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A rough idea.... first verse/chorus


stickboymusic

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Just quickly started this... mainly because my friend lent me their floor tom , its proper rough... no click or anything ..so very much just an idea

 

but anyway... worth making into something or too boring?

 

http://picosong.com/wkrd/

 

No shadows here to follow

upon this land i roam

I know that in the end

I am cursed to be alone

And great old Auntie Lily

She walked a similar path

Upon these crooked pavements

where street lights seem to laugh

 

Im lonesome where i sleep

This double bed is wasted on me.

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This double bed is wasted on me

 

^nice line^

 

Got a title? Wasted On Me?

 

I love this tune and I hope you develop it further. I love the reference to your antecedent Aunt Lily. That's the kind of detail that lets us know you mean it. Whether fiction or fact, this rings true. The street lamps laughing is a great image. It implies mocking your sleeplessness without being too obvious. And... it brings to mind a sort of almost creepy sad Wizard of Oz talking Apple Orchard.

 

I hope you develop this cause it perfect so far. I'd love to think you somehow telepathically stole my melody for This Culture of Honor, but honestly, I didn't have anything near this good in mind. Wow, this is very cool. Am I drooling?

 

Though nothing like it, it brings to mind this old one from Chad and Jeremy

 

[video=youtube;11KuuJ0RvDA]

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Oh and the street lights laughing was also a reference to having no shadow.... whether that being my own or one that could be with me

 

 

Right. Nice. You do realize though that the lamps come right before the word sleep in the refrain. And you're saying how your big bed is wasted on just you. So I don't know if sleeplessness was intended but it trickled through to me that way. I only mention it cause it gives you more ways to branch out in further verse. Lonely vs. alone, sleepless vs. awake.

 

The idea of the sad loner or the one who lived to 103 because she was allowed to live her life as her life. It sounds like you've thought this all through.

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My great Aunt Lily is/was in fact real.... she passed away a few years back at the grand old age of 103


some say she lived that long as she never married.... thats one big stress off her mind!

 

 

So I'm married with three kids... whaddaythink? I'll live to about 63? I've got some writing to do... have to establish my legacy.

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I think we all have songs written with this progression, so I wouldn't worry about similarity. It was plenty original.

 

Personally, I loved it, wholly enchanting. The only thing that I have any reservations about is the major chord at 0:52. As I was listening I was silently hoping you did something a little more creative than that. That major chord so blatantly beckons that I think avoiding it would create tension without the listener being totally aware why it is there.

 

But the rest is fantastic.

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this is so cool


What is going on in your rhythm bed. Is it guitar? The thing that's doing that repeating pattern. It has a sound like a Tom Waits soft mallet marimba. Dark and scary and sad. This song is going to be great.

 

Yeh just my elec guitar with some palm muting :)

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It's funny, the more you learn about all the tools available, you more you realize that they aren't as necessary as you initially thought.

 

I have to say when it comes to tracks like this, the more organic I can make it, the better it ultimately sounds and FEELS

 

If there is something that i REALLY need that i simply dont have.... like a piano.... i will have to use fake ones but they really can stick out like a sore thumb and distract from the mood of the song.... if you havent got it see if you can create it naturally....then use fake if all else fails

 

There is nothing fake on this track.......yet ;)

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So im thinking of calling it "wasted on me" as Lee said.

 

Im also thinking about changing the chorus everytime so its not really a chorus and then having a middle 8

 

maybe not these words but something like

 

ohhhh i need someone to keep

this thing called love is wasted on me

 

do you think that will work or better to repeat what i have?

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Really like the direction this is going. The tremolo guitar is really nice... yet another one where an accordion would sound very cool.

 

 

I will take the accordian out the box and give it a try

 

you have to see this thing....its over 100 years old and so decorative!

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So im thinking of calling it "wasted on me" as Lee said.


Im also thinking about changing the chorus everytime so its not really a chorus and then having a middle 8


maybe not these words but something like


ohhhh i need someone to keep

this thing called love is wasted on me


do you think that will work or better to repeat what i have?

 

 

I sort of thought you would be changing it each time. I think that's the way to go with this. It's not about a bed, right? I like the idea of the bed, then... what? a loveseat? or... family membership to the gym? I don't know, then just saying love.

 

I think you're feeling it. Follow that. Did I mention this is going to be great. It already is.

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The mood of the song is what might be described as 'North country melancholy'.

There is a folk tradition of ballads from the north of England that uses that minor flavour and similar melody.

They deal with working down pit, at the mill, away at sea and those waiting for return.

 

I like what you are doing instrumentally that sets it apart from these old ballads, but the historic reference to the mood remains.

 

So where will you go with the lyric?

I had 2 great aunts who were spinsters and very strong women. They came from that generation of English women who had nobody to marry after the decimation of men during WW1.

Your great aunt would have had her own circumstances.

Is there any way that you can link her loneliness (or aloneness) with her positive attributes?

And although the song is about your protagonist being alone, is there some common factor that might link the two? Bind the song with a universal truism.

 

The key is probably in capturing the melancholy without it being maudlin.

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I think we all have songs written with this progression, so I wouldn't worry about similarity. It was plenty original.

 

 

I immediately thought of this Mellencamp tune, which has a similar melody. I think there is something innate to that chord progression that makes our ears gravitate to that same basic melody.

 

[video=youtube;SOycL1wcmUQ]

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Ok - this is where i am up - a rough video.... there are a few melody issues in this video.... but please ignore them... i think i know what i want the melody to do on V2 and Middle 8 I just wasnt fully with it on this recording.

 

Speak up now on lyrics ect please... im not going to start recording this til we have ironed out any issues - thank you!

 

[video=youtube;AeaIP-L-sgQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeaIP-L-sgQ

 

Wasted on me.

 

No shadow here to follow

upon this land i roam

I know that in the end

I am cursed to be alone

And great old auntie lily

she walked a similar path

upon these crooked pavements

where street lights seem to laugh

 

Im lonesome where I sleep

This double bed is wasted on me

 

No lighthouse in the harbour

to carry me to shore (have considered "guide me to the shore" , think i prefer as is but speak up)

no safety net beneath me

to catch me should i fall

but great old auntie lily

well she outlived them all

i shall live beside her shadow

and die inside this wall

 

Im lonesome where (maybe when?) I eat

this meal for two is wasted on me

 

The curse it has been lifted

the blessing is a gift

that only the lonely know

no matter how i try

i can't ignore this lullaby

that was started long ago (maybe "written" instead of "started" but i dunno.... it was "written" now but the tale "started" long ago)

 

Don't give your hand to keep

this thing called love is wasted on me

 

As sure as ebbing sea

this thing called love is wasted on me

 

this thing called love is wasted on me

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I love this: "i shall live beside her shadow

and die inside this wall..."

 

I think I like guide me to the shore rather than carry me. Ditto with written over started.

 

There's probably another way to say both of them, but I think guide is probably the perfect word for that line. I'm not as attached to written over started.

 

LCK

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