Day 49 - Why Songwriters Co-write

Week 6

The current, apparent craze for co-writing among songwriters is anything but new.

Gilbert & Sullivan, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Carole King & Gerry Goffin, Elton John & Bernie Taupin, Lennon & McCartney, Kurt Weill & Bertolt Brecht, the Gershwins, Felice & Boudleaux Bryant …

In any decade, across all genres, any compilation of the partners' names in timeless collaborations is made more remarkable by the names left off the list than those included.

I've done a few co-writes now. Even at this stage, I've begun to notice differences from situation to situation. Some collaborative efforts flow smoothly, like melted butter on a hot biscuit. Others are a bit of a grind, more like shoveling gravel.

A composer no less revered than Igor Stravinsky has extolled the virtues of 'constraints' during the creative process, equating them with strength in the completed work. So these more challenging co-writes are not a bad thing. In fact, if pursued to a high artistic standard, they can result in songs of enduring quality.

In an attempt to learn more about the fascinating co-writing process, I went online where I discovered this interesting and informative article on the subject. Be warned, it's a bit of a read, but well worth the effort:

http://arpjournal.com/875/collaborative-songwriting-–-the-ontology-of-negotiated-creativity-in-popular-music-studio-practice/

I was surprised and somewhat vindicated, as we all might be, to read Bennet's detailed description of the collaborative songwriting process. He says there are six stages:

"Stimulus, approval, adaptation, negotiation, veto and consensus."

After the initial stimulus or seed idea, these processes are repeated in no specific order, until consensus is achieved on the completed song.

Judy Marshak brought the seed material. From that point on, looks like Marshak & Rose did it by the book!

Why do songwriters cowrite? Because when the member writers are committed to the process, the creative mélange stirred into the pot results in better songs, in a shorter amount of time. The amazing results of everyone's work in Week 6 prove it!

I couldn't be more pleased with what I've learned and how I've grown during this 6-week Challenge. I've managed to connect with several of you, my fellow songwriters, and hope to meet more of you, now that we have common ground on which to run and play.

Kudos to Lily Cheng for putting this Challenge together. What a remarkably talented, perceptive and pro-active young woman you are, Lily.

And to Christopher Ward for his inspiring insights into the creative process. I'll be looking even more deeply into his On Songwriting series. Curious about "Dead Brilliant", his new book, too!

And thanks to my fellow participating songwriters, who gave selflessly, not only in working so hard to write great songs (we all know it's not as easy as it looks), but in providing the invaluable feedback that drives us all to be our very best.

See you in the 'writing room'.



No More Time for Tears

Performed by Judy Marshak

Chorus

No more time for wishing
No more time for tears  
For all this time has left the wounds of wasted years

Verse 1
                                           
We've been treading deep water
Pulled down by the past
Struggling to close the rift, we're
Near exhaustion, gone adrift here
Weighted down by questions never asked

Verse 2

I was a rider on your journey
Shared some rough terrain
Always asking 'are we there yet?'
Round in circles, unaware that
After all those miles, lost again

Chorus

No more time for wishing
No more time for tears
For all this time has left the wounds of wasted years

Verse 3

We had the steamy nights of summer
The wistful days of fall
But with the bitter frost of winter
Loneliness and heartbreak lingered
Still you promised we could have it all.

Chorus

No more time for wishing
No more time for tears
For all this time has left the wounds of wasted years

Bridge

Measuring the memories
Of a life in photographs                
It's not enough, oh it's not enough
So let go of the promises
Remember, we did laugh
I know it's tough, but darlin' you can be tough

Instr, Chorus

Chorus

No more time for wishing
I'm so tired of these tears
For all this time has left the wounds of wasted years

No more time for wishing
No more time for tears
Wishing won't give back the wasted years

© 2014 Judy Marshak & Wayne Rose

Day 37 - Dream, Dream, Got Me Dreamin' Sweet Dreams

Week 5

Due date today. Determined to get something up. So submitting lyrics only for now. Wrecked my hip. Confined to bed. Quite painful to move. Will try and get a track up in the next few days, depending on my recovery time.

I wrote six stream-of-consciousness pieces for this week. The one I chose is based on a recurring memory. My parents split up, when I was seventeen. As one way of dealing with it, I used to take long, solitary drives into the country, at all hours of the day or night. Those drives soothed my soul, and I have loved driving ever since.

Two years earlier, at fifteen, I worked for a summer in an auto rebuild shop. It was difficult and dirty work - 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. five days a week, plus a half day on Saturday, for 50 cents an hour, twenty-five dollars a week.

In addition to odd jobs, my primary task was to strip down and clean the engines that came into the shop. We got everything, from 850cc Morris Minis to Oldsmobile overhead-valve straight eights. Mostly what came through the back door, though, were Chevy 6-cylinder L-heads and Ford flathead V-8's.  I got to learn those engines inside-out.

My closest cousin, two years older than me, owned two Ford flatheads, a '51 and a '53, both black. The original Ford of that design, the first model to roll off the assembly line after WWII, was the 1949 Ford. This week's song is my tribute to that automobile. In particular, the 1949 Ford Club Coupe.

As in Brian Wilson's Little Deuce Coupe, there's a bit of terminology in the song that might be a bit esoteric for some. That didn't stop the Beach Boys tune, or Hot Rod Lincoln by Charlie Ryan, from becoming huge hits.

The song form isn't decided yet. I've included a potential Chorus and Bridge. That'll all get worked out when I record the scratch demo.

Hope you like this one.

49 Ford

She’s my forty-nine Ford, love to feel her move

When she starts to rumble, puts me right in the mood

She’s got a heart of steel, an’ she’s quick off the line

Don’t she look pretty, my Club Coupe forty-nine

Under the hood, she’s got a flathead vee-eight

With a four-barrel carb, she don’t make me wait

Bored to three-twenty cubes, with a Mercury crank

She’ll top a hundred and thirty, all the way to the bank

Chopped—dropped, long and low on the chassis

When I take her cruisin’ she looks real sassy

With her Detroit mags, and chrome-spinner grille

In her custom flame job, she’s the queen of the hill

She ain’t no hardtop

She ain’t no Fordor sedan

She ain’t no ragtop

She’s my Ford Club Coupe forty-nine

Catch her if you can
Catch her if you can

The girls all smile, as I drive by

Their boyfriends wanna punch out my headlights

I don't care, 'cause I love my steady girl

And she loves my Ford Club Coupe forty-nine

Day 32 - Clocks, Cliques and Cliches, What Fun!

Week 4

Both by predilection and plain old habit, I research idioms, colloquialisms and cliches for practically every song I write. So this week's assignment was "right up my alley", if I do say so, and I do.

I've had the hook for this for a few months, but the lyrics were a study in cliches - cop cliches, in fact. I was really under the gun to get it finished.

I enjoyed the process immensely.

A few words about what the song will be, but isn't yet:-

I did a slightly more developed scratch demo for this one, but most of the arrangement, by necessity, had to be left out. So many notes, so little time!

The 8-bar Intro is intended to be sparse - just drums and the lead guitar hook (riff).

There are a couple of 2-bar Breaks between the verses, that are now essentially empty, but which will contain the BG Vocal: "Shoot, shoot".

There's an 8-bar Instrumental Bridge which is to contain hand claps, lead guitar riffs, a gun ricochet, and vocals singing "woo-oo-ooooo", "shoot, shoot" and "he's the love detective", but currently doesn't.

The Coda is a spoken-word section, a mini-play, with background vocals interspersed.

The Extro is the hook, repeated to fade.

The song could easily end up having more instruments, e.g., horns, tambourine or other percussion, and sound effects, e.g., man walking down a hallway, a firm knock on a door, car tires screeching. That said, the song is pretty long as it is, just under 4 minutes.

The demo is rudimentary. I know quite a bit about audio engineering, but theoretical knowledge and doing are horses of a different colour. I definitely need lots of practice, at songwriting, audio mixing and horse riding, so this is good for me on both the writing and production fronts, possibly not so much on the equestrian front, or back, depending on which way you're facing on the horse.

Hope you like the song.



Love Detective

Verse 1

I'm on stakeout, baby, at the scene of the crime
Looks like you're the victim of a heartbreak
I’m waitin’ for my C.I. to drop a dime
And roundin’ up the usual suspects

Verse 2

I’m working undercover, sussin’ out the clues
Got a tail shadowing the perpetrator
He’s been shakin’ you down with his condescending views
He thinks he’s such a cool impersonator

Well ...

Chorus 1

I’m the love detective
I never back down, or give up the chase
I’m the love detective
I can always crack the toughest case

Verse 3

When your heart’s gone cold, and the case has too
I’ll help you find the missing evidence
I’m sorry, baby, but I’ll have to question you
Though I never spill a secret told in confidence

'Cause ...

Chorus

Instr. Bridge

Verse 4

You’ll have to look at a lineup, and testify
But I’ll put you under witness protection
We’ll keep it under wraps, and kill the headlines
'Til the con man's in the house of correction

Verse 5

When your heart’s gone cold, and the case has too
I’ll help you find the missing evidence
Cause I’m not the kind o’ P.I. to play fast and loose
And I never spill a secret told in confidence

No, I won't divulge a secret told in confidence

Chorus

Coda: BG's and Spoken Lines

He's the love detective

"What? You know how to use a gun, don’t you?"

(Ricochet SFX)

"Guess not."

He's the love detective

"Ok, let’s run down this alley."

"Wait, there’s a car comin’."

"Quick, up the fire escape."

He's the love detective

"So, why’d you wear high heels and a short skirt?"

"Well yeah, I like ‘em, I’m just sayin’ …"

Extro (Repeat To Fade)

I'm the love detective

Baby, I’m the love detective

I'm the love detective

Doncha know, I'm the love detective

Yes, I'm the love detective

The love detective.

© 2014 Wayne Rose

Day 25 - Deadines Were Made To Be Broken!

Week 3

Well … this is embarassing! Not really, but I do want to explain.

I began my Week 3 effort with a concept I really felt strongly about. It was a message song with a devastating story behind it. As the writing progressed I encountered some serious creative hurdles - the content was so disturbing that I had difficulty deciding what to emphasize. After changing the hook, the process became even more convoluted. Near the end of the week, I was forced to put it on the back burner in the "more thought required" category.

So … once again, I turned to a song I originally wrote years ago, but hadn't completed. Just a few notes about the scratch track and some production ideas to help you imagine what the song might eventually sound like.

First, some of the lyrics are wrong in the track. The words in the printed lyrics are the right ones.

I hear this tune as a bluesy rock kind of thing, with soul chorus type background vocals, possibly an equally soulful horn trio.

There is a short instrumental break after the Bridge. This is intended to be an extended instrumental solo section in the final production - could be anything from electric guitar to piano or organ, even horn or horn soli.

The last chorus could be repeated, any number of times, and the coda should be ad lib, or even extend into a jam type out chorus sort of thing.

I'm not happy with the melody in the Bridge yet - it's in the ball park, but needs some tweaking.

I apologize for the performance and the recording - had to get something up as quickly as I could.

The lyric is finished - finally.

Hope you like it.



Afraid Of Love

Verse 1

Was it something you said,
That was rolling around in my head?
While we were pretending a little blindness

All I was tryin' to do
Was find a little comfort in you
No lines rehearsed, just extending some mutual kindness

Chorus 1

But you turned out to be
An angel from the seventh dimension
Now I can't help but see
That I'm afraid of love
Yes, I'm afraid of love

Verse 2

Whatever it is you've done
I wanna break my cover and run
Now every time I think of you, I start to tremble

When our eyes meet and you give me that look
Another page is torn from the book
And why it used to hurt so bad, I can't quite remember

Chorus

Bridge

I stand here in this derelict disguise
Begging now, before the gates of paradise
For a lifetime I've been falling
Now I feel my soul dissolving
Clinging to this ledge
About to slip off the edge

Instrumental Solos (extended)

Chorus

Coda

Afraid of love
I'm afraid of love
Afraid of love
Afraid of love

(Vamp & repeat to fade)

© Copyright 2000, 2014 Wayne Rose

Day 14 - Late Again! But Got 'R Done.

Week 2

I began the lyric for this song last June, as an assignment in Pat Pattison's online course at www.coursera.org. It's been sitting there, taunting me, ever since.

My goal for this week was to finish the lyric and write the music. I'm not going to pretend it was easy, but it was a rewarding experience. Maybe I can turn out a song a week, after all.

This song is intended to be sung by a soft, soprano voice (female, in case you were wondering). I can't fake that, no matter how I try, so I've recorded a piano track playing the melody, and printed the lyrics below. It should be straightforward to follow along, for those who want to do that.

By the way, I'm looking for vocalists to sing a nice demo for this one. Maybe we can do some kind of reciprocal deal, my skills for yours. Leave your name below, if you're interested.

The song is complete, but not in its final form yet. I still need to play around with the phrasing, and possibly tweak the melody in places. The lyric is finished.

I hope you like it.



Insignificant Other

Verse 1

When you show her our old photographs, I'm not there
Conspicuously absent, as if you never cared
You tell her every detail, of all the plans we made
But change the "we" to "I", then glance away

Chorus 1

I'm your insignificant other
Who loved you so
Your inconsequential lover
Who had to let you go
Was I the last to know?

Verse 2

On cooler days, I stay inside with books and cups of tea
From time to time, I meet with friends I see infrequently
It really hasn't been that long, can't say I'm over you
My life's just smaller now, and quiet too

Chorus 2

I'm your insignificant other
Who loved you so
Your inconsequential lover
Who had to let you go
Please say it isn't so

Bridge

Older, on your own
As memories dim
Do you ever feel my heart
Beat faster next to yours
Or hear my laughter
Softly in your ear
Is there anything at all that's left of me
Or will I always be

Chorus 3

Your insignificant other
Who loved you so
Your inconsequential lover
Who had to let you go
No one will ever know

Fine

(c) Copyright 2014 Wayne Rose
 

Day 7 - Whew! Made It, Barely.

Wow! Busy week. Been listening to and reading about as many of my fellow songwriters as I can fit in. Some really beautiful material being created through this inspiring program.

I haven't posted my personal title, themes and first lines yet. Not sure I see the benefit. We'll see.

I began a new song for week 1. I was just completing the research (I often write songs that require research), when in my writing software, I noticed a song I started a couple of years ago. It's been bugging me ever since. This week challenged me to finish it, so I did.

This is a guitar/vocal scratch track with no processing (except for a limiter with dithering on the output), recorded using the electret condenser mic on my M-Audio Microtrack, and edited in Pro Tools. Not bad sound, considering.

I've embedded the Soundcloud track here, so viewers can read the lyrics as they listen, if they want to.

For ease of access, I'll also post it on the Challenge Blog and S.A.C. Challenge Facebook group page.

I don't write a lot of protest songs, but once and a while I get the urge. This one was inspired by the award winning video "Food Inc." by film maker Robert Kenner. Hope you like it.

Please Note: The widget works in some browsers but not in others, so just in case, here's the external link:

Soundcloud: Salt Of The Earth



Salt Of The Earth

Verse 1

He's a generation farmer, that's all he's ever known
Kept his loving wife and daughter, and a son who'll take the farm
Works the soil from dawn til dusk, blessed by God and sun and rain
He's never been the kind of man to go against the grain

Verse 2

On the wind the bad seed blew in, and grew amongst the good
Now the corporation's making threats against his livelihood
To the company thugs it's just another battle for control
They're trying to drive him under, they want to take his soul

Chorus 1

People say he's the salt of the earth
Just wants an honest dollar for a hard day's work
Now he's fighting to survive, for everything he's worth
Salt of the earth
Salt of the earth

Verse 3

His closest friend and neighbour for more than forty years
Went bankrupt fighting law suits, from those damned bioengineers
All he did was save his seed, for planting next year's crop
Some whining lap dog turned him in, now his life's a hatchet job

Chorus 2

People say he's the salt of the earth
Born with his sleeves rolled up, and his hands in the dirt
Now he's fighting to survive, for everything he's worth
Salt of the earth
Salt of the earth

Bridge

The lobbyists blindside the politicians
The corporations sabotage the law
While honest farmers sweat and bleed
This fight against the demon seed
Is win, lose or draw
Win, lose or draw

Chorus 3

People say he's the salt of the earth
A man as strong as his handshake, as good as his word
Now he's fighting to survive, for everything he's worth
Salt of the earth
Salt of the earth

Extro

Salt of the earth
Salt of the earth
He's the salt of the earth
Salt of the earth

(Repeat to fade)

(c) 2014 Wayne Rose

Day 2 - So Many Songwriters To Inspire Us All

Wanting to take Chris' assignment seriously, I spent a few hours last night looking up songs I remembered as impressing me, either for their titles, themes, or opening lines. Some difficult decisions.

Here are the nine I decided on, though the same exercise could come out differently a thousand times. I've included the names of the writers with each song. After all, for me at least, it's as important to know who wrote the song as who performed it:

Titles: 

1. Blue Bayou (Roy Orbison & John Melson)

2. Nowhere Man (John Lennon)

3. Someday (Alan Jackson & Jim McBride)

Themes: 

1. alcohol addiction (Whiskey Lullaby - Bill Anderson & Jon Randall)

2. pure unadulterated love (Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman - Bryan Adams, Michael Kamen, Robert Lange)

3. life is tough (Born Under A Bad Sign - Booker T. Jones & William Bell)

First Lines:

1.

"Turn down the lights, turn down the bed

Turn down these voices inside my head"

(I Can't Make You Love Me - Mike Reid & Allen Shamblin)

2.

"Well, if I had money, I tell ya what I'd do

I'd go downtown, buy a Mercury or two"

(Mercury Blues - K.C. Douglas & Robert Geddins)

3.

"On days like these, when the rain won't fall

And the sky is so dry, that even birds can't call

I can feel your tears disappearing in the air …"

(Days Like These - Janis Ian)

Interestingly, I keep an extensive list of song ideas, and guess what? Sometimes these ideas take the form of titles or hooks, sometimes a story or theme, and sometimes a few lines (though they don't always end up as the first lines of the song). Nice call, Chris!