Hi kbrassel,
This is a very good question - seems to me that the content of a second verse depends on whether your song is a 'snapshot' or a 'movie'.
For instance, Hank William's "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" is a 'snapshot' that vividly portrays the emotional impact of being all alone in the world. Each verse simply adds to the portrait. In fact, he paints a very strong picture by using both visual and auditory imagery. For this 'snapshot' song, Williams uses each verse to say the same thing just a little bit differently.
On the other hand, Eric Bogle's "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" is a 'movie' that has a plot and tells a complete story. In this case each verse advances the plot and we see the story unfold step by step. Likewise, Bob Dylan's "Tangled Up in Blue" relates chapters of a man's lifetime in each verse. These 'movie' songs use each verse to bring the story closer to completion.
Ideally, any song is a self-contained unit providing the listener with whatever information they need to 'see' what the song is about. Like Phill Williams said, a song need not be about an earth-shattering topic to be interesting or have impact.
Strive to keep it simple and strive to have each line of each verse 'do something' to make the song complete. If words or phrases are repeated, they should be nice and juicy and relate somehow to the song's meaning. This is easy to say - but harder to do.
I often churn out songs that have too many verses . . . for me, it's not 'Oh no, it's too short' - - it is more often, 'Oh no, it's way too long'.
They say that master songwriter Ira Gershwin would distill each lyrical idea down to just one or two words. Then, he would work to make sure every bit of the song related directly to those words. I guess his system worked - - we are still singing his stuff.
Hope this is helpful, James
"That darn Pythagorean Comma thing keeps messing me up!"
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagorean_comma[/url]
