Anifa Posted October 23, 2003 Share Posted October 23, 2003 Yeah, I'm talking about the restless heart style of writing.... Mixed emotions One Song... with three different flavors... The far away guy that is inside and out of your head, but tears your heart to pieces because he doesn't have a clue what he wants.... The asshole on the job that held you in the palm of his hand, then screwed it up BEYOND REPAIR, that now thinks that you're just playing hard to get when you tell him to find some other fool. And then the intellectual mind trap guy that's stays within an arms length that is touchable, but out of reach. The passion is there to be had ... but to indulge would be like drinking poison. It's actually somewhat of an interesting combination of emotions to write to. You have the heartache, the fury, and the frustration all bottled into one. How many of you folks write by emotions? I know that when I'm too mixed up over one guy to think clearly and write quality songs; I take a walk down memory lane. You can take the man away from his music, but you can't take the music out of the man. Books by Craig Anderton through Amazon Sweetwater: Bruce Swedien\'s "Make Mine Music" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cherri Posted October 23, 2003 Share Posted October 23, 2003 How many of you folks write by emotions?One vote here. www.metalblues.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
george costanza Posted October 23, 2003 Share Posted October 23, 2003 Well, I'd say that any song (whether lyric or just music) that's worth anything needs to arise from a firm emotional base but for it to have any quality worth communicating that it needs to be tempered by some intellectual distance. That's where the impulse is molded into effective communication. Otherwise, I think, the effort can too easily be just another instance of "self-expression" pretending to art. That may sound harsher than intended---I like a lot of material that comes from the various folk traditions & even the "singer-songwriter" genre but there 's always something new in what appeals to me...a lyrical or musical twist or something that keeps it from falling into cliched territory. I think the emotional content is most effective at the performance level, rather than the writing stage. An example: Randy Newman's early song "I Think It's Going To Rain Today". The entire idea of the song is mawkishly self-pitying but one line goes "Human kindness is overflowing & I think it's going to rain today." He could've never arrived at that line without considerable conscious sculpting of the song's basic emotion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magicman Posted October 23, 2003 Share Posted October 23, 2003 Originally posted by Baby J-Ani: How many of you folks write by emotions? I know that when I'm too mixed up over one guy to think clearly and write quality songs; I take a walk down memory lane.It's always an emotion that starts a song for me too. I hope to one day be able to capture it in a song better. "I believe that if it were left to artists to choose their own labels, most would choose none." - Ben Shahn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
¾ Posted October 23, 2003 Share Posted October 23, 2003 both emotion and craft the best ones have the emotional connection, but they could start out from a craft song inspiration or emotional boiling inarticulate timebombs swell out of me through some slow screaming melody ~ and afterwards I count on craft to give it some shape, some form, some distance if needed the more I live, the more small-emotional my songs and small-emotional seems to work better for me than big-emotional also, I must remember that being detached and cold is also an emotion. I think of detached, removed and cold as being the "zero point" of emotional range scale. And towards one side are 1-to-10 of happiness, and the other side of zero is 1-to-10 of despair because being removed can be vital to a third person lyric, witness to the train wreck of others what happened? they fell in love what kind of love? the only good signature is the one on a cheque or a confession Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
¾ Posted October 23, 2003 Share Posted October 23, 2003 and also I find that over my own history, the songs I most like ~ of mine or anyone else ~ are the ones that I would term "Bitter Sweet" Bitter Sweet best sums up the human condition And that combination of cynic/optimist or that combination of any two conflicting emotions can sometimes yield tremendous results in a song because sometimes, most times we are all just torn by what is happening in our lives I think the more alive we are, the more we are paying attention to our crummy little paradise, the more we realize the good and bad inhabit the same moment. Mixed emotions? Maybe one adivce would be to keep any mixed emotions in a song down to two. We are not writing novels. We are writing short stories (which can be strung together to form a novel). And maybe sometimes when I fail, I try to put too much, too many mixed emotions in a song. One emotion in a song is great. Two conflicting, torn emotions in a song is gangbusters. Because torn is how most of us live. Torn between staying here and leaving, torn between keeping house and roaming the wide world torn between waiting it out, seeing how life all turns out and jumping off a bridge right now if you are not torn, you are not alive, you are just riding out Casual Jeans Day at the Office of Life until it is time to go home Be torn between two emotions, but not mixed by three the only good signature is the one on a cheque or a confession Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
¾ Posted October 23, 2003 Share Posted October 23, 2003 which is not to ever dismiss nebulous being vague and nebulous can be wonderful in a song but learn your axioms first the only good signature is the one on a cheque or a confession Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skipclone 1 Posted October 24, 2003 Share Posted October 24, 2003 songs about real life can be great but so much of real life isn`t especialy interesting. Catch the defining moments. I do the laundry too. Same old surprises, brand new cliches- Skipsounds on Soundclick: www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandid=602491 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anifa Posted October 24, 2003 Author Share Posted October 24, 2003 Through years of studying the craft of songwriting, I've learned to use emotions to inspire more philosophical lyrics. I can't stand to listen to crybaby's telling about how so and so broke their heart. It's one thing to mention it in a forum as to what the ingredients are that go into a song; but the outcome of the song will be entirely different. Here's the song that I wrote for SOMA's song #1 entry on the Fantasy League Project over on Collaborator's Corner, the music was rewritten by DanS while keeping the basic concept of the original melody I wrote with the song... The rest of the team (Bob Phillips, Brett Rader, & Frank Raffles) filled out the musical accompaniment! And of course, we can't forget the master engineering that pulled the whole thing together.... http://musicbizbuzz.net/soma/hatm.htm You can take the man away from his music, but you can't take the music out of the man. Books by Craig Anderton through Amazon Sweetwater: Bruce Swedien\'s "Make Mine Music" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Borland Posted October 24, 2003 Share Posted October 24, 2003 Originally posted by cherri: How many of you folks write by emotions?One vote here.Most of my favourite songs are by song writers who use a mixture of storytelling imagary but fill it with incredible emotion, examples being Across the River or Jungleland from Bruce Springsteens Born to Run Album, Billy Austin By Steve Earle and mostly anything by Tom Petty or Tom Cochrane. I have most success when I try to write in this way as it is the memory and visual images I have of experience that allow me to define the emotion. I have a lot of trouble writing about things I have not experienced or 'making up' a story song. Luckily I only write for my own pleasure anyway so I don't need a formula or anything to make a living otherwise I would be so damn poor! Mark Growing old is inevitable....Growing up is optional ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kendrix Posted October 24, 2003 Share Posted October 24, 2003 Originally posted by Mark Borland: Originally posted by cherri: How many of you folks write by emotions?One vote here.Most of my favourite songs are by song writers who use a mixture of storytelling imagary but fill it with incredible emotion, examples being Across the River or Jungleland from Bruce Springsteens Born to Run Album, Billy Austin By Steve Earle and mostly anything by Tom Petty or Tom Cochrane. I have most success when I try to write in this way as it is the memory and visual images I have of experience that allow me to define the emotion. I have a lot of trouble writing about things I have not experienced or 'making up' a story song. Luckily I only write for my own pleasure anyway so I don't need a formula or anything to make a living otherwise I would be so damn poor! MarkMark I agree totally, The propoer mix of imagery and emotional connotation is really key. Its all about balance and interesting interplay betsween the two. Also, like you, I basically write and record for my own pleasure (though I do try and shop some of my better efforts around). This is both a blessing and a curse. It frees you from the tyranny of the marketplace. However, the market pressures may provide a means to improve that i dont fully benefit from. - I still get paid at my day job no matter if i write dribble or a masterpiece. One other point. Someone mentioned the critical importance of prosody. Before I started writing listening to a song was mostly about teh sounds and the music and only secondarily about the lyric. I guesss my point is that I can tell little about a song from just the lyric.- and some mediocre lyrics can be part of very effective songs sometimes. Check out some tunes here: http://www.garageband.com/artist/KenFava Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Borland Posted October 24, 2003 Share Posted October 24, 2003 Originally posted by Kendrix: [One other point. Someone mentioned the critical importance of prosody. Before I started writing listening to a song was mostly about teh sounds and the music and only secondarily about the lyric. I guesss my point is that I can tell little about a song from just the lyric.- and some mediocre lyrics can be part of very effective songs sometimes.Kendrix I also agree with this as if you listen to the music of some celtic bands like Clannad or Enya or even some more mainstream songs, it is the music or vocals used as an instrument that convey the 'feeling' of the song not just or necessarily the lyrics. Mark Growing old is inevitable....Growing up is optional ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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