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CRAFT CHAT: songwriting genres -- let's list as many as we can


blue2blue

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Not thinking about commercial or stylistic genres so much as the underlying songwriting, which I hope to suggest by these (easy and obvious) examples, which I'll throw in the ring to get things started... 

[examples optional, as you think necessary]

girl name songs

murder ballads

teen tragey songs ("Teen Angel," "Leader of the Pack")

sea shanties

 

I'll add a couple more from my youth...

hot rod songs

surf instrumentals ("Pipeline")

beach lifestyle songs ("Surfin' Safari")

biker instrumentals, soundtrack themes ("Blue's Theme")

biker lifestyle songs ("Born to Be Wild")

 

... take it...

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blue2blue wrote:

 

Not thinking about commercial or stylistic genres so much as the underlying songwriting, which I hope to suggest by these (easy and obvious) examples, which I'll throw in the ring to get things started... 

[examples optional, as you think necessary]

 


 

Moms and dads: "

," "Bugged at My Old Man," "Dance With My Father..."

Brothers and sisters: "He Ain't Heavy," "Don't Hurt My Little Sister," "We Are Family..."

Wanting to grow up: "When I Grow Up to Be a Man," "Summertime Blues," "

"

Songs about school: "Wonderful World," "Ring, Ring Goes the Bell," "Smokin' in the Boy's Room..."

Summer vacation: "All Summer Long," "It Might as Well Rain Until September," "School's Out..."

Teenage angst: "At Seventeen," "My Generation," "

"

Songs about the rain: "Singin' in the Rain," "

," "Rain" (the Beatles)...

Songs about summer: "Summertime," "

," "Under the Boardwalk," "Summer Breeze..."

Songs about autumn: "The Autumn Leaves," "Moondance," "

," "September in the Rain..."

Songs about winter (non-Christmas): "Hazy Shade of Winter," "California Dreamin'," "

"

Songs about spring: "Here Comes the Sun," "April in Paris," "

"

Songs about Sunday: "Groovin'," "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down," "Sunday Will Never Be the Same..."

Songs about Saturday: "Saturday in the Park," "Saturday Clothes," "The Heart of Saturday Night..."

Songs about Friday: "Black Friday," "

" "I Wish It Was Friday..."

Songs about other days: "Monday, Monday," "Tuesday Afternoon," "Wednesday Morning, 3 AM," "

"

Songs about trains: "City of New Orleans," "Downtown Train," "

"

Songs about planes: "

," "Silver Wings," "Jet Airliner..."

Songs about cars: "Old '55," "409," "Mercury Blues," "Little Red Corvette," "

"

Songs about trucks: "Six Days on the Road," "Phantom 309," "

"

Songs about food: "Bread and Butter," "Brown Sugar," "Eggs and Sausage..."

and probably the most relevant category of all...

Songs about wasting time: "Daydream," "

," "
"
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More topics:

songs about outlaws,

prostitutes,

good girls gone bad,

bad girls who are really good at heart,

songs about friendship,

songs about wanting to move to a new town or city,

songs about being stuck in a new town or city,

songs about sailing (metaphorical),

songs that are actually about sailing,

songs about buses (The Who, The Beatles),

songs about being stuck in train stations and airports,

songs about traveling in general,

songs about actual highways,

songs about reunions,

songs about family life,

lullabies,

songs about ancient history, mythology, battles, etc.,

songs about dying,

songs about killing someone or someone being killed,

songs about small town life,

songs about big city life, neighborhoods, streetcorners, etc.

songs about cronies/homeboys,

songs about dead musicians,

songs about playing sports,

songs about sports (non-metaphorical),

songs about drinking some form of alchohol,

songs about songs,

songs about writing songs,

songs about music,

romantic-advice-to-a-friend songs,

songs about states,

songs about cities,

songs about dogs,

songs about horses,

songs about horse racing,

songs about poker, gambling, etc.,

songs about feeling lucky,

songs about feeling unlucky,

songs about waking up in the morning,

songs about going to sleep at night,

songs about evil record-company executives and/or business managers,

songs about the mountains,

songs about the desert,

songs about the ocean,

songs about rivers,

songs about fish or other forms of underwater life,

songs about dreams (metaphorical),

songs about actual dreams,

songs about technology,

songs about musical instruments,

and that doesn't even include songs about feeling states: "I Feel Fine," "I Can't Get No Satisfaction," etc.

 

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I'll kick in another -- actually, the genre that got me thinking: epistolary songs -- letter songs. 

One of my favorites is Iron & Wine's "Upward Over the Mountains," in the form of a rambling letter from a wayward son to his mother filled with sunny optimism but peppered with dark hints to his troubled lifestyle.

 

One song that takes the epistolary format and turns it on its head with cheeky cleverness is "Take a Letter, Maria." (If you're not familiar with it, it's in the form of a boss giving his loyal secretary dictation. In the course of the dictation, we hear the guy's story, his ungrateful underserving wife the letter is to, the loyal secretary he's really in love with. It's a very nicely constructed little thing.)

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blue2blue wrote:

 

 

I'll kick in another -- actually, the genre that got me thinking: epistolary songs -- 
letter
songs. 

 

One of my favorites is Iron & Wine's "Upward Over the Mountains," in the form of a rambling letter from a wayward son to his mother filled with sunny optimism but peppered with dark hints to his troubled lifestyle.

 

 

 

One song that takes the epistolary format and turns it on its head with cheeky cleverness is "Take a Letter, Maria." (If you're not familiar with it, it's in the form of a boss giving his loyal secretary dictation. In the course of the dictation, we hear the guy's story, his ungrateful underserving wife the letter is to, the loyal secretary he's really in love with. It's a very nicely constructed little thing.)

 

Or "P.S. I Love You" by Johnny Mercer:

 

What is there to write? What is there to say?

Same things happen every day.

Not a thing to write. Not a thing to say.

So I take my pen in hand and start the same old way:

 

Dear, I thought I'd drop a line.

The weather's cool. The folks are fine.

I'm in bed each night at nine.

P.S. I love you.

Yesterday we had some rain

but all in all I can't complain.

Was it dusty on the train?

P.S. I love you.

 

Write to the Browns as soon as you're able.

They came around to call.

I burned a hole in the dining room table.

And let me see, I guess that's all.

 

Nothing else for me to say.

And so I'll close, but by the way.

Everybody's thinking of you.

P.S. I love you.

 

I do my best to obey all your wishes.

I put a sign up: "THINK!"

But I've got to buy a new set of dishes

or wash the ones that are piled in the sink.

 

Nothing else to tell you, dear,

except each day seems like a year.

Every night I'm dreaming of you

P.S. I love you.

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The hobo song has been worked pretty thoroughly.  Seems to me that the 50s and 60s sentimentalized the image of the hobo from the Depression 20-odd years back.  It's a long way to Red Skelton from Woody Guthrie's "I Ain't Got No Home".  The fantasy of the carefree happy wanderer (King of the Road) got taken up by the hippies and of course that meant all ties to reality were severed for good.  

 

But some goods songs were written anyway....

 

King of the Road is probably the best known.

 

But there's also:

Gentle On My Mind - I love that line "I dip my cup of soup back from the gurglin' cracklin' caldron in some train yard"

 

Early Morning Rain - Gordon Lightfoot.  

 

Big Rock Candy Mountain - O Brother Where Art Thou brought this out for newer generations to hear again...

 

The Hobo Song - John Prine

 

Hank's Ramblin Man

 

Jimmie Rogers wrote a whole bunch of hobo songs...

and a late bloomer and a really good song, James Taylor's "Captain Jim's Drunken Dream"

 

Any knowledgeable folk fan would know a hundred more I'm sure...

 

nat whilk 

 

 

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