What not to write about
When I was 19, I had just returned to my parent's house in Alexandria, Virginia, after spending most of the year unsuccessfully shopping my songs in L.A. My hair had grown so long that my dad joked, "They told me Jesus was coming back, but they never said he was going to live at my house."
But I digress. On returning to Northern Virginia, I lucked into a connection with Columbia Screen Gems Music through one of their New York staff writers who happened to be my friend. I spent the next few years being mentored as a songwriter by two great people: Lanny Lambert and Irwin Schuster. To give you an example of their stature, Irwin, as a senior vice president for the company, had just signed the publishing rights for a new band by the name of Boston. In his career, he'd also had relationships with such diverse luminaries as Carole King and Todd Rundgren.
Irwin was mentoring Lanny, after a fashion--Lanny was an experienced songwriter already--and the two of them mentored me in turn. I say all this to let you know that many of suggestions I make come from very senior and experienced song-crafters; and in this blog I'm sharing some of their teachings with you (along with 30+ years of my own personal experience putting their tutoring to work).
The old rule for a "breaking" hit--something that might put a new band on the map--was that it had to be up-tempo, positive, danceable, and sexually oriented (boy/girl relationship, and a few sexy references would be helpful). Songwriters never seem to have a challenge coming up with stuff to write about, but "rules" like this provide a way to channel what you're doing. The publishers and promoters just saw a lot of evidence that this kind of a song would have an easier time making it onto the charts.
By comparison, in country the themes are usually:
-She loves me
-She left me
-She done me wrong
If you're going outside of these areas, you'd better have something good--maybe patriotic, maybe a song about your buds, or about your favorite dog. Okay, family, kids, mom and dad seem to have snuck in there lately, too.
You may have noticed that there aren't any examples of musician-oriented subjects in my suggestions above. You know, songs about how hard it is to write a song, or how tough it is to be a musician on the road, or how cool it is to live the rock and roll life, or how other people's songs aren't any good. One of the things that Irwin and Lanny used to beat me up about was how lame musician songs were in most cases. Now that I mention it, I can only bring a short list to mind if I think really hard.
-American Band (Grand Funk Railroad)
-Your Song (sort of...Elton John)
-Turn the Page (Bob Seger)
-What's Your Name (Lynard Skynard)
-On the Road Again (Willie Nelson)
-Open Arms (Journey)
Here's a challenge...can you come up with any more? Post 'em here as a comment and let's see what we've got!
Okay, back to my point. There is a reason songs like these are discouraged by publishers, producers, and record companies. It's because, unless you've got a LOT of momentum (see the list above), a lot of fame, and you're in that sweet spot where your fans are actually paying attention...NO ONE CARES how hard it is to be a musician, how fun it is to be a musician, or how much you hate or like someone else's stuff.
To put it succinctly, write about what you want, but don't write about things that nobody cares about. And while you're at it, be careful with the really contrived references. I recently heard a sample from a young group here in Dallas that made reference to being in the back seat of his "SUV" with his girlfriend. My God, how could anyone ever thing that "SUV" could sing well is beyond me. In any case, it came off something like this: "I'm 17 and can't afford an SUV, but people my age think SUVs are cool, so I'll mention it in my song like I really have one and people will think I’m cool."
PUHLEEZE... The Beach Boys had their 409 and Woody Wagon, Vanilla Ice had his "Five-point-oh," and somebody was going to have fun, fun, fun till her daddy took the T-Bird away...but an SUV? How blandly urban.
Okay, I'm better now.
But I digress. On returning to Northern Virginia, I lucked into a connection with Columbia Screen Gems Music through one of their New York staff writers who happened to be my friend. I spent the next few years being mentored as a songwriter by two great people: Lanny Lambert and Irwin Schuster. To give you an example of their stature, Irwin, as a senior vice president for the company, had just signed the publishing rights for a new band by the name of Boston. In his career, he'd also had relationships with such diverse luminaries as Carole King and Todd Rundgren.
Irwin was mentoring Lanny, after a fashion--Lanny was an experienced songwriter already--and the two of them mentored me in turn. I say all this to let you know that many of suggestions I make come from very senior and experienced song-crafters; and in this blog I'm sharing some of their teachings with you (along with 30+ years of my own personal experience putting their tutoring to work).
The old rule for a "breaking" hit--something that might put a new band on the map--was that it had to be up-tempo, positive, danceable, and sexually oriented (boy/girl relationship, and a few sexy references would be helpful). Songwriters never seem to have a challenge coming up with stuff to write about, but "rules" like this provide a way to channel what you're doing. The publishers and promoters just saw a lot of evidence that this kind of a song would have an easier time making it onto the charts.
By comparison, in country the themes are usually:
-She loves me
-She left me
-She done me wrong
If you're going outside of these areas, you'd better have something good--maybe patriotic, maybe a song about your buds, or about your favorite dog. Okay, family, kids, mom and dad seem to have snuck in there lately, too.
You may have noticed that there aren't any examples of musician-oriented subjects in my suggestions above. You know, songs about how hard it is to write a song, or how tough it is to be a musician on the road, or how cool it is to live the rock and roll life, or how other people's songs aren't any good. One of the things that Irwin and Lanny used to beat me up about was how lame musician songs were in most cases. Now that I mention it, I can only bring a short list to mind if I think really hard.
-American Band (Grand Funk Railroad)
-Your Song (sort of...Elton John)
-Turn the Page (Bob Seger)
-What's Your Name (Lynard Skynard)
-On the Road Again (Willie Nelson)
-Open Arms (Journey)
Here's a challenge...can you come up with any more? Post 'em here as a comment and let's see what we've got!
Okay, back to my point. There is a reason songs like these are discouraged by publishers, producers, and record companies. It's because, unless you've got a LOT of momentum (see the list above), a lot of fame, and you're in that sweet spot where your fans are actually paying attention...NO ONE CARES how hard it is to be a musician, how fun it is to be a musician, or how much you hate or like someone else's stuff.
To put it succinctly, write about what you want, but don't write about things that nobody cares about. And while you're at it, be careful with the really contrived references. I recently heard a sample from a young group here in Dallas that made reference to being in the back seat of his "SUV" with his girlfriend. My God, how could anyone ever thing that "SUV" could sing well is beyond me. In any case, it came off something like this: "I'm 17 and can't afford an SUV, but people my age think SUVs are cool, so I'll mention it in my song like I really have one and people will think I’m cool."
PUHLEEZE... The Beach Boys had their 409 and Woody Wagon, Vanilla Ice had his "Five-point-oh," and somebody was going to have fun, fun, fun till her daddy took the T-Bird away...but an SUV? How blandly urban.
Okay, I'm better now.
posted by Ryan Michael Galloway at 9:04 PM
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