July/August 2023 Lyric Contest – Congratulations to all our July/August 2023 Lyric Contest winners. Read the winning lyrics for first through fourth place, below.
CLICK HERE to enter the September/October Lyric contest.
Videos by American Songwriter
1st Place – “Painting Pickets”
By Christine Merritt, Gregory Becker & Michelle Creber
There’s a postcard bible town down in Texas
Straight rows of picket fences painted white
There’s a mom the whole town thinks has gone crazy
She’s been outside with a paintbrush half of the night
‘Cause her little boy’s finally turning 30
He hasn’t been home in quite a while
Since the preacher said the devil made him dirty
But tomorrow she just wants to make him smile
Mama’s in the front yard
‘Cause her boy is coming home
Neighbors gonna point and stare
She don’t care who knows
She wished that she had grabbed that brush 15 years ago
Now she’s asking for forgiveness
She’s out painting pickets
Every color of the rainbow
He won’t come home to the house he used to live in
When he pulls into the driveway he’ll believe
That house no longer has to the prison
That the young man in his twenties had to leave
The wall inside his Daddy wants to soften
And welcome home the son he thought lost
He sat on the front porch all night watching
He wouldn’t help but didn’t tell her to stop…
Mama’s in the front yard
Cause her boy is coming home
Neighbors gonna point and stare
She don’t care who knows
She wished that she had grabbed that brush 15 years ago
Now she’s asking for forgiveness
She’s out painting pickets
Every color of the rainbow
Yellows, purples, pinks, and blues
A welcome sign for all who choose
A different life
A different love
And a God above who doesn’t judge
Mama’s in the front yard
Cause her boy is coming home
Neighbors gonna point and stare
She don’t care who knows
She wished that she had grabbed that brush 15 years ago
Now she’s asking for forgiveness
She’s out painting pickets
Every color of the rainbow
It’s time for forgiveness
So she’s painting pickets
Every color of the rainbow…
Every color of the rainbow…
Every color of …
Since 1984, American Songwriter’s Lyric Contest has helped aspiring songwriters get noticed and have fun. Enter the 2023 Lyric Contest today before the deadline:
2nd Place – “Wave Goodbye To The Clown”
By Ben Diamond
She bent like a willow, I was strong like an ox
We danced to a waltz, on an old music box
For her I’d eat fire, I’d climb any wall
But the higher I got, the farther I’d fall
Now the circus is leaving, there’s the elephant car
The bottles line up on the top of the bar
And the train gate is down, on the far side of town
So wave goodbye to the clown
She knew how to play me, she could ask anything
She gave me sweet loving and promised a ring
But I misunderstood, it was no pledge to wed
The ring held the lions, and they hadn’t been fed
Now the circus is leaving, there’s the trampoline car
The bottles line up on the top of the bar
And the train gate is down, on the far side of town
So wave goodbye to the clown
We argued without words, we were bitter as lime
We were trapped center-stage in a sad pantomime
She juggled careers, I swam in cocktails
We slept side-by-side on a bed of sharp nails
Now the circus is leaving, there goes the knife thrower’s car
The bottles line up on the top of the bar
And the train gate is down, on the far side of town
So wave goodbye to the clown
BRIDGE
Up on the tightrope with a brass clarinet
Blindfold and backward with no safety net
Many a night, she watched as I cried
But I swallowed the sword, and I swallowed my pride
I climbed in the cannon, shot high in the air
And I begged our dear lord to end my nightmare
Now the circus is leaving, there’s the ringmaster’s car
The bottles tip over from the top of the bar
And the train gate is down, on the far side of town
And the only one left is the clown
Yah, the only one left is this clown
Since 1984, American Songwriter’s Lyric Contest has helped aspiring songwriters get noticed and have fun. Enter the 2023 Lyric Contest today before the deadline:
3rd Place – “Damn Those That Damn Us”
By William Simons
Verse 1
If we stripped all the thorns from a burgeoning rose
Or altered the course that a mighty river flows
How would a poet ever compose
Anything other than pedestrian prose
From Rossetti to Shakespeare, Wadsworth, and Keats
To the maestros of hip hop spitting their beats
Springsteen and Dylan would take to the streets
If their voices were silenced by the privileged elites
Chorus
So, damn those that damn us for expressing ourselves
Who look to remove books from our shelves
Whose irrational fear of fairies and elves
Is only surpassed by the fear of themselves
Verse 2
When Tolkien and Rowling burst onto the scene
They were lauded as heroes by millions of teens
But some folks were angry and found it obscene
That hobbits and wizards were free to convene
In their quest for the ring and the sorcerer’s stone
Bilbo and Potter weren’t seeking the throne
But rather the truth of all that’s unknown
And the unearthing of seeds that the wicked had sown
Chorus
So, damn those that damn us for expressing ourselves
Who look to remove books from our shelves
Whose irrational fear of fairies and elves
Is only surpassed by the fear of themselves
Bridge
In the beginning
To combat all the sinning
There were prophets, pickers, and poets
Spreading the word
To a scattering herd
Of fools to foolish to know it
But when the book burning started
The troubadours parted
Like that of the mighty Red Sea
And chaos ensued
As the world came unglued
With the onset of each new decree
Chorus
So, damn those that damn us for expressing ourselves
Who look to remove books from our shelves
Whose irrational fear of fairies and elves
Is only surpassed by the fear of themselves
4th Place – “Lemon Moon”
By Siusan ORourke
Verse
An old Georgian stands, on the corner of Buell Street
lamplight still scarred from a child’s wayward throw
curtains hitched back from the shape-shifted windows
no one looks through them
no one is home
A balding, white sycamore shades the small schoolyard
in the cool of the day when the sun drops down low
mothers would call their young Yankees from stickball
to clean up for supper
say prayers and grow old
Chorus
Lemon Moon lingers on willows and jack pines
tracing the shadow of yesterday’s street
faces that passed through the cracks of our lifetime
float on the ripples
on Looking Glass Creek
Verse
A time capsule hangs for the “old Good and Plenty”
coffee and pie, and dimes for the phone
but the young ones moved on and the old ones are buried
and it’s the folks that don’t live here
who call it their home
Chorus
Lemon Moon lingers on willows and jack pines
tracing the shadow of yesterday’s street
faces that passed through the cracks of our lifetime
float on the ripples
on Looking Glass Creek
Lemon Moon lingers on willows and jack pines
tracing the shadow of yesterday’s street
faces that passed through the cracks of a lifetime
float on the ripples
On Looking Glass Creek
On Looking Glass Creek
on looking glass creek
Since 1984, American Songwriter’s Lyric Contest has helped aspiring songwriters get noticed and have fun. Enter the 2023 Lyric Contest today before the deadline:
Honorable Mention
“La Tour de Babel”
By Bill Vincent
“Record Keeps On Spinning”
By Cathay Reta
“Daffodils”
By Doug Kolmar
“No Lost Love Cafe”
By Harri Wolf
“Fifteen Bucks”
By James Johnston
“Blues For Them That Needs Them”
By Ron Brawer
“Can’t Hold the River”
By Jordon Frank
“I’ll Take the Horse”
By Joyce Trudeau
“Sunday Morning Sinner”
By Deborah Convoy
“Don’t Forget to Forgive Me”
By Jane Fallon
“Rain Like You’ve Never Seen”
By Don Smith-Weiss