Arg! Ain't Nothing Easy

Songwriting is tough. Just saying.

Maybe that's why there are so many cover bands.

EG

Care to elaborate?

Running's tough, until you start running all the time and find it tough not to run. Your clock starts ticking and you realize your body is saying, "Go run!!" and you're happy to, you need to, once you start doing it all the time.

So, I can defiantly relate with how it is tough, but at the same time, there are ways to make it as natural as brushing your teeth. Think how much time you spend brushing your teeth. Taking a shower. But now, that's just time you accept that needs to be spent.

Same with writing. You just do it regularly enough until it starts to hurt when you don't do it.

Now, doing it well... that's a different story!

Songwriting is easy................writing well is hard!

Elaborate? Sure.

So a couple of years ago I wrote my first lyrics. Easy peasy, man, they rolled out. Before long I had a notebook full of stuff.

That's when I joined HC, trying to figure out what to do next.

Well, next turn out to be "learn to play guitar" or all I have is a notebook. That's been tough.

Finally I've learned enough guitar to be dangerous and I've started putting my first song to music. All those great "tight" lyrics wouldn't fit anything. Back to work.

So, now I've got the basic structure worked up for the song and I'm now learning to play it, learning to sing and play simultaneously and finishing up with the opening, closing, transitions and such.

It's an unforgiving master. The closer I get to a decent production, the smaller and more difficult the issues become.

While it's one of the tougher things I've ever done it's also one of the biggest thrills.

It's soooooo close right now I can taste it but I also know there's so much more to do.

Anyone who naively thinks a great song just happens is delusional. There's nothing easy about a good song.

EG

lol - that's an illusion. Regardless of how much progress you make, the goal line remains stubbornly just out of reach.

Fortunately I'm the type who takes to that kind of challenge.

I have a goal set that by the 15th of April I'll have a recording of it.

EG

I see what you're saying. Yeah. I have though, had two different types of experiences. One where I didn't enjoy it, and one where I did. If I try to make it a game and have fun and think about and tinker constantly in my head and twist and turn...

...that fun spirit tends to yield a lot more usable fodder than the sweated out stuff. It's hard work, but it's fun work.

Yes. It's fun but very challenging.

I kinda started all this mess just fooling around but the more it seemed possible, the more excited I became.

It seems to get more difficult every step of the way but that only makes me push that much harder.

Some days I feel like a builder with no blueprint, though. That's the "arg" part.

EG

That

April is the cruellest month.

How so?

I'm imagining that my backwards process hasn't helped. I've always been a word guy and that's where it begins with me. A story I want to tell.

Trying to fit that into music after the fact is not easy.

The details I guess I'm fascinated with right now are the little details that keep a song from being good.

Having all the words flow lyrically is intersting. Here's an example.

The final stanza of the song in question is a wrapping up of lessons learned. The sentiment of a particular line is that many tough experiences have passed and the narrator is reconciling that and understanding that his surroundings don't dictate his happiness.

The original lines were:

Lots of freaks

Have come and gone

And I consumed my share of bathtub gin

Now I come to know

That my state of mind

Isn't really connected to where I sit

So I packed my blues

Back in my bags

And told myself I think it's time to git

I liked the humor of the freaks and gin, however, after singing it a few thousand times, I became increasingly disappointed with the flow. It just didn't have the melodic feel it needed.

After much agonizing I came up with:

Far too many days

Were once tomorrows

Convinced myself there ain't no way to win

Now I come to know

My state of mind

Ain't no way connected to where I sit

So I packed my blues

Away in my bags

And told myself I think it's time to git

Anyway, it seems so minor but when you hear it there's a profound difference in the way it flows. It's amazing to me how such minor details can have such an impact.

EG

For me self-doubt is the worst thing....I don't get it in any section of life except making music...that's what makes it difficult for me.

APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding

Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing

Memory and desire, stirring

Dull roots with spring rain.

Winter kept us warm, covering

Earth in forgetful snow, feeding

A little life with dried tubers.

Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee

With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade,

And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten,

And drank coffee, and talked for an hour.

Bin gar keine Russin, stamm' aus Litauen, echt deutsch.

And when we were children, staying at the archduke's,

My cousin's, he took me out on a sled,

And I was frightened. He said, Marie,

Marie, hold on tight. And down we went.

In the mountains, there you feel free.

I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter.

D'oh. Of course.

Sorry, the mind is downtown today.

London: Don't doubt yourself. There are many others all too willing to take of that for you.

I've had to teach myself and my awful voice how to sing in all this adventure as well. A buddy of mine convinced me to start out with some karaoke. My arm still hurts from the twisting.

Anyway, there I was in a bar all set to do misty Mountain Hop. I figured the only chance I had was to just let it rip. I just knew through the whole thing it was horrendous but when the song ended, people were on their feet.

I realised then and there that my own self doubt was unfounded and my confidence level shot way up.

Now I've been doing some sitting in with my brother's band and I'm getting some good reviews.

EG

For me? It's easy... WHEN it's easy? It comes in spurts? I can't force it? When it comes though? I don't do it, "I watch it happen". It happens, I'm there, I'm the one typing the words, and playing the chords? But, well... It's difficult to describe. But when it happens? For me? It's easy. When it's not happening, then I could never do it, so I can relate to what you're saying if it's a period for me "when it's not happening". Because I cannot force it, it pours from me like urine from a homeless person on the streets of the inner city, I cannot control it.

no matter how good you write, you can always write better

And when we were children, staying at the archduke's,

My cousin's, he took me out on a sled,

And I was frightened. He said, Marie,

Marie, hold on tight. And down we went.

Eliot was a fragging pervert

Jealous.

Always been easy for me.......never been a chore.

But then I am a firm believer in that old tenet that says....you can't push the river. So I don't. If the songs come, I write 'em. If they don't I just play guitar.

The tune you're working on looks to be a good one.

Robby, I didn't intend to imply that it wasn't happening but rather that fine tuning the product to its ultimate point is difficult and requires much attention to a lot of detail.

Here's another example of how picky it's getting right now. This change happened last night.

What was:

So I headed south

Down to Orleans

Heard about good times on Bourbon Street

Food and drink

Out all the time

To a country boy that sounded pretty sweet

Now I undulged

A bit too much

Suppose that's where my troubles all began

I woke up

With an ugly girl

In retrospect I think she was a man

Has become:

So I headed south

Down to New Orleans

Heard about good times on Bourbon Street

All the pretty girls

Dancing through the night

To acountry boy that sounded mighty sweet

It was too much whiskey

Lord and too much wine

Suppose that's where my troubles all began

Sleeping in my bed

Was a homely lady

Looking back now I think she was a man

Seems fairly minor but the changes helped the lyric flow so much better.

Thanks, Leonard. I'm excited.

Eliot.

EG

that's my approach. i don't so much write songs as let them happen.

my biggest challenge is not to push it and try to get it done. generally that ends up in a crappy song. if i wait long enough, the right things fall into place.

That would be nice. Unfortunately, every time I dump a load of bricks all I get is a brickpile. To get a house I have to break out the mortar and trowel.

EG

Hmmm. I really like the 1st one. Leo's analogy of the river... it sounds like it was flowing in the 1st version and you took the ride. The 2nd one sounds like you diverted the flow. The 2nd one's good but, the 1st...

I've polished so hard I took the shine off.

I know what you're getting at and I worry about that as well.

On paper I like the first version better as well. When sung, though, the second version is far more lyrical.

The reaction from listeners is consistent there also.

There's another reason this process is tough. No handbook and no firm answers.

EG