Same Music, Different Words

In January 2016, I wrote a song that just didn’t work. That shouldn’t be surprising since – over twenty-five or so years – I’ve written lots of songs that didn’t work. I have a file of handwritten lyrics that proves my point beyond the shadow of a doubt. When you write a song every week for years, as I did from the mid-late 90s through the early 00s, you’re not going to knock it out of the park every time. Indeed, there were long periods where not much resonated. 

At the beginning, the “misses” had few or no redeeming qualities. But the hard work has paid off, and now there’s almost always something redeeming in my worst songs, e.g. an interesting rhyme or turn of phrase, a catchy chorus, or the kernel of an idea that could be developed. If you’re lucky, you can transform a song with minor tweaks. Other times, it’s more trouble than it’s worth, and you move on to the next idea. On rare occasions, there’s an opportunity to raid a song for parts, and build something totally new using an aspect of the old. 

In the case of the 1/16 song, Altercation in the Parking Lot, the good part was a “musical motif” derived from a set of chord changes in a slightly modified version of the standard guitar tuning. By tuning the low E string two full steps down to C and the A string one step down to G, I was able to voice my usual chords in ways that suggested new directions and resulted in what sounds to me like an atypical and pretty decent melody. (I’ve written a bunch of songs in this tuning, some of which appear on my latest album, Lost Soul: Overnight Failure, Big Sur, Bad Business, and You Started Drinking Again.) 

Altercation also had a jaunty rhythmic feel, but the lyrics – inspired by confrontations with angry San Franciscans on my local roadways – didn’t fit:

Altercation in the Parking Lot

See what I mean? It’s just not the right musical setting. A song about road rage should be hard-driving and possibly angry-sounding. But, instead of conveying a sense of urgency – I’m singing about a confrontation, after all – Altercation has a reflective mood, bordering on matter-of-fact. The juxtaposition of subject matter and musical setting can work, and that might have been what I had in mind, but I didn’t get there.

I also didn’t get there on my second attempt in April 2018. Two years had passed, and I’d completed a totally different road rage song. But I hate to leave a compelling melody unattended. Also, if I remember correctly, I had a deadline – one of my monthly songwriters meetings – and no good ideas. So, as an exercise, I tried mining the Altercation music for a song about the push and pull between insecurity and arrogance that afflicts some songwriters. 

Once again, there’s something good about the song. The musical setting, of course, but also some of the lines, including the last verse. But I took a “meta” approach, in which the words aren’t rooted in vivid images, but rather in abstract statements and metaphorical-sounding concepts that are supposed to add up somehow. It’s not so far out that you don’t get the point, but it’s not very grounded either:

Ego Trip

I played this one for a group of songwriters in San Francisco, and – although they did their best to emphasize the positive in their feedback – it was clear that Ego Trip wasn’t a hit. I was discouraged, in part because I’d hoped to sneak it by them. But the truth is, I knew it wasn’t happening before I even played it. 

One good thing did come out of that experience: a group member noted that the music suggested a love song. Duh! So, taking advantage of the momentum, I wrote a love song for the May 2018 meeting: 

I’m In Love With You

In my opinion, I’m In Love With You – which more or less describes the night I met my wife at a wedding on New Year’s Eve 2000-2001 – works pretty well: sweet/universal sentiment, concrete images, plain language, etc. And it may be the first no-nonsense love song I’ve ever written. 

So, I suppose, I’m In Love With You is a keeper. At least, I’m not going to re-visit this particular musical idea again. If you can’t make it work in three attempts, it’s probably time to move on…