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Cheesy lyrics dilemma


roners5

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So my friend and I have been writing songs together basically since highschool (10+ years now). I think we write some nice, cathcy melodies and guitar parts; however, he writes the cheesiest lyrics- I mean stuff that makes me feel :facepalm::love::facepalm: inside and kind of embarrassed to even show other people so it kind of ruins it for me. I've tried to tell him to stop being so damn literal and cheesy but to that he always replies something like "cheesy is good" or "cheesy is catchy." :mad::facepalm:

 

When we are together writing it's not a problem because I squash those ideas before he becomes attached to them. Unfortunately, we do most of our work on our own and send stuff via ichat and whatnot because our schedules don't usually line up. Then he sends me something he says is awesome and I listen to it and am disappointed by the cheese factor he added and I have a hard time telling him, let alone convincing him to scrap it.

 

How can i fix this HCEG? It's really pissing me off lately

 

 

edit: songs added: http://www.purevolume.com/usp801adg

 

listen to "blamethelovespread" for the one I was talking about and "I know" to get an idea of past offenses in finished songs

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Find a new writing partner? Start writing lyrics yourself? Seriously, it sounds like your friend isn't going to change his writing style based on your opinion. If it bothers you that much, you're the one who needs to make the change.

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Find a new writing partner? Start writing lyrics yourself? Seriously, it sounds like your friend isn't going to change his writing style based on your opinion. If it bothers you that much, you're the one who needs to make the change.

 

 

The problem is I can't sing to save my life.. like I said, we write lyrics and melodies together when we have time but mostly it ends up that he writes them because he is the one singing... and he is great at catchy guitar parts and whatnot. Plus we've been friends for like 15 years so I'm not gonna refuse to make songs with him anymore.

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We're on ichat now discussing a song in progress that we started this weekend- he wrote a chorus that's cheesy :facepalm:

 

Idk maybe I'm overreacting- I might try to post this thing we're working on so you can judge for yourselves

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At least the dude can admit they're cheesy.

 

Singer in my last band couldn't right good lyrics to save his life, but he thought he was insightful and poet. It was rather awful.

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At least the dude can admit they're cheesy.


Singer in my last band couldn't right good lyrics to save his life, but he thought he was insightful and poet. It was rather awful.

 

 

ha yeah that would be worse, thankfully he's really down to earth so even though we disagree, nobody gets mad

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Alright hopefully this works- sorry i don't have soundclick and didn't feel like signing up but I have a page for ideas that you can stream from here:

 

http://www.purevolume.com/usp801adg

 

-The one I'm talking about is titled "blamethelovespread" - the singing doesnt kick in until the second chorus and part of the bridge and the music obviously is not done but you'll get an idea of what I'm talking about

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yeah it has the cheesy "love song" feel to it, but i don't really see that as a bad thing honestly. has a chilled out alkaline trio vibe to it, methinks.

 

the melody is good and unless you're writing lyrics on the level of, say, tom waits or townes van zandt i think the melody itself is more important than the words themselves.

 

i wouldn't worry about it.

 

christ, one of my band's most popular songs features a chorus that simply says "i got drunk."

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christ, one of my band's most popular songs features a chorus that simply says "i got drunk."

 

 

haha nice

 

well i guess i'm just overthinking things but he does have a history- I'm adding a song to the page called "I know" that is finished so you can get the full cheese effect. O well, I guess I'll just have to live with our songs all being sappy

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I liked the song you have up there. The lyrics are cheesy, but not bad.

 

Just ask him to compromise, the more mellow poppy songs have cheesy lyrics and the more upbeat stuff ask him to write something a little more serious.

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I don't want to come off as cynical or a troll or whatever, but with catchy pop guitar music, you don't need to strive for literary cred in your lyrics. I think your "Blamethelovespread" song is perfectly catchy, and the lyrics aren't nearly as cheesy as you made it out to be. Maybe you'd like it to have "thinking man's" lyrics, but that style of music appeals isn't going to appeal to that demographic. It will appeal to high school and college kids (and very likely would appeal to more girls than guys), who generally don't want to think deeply about lyrics. And let's be honest, hitting that demographic with your music can be a very, very good thing. Honestly, I'd say to keep on track, because it sounds like you have a good thing going on.

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i'd keep writing with this guy.... but also look for another writing partner

 

if you're really not feeling his lyrics i can see how that is a problem for you... nothing wrong with artistic integrity... but it sounds like he's pretty set in his ways..... so i'd look for another outlet where hopefully you can work with someone on the same page as you

 

you might not find anyone that really fits though... and you may decide what you can just suck it up regarding this guy's lyrics... or not

 

the other thing to do is for you to try to write better lyrics for the parts you don't like... ask him to at least give them a shot and compare the two

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well thanks for all the replies.. looks like i should just shut it and do my part :p

 

i'm planning on adding some mandolin to the track, probably another guitar and we'll work on the verses together.

 

I do also write some stuff on my own so I have another outlet- I have a cousin who raps so maybe I'll give him a call for a change of pace :wave::cop:

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Where's the lyrics? I was lead to believe there would be lyrics. I don't hear any in the verse :D

 

I would call those about 80% fine. In my experience (and, again, this is just personal experience) lyrics need some editing. The main ideas in there are perfectly fine, but it may be wise to just tighten up a few things. And lay off the autotune :cop:

 

Honestly, not nearly as bad as I was expecting from your talk!

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Try helping him write the lyrics then.

 

But really it's not a big deal. seriously...listen to a lot of lyrics from a lot of the greatest bands ever..I mean really listen and dissect them..many of them have pretty {censored} or stupid lyrics (in my opinion of course). Led Zeppelin anyone??? And lyrical content is subjective anyway....I bet I just pissed off a bunch of people who really love Plant's meandering fantasy hobit crap. Good for them. If that's what they like then cool.

 

As mentioned there are very few truly gifted singers that can both sing the words well and write thought provoking original lyrics at the highest level. Most do one of the two better than the other.

 

Two examples from my perspective....David Lee Roth....I think he's a great singer, original voice and just fearless with it...but man that dude couldn't write a decent lyric if Shakespeare was whispering in his ear. And Bob Dylan. What can you say about his lyrics...pure poetry. But his voice is {censored}ing awful for me.

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It turns out that people don't actually listen to lyrics. Why do women listen to rap when it's overtly misogynistic? How do songs in foreign languages (Macarena and 99 Red Balloons to name two) become hits in the US? Why does anybody like Dio? A good, healthy chunk of people don't really care what the lyrics are, or even if they make sense. I too am guilty of liking stuff that doesn't make any sense lyrically or sounds incredibly stupid, but if the music is good enough I will even SING ALONG.

 

Granted, all of this is coming from a listeners perspective. I play in a band that the lyrics don't even rhyme some of the times, and I find it infuriating to no end. It's a punk/rockabilly band where one of the songs is about the battle of the bulge in WWII; the song is a dance song. It kills me every time I think about it. I've come pretty close to quitting over it. But some people still think the WWII song is the best one that we have, I assume it's because they don't know the lyrics. But it is our best song musically. Which shows that people don't listen to lyrics.

 

Still, being IN the band with the {censored}ty lyrics is hard to do. You and I are walking a fine line where we end up tolerating it just enough to keep us around indefinitely.

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Look at Bowies Ziggy days. Ya know how he used to write his lyrics?

 

What he would do is cut out a {censored} load of sentences out of newspapers and magazines and {censored}, until he had a about 3tonnes, throw them in an empty bathtub, then get naked and lather himself in paste, then jump in the tub and see what stuck to him. Then... he would borrow 'bubbles' (wacko jacko's monkey) and get him to pick off the lyrics randomly and stick them to the wall, once the lyrics were chosen, Bowie then had to organise them in order, ie, verse chorus etc... to do that he would get bubbles to fling his {censored} on the walls. 1st one to get hit = Line 1, verse 1.

 

So..... i suppose you could try that method, although im not sure what bubbles is doing these days? Last i heard he took an out of court settlement from MJ, but i dunno?

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