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Richard Scotti
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7/16/2019 11:29:50 AM
---- Updated 7/16/2019 11:31:39 AM
Lyrics - Let's talk
Open question to all: Which kind of lyrics are you drawn to in the work of other artists and why? Which ones tend to exemplify your own work and why? (It can be more than one) Which ones are you not crazy about and why?
1) romantic love
2) current events
3) Lyrics that are symbolic and metaphorical
4) Stories based on your own personal life experiences
5) Emotional pain
6) Relationship breakups
7) Subconscious thoughts
8) Words based on dreams
9) Any other lyrics not mentioned here
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A) Which is easier for you to write - words or music and why?
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B) Which artists write lyrics that inspire your own work and best represent your approach to lyrics?
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C) Do you ever write songs that are extensions of each other or related thematically or conceptually so that they would create a larger statement when played sequentially on a CD?
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D) How important is the title of a song? Do you keep a list of potential titles?
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Father Time
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7/16/2019 3:04:55 PM
I'm most interested in words that sound good together.
A. Words are easier, to write an original melody you sort of have to get lucky.
B. Neil Young, Beatles, Jim Carroll
C. yes, often, they're all related. :)
D. pretty important but not that important, No
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Richard Scotti
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7/16/2019 5:05:56 PM
I favor 1,3,4 & 7
A) I can practically write a song in my sleep.
My brain is like a sponge that has absorbed
thousands of musical ideas and riffs over the years but writing lyrics is really a challenge, especially in genres that require a higher standard of excellence.
B) Bob Dylan, The Band, Leonard Cohen,
Kurt Cobain
C) I don’t do it intentionally but sometimes it happens accidentally
D) I think titles are important. They draw people in
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Mike Lance
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7/16/2019 8:59:31 PM
---- Updated 7/16/2019 9:01:28 PM
3, 4 and 8
Music is easier for me. Possibly because you have an easier template to work with with only so many keys and chords to progress into etc. Lyrics are vast and not so easy to navigate I suppose.
Tom Waits. He knows how to set the scene. You get the characters and the year and the weather and suddenly you're living the scenario. Witticisms abound.
Also not intentionally, but sometimes I find myself wading in the same pool multiple times. Chalk it up to a lack of imagination more than anything I guess.
Titles are very important for multiple reasons. The marketing of the song is an obvious one. But in a way, the right title can make a song sound better. If it's a direct line from the hook, for instance, the line will get that bit of extra emphasis when sung. Take for example a song on IMP, Neil w Young's "1959." At When you hear the title in the verses, it has an extra bite that wouldn't be present had the song been given another title. It's all in how music plays on our expectations. Sometimes the way a title looks can make a difference too. Not an IMP artist this time, but the National discussed this regarding their song "Bloodbuzz Ohio". It was changed from "Blood Buzz Ohio", because the former just looked more fluid and suited the music better.
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Chandra Moon
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7/18/2019 9:14:19 AM
For me it's rhythm, words, melody and work out how to play it in that order!
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Hop On Pop
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7/19/2019 8:36:36 AM
As long as they mean something to ME, and I can connect with them, I can sing them.
One of my most-popular songs is one that I am not really all that connected with, emotionally. So I almost never sing it when I play gigs. But I have a lot of people tell me that they love it.
A strange disconnect.
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Shoe City Sound
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7/19/2019 10:42:23 AM
As to C) I have looked over SCS archives that date years back and have to laugh because it seems like I've written the same song over and over. The words and music are all different, but there is just the one theme. I never realized it as I was writing any of them. I just kind of wait for some words to "come to me". I don't know where they ideas come from. They seem to just occur to me at the moment.
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Bob Elliott
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7/19/2019 10:42:41 AM
I have methods of rhyme and thought that I could discuss a bit, but what I’m mostly doing is trying to tune in to a part of me down in the shadows. The shadowy part has most of the best material. This part of the self is not easily bossed. It gives what it gives when it gives, and I write it down in my ‘notes’ app.
Like there is a better writer down deep, and I try to get out of the way and catch what comes from there.
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Bob Elliott
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7/19/2019 10:49:23 AM
The shadow part is not ever concerned with completion, though. You know how it can dump about two thirds of a song out for you and leave you to finish. And then you have to put it together without crushing the magic. That process can sometimes take a very long time whereas the part given from the subconscious might come to you in a few minutes. The completion could take hours, days, weeks, years.
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Stoneman
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7/20/2019 2:46:34 AM
3) Lyrics that are symbolic and metaphorical! I like to see how clever people can say the same things that have been said before a thousand different ways. I am intrigued by melody and harmony. For me, the best songs are the songs that continue to reverberate in my ears long after I have turned off the music. That is the effect that I shoot for in on music. I seldom reach the mark but I keep trying to get there. To me, a good song is a song that you cannot seem to forget.
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Richard Scotti
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7/20/2019 1:05:01 PM
---- Updated 7/20/2019 1:07:36 PM
@ Bob Elliot - Shadowland is often deep in the subconscious, exemplified in Dylan's "Tambourine Man"
And if you hear vague traces
Of skipping reels of rhyme
To your tambourine in time
It's just a ragged clown behind
I wouldn't pay it any mind
That's just a shadow you're seeing that he's chasing
@ Stoneman - I admire your humility! You always reach the mark in my book!
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