A great melody first, then lyrics,(only) THEN 'vocals'

[Mark Blackburn]

Let's celebrate Marilyn and Alan Bergman: The most successful husband & wife songwriting team EVER (they won three Oscars) were born at the same hospital in Brooklyn

[Mark Blackburn]

I

[Mark Blackburn]

About once every two or three decades, a popular singer will incorporate a banjo sound into an arrangement. [sinatra did it twice in a 60 year career

[Mark Blackburn]

When people of my generation (and our parents) spoke about

[StreakerOfinsky]

Originally Posted by blue2blue

I think you need a blog, Mark.

I think this is his blog.

[Mark Blackburn]

Today

[Mark Blackburn]

Tierra del Fuego (Wiki reminded me a moment ago)

[Mark Blackburn]

Winter in Winnipeg =

[Lee Knight]

Thou givest fever . . .

When we kisseth

Fever with thy flaming youth

Fever, I'm a-fire

Fever, yea, I burn forsooth!

[Mark Blackburn]

Of all the

[Mark Blackburn]

If I may, I'd like to celebrate a

[Lee Knight]

I love the lyric. Such a standard song "plot device"... the "I'm fine, but really I'm dying inside" trick that so many songs are based on.

Yet it still stands as an excellent example of that trick. And given the year I suppose it was a fairly fresh idea. Fresh or not, standard devices like this, when treated with spirit and originality can still render moving music.

But I should never think of Spring . . .
For that . . .
would surely break my heart in two.

Beautiful.

[dragons]

If it sounds good, and lyrics arent too complex, everyone will liek it, although ppl are a lil more impressed with dope lyrics

check it vv

[Mark Blackburn]

Are there songs that can reduce you to tears . . . for reasons you can't really explain?

I sat in my car minutes ago, waiting for a downpour to subside, and using the time productively to . . . transcribe a song lyric. For reasons I can

[Lee Knight]

Kind of reminds me a bit of Elvis Costello's

Stranger in the House

This never was one of the great romances
But I thought you'd always have those young girl's eyes
But now they look in tired and bitter glances
At the ghost of a man who walks 'round in my disguise

I get the feeling that I don't belong here
But there's no welcome in the window anyway
And I look down for a number on my keychain
'Cause it feels more like a hotel everyday

There's a stranger in the house; nobody's seen his face
But everybody says he's taken my place
There's a stranger in the house no one will ever see
But everybody says he looks like me

And now you say you've got no expectations
But I know you also miss those carefree days
And for all the angry words that passed between us
You still don't understand me when I say

There's a stranger in the house; nobody's seen his face
But everybody says he's taken my place
There's a stranger in the house no one will ever see
But everybody says he looks like me

[Mark Blackburn]

Well, we

[Mark Blackburn]

Satellite Radio Channel 75 just played a very funny

[Mark Blackburn]

Of all the songs that include the word

[Mark Blackburn]

I must have 100 different versions of "MY ROMANCE" -- just about my favourite song by my favourite composer, Richard Rodgers. In fact, I believe that if you polled people, asking

[SomeoneYouKnew]

No offense intended, Mark. But this is starting to look more like a blog than a discussion.

[Mark Blackburn]

No offence taken, SYK. In fact, thanks for the implied compliment. I looked up "blog" and it turns out you're right: The new Oxford English Dictionary (released this week) defines BLOG as "any thread at a major website that exceeds 20,000 'views' per year." (Thanks to viewers like you, Syk, we're gettin' there!)

[MDR]

 

Originally Posted by Mark Blackburn

Well, we

[Mark Blackburn]

Thanks for the reminder, MDR! (How are things in Canada's largest city?) It's true that those words are 'taken wholesale' out of Grapes of Wrath. The trick, of course, is to pare them down (with great economy of style) and make them 'scan' perfectly within the confines of a simple 'country' tune; and do it so well Johnny Cash declares your work his "favorite song."

----

When I mentioned

[MDR]

Originally Posted by Mark Blackburn

Thanks for the reminder, MDR! (How are things in Canada's largest city?) It's true that those words are 'taken wholesale' out of Grapes of Wrath. The trick, of course, is to pare them down (with great economy of style) and make them 'scan' perfectly within the confines of a simple 'country' tune; and do it so well Johnny Cash declares your work his "favorite song."

Hello Mark.
I should have elaborated further; my use of "wholesale" meant "non-verbatim". And KK definitely deserves credit for working JS' story into a short song.

This could be an interesting discussion point for a songwriting forum. Did KK acknowledge JS with partial lyric credit on the song? And what are the boundaries for acknowledging a published story as the theme/content for a song?

As for life in Hogtown, it's gone up to 30 degrees outside. Could be the last hot day of the year - rain and temps in the teens are forecast. Autumn - my favourite time of year

cheers, R

[Mark Blackburn]

Autumn is my favorite time of year too, "R" -- thanks for that clarification. Those are good questions; wish I knew the answers! It's a perfect sunny but cool day in "the world's coldest major city" -- a blend of "Autumn Leaves" and "Indian Summer" (I live my life in song lyrics, can you tell?)

On at least three occasions the great Johnny Mercer took a French song and gave it a much more memorable English lyric. "Autumn Leaves" was the first of these; the last one was a collaboration with Michel Legrand on a song with a not-so-promising French title,