Change The Way analysis

When I lived in California in the late 80's and early 90's, I took songwriting classes from Jack Segal, who wrote Scarlet Ribbons and When Sunny Gets Blue, and Jason Blume who wrote Change My Mind made famous by John Berry.
Both of them emphasized that the opening line HAS to grab the listeners attention.
Change The Way (To hear song go to MySpace at) http://www.myspace.com/arnybarn

So for Change The Way I used

YOU DON’T WANT TO OPEN YOUR EYES
AS THE SUN RISES UP IN THE MORNING SKY

What I was shooting for was to have something more than "you don't want to get out of bed because life sucks......"

Another tool I used to set the tone was to use the minor chord for the verse beginning. The song is written in the key of G - which I tease with in the opening intro musical section. Then I slide into Em for the verse to give a down feeling.

I went back and forth on using "sky" to rhyme with "eyes" rather than "skies" - The near rhyme seems to work but I'd have no trouble if an artist felt more comfortable using "skies"

The 2nd half of the verse continues the theme of life getting to the subject....
BILLS TO PAY AND THEY’VE CUT OFF YOUR PHONE
IN THIS CROWDED WORLD YOU FEEL ALL ALONE

For the last line I take myself out of the Em riff and move myself up to D major to springboard in to the chorus which being in G Major has a very positive feel to go along with the theme of the lyric now....

Chorus
CHANGE THE WAY YOU LOOK AT THINGS
AND THE THINGS YOU LOOK AT CHANGE
CHANGE THE WAY YOU LIVE YOUR LIFE
AND THE LIFE YOU LIVE WILL CHANGE
IT’S JUST YOUR THOUGHTS YOU NEED TO REARRANGE
MAKE WAY FOR CHANGE AND CHANGE THE WAY

This is the message of the song and the music is written to convey positive upbeat hope! I've performed this several times now and by the time I get to the 3rd line, people are clapping along rhythmically - it's great!

So for verse two, I need to continue the story - the subject obviously got up and went to work but in his mood things still got worse and he'd rather be back home in bed.

THE BOSS IS MAD CAUSE YOU’RE LATE AGAIN
NO MATTER WHAT WELL YOU JUST CAN’T WIN
YOU WANT TO GO HOME AND CRAWL IN BED
AND PULL THE COVERS UP OVER YOUR HEAD….

I still struggle with line 3, thinking I maybe should say "You want to go home and crawl BACK in bed"
Again, if an artist would rather sing it that way, I'd have no problem with that. I just had trouble so I figured others would too.
But the lyric does circle back around to launch again into the chorus...

The bridge is intended to tie it all together - while "changing the way" is up to the subject to do, it tells him/her they HAVE the answer inside...

HOW DO YOU MAKE IT HAPPEN
YOU ALREADY KNOW
THE ANSWER LIES INSIDE YOU
LOOK DEEP WITHIN YOUR SOUL

I then use an old musical trick I learned 30 years ago studying Barry Manilow's songs. I call it "The Manilow Modulation"

To keep a song from sounding repetitious, to modulate up half a step or a whole step is pleasing to the ear.

So here I move from G major to A major for the final chorus and tag the last lines for emphasis.

This song practically wrote itself when I sat down with my guitar last August. My wife and I had seen a PBS special with philosophy guru, Wayne Dyer promoting his new book about changing your thoughts changing you life.

I hope this has been helpful to newbie songwriters and I invite your comments and suggestions always.
and remember to
Change The Way!
arnybarn