This is pretty cool. About a week ago I was looking at the same song(Motherless Children). Its a long standing tradition in folk music to take a older melody and write new words to it.Taking a song like 'Pretty Polly' and turning it into The Ballad of Hollis Brown. I like the arrangement! I think I will try this with the keyboard. I've been listening to a lot of Dr. John lately. I'll see what I can come up with 8)
Well - I've had a few weeks off. Needed to recharge my batteries so to speak. There's been a lot going on - I can't even remember the last time I played guitar. Can't even remember where I PUT my guitars!
I need to get back in the swing of things - don't feel quite so burned out now. Apologies for the lack of comments over the last few weeks, hope to be writing again AND critiquing again after a few hours sleep.
:D :D :D
Vic
"Sometimes the beauty of music can help us all find strength to deal with all the curves life can throw us." (D. Hodge.)
Y9 W16 - interesting assignment, IMO. Going to take a bit of research though. I know absolutely nothing about my paternal grandfather, but quite a lot about my maternal grandfather as we lived in the same house for the first 20 years of my life. Which begs a question..........is it OK to bring politics into this? I know the general rule is to keep politics and religion and other sensitive topics out of the forums, but I couldn't write about my grandad - or from his viewpoint, to fulfill the assignment - without bringing politics into it. He was a bit of a left-wing firebrand in his youth, although he mellowed a little with age.......
:D :D :D
Vic
"Sometimes the beauty of music can help us all find strength to deal with all the curves life can throw us." (D. Hodge.)
Bringing politics into songs is perfectly fine. It's when the responses become all about the politics and not about the song when things tend to degenerate. As always the case here, the critiques are about the songs themselves. We've had songs about devils, angels, God, killings and all sorts of strange demented matters, but no one (as yet) has responded with anything that has put the focus off the song.
On this particular part of the Forums we should be able to manage ourselves nicely, I suspect. And if not, I'll just pretend I'm Nick and moderate accordingly :wink: .
Looking forward to reading your new one, Vic.
Peace
David, you haven't posted any comments lately. Busy with other projects?
Busy in general. Not so much the teaching and other projects as there have suddenly sprung up a lot of things going on in the home that have to be done, and done before anything else. But I'm hoping that it's all sorting itself out so that I can spend more time here. This week should see me back here more.
Peace
. . . we should be able to manage ourselves nicely, I suspect. And if not, I'll just pretend I'm Nick and moderate accordingly :wink: .
Nick? . . . :shock:
. . . as in "The Hammer of Thor" Nick?
. . . I think it best to behave.
It's the rock that gives the stream its music . . . and the stream that gives the rock its roll.
A good post to check out regarding songwriting.
Jack Hardy's Songwriting Manifesto
http://www.songwritingscene.com/2011/04/jack-hardys-songwriting-manifesto/
James - thanks for this, but I have to ask if it might be better to simply use a link. The main reason is that there are a lot of websites out there that "borrow" from other sites without permission and we try not to do that - especially when a piece is obviously intended for one particular website. It might be better to just say: do yourself a favor and read this!" and post the link.
Peace
It might be better to simply use a link.
POOF :mrgreen: Done*
Thanks, Dave :wink:
Actually, thank you!
There's a lot of great advice in this and Jack's got an excellent way of expressing things. I'm going to make sure my songwriting workshop at the Berkshire Community College gets this link as well.
Peace
Glad to see "Something In the Air" got a mention this week, it's still one of my all-time favourite singles. A little trivia - the singer/songwriter, John "Speedy" Keen was a former roadie for the Who - his "Armenia" (the first track on "The Who Sell Out" album) is the only song on any Who studio album release that wasn't written by a member of the Who. The Thunderclap Newman band who played on the record consisted of Keen on drums and vocals, 15-year-old Jimmy McCullough (later of Wings fame - listen to the solo on "My Love") on guitar, Post office engineer & pub pianist Andy Newman on keyboards, and a fellow called Bijou Drains played bass and arranged the strings. He was possibly better known under his real name, Pete Townshend.....
It was their only hit, and, in a nice connection to the SSG, the B-side of the single was called "Wilhelmina"......
I remember buying a single back in about 1973 by Speedy Keen called "Someone To Love"....great song, it got a lot of radio play, but alas, he was doomed to one-hit-wonder status....the album that came out at the same time had a great version of "Positively 4th Street," almost as good as Dylan's original. Great talent, but sadly, he died too young, and sadly neglected - apart from SITA, of course.
Sorry for rambling, just sharing a few memories....
:D :D :D
Vic
"Sometimes the beauty of music can help us all find strength to deal with all the curves life can throw us." (D. Hodge.)
Last week's assignment probably gave you a different starting point than you usually have while writing. What it gave you was something to react to.
I learned quite a bit about reaction from the acting classes I'm taking. Actors react, they don't act. They have a given set of circumstances, an objective for the play, the scene and the line AND they have the lines delivered by the other actors. All of these things color your reaction. Given circumstances are what you learn about your character from reading the play. Where are they coming from? Where are they going to? Are they married? For how long? Happily? The more of this stuff you can fill in for your character, the more realistic they will be.
How does this translate to songwriting? Two ways. First, one of the most important things about writing your own stuff, is that it's real to you. The listener will know. The feelings or emotion you put into a song need to be based solidly in your own experience. Even though all of the items were random, your reaction to them was real. A sunset may make you think of a girlfriend, a vacation, the moment before an earthquake, I don't know, because the reaction is yours. Your reaction is what you want to write about. Secondly, the collection of things randomly assigned gave you given circumstance. You had picture to look at that needed your interpretation, a type of band to think about, a band name and a song title. All of these evoked feelings or a reaction and gave you a starting point. By reacting, instead of acting on the need to write a song, you probably had an easier time of writing than you would staring at a blank piece of paper. Did you? Let me know.
What is your definition of "hit" song? There are some of us here who don't necessarily listen to top 40 radio. I don't think you'll be getting any Lady Gaga covers.
Falling in love is like learning to play the guitar; first you learn to follow the rules, then you learn to play with your heart.
Commercially viable? Having had radio play? Something somebody on this forum has heard or heard of?
You could go to the grammy site, they have a list of the top five for each year. Billboard magazine does top 100 of the past year and rates them by genre, rollingstone has the top 500 greatest songs, some must be recent.
You don't have to like the song, only be able to stomach it long enough to write your own lyrics. Then you never have to listen to the original again.
BTW, using a Lady Gaga song is a great idea.
