I think it must be kinda creative thing to dig new topics for songs that few people has used before. Some songs have so unique topics that they're refreshing.

For songs - the most common topic, of course, is "Love" - especially between men and women. Here in China, at least 75% of the popular songs are about love affair. The situation in English songs is better, but they still makes up a big percentage.

Other common topics include: family love; patriotism; homesick; religion; friendship; peace/anti-war; environment protection; joy of life; nostalgia. And, especially for folk songs, of course - wanderlust and politics.

What I mean - the songs on common topics can certainly be very impressive and well-written, but it would be easier for songs with unique topics that no one has used before.

However sometimes unique topics can fall common when they are successful - when Leonard Cohen wrote Suzanne, it's a unique character sketch song about a woman. Then Joni Mitchell wrote Marcie, and a lot of that kind of songs came to being. "Anti-war" must have been an unique topic, too, back when someone wrote Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye.

I think Tom Paxton is very good at discovering unique topics for songs. My favorite song on Tom's album Something in My Life is called Oh, Doctor, Doctor, which portrays a man longing for death because of the pain he's suffering from terminal illness. It's the only song about "euthanasia" I've ever known. Very unique topic. Other examples include Thank You, Republic Airlines (it takes 30 years for another guy to write a song on the same topic), Saturday Night, Johnny Got a Gun and Not Tonight, Marie (the only "real-life" love song). John Prine and Bob Dylan can dig very interesting topics, too.

What do you think of this? And... Please tell us some of the unique topics of songs you could think of. (Sorry for my bad English, I'm not a native speaker!)

Jason