Blah.
Some weeks, you just have to say "Blah."
Or even "Bah."
And this seems to be one of those weeks.
Nothing really all that exciting going on.
The usual work, students, rehearsals... although we're not rehearsing Thursday, which will give me some time to polish up a few tunes on which I've been working.
Last week, I played three new tunes for the band, and it seemed like everyone was into them. I figure that if a tune impresses Gina, my sister, and my bandmates... that's good enough for me.
These new tunes are the first since I had my "New Year's cleansing" moment, and threw out a bunch of songs I wrote last fall.
Actually, one of the tunes I just gutted and rewrote and it turned out so much better I had to keep it.
SOMEDAY WE'LL WATCH THE HIGHWAY BURN
Saw the night leave us behind
Saw the light, it left us blind
We tried and tried to see it through
But all along you knew that
Someday
We'd watch the highway burn
And you'd say
"I wish that we could stay
Until it's all gone away"
Then shadows fall across our hearts
As all we built just falls apart
But I'm still here, and I've got nothing else to lose
So tell me how you knew that
Someday
We'd watch the highway burn
And you'd say
"I wish that we could stay
Until it's all gone away"
One more time for all those years
One more time, then disappear
I'm still, I'm still a travesty in blue
So tell me how you knew that
Someday
We'll watch the highway burn
And you'll say
"I wish that we could stay
Until it's all gone away"
This song is going to be a good BRB song... it's uptempo, it's concise, but it's also pretty savvy. I don't think the lyrics are anything special, but I do like them a lot better than what I originally wrote for this tune. The whole idea, that sometimes things are just doomed from the start of a relationship, has some pretty universal appeal, I think.
While those lyrics may be a little light... I've been struggling with another song pretty consistently for over 3 months. It's really a beast. But I've got this feeling about it... that it's one of those "special" songs that doesn't come around that often. So I've been really, really critical about it, especially the lyrics.
It's actually a pretty good lesson in learning how to let go of lyrics or music that is decent, but not great. It's so easy to say to yourself "Well, Self, those lyrics are okay. They're not going to make anyone throw-up, or send anyone's underwear crawling up his or her asscrack (and speaking of crack)."
What was I saying? I guess that mediocrity is the crack whore of songwriting.
What?
Let's try again. Mediocrity is... easy to give in to.
And with this other new song, I just feel like if I keep digging, if I keep working, if I'm not afraid to throw out decent lyrics and start over... I'm going to get it to a place it deserves to be.
The process so far has involved writing lyrics for the entire song several times, and then pretty much throwing them all out except the last verse, which was so strong I moved it to the first verse.
That's a common occurrence. You write and write and finally at the end of the song get into what you really want to talk about, only to realize that everything at the beginning where you started, sucks in comparison to where you arrived at the end.
Dylan (not Thomas) had this whole thing about making every line sound like it could be the first line of the song. Or something like that. It's a great goal to have.
Anyway, this new (and as yet untitled) song has now got two out of three verses written and solid. What it needs now is a hook for a chorus and lyrics for the bridge and third verse.
(UNTITLED)
We're all waiting on an angel and a flood
To come down and wash our hands clean of the blood
So we built an ark
And let the dark
Embrace us while we pray
But the waters never rose and the angel never came
And the buildings that hang along the lake
Swallow up our lightening from the moment we awake
And in between the northern star
And the old train cars
A lion sits and waits
Wishing that his fragile heart would just go on and break
jbg
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