SONGWRITER CONFESSIONS #1
written by Bill Dollar
(Published - 25th September 2005)
Looking up this week from getting a reggae backing to sound like St Ann rather
than St Felicity, I spotted the small dark mist in the usual corner behind
the left monitor speaker. I have sometimes believed absolutely that this is
my best muse, back from a pizza run to the outer starbelt. Or maybe just the
golden ring around Uranus. Anyhoo...It seems to bring inspiration in a dark
way: more Keith Richards than Cliff Richard, and I feel the urge to write something
that involves leather, whips and a snare drum that sounds like Pavarotti hitting
the water from the top board. I dig out my file called Heavy Riffs That AC/DC
Lost Under The Driver's Seat. It would help if the word MURDER appeared in
the first lyric line: that always gets the bowie knives out. As Sam Goldwyn
said: Start with an exploding volcano and build up from there to a climax.
I can't emphasise how important the first two lines of the first verse are,
in any song.This is where you the artist set the hook in their miniscule attention
spans or not. If you simper your way into a song, as per a style I like to
call Captain Cliche, you've probably lost them before the second guitar comes
in. Please avoid a first verse that goes like this: ooh I love you, yes it's
true, what am I supposed to do, baby I know without you, all my dreams are
down the loo...blah blah...
Anybody still awake? The only thing that might just save that song would be
a beat strong enough to flip Lazarus out of the grave and over the horizon.
I never thought that the years I spent writing ad copy for various ad agencies
would be worth so much to me now. The rule in advertising is: when you've written
the headline, you've spent 80c of your dollar. It's got to hook them. It's
gotta say something different about a subject you've heard a million times.
Take the neverending subject of LOVE ( also known as LURV...the NASTY...and
BUMPING UGLIES) If I taught songwriting, one of the first projects I would
set would have to be: write a song about LOVE, but make it interesting.Make
it different. Make the listener say: I never thought of it that way before.
Now Paul McCartney, being famous, doesn't have to work as hard as the rest
of us. So he calls it: Another Silly Love Song. With a chorus that goes: iloveyouiloveyouiloveyou.
Phew, Macca...time to open the window!
Here's how I do it: my song is called: If You Were Icecream... and the first
verse is: If you were icecream, I would eat you, with a very small spoon...
if you were starlight, I'd go to meet you, halfway to the moon... I think that's
a lot more interesting than Paulie's but hey, he's famous, and I've just started
kicking at the door. For more examples of how I approach first verses and songs
in general, scoot along to my new site or click on the link below.
Must get into town for some new acoustic guitar strings. Haven't changed them
for a year, and No..there's no direct link between underwear rotation and guitar
strings. And-a one...two...three...
Copyright – Bill Dollar 2005
Top
|
