WHAT MAKES A GOOD SONG?

WHAT MAKES A GOOD SONG? "I dunno" probably isn’t a good answer–this is supposed to be a WRITER talking, after all.
There’s an old science-fiction story (by, I think, Alfred Bester) called "The Ultimate Melody." The theory is that there is a melody so compelling that if you ever heard it, you would be unable to think of anything else (including things like breathing, which means you would die). In the story, of course, a song does hit on the Ultimate Melody, and he dies, too, because he becomes unable to think of anything else. The goal of the songwriter, by these lights, is to come as close as possible to the Ultimate Melody without actually getting there. That’s what the songs "I just can’t get out of my head" are: they Got Close.
I myself maintain LYRICS are the most important part of a song, but I’m a writer, after all. And I don’t write my own music, per se: it’s already there, playing in my head like 24/7 8-track tape–the infamous Soundtrack from God. Like Bob Dylan once said, I don’t write it–I just write it down. The MUSIC, then, is just a delivery system for the lyrics. But note that’s where we’re trying to get close to the Ultimate Melody, so the music is important. We want people to sing this stuff.
Is the rest really mostly editing? Maybe so. The lyrics get edited for TIME (to try to song fit in that magic 3.5-to-5-minute "window" beloved by record companies, radio, and the makers of song contests), for STRUCTURE (to see if they’ll fit The Rules–though more often than not, I’m deciding which of The Rules I’m going to deliberately violate), and for IMPACT (to maximize the meaning, placement, and sound of every word–because words are weapons, and we’re using them surgically here).
The music gets tweaked a little, too. It can’t sound exactly like something that either I wrote before, or something somebody else already wrote; with country music, that’s a bit of a challenge, because there do seem to be a limited number of melodies (I haven’t hit whatever number that is yet, however). Sometimes, just adjusting the tempo is enough to make a difference; I have one melody I’ve actually used 3 times, but you’d never know it, even if you listened to all 3 songs together.
THE 21ST CENTURY ARRIVED this weekend, in the form of high-speed Internet, finally available in this forgotten corner of rural Oregon after years of waiting. Took an Internet-savvy friend to help configure things (the phone company is and was less than helpful), but it finally does all work. Three computers can be on line simultaneously, and we can still get phone calls.
UPDATES: The "Joe is great" brochure is done; it’ll go to Prairie Home Productions with cover letter asking where and to whom to send the CD. Includes some concert photos (must remember to always have someone take some photos at concerts), some comments (mostly off Soundclick), cover of the "Santa’s Fallen" CD, and of course the famous "Wanted in 6 States for Playing Bad Country Music" photo by my daughter on the cover. If there’s a way to replicate the brochure for postiing on this site or the upcoming Website, I’ll do it. It wasn’t a bad design job–though the real proof of its effectiveness will be if I get any business out of it.