I’ve recently finished a song with a co-writer. The funny thing about it is, it’s a Christmas song. Oh yeah, I’ve written another. And even more bizarre is I’ve been asked by another friend to co-write some more of them. Crazy! The tough part on this particular song is, now the co-writer is asking me what bands it’s supposed to sound like. So what I’ve done is gone and asked a variety of friends to listen. The answers that have been coming back are varied. No two people have said the same thing. To me, that says the song is very original. Something I love to strive for in my own music that I do for me. However, when I write with a co-writer, there is generally a direction and desire to go with. Apparently this time, that got overly muddled with my musical fingerprints.
Aside from people having a little difficulty picking a band or two the song is supposed to sound like, everyone is saying, damn that’s a great song. That’s a plus.
I’ve also written some lyrics for a song with another new friend who is turning into a co-writer. He’s done a lot of TV and Film work. Until it becomes a finished piece I’ll withhold the name. However, the first set of lyrics I wrote for a track he has were too quirky. I actually kinda liked them and based on the bands he was going after it was perfect. However it was back to the drawing board and I whipped up another set of lyrics that encapsulated a story that I really love called The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Yeah, that’s right. And the funny thing is, he loved it. Now we’re setting up a time to tweak the words a little and lay down a vocal.
Suppose the same can be said for those who got involved with Madoff. Oy, that’s a mess isn’t it? How could the SEC not have figured that one out?!? Ouch. But then a lot of us are feeling a hefty pinch right now. I should be happy that people are starting to seek me out to write, and mix stuff for them.
I was looking for a song about people not knowing, but for all the songs I have in my library about now knowing or even knowing things, I couldn’t find anything that matched better than The Tragically Hip’s She Didn’t Know. I really need to start plowing through a lot of the submissions that I have from artists, I’m a little back logged. Like many people I’m working more for less. Of course that’s the infamous line for any artist in the field of music.
What do I dig about the Hip? Their innate sense of the way rock should be – off the cuff. They don’t feel like they are completely planned out. I’ve never seen them live but a friend of mine has. He says that you never know what you’re going to get out of the singer. From what I understand, he has a tendency to improve his words. Which is probably why the songs have a feel of being off the cuff. They get an idea and then roll with it. Much like the jam sessions at the Kibitz room. An idea starts for a song, but it mutates around the song.
The story contained here in She Didn’t Know has to do with a relationship that obviously didn’t end in the result of the character involved would have thought. It involves a gun and of course that doesn’t bode well for the receiving end of the barrel. Which fits inline with what I was thinking about today. People are starting to get over worked, and can’t do the research or learning to stay on top of things. Which can obviously lead to problems. Doncha think?
I would have put an iTunes link but for some reason the link maker is broken today. I wonder if it’s because of the new version of iTunes that came out today. Go figure.