Being an aspiring songwriter I have been thinking about styles of song writing. I am not saying there are only two styles but a good friend of mine (Tyler Bussey) told me a story that characterized two styles of song writing pretty well. The two styles are the Lennon style and the McCartney style. Now, these two men are arguably the two best pop song writers ever (notice the use of arguably...). Tyler explained to me that they wrote very differently. Lennon would just write a song in a couple of minutes just letting the words flow out of him. I have heard it worded differently, replacing the word "flow" with "poo" or "diarrhea". Simply he would sit down and play some chords and just sing over them and a song would happen. On the other hand McCartney would labor over a tune for an extended period of time (could have been hours, days, months, or maybe even years). He was meticulous about his music and wanted everything to be perfect.
Two other examples of each style would be Damien Rice and Bruce Springsteen. I have heard another story, not from the mouth of this man but through liner notes on one of his records, that Damien Rice told of how the lyrics to a certain song of his just "pooed" out of him. Indeed, this story was confirmed when in concert Mr. Rice told the story of how he wrote the song "Eskimo Friend". Allegedly, he was asked by a record company to write more "uppers" for a record him and his band were making. He spent the day writing three really "shit" songs and got so frustrated he threw his guitar on the floor. Upon doing so he realized that he did not own this guitar and quickly picked it up and made sure it was okay. As the legend goes the capo happened to be on the fifth fret and he just played the first chord of the song and immediately he sang "Tiredness stills..." and the song literally just fell off his tongue.
In stark contrast is a man that I admire very much, Bruce or "The Boss" if you will. This man has these blue notebooks that are filled with lyrics. The lyrics start as rough drafts and then are refined meticulously to the point of ridiculous. For his masterpiece, "Born To Run" the man continually rewrote the lyrics to make sure he was saying exactly what he wanted to say in the best way possible. This goes hand in and with the music. While he had the basic melodies, chords, and lyrics before going into the studio he arranged them countless different ways. Truly an artist slaving away to write a masterpiece.
Now, here's the point: is there a better way? Is letting music flow naturally out of you the best way to write or is slaving over a song work better. I would say writing requires a work ethic and patience, but it sure feels great to just have an amazing song flow out of you. I know people have different preferences in relation to the four writers mentioned above but you can not argue that many look at each artist as great in the realm of songwriting.
I don't want to answer that (mostly because I don't have an answer), but I can share my experience. Due to events in my life (some amazing, some stressful) I began to fill my black notebook just up with ideas beginning this April. Lyrics began to flow naturally out of me and I wrote everything down. Melodies just came to my head as well as chord changes. It seems interesting to me that this just seemed to happen as of April 1st. Now its only three months down the road but looking back I see several reasons for this. First, the events in my life gave me a lot of things to write about. In other words, I needed to get these ideas and things out on paper to sort out how I felt about them. As cliche as this might sound, I was using music as therapy. Secondly, musically I came to a new stone in maturity. What I was listening to had expanded from the single genre of melodic rock to many other things. I had a much larger palette to choose from and it enabled me to write more. Thirdly (or maybe a part of the last thing) I had skill wise improved. I had found my voice vocally. I had come to place where I enjoyed singing and felt like I had a grasp on it (not an expert but at least on a road that I enjoyed). I also had a better understand of music and what things to play to evoke certain feelings. All these things helped music flow more naturally.
At this point you are probably saying okay so he is in the McCartney school, but here's the thing: I don't want to be in the McCartney school. Like most people of my generation I am obsessed with being in the center. I am not making myself be in this place but I felt pulled toward that. While I have written a lot over the past three months I do not believe any of these songs are finished. At some point I need to stop writing new things and go over everything I have and really work on the lyrics. Like one of my song writing heroes, Mr. Springsteen, I need to take my notebook and (possibly with a new notebook) rewrite the song until I am at a place where I am saying what I want to say, with the best language possible. I then need to really solidify melodies. I would go on to talk about arrangements, but I do not have a band to do such a thing with...yet.
So I guess I would just like to hear what my fellow songwriters or maybe just listeners think about these ideas. If your a writer what do you tends toward? What do you want to tend toward? As a listener, if you know what a certain favorite writer of yours tends toward how do you think that effects the music? Any other comments or responses are appreciated.
Listening to: Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger
Two other examples of each style would be Damien Rice and Bruce Springsteen. I have heard another story, not from the mouth of this man but through liner notes on one of his records, that Damien Rice told of how the lyrics to a certain song of his just "pooed" out of him. Indeed, this story was confirmed when in concert Mr. Rice told the story of how he wrote the song "Eskimo Friend". Allegedly, he was asked by a record company to write more "uppers" for a record him and his band were making. He spent the day writing three really "shit" songs and got so frustrated he threw his guitar on the floor. Upon doing so he realized that he did not own this guitar and quickly picked it up and made sure it was okay. As the legend goes the capo happened to be on the fifth fret and he just played the first chord of the song and immediately he sang "Tiredness stills..." and the song literally just fell off his tongue.
In stark contrast is a man that I admire very much, Bruce or "The Boss" if you will. This man has these blue notebooks that are filled with lyrics. The lyrics start as rough drafts and then are refined meticulously to the point of ridiculous. For his masterpiece, "Born To Run" the man continually rewrote the lyrics to make sure he was saying exactly what he wanted to say in the best way possible. This goes hand in and with the music. While he had the basic melodies, chords, and lyrics before going into the studio he arranged them countless different ways. Truly an artist slaving away to write a masterpiece.
Now, here's the point: is there a better way? Is letting music flow naturally out of you the best way to write or is slaving over a song work better. I would say writing requires a work ethic and patience, but it sure feels great to just have an amazing song flow out of you. I know people have different preferences in relation to the four writers mentioned above but you can not argue that many look at each artist as great in the realm of songwriting.
I don't want to answer that (mostly because I don't have an answer), but I can share my experience. Due to events in my life (some amazing, some stressful) I began to fill my black notebook just up with ideas beginning this April. Lyrics began to flow naturally out of me and I wrote everything down. Melodies just came to my head as well as chord changes. It seems interesting to me that this just seemed to happen as of April 1st. Now its only three months down the road but looking back I see several reasons for this. First, the events in my life gave me a lot of things to write about. In other words, I needed to get these ideas and things out on paper to sort out how I felt about them. As cliche as this might sound, I was using music as therapy. Secondly, musically I came to a new stone in maturity. What I was listening to had expanded from the single genre of melodic rock to many other things. I had a much larger palette to choose from and it enabled me to write more. Thirdly (or maybe a part of the last thing) I had skill wise improved. I had found my voice vocally. I had come to place where I enjoyed singing and felt like I had a grasp on it (not an expert but at least on a road that I enjoyed). I also had a better understand of music and what things to play to evoke certain feelings. All these things helped music flow more naturally.
At this point you are probably saying okay so he is in the McCartney school, but here's the thing: I don't want to be in the McCartney school. Like most people of my generation I am obsessed with being in the center. I am not making myself be in this place but I felt pulled toward that. While I have written a lot over the past three months I do not believe any of these songs are finished. At some point I need to stop writing new things and go over everything I have and really work on the lyrics. Like one of my song writing heroes, Mr. Springsteen, I need to take my notebook and (possibly with a new notebook) rewrite the song until I am at a place where I am saying what I want to say, with the best language possible. I then need to really solidify melodies. I would go on to talk about arrangements, but I do not have a band to do such a thing with...yet.
So I guess I would just like to hear what my fellow songwriters or maybe just listeners think about these ideas. If your a writer what do you tends toward? What do you want to tend toward? As a listener, if you know what a certain favorite writer of yours tends toward how do you think that effects the music? Any other comments or responses are appreciated.
Listening to: Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger
1 comment:
I don't know, man. I think no matter how you come up with a good song is a good way. Either way, it takes hard work. Sometimes, I come up with a good thing right on the spot, but only because I've already spent a gabillion hours improvising and fooling around. Other times it takes forever to come up with one good line. Does it matter?
When a song is how you want it, it's how you want it.
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