Members Stackabones Posted June 25, 2010 Members Share Posted June 25, 2010 What has influenced you as a songwriter in the past ... or since the last FIT? * I've been listening to Josh Ritter. His songs have a way of sneaking up on me. I'll hear a tune, not be too sure about it, and later I'll find a line or melody relaxing and smoking a cigarette in a backroom of my brain. I got a girl in the war, Paul, her eyes are like champagneThey sparkle bubble over and in the morning all you got is the rain [YOUTUBE]kqLssKusGzM[/YOUTUBE] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Oswlek Posted June 25, 2010 Members Share Posted June 25, 2010 This is great stuff, always nice to hear compelling songs with vocals like that, gives limited range people like myself hope. I've had a couple "ah ha!" moments in the past week. One was while listening to this song, probably the best new song I've heard in a long time. [YOUTUBE]40aHqhd8xPY[/YOUTUBE] They have an early Pearl Jam thing going for them, which, IMHO is always a good thing. I've long thought that PJ gets overshadowed by Nirvana, and that had it been Vedder instead of Cobain who died the reverse would be the common perception. I also had an epiphany while listening to the music for my daughter's dance recital. The song was "Cruella De Vil" and the vocal delivery was too cool. It hit home how much more important the delivery is, the song wouldn't have been nearly as cool had the singer settled for just the notes. I need to incorporate that more into my recording, too often I am satisfied with a non-pitchy take, even if the feeling isn't quite a strong as I'd like. This isn't quite the version my kids danced to (not as much vocal pizzaz) but it's as close as I can find on youtube. [YOUTUBE]quSKBCJP4YU[/YOUTUBE] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Lee Knight Posted June 25, 2010 Moderators Share Posted June 25, 2010 Boy... I like that Ritter tune a lot. It has a cool, hypnotic thing going on that gets punctuated by his percolating, rhythmic vocal line. Going to the VI chord then the IV: They sparkle bubble over and in the morning all you got is the rain That rhythm of his vocal pushes against the almost techno/trance mandolin. Simple and moving. Really nice. My inspiration this week. My wife and kid pooled together for Father's Day and got me a Nook digital reader. Nook is Barnes and Noble's version of the Kindle. I read like a fool but never wanted one of these. I told them. I like paper. So of course they get me one. And of course I love it. I won't bore you with why I love it for the physical act of reading... ...rather, that along with the fact that it's terribly convenient and easy to read, when and whereever... You have immediate access to literature. Buy it. Or better yet tap into Google's big push to digitize the great literature through history and make it available. FREE. $0.00 I think I need The Tempest. Complete Sherlock Holmes. Download. Reading it free in 30 seconds on my train commute. I wonder if the Ballad of Reading Gaol is as great as I remember it to be. Oscar Wilde's wonderfully sad poem about a man who kills the wife he loves and hangs for it. Wilde, of course spent plenty of time in prison for his gay lifestyle. His perversion. So my inspiration this week was to easily gain access to a poem I've always loved and to see it is even better than memory. Of course it is. He did not wear his scarlet coat, For blood and wine are red, And blood and wine were on his hands When they found him with the dead, The poor dead woman whom he loved, And murdered in her bed. It never gets too flighty... always in the dark cobwebs of that horrible jail. and the dark corners of prisoner's hearts. Yet each man kills the thing he loves By each let this be heard, Some do it with a bitter look, Some with a flattering word, The coward does it with a kiss, The brave man with a sword! Some kill their love when they are young, And some when they are old; Some strangle with the hands of Lust, Some with the hands of Gold: The kindest use a knife, because The dead so soon grow cold. And later.. It is sweet to dance to violins When Love and Life are fair: To dance to flutes, to dance to lutes Is delicate and rare: But it is not sweet with nimble feet To dance upon the air! then... And twice a day he smoked his pipe, And drank his quart of beer: His soul was resolute, and held No hiding-place for fear; He often said that he was glad The hangman's hands were near. And... With yawning mouth the yellow hole Gaped for a living thing; The very mud cried out for blood To the thirsty asphalte ring: And we knew that ere one dawn grew fair Some prisoner had to swing. And... At last I saw the shadowed bars Like a lattice wrought in lead, Move right across the whitewashed wall That faced my three-plank bed, And I knew that somewhere in the world God's dreadful dawn was red. At six o'clock we cleaned our cells, At seven all was still, But the sough and swing of a mighty wing The prison seemed to fill, For the Lord of Death with icy breath Had entered in to kill. Then... And all the woe that moved him so That he gave that bitter cry, And the wild regrets, and the bloody sweats, None knew so well as I: For he who live more lives than one More deaths than one must die. The poor bastard swings. And justly so. But not without a full look from Wilde as to what exactly justice is. And right and wrong. And evil and penance. Thank you Nook. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rhino55 Posted June 25, 2010 Members Share Posted June 25, 2010 Happy Friday! [YOUTUBE][/YOUTUBE] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.