Members Stackabones Posted November 27, 2009 Members Share Posted November 27, 2009 What has influenced you as a songwriter in the past ... or since the last FIT? * I'm still crazy about the Swell Season. Almost non-stop spinning. Their use of non-verbal interludes and hooks has actually been changing my writing in the past couple of weeks. As a solo performer, I have to use whatever I can to get across the song. I don't think I've taken the fullest advantage of non-verbal vocals, except for the occasional scat. It has also caused me to reconsider my own use of the first-person perspective. Often, the "I" in my songs was a character. After listening to more of the Swell Season, I'm considering having the "I" being more freely autobiographical. Some of the songs I've written in the past have used both approaches, but I'm noticing that the personal approach has yielded at times better songs -- "better" in this case meaning the ones I get intense responses from an audience or individual. My model for character songs has usually been someone like Randy Newman, but lately I'm looking to Glen Hansard for this intensely personal approach. Last FIT, I posted another song ("Low Rising") from the same session that today's comes from. Lovely tune, and the non-verbal interlude's harmonies are intensely beautiful and, for me, transcendent. [YOUTUBE]VLzmBjKUdJ8[/YOUTUBE] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted November 27, 2009 Members Share Posted November 27, 2009 xpIh68Kh_-s The Great Mandella (The Wheel of Life) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted November 27, 2009 Members Share Posted November 27, 2009 Willie Nelson's beat up old classical ain't got nothin' on that Tak. Holy crap, either that guy plays a lot or he's got some serious technique issues, or both... Pretty song, particularly considering it uses the AH word. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Stackabones Posted November 27, 2009 Author Members Share Posted November 27, 2009 Willie Nelson's beat up old classical ain't got nothin' on that Tak. Holy crap, either that guy plays a lot or he's got some serious technique issues, or both... Pretty song, particularly considering it uses the AH word. From what I gather, he's had that git for two decades of busking, gigging, recording and touring. There's a great scene of him talking about it on DVD that comes with the Deluxed Limited Edition release of Strict Joy. AH!!! Yeah, I'm not sure how some folks feel about that stuff -- but I'm digging it and it shows up all over the place. I think the songwriterly side of my persona worries that I'm not saying enough with those non-verbal lines, but the purely musical side says that I'm almost revealing too much. Sometimes ya gotta just have a gasp or a sigh. Show, don't tell. And as I mentioned earlier, as a solo performer with just a guitar and my voice I'm trying to use as many tools as possible: play guitar, sing verses and chorus, play solos with chord blocks & single lines & walking bass, rhythmic skronks, hum, scat, whistle, grunt, and ... um ... what else ... ahhhh! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted November 27, 2009 Members Share Posted November 27, 2009 From what I gather, he's had that git for two decades of busking, gigging, recording and touring. There's a great scene of him talking about it on DVD that comes with the Deluxed Limited Edition release of Strict Joy. AH!!! Yeah, I'm not sure how some folks feel about that stuff -- but I'm digging it and it shows up all over the place. I think the songwriterly side of my persona worries that I'm not saying enough with those non-verbal lines, but the purely musical side says that I'm almost revealing too much. Sometimes ya gotta just have a gasp or a sigh. Show, don't tell. And as I mentioned earlier, as a solo performer with just a guitar and my voice I'm trying to use as many tools as possible: play guitar, sing verses and chorus, play solos with chord blocks & single lines & walking bass, rhythmic skronks, hum, scat, whistle, grunt, and ... um ... what else ... ahhhh! I doubt you're old enough to remember the old 77 Sunset Strip TV show but I found a single episode on one of the (legit) video sites and it had a sequence with costar Roger Smith (it also had Efrem Zimbalist, Jr and Ed "Kookie" Burns) borrowing a guitar in a cantina in Mexico and singing a song in Spanish. The crazy thing was, it was a moderately tricky thing where you do your own rhythmic accompaniment -- a la some of the more developed tappers -- and it really appeared that he knew precisely what he was doing with the finger-syncing (his lip syncing was OK, too). I tried looking up some biographical stuff on him (he's still with us) but dang Wikipedia couldn't seem to get past the fact that he and Ann Margaret have been married over forty years. (He's had health problems since before they were married in '67, and has mostly stayed out of the public eye.) Er... childhood heroes notwithstanding... that percussion thing looked pretty snappy in that vid... and the girl he was trying to impress seemed to eat it up. (Turned out she was kind of playing him, but, hey, that's life on TV, eh? [EDIT: correction, the duplicitous female in this episode was a blond American girl; IIRC, Smith winds up the episode with this dark-eyed beauty below, who's been off camera for the plot shenanigans.]) EDIT: I happened to find this... on second view, it would appear he's probably got a little back up from a bongo player (you hear him discreetly during the main part of the song), but Smith seems to be keeping a good rhythm on what he's doing... More I think about it, I think he did a turn or two singing on Ed Sullivan. More than a few actors and others who weren't primarily singers would do the sing-on-Sullivan thing, as I recall. r2qpCEeznr8 I'll bet -- bongo back up notwithstanding -- that he tore it up at parties back in the day. Of course, you walk into a party with Ann-Margaret on your arm, you're pretty much the hit of the party, a priori. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Chicken Monkey Posted November 28, 2009 Members Share Posted November 28, 2009 I picked up a couple of John Hiatt albums from the library this week and having Lee Knight knock his name loose a few weeks ago. He's in my genre, but he makes music that's more complicated (lyrically and musically) than me, but he doesn't loose any of the energy. I made a deliberate attempt in the past to dumb-down what I was doing, because it was extremely precious and overwrought. I'm going to try to add some of that complexity back in, using Hiatt as a model. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Chicken Monkey Posted November 28, 2009 Members Share Posted November 28, 2009 Also I've been keeping this book on the back of the toilet. It's a good reminder that even though I'm working in a two-minute medium, I can still say something. It's a collection of "micro-fiction", stories under 300 words. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BlueStrat Posted November 28, 2009 Members Share Posted November 28, 2009 Lately? These guys... [YOUTUBE]gHGXtkSyFAg[/YOUTUBE] [YOUTUBE]tMd04FVyVRg[/YOUTUBE] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Etienne Rambert Posted November 28, 2009 Members Share Posted November 28, 2009 Kurt Vonnegut called them "America's poets". On this song - they lived up it. I've been listening to this song for about two weeks now. Can't seem to stop. It's hard to imagine how this song could be any better. zdK5jD-cDts (Don Reid - Harold Reid)Tommy's selling used carsNancy's fixing hairHarvey runs a grocery storeAnd Margaret doesn't care.Jerry drives a truck for SearsCharlotte's on the makeAnd Paul sells life insuranceAnd part-time real estate.Helen is a hostessFrank works at the millJanet teaches grade schoolAnd probably always will.Bob works for the cityAnd Jack's in lab research And Peggy plays organAt the Presbyterian Church.And the class of '57 had its dreamsWe all thought we'd change the worldWith our great works and deedsOr maybe we just thought the worldWould change to fit our needs.The class of '57 had its dreams.Betty runs a trailer parkJan sells TupperwareRandy's on an insane wardAnd Mary's on welfare.Charlie took a job with FordJoe took Freddie's wifeCharlotte took a millionaireAnd Freddie took his life.John is big in cattleRay is deep in debtWhere Marvis family wound upIs anybody's bet.Linda married SonnyBrenda married meAnd the class of all of usIs just a part of history.And the class of '57 had its dreamsBut living life day to dayIs never like it seemsThings get complicated whenYou get past eighteen.But the class of '57 had its dreams.Oh, the class of '57 had its dreams... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Lee Knight Posted November 28, 2009 Moderators Share Posted November 28, 2009 Also I've been keeping this book on the back of the toilet. It's a good reminder that even though I'm working in a two-minute medium, I can still say something. It's a collection of "micro-fiction", stories under 300 words. That books looks like a great idea! I'll have to pick it up. My inspiration this week... watching the ones around me deal with life's challenges. Serious health issues all around me with the ones I love the most. And as a result, seeing what I'm made of. I am Spartacus and a big {censored} wrapped up into one. So I escape at times into my headphones and arrange and re-write and work my music and forget to buy milk. An escape and some needed diversion from the pain around me. My pain too. So my current inspiration is emotion driven by what seems to be overwhelming circumstance. But it's never truly overwhelming. Is it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted November 28, 2009 Members Share Posted November 28, 2009 Ah, that Chris Knight guy is too slick... how'd they get him out of his neon sequins suit? Aw, shucks, ma'am. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Stackabones Posted November 28, 2009 Author Members Share Posted November 28, 2009 So my current inspiration is emotion driven by what seems to be overwhelming circumstance. But it's never truly overwhelming. Is it? Since I'm on a Glen Hansard kick, I've been reading, watching, etc everything I can find about him. He said something about what you're going through: on the happy days, your journal is nothing blank pages; on the rough ones, the pages are full. (paraphrasing, not direct quote) No real consolation, I know --but I think there's truth in it. Prayers and mojo, Lee. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Sam McDonald Posted November 28, 2009 Members Share Posted November 28, 2009 Saw these guys ( Mumford And Sons) play in a little specialist music shop in Edinburgh last summer during the Edinburgh Festival and thought they were great. They Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Stackabones Posted November 29, 2009 Author Members Share Posted November 29, 2009 Saw these guys ( Mumford And Sons) play in a little specialist music shop in Edinburgh last summer during the Edinburgh Festival and thought they were great. They Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Sam McDonald Posted November 29, 2009 Members Share Posted November 29, 2009 That's really good. Is the whole disc as strong? Yes, I think the entire album is excellent. They do have a myspace site where you can hear a few tracks or at amazon.co.uk you can get samples of the entire album. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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