Good post, highlandman. Yes, I would like it if the participants could give some intelligent analysis of why they feel that the song works... the melody wedded to the words, the economy of the words, the visual imagery, how what is left unsaid draws the listener into the song far more than if it were said explicitly, the use of internal rhymes, the consistency of perspective... it differs with every song. I would learn a lot from that. That is why I always encourage people to add "why" to threads that otherwise just become "list" threads. If I lead a workshop and it comes together, I expect to learn far more than I "teach."

Just think of all the songs that have memorable lines that become part of who you are.. "out of kindness, I suppose" was a good example. Another great, unforgettable line from a reggae song about a cheating wife... rhyming with "ring on her finger" from the previous line.. "He thought he shot her down, but he only winged her."
Finger and winged her... the whole song is funny, but that rhymn pattern really hit me. Sometimes it can be the melody that brings the whole song together.

Whether this workshop could work would be totally dependent upon everyone in the workshop. I've been in too many workshops (sometimes with fine songwriters whose names everyone here would recognize) where the participants either couldn't express their whole process (which I kinda doubt) or were just unwilling to. One memorable workshop, one of the participants got so angry with one of the other songwriters, who just made flip remarks like "I just face the wall and the songs come out," that the workshop almost descended into fisticuffs.

But sometimes a workshop, like a thread can take on a life of its own, and that is exciting.

Jerry