Too Many Words has been included in the shortlist for the CONTEMPORARY POP DANCE Category of the 2022 Australian Songwriting Contest. The top 30 selection is expected to be announced by the end of June 2023.

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Too Many Words was re-mixed and re-mastered 31 May 2023.

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I was thinking one day about how my songs are wordy. I had the thought that I could write one that was mostly the words “too many words” and would have far fewer words than most. Naturally irony prevailed and “Too Many Words” probably has too many words.

I had the idea of writing a song that actually didn’t have a lot of words. Too Many Words seemed like a good title. It was going to be simple. It was not going to be wordy or too long. But then I found myself scribbling down some words. They suggested a simple story. The story took on a life of its own as stories have a tendency to do. Once started I needed to find a way to finish it. Eventually the song was no longer proof that I could write a song without too many words. The title has become, quite unintentionally, ironic. I’ve tried to edit it down to no avail. The song seems to have as many words as it needs. At least I hope so.

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Too Many Words

Chorus 1:

Too many words
Get in the way
Of all the clever things
I was planning to say
Too many words
I’m Over the top
I know what I’m doing
But can’t seem to stop

Verse 1:

I’ve been nervous thinking
About what I’d say tonight
I rehearsed a whole lot cuz
I wanted to get it right
I was looking here and there
Through all the words I knew
To find the words to tell you
How I feel about you

Chorus 2:

Too many words
Got in the way
Of whatever it was I thought
That I wanted say
The very most important things
Are hard to convey
That’s when too many words
Get in the way

Bridge:

Long as I remember it’s always been this way
No matter what I talk about I’ve got too much to say
All my songs are far too long
All my stories are long too
I rarely choose a single word when 5 or 10 will do.

Verse 2:

I stumbled over adjectives
Adverbs, nouns and verbs
All I heard myself say
was a jumbled mess of words
Felt i should Apologise
For what I’d put you through
Before I could you smiled and said
You already knew

Chorus 3:

I wasn’t sure
What it was I heard
I was still caught up in
my avalanche of words
I felt so alive like I could
Laugh and dance and sing
But I couldn’t manage
to say a single thing

Chorus 4:

You taught me a lot
‘bout talking since that day
I’ve learned that what you hear
Matters more than what I say
I still got a ways to go
Before I master brevity
But I’m getting better at telling you
what you mean to me
I took some time and thought about
All the words I could do without
One by one I cut them out
‘Til the only words left numbered three