Freudians Slip

Last winter someone wrote a question in the forums about songwriting. I typed up an answer naively thinking that a paragraph or two would reveal all the mysteries around the subject. Then I realized there was a little more to be said. I emailed Paul, suggesting I write up a couple of pages on the subject. He quite readily accepted. Again, I figured two pages or so would do the trick. That first article ran seven pages in WordPerfect (I hate Microsoft). After sending it in, I realized there were a few things I’d forgotten to write about. So I sent in another one. And another. And… So now it’s a weekly column and I’m finding more and more things to write about.

I still haven’t written what were supposed to be articles 3, 4 and 5…

At this point I would like to thank everyone who reads me and, particularly, those of you who write back. As the entire site is free, all of us contributors do this for free. The reason we do it is that it allows us to help others. And, occasionally, some of you write back and help us out. A fair trade. Some of you have also sent me songs you’ve written. I must say, we’ve a talented group here! Just one thing I’d like to mention. I’m open to constructive criticism. If you want to write to tell me I’m an idiot, don’t waste my time. If you want to write to tell me I’m an idiot BECAUSE… then please do. As long as you can back up your ideas, we can have a healthy exchange of views. Meaning, think before you write. But do write.

What this column has done for me is to help me realize what I’m doing when I put pen to paper. (Yes, I still usually use pen and paper for my songs.) As I’ve been writing songs for almost 19 years now (I hate mentioning these sort of figures, I keep believing I’ll soon start getting younger…), it’s become, not second-nature, but first-nature. I just do it. Which also means that before I started writing this column, if I was having problems, I had to spend a lot of time thinking of a way out. Now I’m paying attention to what I’m doing and taking my own advice. And every time I do something I haven’t done in a while, I notice it and it becomes next weeks subject… So Friday night my daughter was watching a movie. Although it was a “family” movie (meaning only kids will find it interesting), it had an “adult” song in it (meaning only adults would like that song). At the particular time it came on, it created a “moment” in the plot. I was suddenly reminded of some particular event in my own childhood. And realized the song was wrong. The music fitted in, but not the lyrics. Hmmm…

Obviously, we all have a past. We’ve all made mistakes, took wrong turns, had terrible, undeserved things done to us. It’s all part of the learning curve. No one can escape it. As an artist, why would you want to? Even those things that hurt the most, that are buried down deeply are part of what inspires us.

Psychologists, of course, will tell you that these things should be dealt with and forgotten. That once you’ve done that, you’ll become a “normal” person. Do you know any “normal” people? I sure don’t. Anyway, I’ve mentioned before what I think of mini-vans and suburbia…

Psychologists, in my own opinion, have their own problems that they should be dealing with… So I’ll tell you the exact opposite of what they’ll tell you: mull it over!

Now what this reminded me of was something that’s been bothering me for the past 25 years or so, but that I’d buried deep down so as not to be reminded of it. But it was still there. Remember when I said exorcise your demons? I felt like Homer Simpson and went “D’oh!” Why is it I never wrote a song about this? Put the subject to rest once and for all?

But, having had this buried down so deep, I could not have spontaneously written anything that would have worked. Remember when I said be spontaneous? It’s an art to say the opposite of something without actually contradicting yourself…

Then again, keeping this at the forefront of my mind would have seriously screwed up my weekend. So instead, I just let the whole situation play itself subconsciously, just putting in the occasional conscious thought, letting my mind do all the work.

The next day, I started getting some ideas. I was reminded of something Chief O’Brien once said. By changing a couple of words without altering the meaning, it gave me the final words of the song.

The way our mind works, these ideas pop up when you least expect them to. You’re not consciously thinking about the subject, something comes to the forefront of your mind and you immediately know what it’s about, where it goes and why.

Of course, this is a long process. It may take a week or so before you actually write the damn thing. You’ll get the urge to write it earlier, but try to avoid that. Let it come to life by itself. It’s been four days and I still haven’t written it. Although I have a good idea of the direction in which I’m heading. I’ve picked up the guitar once, played around with the keyboard a couple of times. It’s coming together, but it’s not all in place yet.

During this time, though, you can write other songs. It won’t affect what you’re doing.

It’s sort of like taming a wild beast which, to some extent, is what it is. Let it come to you. Let the song approach you, a piece at a time. So, in the end, your subconscious mind does all the work and you get all the credit (plagiarism!).

A little trick to help out: a while back I told you how songwriting can be dangerous, to avoid writing a song that will be great, but that will bother you every time you play it, twist it around a little.

First, don’t write it as a narrative. Write it as if it’s something that happened to someone else and alter little details. You were in a car accident and your father was killed, the car was a blue VW, write that Vanessa (Vanessa Williams and Vanessa-Mae are both extremely beautiful women: does it have anything to do with the name?) was in an accident, her mother died. The car was a black Toyota.

This way, you can play the song with a certain detachment and you’re still killing the beast.

So, to recap (two recaps in one column, hmmm), get your subconscious mind to mull over the exact situation, consciously make a decision to alter details that won’t affect the overall event. And mull it over.

Copyrights (again)

I just wanted to mention this for, in particular, Canadian songwriters or songwriters from other countries with backwards copyright laws. The Canadian copyright law was originally written in the later part of the nineteenth century. When records started being made, the federal government (it’s federal jurisdiction) decreed that songwriters would get 2¢ (roughly 1.5¢ US) a song per album sold. Inflation seemed to be an unknown concept. In the US and Europe, royalties are now at about $1 US per song per album sold. In Canada, after years of fighting, the artistic community finally got the federal government to update the law. Now royalties are up to 7¢ (about 5¢ US) per song per album sold.

The law is so outdated that Canada is the only developed country where you’re allowed to make copies of CDs and tapes (for your own personal use). Meaning you can buy a CD, make a copy, and sell the original back to a used CD store in perfect legality.

There is, luckily, a loophole. Royalties get paid according to the laws of the country where a song was written. Officially, a song is written in the country where it was copyrighted. Beginning to see where I’m going?

Over the past decade or so, you’ve suddenly seen Canadian songwriters who were always broke suddenly live the big life. They do this by cheating the law. Yet all is fair in love and war… Love your art war with the government.

What most Canadian songwriters have started doing is taking vacations outside the country once a year. Once you’re in a country that has copyright laws that respect the artist, you wait a week or two and apply for copyrights in that country. So you bring with you every song you’ve written since your last visit and copyright all of them together at the same time.

It may get tricky, you may be asked why it is that you’ve suddenly written 27 songs over the past week… Tell them you find their country very inspiring. In most cases it won’t be a problem. France in particular has a very loose policy for copyrighting Canadian songs. They know you didn’t write any songs while you were there, but also despise the exploitation of artists by the Canadian government.

Just don’t tell them I sent you…