With exception of the Selfastrays' "where the angels come to weep" and MotorPlanet's "high enough" the lyrics to the songs presented here were written to match their vocal lines (the tune). When I write to music I try to serve the song that I'm hearing, i.e. match its mood and rhythm. "Breaking away" is an example of how I try to support the music in a pop song, namely in the chorus. Repetition is a strong method to support its rhythm.
Matching Hot Mama's and Larry Blustain's music were true challenges.Sonya of Hot Mama sang "la la la la" as place holder for the lyrics, so the first thing I had to do was figuring out where the stresses lay (the stresses define the meter of the song) before I could begin with replacing the "las" with real words and syllables. In Larry's dummy version the tune was played on the piano and was submerged in the piano accompaniment. It was also too fast to sing, so the lyrics later had to be simplified here and there to make them singable (Larry and the singer adapted the lyrics themselves). Erjan ("Leroy") and Holger (of MotorPlanet) sing dummy lyrics that are easier to replace with 'real' words.
Obviously, writing to music leaves you less freedom than writing lyrics for the fun of it. These may sometimes be more poetic, more witty, or have more 'depth'. But lyrics are not poetry, they are suposed to serve the song whose melody either already exists as in (most of) these examples, or at least will have to match a musical structure and meter. Even without an 'official order' I always have a tune in mind anyway when writing lyrics. Although I often forget it the moment the lyrics are finished.