Looking up this week after getting a reggae endorsement to sound like St Ann instead of St Felicity, I saw the usual little dark mist in the corner behind the left monitor speaker. At times I have absolutely believed this to be my best muse, back from a pizza run to the outer star belt. Or maybe just the golden ring around Uranus. Anyway… It seems to bring inspiration in a dark way: more Keith Richards than Cliff Richard, and I feel the need to write something that involves leather, whips, and a snare drum that sounds like Pavarotti hitting water from the top board. I’m looking for 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 line of the lyrics: that always brings out the Bowie knives. As Sam Goldwyn said: Start with an exploding volcano and work your way from there to climax.
I can’t stress how important the first two lines of the first verse are in any song. If you work your way through a song, in a style I like to call Captain Cliche, you’ve probably lost them before the second guitar hits. 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 in the toilet… blah blah.. .
Is anyone still awake? The only thing that could save that song would be a beat strong enough to lift Lazarus out of the grave and over the horizon. I never thought that the years I spent writing ads for various advertising agencies would be worth so much to me now. The rule in advertising is: by the time you’ve written the headline, you’ve spent 80c of your dollar. You have to hook them. It has to say something different about a subject you’ve heard a million times. Take the never-ending theme of LOVE (also known as LURV…lo NASTY…and BUMPING UGLIES) If I were teaching songwriting, one of the first projects I’d set up would have to be: write a song about LOVE, but make it interesting . Make it different. Make the listener say: I’ve never thought of it that way before. Now Paul McCartney, being famous, doesn’t have to work as hard as the rest of us. That’s what he calls it: Another silly love song. With a chorus that says: I love you, I love you, I love you. Ugh, Macca… it’s time to open the window!
This is how I do it: my song is called: If you were ice cream… and the first verse is: If you were ice cream, I would eat you, with a very small spoon… if you were the light of the stars, I’ll come to you encounter, halfway to the moon… I think it’s a lot more interesting than Paulie’s, but hey, it’s famous and I just started kicking in the door. For more examples of how I approach opening verses and songs in general, go to my new site or click the link below.
He must go into town for some new acoustic guitar strings. I haven’t changed them in a year, and no…there’s no direct link between rotating underwear and guitar strings. Y-one… two… three…
Copyright 2005 Dollar Bill
