Writer & singer

...and stuff

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danrawkz
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Re: Writer & singer

Post by danrawkz »

thehenderson wrote:Just sounds like the guy singing "yeah" or something, played back a few times

I like that song, it's cool, a bit repetitive but still good
Ah, is that what he meant? It's 'again' Corgan's saying in the verses I think

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Re: Writer & singer

Post by rocklander »

danrawkz wrote:
thehenderson wrote:Just sounds like the guy singing "yeah" or something, played back a few times

I like that song, it's cool, a bit repetitive but still good
Ah, is that what he meant? It's 'again' Corgan's saying in the verses I think
ur both wrong.. it's billy doing his steve austin throwing a basketball pole like a javelin sound.

mmmm.. chunanananana....
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Re: Writer & singer

Post by Vince »

Bah, I think part of it depends on the type of music?

If you're writing dance music, then your audience is NOT going to care about the lyrics (hopefully, they'll be too busy dancing) and you can get away with maybe a rhyming couplet repeated every now and then.

OTOH, if you're going to try to be a sensitive singer songwriter and perform solo with an acoustic guitar then you have to have decent lyrics 'cause you don't have a lot else to give your audience.

If you're doing rock, you don't want too much lyrical complexity because it can detract from the rest of the song.

Also, "meaningful lyrics" depend a lot on whoever's listening to them. I guess some people thought that the lyrics to "Just Another Day In Paradise" by Phil Collins were really deep, whereas I thought they were laughably bad, and still do.
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Re: Writer & singer

Post by foal30 »

deep as in I'm off to Switzerland to keep the tax bill down
could of saved more money by not banging the nanny

alimony, alimony

Nick Cave, Steve Earl and Joan Armatrading , here is 3 of my fav lyric writers.

Mercy Seat, Jerusalem and Love and Affection are all top stuff.

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Re: Writer & singer

Post by Jenesis »

Yes. Nick Cave is the man, and the only lyricist whose work I take time out for.

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Re: Writer & singer

Post by te_chris »

I think the problem with a lot of "pop" (umbrella term here) is that due to the fact that the music needs to be sung over by someone who traditionally would not be considered a good singer (in the historical sense) that if the lyrics are shit I REALLY notice the music, in most cases this ends up in a let down for me. In some cases though, if the music is kick ass then I can let the lyrics slide (mars volta in spanish would be a case of this, marc anthony in spanish would not be)

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Re: Writer & singer

Post by Vince »

Jenesis wrote:Yes. Nick Cave is the man, and the only lyricist whose work I take time out for.
Even when he does covers?

I mean, I really like "Avalanche", for example, but there's no getting away from the fact that it's a Leonard Cohen song.

Having said that, I often prefer Nick Cave's version to the originals. "Wanted Man" is a good example, the Johnny Cash version is totally rubbish while Nick Cave's version gives you a real sense of the desperation of being wanted everywhere. And "By The Time I Get To Phoenix" is SO much cooler when Nick Cave does it. :lol:
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Re: Writer & singer

Post by shinenz »

I guess for memory sakes of long songs, Frank Zappa has to be the man! 8)
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Re: Writer & singer

Post by foal30 »

no, Isaac Hayes surely
soft spot for PE version "By the time I get to Arizona".

I quite like the lyrics on this Modest Mouse CD I have stolen off my father "Good News for People who like Bad News"
the one after it has Johnny Marr on it so I must get it.

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Re: Writer & singer

Post by te_chris »

foal30 wrote:no, Isaac Hayes surely
soft spot for PE version "By the time I get to Arizona".

I quite like the lyrics on this Modest Mouse CD I have stolen off my father "Good News for People who like Bad News"
the one after it has Johnny Marr on it so I must get it.
I reckon good news is better, you should check out "we were dead before the ship even sank" as well

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Re: Writer & singer

Post by shinenz »

te_chris wrote:
foal30 wrote:no, Isaac Hayes surely
.
I reckon good news is better, you should check out "we were dead before the ship even sank" as well

Not a bad track
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Re: Writer & singer

Post by thehenderson »

Yeah I like how Modest Mouse write kind of over the top lyrics but embrace it in an endearing way

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Re: Writer & singer

Post by foal30 »

we named our children after towns we've never been too. I really like that.

Isaac Hayes does a cracking cover of "Close to you" Burt Bacharach
it's on "Black Moses" which is the album Portishead ripped off for "Glory Box"

how good a record label was Stax?
crikey

anyway I often stockpile lyrics in the wait of some melodic/chordal/riff stimulus. Lately I have too many music parts and no lyrics. Sometimes I take fragments of unrelated conversations and attempt to unify them into one thought.I think it's handy to read about what works for songwriters, even for seemingly uninteresting people, like myself. Their method may be a new spark.

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Re: Writer & singer

Post by shinenz »

foal30 wrote:I think it's handy to read about what works for songwriters, even for seemingly uninteresting people, like myself. Their method may be a new spark.

Might sound rather cliche, but most of the songs (if not all) I have written and performed have all been began with, ....

an acoustic, some homemade whiskey, pen paper and see what happens. Then generally some meaning (from my immediate thoughts at that point in time) has to be derived to generate lyrics. Lyrics for me have to fit into the song structure.
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Re: Writer & singer

Post by Rog »

The majority of my lyrics have started when I've been driving and have seen something which caused me to wander off in free word association until something started making some sense.

The majority of my music for the lyrics has come from twiddling on the keyboard. For me, all it normally takes is a riff, which sets the character, then the rest just writes itself.

It would have been very useful for me to have had the patience to learn to use my PC for recording, but I find it so unutterably boring - I prefer just doing it live. Thus most of my stuff has disappeared forever...
He hit a chord that rocked the spinet and disappeared into the infinite ...

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