafting so far. V2 is role 2–the singer himself not having the journey he felt his parents wanted for him, again with some lovely furniture ("Sure do miss that old hot rod") before asking his father if he is ashamed how he turned out. A great setup for a new Chorus ("Said, 'let me tell you right now'"), which works well. The Bridge is a wonderful summary of the song ("if all you ever really do is the best you can, you did it, man"). Brilliant.
Other examples or Country Roles include "Hell Yeah" and "Roll With Me" by Montgomery Gentry and "Mountains" by Lonestar (a favorite of mine).
Pop
"Blank Space" by Taylor Swift is a great example of how to apply Roles in a modern pop setting. A double V1 is written in conversational language from role 1's perspective of "what I think of you" ("My next mistake") before a double Chorus, which takes a step back to describe what's going on ("I love the players and you love the game") and a sinister title setup line ("I've got a blank space, baby, and I'll write your