The SAC Challenge opened with Matt Dusk’s pitch request. I have to confess that it’s outside the style of writing I’ve been cultivating for the past year and therefore a bit out of my comfort zone. I have listened to the reference tracks he offered and I began to play around with a title idea, with great input from some other songwriters participating in the challenge.
“Beautiful Freeze” is full of possibilities but if I’m going to develop it, I need to find a musical angle for it. I’ve got the seed of an idea but not quite ready to record and share it yet. I usually write with guitar, so working with piano puts me in a different zone, both musically and technically (i.e., not a strength). However, I like the “icy” quality of a simple piano track and I’m playing with the chord progression
C … Csus4/F … Am7 … G
C … Csus4/F … Gsus4 … C
And I’m going down tempo rather than up. I’m working with the a phrase “Like the frost in the trees/it’s a beautiful freeze”. The image and phrasing needs to be stronger but I have to start somewhere.
I’m going to sit with it as the challenge continues and see where it might go. I’m started to explore some collaborations with it too but that’s a challenge too when working online. I hope to be able to continue to work on that as well.
The La’s song “There she goes” is a good example of simplicity in songwriting across the four dimensions of lyric, melody, harmony, and rhythm. However, what seems simple at first hearing can be surprisingly subtle and, on closer inspection, harbour a few surprises for the astute listener.
This version comes in at 2:47, performed on this recording at about 120bpm.
Released first in 1988 then again in 1990, the story is a boy wants girl theme set in a repeating pattern that uses a single rhyme scheme that flows from the first line, “there she goes again”. Subsequent lines end with rhyming words “brain”, “contain,” “remains”, etc.
The harmony is the widely used G/D/C progression, followed by an Am/G/C with the minor chord giving it a bit of moodiness.
The first line of the melody is two half notes and whole note: “there/she/goes” singing on the 5th, 3rd, and 5th of the harmony chords. So, he’s singing D/F#/G. Giving it a nice open feel. Actually, the melodic line in this phrase is similar to “When the Saints Go Marching In” which might resonate subconsciously with some listeners. I don’t know … maybe.
The second line changes the rhythm with a quarter notes “there/she/goes” with again picking up the last downbeat beat in the bar and carrying over into the next measure. The third lyric phrase is similar
Then it moves to the Am/G/C progression with the line “And I just can’t contain/this feeling that remains”, repeating it, then turning around on the D to start the cycle all over.
Altough it’s a simple design overall, the song structure is unusual because it isn’t based on the usual 4/8/16 bar sections, opting instead for odd numbered sections:
12+1 bar intro
11 bar verse
11 bar verse
11 bar instrumental (same as verse)
12 bar bridge
11 bar verse
7 bar outro
The unusual structure stems from a five line verse followed by a one measure turnaround. The line phrasing is a typical 2 measures but the verse itself is five lines:
G D C There she goes- (2 measures)
G D C
There she goes again (2 measures)
G D C
Racing through my brain (2 measures)
Am G C
And I just can’t contain (2 measures)
Am G C
This feeling that remains (2 measures)
turnaround on D (1 measure)
In terms of production, the song may sound relatively simple but it uses a number of devices to develop an arc and keep it fresh:
the guitar intro is a motif that is repeated throughout and reappears in the instrumental section and again in the the bridge section;
the vocal part is solo in the first verse but additional backup parts are added in subsequent verses;
the shift in the vocal styling from falsetto to full voice in the second half of the verse adds character and “body language” to the delivery;
the bridge is a simple but effective variation on the verse, with a slight dip in the dynamic at the beginning to add some mood.
The Wikipedia entry for the song provides some additional background and context for the song, including an interesting note that seems to suggest that it took the magic touch of producer Steve Lillywhite to transform the original recording into a hit record. The song was covered by Sixpence None the Richer in a 1999 release. How do they compare? Listen for yourself.
A few months back I wrote about using Flickr as a source of visual inspiration for songwriting. At the time, I was working with a line “She’s like a merry-go-round” and had some vague ideas about how the song might develop. I continued with that initial theme of amusement park as a place to experience young love.
The final result is called “Carry On”. I wrote about the title and the bridge to this song in another earlier post. The original version was written for acoustic guitar with a much slower tempo in mind. When working on the demo, I brought the tempo up to 124 bpm and added a more complex arrangement, including some vintage analog synth parts that seemed to complement the mood of the song. Trumpeting the love, as it were.
It’s interesting to see how an idea changes from one form into something completely different as it evolves in the writing process. In this case, the song began with a guitar pattern that derived from another song called ‘February.’ I’d been listening to Iron and Wine quite a bit around this time and found myself mimicking the playing style of the beautifully subtle songs from the album Naked as We Came.
I was drawn to the mood of this pattern and spent a week or more trying to fit it to a lyric. Somewhere along the line I hit upon an idea and dropped the pattern entirely, opting instead for a very simple chord progression using the G/C/Em forms. I tend to play with a capo on the 2nd or 3rd frets, so the tuning in the recording will be a full tone up, which seems to suit my vocal range.
The lyric itself is inspired by a personal experience with a good friend who never made it to the end of his journey. I had the good fortune to play it live with another friend at a recent reunion, where we performed it as a personal tribute.
Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot as my colleague likes to say. Yes, it is an expression of amazement or dismay. But it also could stand for “Write To Finish.”
I’ve adopted an approach to my songwriting based on this mantra. Write to finish, I repeat to myself whenever I get bogged down with a lyric or musical part. Write to finish.
The idea is simple: don’t get hung up on making it perfect. Aim for a beginning, middle, and end. Push through that sense that it has to be perfect and just get it done. Use placeholders if necessary to keep the process going but aim to finish it.
“Finished” doesn’t of course mean polished. Polishing comes later. Some songs may become reservoirs of ideas for other songs. Other times I might cannabalize a song to use in another song. It doesn’t matter. Writing to finish is an important mantra for me because it helps me to relax about the little things and gives me a sense of freedom that lets me push through the process and give the idea full form and expression. Finesse can come later with three following stages: revise, rehearse, record.
It’s a helpful insight that can focus and hone the writing process. The idea of showing something can involve all of the senses, so it need not be limited to visual images. For example, evoking a sense of touch is powerful (“your breath in my ear”) and has an emotional draw that strictly visual elements might not convey as well. Scent and sound of course are other important dimensions of our experience. I’ve been working on a song that uses imagery from an amusement park to establish a context and mood for a story about two young lovers. Some of that imagery was inspired by images I found on Flickr and posted previously.
The chorus is where the hook is typically found in a song, so summing up the key idea of the song is part of the “telling”. The chorus can also be a place where word play is engaged and double-entendres can be employed to good effect. In the amusement park song I stumbled on the phrase “carry on” as the hook for the chorus. Because the song is about young lovers, the phrase works nicely in a dual sense. It can mean rambunctious behaviour on the one hand and/or the idea of keeping it going on the other hand. The lovers in the story are both having a blast at the amusement park (“carrying on”) and they both want their love to carry on forever.
Bridge lyrics can act as a pivot point and provide a moment of reflection in the song. In “Carry On”, the bridge isn’t yet written but I want it to touch on the idea that the main character knows deep down that this moment of joy will pass and so he wants to take full advantage of it while he can. With that, the bridge will also require a shift in mood that can be linked back to the chorus, returning to the celebration after the pause for reflection.
If the amusement park is imagined as part of a travelling carnival, then I might be able to draw on the idea of the empty lot that remains after the tents and rides are taken down and on their way to another city.
While we are in the midway and the swept up in the lights and sounds it seems like it can last forever. But the next day we wake up to find an empty parking lot. The spirit of the moment has moved on.
Now I just need to find the right words to express that sentiment.
I’ve started to experiment with a TC Helicon VoiceLive Play GTX vocal processor. It’s a great little unit that gives me the opportunity to add harmonies and other effects to songs as I’m developing them.
I’ve had a blast with it so far and am impressed with how quiet it is when going direct to my DAW. One of the first songs I tested was my own “That’s What You Do”. This has a country feel to it and I sensed it needed some talented backup vocals to bring out the melody.
Voila, “The Country Girls” (preset number 212) to the rescue! Here’s an excerpt from a working demo. This was recorded with my vocals and acoustic run straight as a stereo pair out of the VoiceLive Play into my Focusrite preamp, then captured using the StudioOne DAW. Not bad for a quick setup to test ideas and arrangements.
I’ve started to use Flickr to browse images that are related to an phrase or theme that I’m working with in a song sketch. It’s an interesting exercise that helps to generate fresh ideas that also have a visual dimension to them.
For example, I’ve been working on a song with the phrase “she’s like a merry-go-round”. That line came out spontaneously while I was noodling but it seems like an interesting element to build a theme around, so I went to Flickr and browsed the images that came up when I searched that term.
Images like the one below got me thinking about lovers sitting together, moving up and down as the merry-go-round turns. Sometimes they move in unison and sometimes in counterpoint. This suggested to me the up and down cycles of relationships. There is also an energy in this photograph with the horses, their mouths open, that evokes a sense of raw passion that might be seen in two young lovers. Lots of fodder for lyrics here.
Or this one here, which for some reason reminded me of a music box and that sense of childhood often associated with amusement parks. I later wrote a wraparound line “I want this to last forever” to tie two verses together. It might very well have been a subconscious response to seeing this image:
This one is a long shot of a pier with an amusement park, and brings thoughts of the seaside and a stroll in the evening air. I might never have considered either of those thoughts had I not seen this picture.
The various elements within the images provide a rich field of ideas that I might not otherwise have immediately associated with a “merry-go-round.” But that richness, that unexpected diversity, leads to more intricately developed themes and more interesting possibilities for lyrics to take shape.
Another dimension to this approach is to see how other people choose to photograph a merry-go-round. This helps me to understand the kinds of images that this phrase might evoke in listeners and provides some clues about what to emphasize or draw out in the lyrics. For example, I saw many time-lapse images of merry-go-rounds, which suggests that it might be something that people will relate to in a song. I’m not sure what that might look like in a lyric but the seed has been planted.
I don’t print the pictures, but I do set up links to the ones I find most interesting and refer to them while I’m working on the song. I suppose one could print them and put them up in the studio for inspiration as well.
Whatever the case, Flickr and other photo sharing sites seem to me to be a great resource for opening up the imagination during the writing process. Thank you Internet!
I began songwriting in my late teens. At some point in my mid-twenties I stopped and went on to other pursuits. Now at mid-life I’ve taken a new interest in putting words to music. It’s mostly for my own pleasure, but part of that pleasure comes from sharing it with others.
So this is a place where I can reflect on the creative process, on what it means to be doing this kind of thing as a forty-something father and husband, and where I can share the fruits of my labour of love with a few friends and family members, or perhaps beyond.
SELKIRK RANGE 