song lyrics as trigger
Thu, 2001-03-15 13:07
#1
song lyrics as trigger
Here's one to try: pick a favorite song and write a response from the point of view of the person it was written for
(so if its 'Jolene' by Dolly Parton, write back a response from Jolene's point of view)
ps My friend came up with this example--I don't actually know this particular song but any song you like will do
This doesn't work with much of the Frank Zappa catalogue!
However if anyone can explain to me what really happens in the 'Ode To Billy Joe' then I'd be very grateful!
Avra has triggered me with her mention of the Country & Western genre. I am working on a personal repsonse to the Paul Craft song performed by, amongst others, Bobby Bare, who asked me to dropkick him through the goalposts of life.
Yours etc., Jesus.
Yes, it's the madeleine effect from Proust, isn't it? Though I get much the same effect from a ginger snap dunked in mug of tea.
"It seems like only yesterday I left my mind behind, down in a gypsy cafe with a friend of a friend of mine."
Not intending to be pretentious. Just reminding myself how music and lyrics can time-warp us back to all those yesterdays.
Where were you when you first heard the thrilling opening of "All Along The Watchtower", when the image "two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl," filled you with an apocalyptic shudder? A harbinger of the poll tax?!
So then, let music move over the formless surface of your mind and shape into this whirls and eddies that we have to transmute and transform into the tools of our trade: words...
"it's only words, and I words I want to hear..."
Oh, no, not the Bee Gees!
I'm going to bed!
Jamie
Hmm,not sure if the two gendres can really co-exist,the problem being (from my point of view anyway) is that i write songs(badly!) so the overlap would probably confuse the writer, i take the point of altering the perspective of the song subject matter though...................though if it`s all the banal garbage that seems to dominate the `charts just now it`s one little excursion i`d willingly lose my ticket for!!!!
be bop a lula!
johnnie
I've been writing song lyrics for 18 years and for me it's very different from poetry, yet the best lyrics generally always have a poetic quality.
However....
"Bob the Builder".... It's all there isn't, three words and a whole life is created.
"I should have been a pair of ragged claws scuttling across the floors of silent seas", yeah okay, but what about John Lee Hooker or Tom Waites growling them over a twelve bar riff!
It sold 4,000,000 copies and made the author a lot of money!
Half a bee, philosophically,
Must, ipso facto, half not be.
But half the bee has got to be
Vis a vis, its entity. D'you see?
But can a bee be said to be
Or not to be an entire bee
When half the bee is not a bee
Due to some ancient injury?
-singing
La dee dee, one two three,
Eric the half a bee.
A B C D E F G,
Eric the half a bee.
Is this wretched demi-bee,
Half-asleep upon my knee,
Some freak from a menagerie?
No! It's Eric the half a bee!
Fiddle de dum, Fiddle de dee,
Eric the half a bee.
Ho ho ho, tee hee hee,
Eric the half a bee.
I love this hive, employee-ee,
Bisected accidentally,
One summer afternoon by me,
I love him carnally.
He loves him carnally,
Semi-carnally.
The End
Cyril Connolly?
No, semi-carnally
Oh
Cyril Connoly (whistle)
How 'bout
I don't wanna go
Down to the basement
There's somethin down there
I just couldn't better it and there really is nothing to add.
Hmm Im a big fan of bands like The Cure, Nine Inch Nails, Radiohead, U2, VAST, and Life of Agony, and I found their lyrics highly influential upon my writing style.
I posted one of my song lyrics ... I wrote it following a very vivid dream http://www.abctales.com/abcplex/viewstory.cgi?s=5367 if you want to get hold of the CD email me or visit www.geocities.com/keithtrezise/
I've tried this but.... all my words come back to me in shades of mediocrity.....