Tag Archives: genres

Americana flagged

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What is it that bounds Alabama Shakes with the Grateful Dead? I’m not going to pretend I understand the distinction between Americana and alt country but it’s big right now. And it has been the ground for some great artists and songs.

There are some bands like The Knitters that I’m happy to be reminded of. And seeing them here is going to make me want to get at least a sample of Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

While the name suggests that it, by definition, represents gathered cultural facts and observations about life in America, there is its further description of incorporating a mix of roots styles, which can – and inevitably do – leave the shores of the continental United States.

With all this hoeing going down, I’m ready to write another rural piece. What’s another piece of my childhood I can coopt? Well, while it’s not the experience of every farm kid, we had a bren gun carrier we used to play on.

We converted it to a cubby; the coolest cubby yet

This isn’t a story or experience that I’ve wanted to put into song as it is awesome all within itself. In fact most of the memorable tales from living on the farm were meant to be in that form; a simple retelling.

If we’re going to focus less on significant occurences and more on impressions then we stray from Americana I’d venture.

Roots music, even a combination thereof, suggests – as with the previous genres we’ve canvassed – detailing a narrative, perhaps even one based on real events. I don’t think this narrative needs to be based on a ranch or in some forest for it to ring true as the music will convey the sense of the genre.

It’s debatable, in any case, if cubbies make the list of topics covered by Bruce Springsteen or Bruce Hornsby. Even if they once played in one.

I’m not familiar with Hornsby’s ouevre but the Boss is very strong on storytelling; that’s his base. He also ‘gives us permission’ to use urban themes.

The Band, too, write about their experiences on the road. At first I wondered about Beck’s inclusion then it made me realise his imagery may be colourful but its captured from life

II

It seems I’ve strayed from both current affairs and personal reflection in looking at what reasonably constitutes Americana. I don’t know if Dylan is Americana in some phases, folk in others and rock in still more. Certainly, pondering these distinctions for too long gets in the way of the writing.

Since I mentioned it last week, I’ll pitch Pitch

Pitch

Black marks across the page
Acute curls at some stage
Editing edicts becomes addictive
The selling point is this predictive

Players plural and all Plus One
Business baseness comes undone
Pour out upon the track
Looks like alack

Consumer condition connect
Prude pride protect
Tamp down stamp down in the clampdown
  and tinny tunes in a tame town

Wretches reach for riches
But they're too big for their britches
Carried out in stretches
Leaving us in stitches 
 with their pitch

 

Death mettle

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When it comes to murder, there’s a number of genres and subgenres that find it as fascinating as the producers of film and television. Just as there is detective mystery and horror that deal with violent death in pulp novels, the Goths and emo kids signaled a desire to hear about the darker side of life and the death metal crowd wanted to feed the interest and morbid outlook.

It’s not something I have any great interest in and I’m known for dodging murder mysteries, cop shows and forensic series. If I see homicide as part of a story then I have no objection but tales that are built round it are just so plentiful.

Since the last entry, I have two songs Slew and Pitch that are being edited close together, three drafts of Bad Day at the Office, a rather dubious piece called Power to the Peephole, three or four other poems and just writing I Can’t Be Scene #2

Slew came about with the sudden realisation that there are the two meanings: past tense of slay and a big conglomeration of things. Pitch followed because of the quite clear multiplicity of meaning. It just so happens that Slew, because of its subject matter, has a few potential audiences.

Slew

A batch of butchers bitched and botched the act
Dumb down the damage peer through the cracks
The array have been arrested
displayed waylaid time tested
           Slew
            a slew
           Slew
The colour of killers collected
The squalor of skills selected
 For as you say slay
  is still in play

Knives drawn
see what's sawn
Gruesome how some grew
           Slew
            there's a slew

More do murder
scene and heard

Am I late annihilate
Ex tempo exterminate
Sassy mates assassinate
             the slew
            Slew

Genre jeopardy

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The next question is “Can we work back from the song to determine genre or subgenre?” for you may want this ability if you’ve been contracted to perform Western Swing. I don’t recommend this approach for beginners but when one is writing complete songs without paying much heed to where they fit, it’s a handy skill to have.

Where would one place P.O.V? If you have an insight into its construction, as the writer has, one can see the impetus being the cinematic reference; perhaps some Media Studies coming in handy. Otherwise as a critic or theorist you could note that the song, as with much of this lyricist’s work, circles back around continually on the subject matter:  point of view.

You could then try to separate out the component pieces, the different POVs if you will. If its just to understand the tenor then this could be useful but, since I’ve usually bound up different meanings at each juncture so there are parallel readings, this reduces the options.

Style is less problematic. It’s enigmatic, impressionistic, revels in play on meaning. It is thus unlikely to be blues, jazz, folk, country, rock’n’roll. When it comes to mutant forms, definition is less clear. Assuming Captain Beefheart was working his sound from jazz rather than blues (it’s a distant cousin to rock and distant cousins, there’s a limited supply) Nonetheless, I’m going to make a captain’s call (brr) and say that P.O.V is either one of the many seventies on rock songs – probably eighties – or its electronic, experimental, New Wave, any of the genres that liked to wander off. Except that P.O.V doesn’t wander off. By balancing plates metaphorically speaking it stays more on point than songs with a conventional narrative structure.

There are plenty of individual artists who write in this fashion. Not possessing the same style so much but using the subject matter to drive the plurality rather than reigning in a title to our own purpose.

To do a really scientific analysis of the song you’d want data on the character of songs that end with a title chorus or with a title chorus that plays with the repetition by slightly varying it. You could go impossibly broad and look at the subset of songs with this rhyming structure or the internal rhythm; perhaps you’ll feel the need to consider both.

As to pinpointing what style, form or genre typically uses this pattern, it sits at the less whimsical end of punk-era pop perhaps. This is what I was listening to in my formative years. It sits at the Costello end of verbiage not the Iggy end. I don’t twist my puns to romantic purpose as much as El though. There’s often a cataclysmic clamour and that could come from Echo and the Bunnymen or any number of sources.

Hey, I wouldn’t presume to dictate where a song I’ve written ends up as there are all the musicians and singers and audience putting their energies into it. The Blue Velvets do a great version of Just Like Daddy and they’re a jazz trio

Further drafts

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If you did get wind of that last turbine driven rockabilly number you probably found the syllable count to be the most contentious part.

You could argue about whether a commissioner of any energy system needs to act as a metaphor for the kind of interests displayed by the billies, if I can call them that (just recently I noticed that a new rock festival coming to Katoomba will feature, among other acts, one doing horrorbilly), and I don’t think a po-faced folk rendition would have worked in the context of leather jackets and quiffs. Can anything political invade rockabilly turf? The apocalyptic end of shockabilly variations is usually cast in terms such as This is the Day the Sun Burned Down – where they are definitely not discussing solar funding.

II

I have been writing in the exercise book again and finding that ideas tend to come out in a more scattered order. This elaborates on some of the experiences I was recounting in earlier posts but there is a tangent at play when the handwritten lyrics move from nine, say, drafts of whole songs to lyrics delivered out of order and not immediately working despite an expectation that, by fitting and being in context, it should.

The first two pieces came about from the news that a work experience kid had discovered an exoplanet. Considering how recently we were ooh-ing and aah-ing about the first ones to be visible in the new telescopes, this trajectory reminds me of climbing Everest or breaking the four minute mile. It starts as this amazing thing and then is absorbed; at least enough for the bright and talented to pick up and pass on.

None of this ends up in the draft as I am in too much of a reverie about the space in general that the exoplanet planned for the chorus.

[Shockabilly draft]

EXOPLANET
Now that our vision extends beyond the reach
A yearning for learning but what will it teach
Worlds inconceivable light years away
A vaccuum to a void disperse and display
Exoplanet

The telescope tells of hope
Think outside the envelope
Stars adrift in a cosmic shift
The odds of gods being Man’s greatest gift
Exoplanet

One’s elusive now exclusive
The astronomical pay purview
A dearth on the earth we are but few
No offer up to this effusive
Exoplanet

In the past till the last we looked up to the sky
Wondered where what was there we asked why
As all our fronteirs are receding
Process the progress still proceeding
Exoplanet

I wrote this on 25th of June so my thoughts about it have changed but, at the time, I decided the following day to try again. This time not looking at the first version but using one particularly strong line ‘The odds of gods being Man’s greatest gift’

The vastness of the cosmos impresses me no end
As we all turn in circles in these eternal circles
Fade into the shade where life begins again

The burnt out stars that we still see
Their dead state serves as company
Switching on each witching hour
Wishing on a meteor shower

Light years away we like to stray
Where time determines night meets day
Space in place across divides
The odds that gods alone decide

Beyond every notion that we ever had
A guide to the good, a bid for the bad
Averaging out each moment of doubt

The vastness of the cosmos impresses me no end
As we turn in circles in these eternal circles
Ignite in the light life begins again

I wrote it but realised that it, too, had not stayed on exoplanets or, indeed, had much to say about them at all. It would require its own title. This doesn’t commonly happen as I tend to write from titles but, yes, I settled on IN THE SPACE PROVIDED

I let it rest there and went off and wrote a piece called REINVENTION as that was something foremost in my life, about to be offered a package.

Anyway, that was fine

I then returned to the space theme although I didn’t planet and really the two snatches there are more pissing around than anything.

And still I don’t have an exoplanet song.

 

 

 

Getting wind of Rockabilly

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I’ve had a bit of time to think about rockabilly. I’ve listened to plenty of punkabilly and shared in shockabilly. I remain partial to a double bass if it’s weilded well. I had kind of gone off handwriting poetry and songs, which is strange since it was the other way round for many years. Then this burst which was written on the train.

The Windfarm Commissioner
I’m the windfarm commissioner
I blow hot and cold
I’m the windfarm commissioner
and I do what I’m told
I don’t dig mines I’m not that kind
Won’t drill for oil Turn up on foreign soil
I’m the pointless product  of a compromised position
Something of an ether/ORE proposition
But I knew when they drew up my comission
(CHORUS)
I’m not your hydro hero have no geothermal cooling
Sent to rescind the wind ah who am I fooling?
Tilting at windmills like one Don Quixote
Freezing out free air you don’t say
All the turbines combined aligned against me

(CHORUS)

Where the four winds blow it’s my business to know
While Grandpa’s gone fission, his rod starts to glow
There’s a Middle East crisis
a self-corrupting Isis
Meanwhile my timing’s priceless
I’m the windfarm commissioner
I blow hot and cold
I’m the windfarm commissioner
and I’m worth my waiting gold

Not so bumpkin

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The second song attempts to get closer to country motifs by speaking of years of tears but the twist here seems contrived and this can only be because a country song may draw attention to its words when it’s a novelty number such as “I’ve Been Everywhere Man” where the singer lists off all the towns he’s been to in a musical manner. You can even spell out a word – such as D.I.V.O.R.C.E. – and keep the listener focused on the fact that this is about parents keeping the bad news from their young children by spelling things out. It’s the narrative that is captivating here and you become interested in this family (or you don’t; experience may vary)
What you can’t do is to divert the interests of skinny youth in greatcoats to capture the country crowd. Not unless you can do crossover.

At a pinch of red dirt, I’d say there are elements of rockabilly which must be a distant cousin of bluegrass or am I just making that up?

So the move from the tears, which are already streaming in a strange direction, to an apparent escape of some kind – this is not explained – confuses in a way that is then compounded by the words to follow. Sure, there’s a straight reading of these words that serves the concerns of country kind. But it’s the fact that they suggest other readings is distracting in a song that prides narrative engagement. Though they might not phrase it that way.

‘You lent me/rent me/circumvent me’ Is there a place for this in country? No, I would say it was lost. Both the set of meanings in this triplet and the rhythm are suggestive of a more uptempo style and one that doesn’t mind puzzling people as they dance.

It’s not so much that the subject matter is wrong for a country song called “You Can’t Take It Back” so much as the approach to it and the ambiguity; who by the third verse is certain about the role the narrator has in this. Country songs may revel in protecting the feelings of saloon girls and salon guys alike but the listener wants to know which group are being referenced in this song. That is not the kind of trickery that belongs in a country song. There are plenty of other kinds; this is just not one of them.

II

Now, I have written country songs. Or, I have written songs that musician friends have given a country backing, which is similar enough.

If really pushed, I could do a reliable paint-by-numbers take on “You Can’t Take It Back” to make it suitable for any community hall performance. The moped mope of that first song (not a draft as the two snippets are two different takes and unrelated) is humanised a little but perhaps pause over paws for next time.

The idea of giving out things and not being able to reclaim them is good grist for the rustic meal so keep at it.

The Rules of Country

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What about genre? Let’s not get caught up in the clanging of metal or flitting of folk. There are as many genres and subgenres as to have lost count. There are song types that are labelled but the fad finishes so fast that it falls into disuse. But for all its susceptibility genre has a useful purpose in subconsciously delineating its defining features.

Country music is earthy and celebrates life on the land. It talks about the trails and tribulations of life, love, companionship, home. There is glitter and rhinestones, don’t get me wrong, but the lyrical content has a modesty of intent. Later artists started getting increasingly gimmicky to keep the appeal of plowing the same field, with one behatted guitar-slinger declare he was “Lookin’ for Tics”. No music should, however, be judged by its most facile aspects.

Every permutation of love and heartbreak is attended somewhere along the line. These are popular subjects in many genres. Country music adopts a more courtly approach; Merle Haggard “We don’t make a party out of lovin’/We like holdin’ hands and pitchin’ woo”. The menfolk are as likely to get a serve, perhaps even more so. From being admonished to ‘Not come home a’drinkin’ with lovin’ on your mind’ to being accused en masse “Two hoots and a holler/The men ain’t worth a damn/Two hoots and a holler/They’re the lowest thing around”
Even when a partner is found to be cheating, there’s a bitter remorse at it “happening” like in the beautiful Tennessee Waltz where ‘my friend stole my sweetheart away‘ or coming off the poorer from a table with “Three cigarettes in the ashtray” rather than an excuse to cuss. It’s ‘Your Cheatin’ Heart’ not ‘You’re a Cheatin’ Harlot’

If you’re a national treasure you can write songs about different towns and then tour them. You’re guaranteed of good crowd reaction for at least one song.

The first artist I would have seen live was Buddy Williams, an odd honour for him to possess given the array of singers and musicians I’ve watched since. But live entertainment was very much appreciated that far out in the country and there’s a real sense in which artists in this genre are writing to, for, and with the people living in remote rural communities.
One of his was ‘Way Out Where the White-face Cattle Roam’ but that was on a later recording so not sure why that one stuck. Early Slim Dusty takes its inspiration from the bush balladeers of the nineteenth century and also sings about pubs and mates. Country music isn’t given to too much trickery. Wordplay has to let the listener in on the joke. But it’s glorious when it does this well “If I said you had a beautiful body would you hold it against me” “All my exes live in Texas, that’s why I live in Tennessee”
Chad Morgan’s stock in trade is humorous songs about country weddings, country nutjobs, country hicks. Nothing’s sacred.

While country lyrics take a genteel approach to lovemaking – witness Charlie Rich suggesting what will go on once they get Behind Closed Doors or listen to Travis Tritt hearing his lover’s heart beating faster – death tends to be dealt with more bluntly, and there’s no sanction on singing of revenge and murder.

Occasionally country will stray into politics but usually only if the situation is extreme such as Hank Williams warning off Joe McCarthy in ‘No Joe’. Even then we wonder whether he’s not more of a folk performer when he addresses such topics. Topical events like The Pill or The Streak get a run and we can’t forget (much as we might like to) the conservative admonitions often as not culminating in boneheaded attempts at rousing patriotic sentiment for the agenda of the government of the day.

II

I don’t intend to look at features of all genres that closely as I feel that the songwriting process absorbs much of this understanding from a lifetime of listening (even half-listening) but I don’t think it hurts to see how genre operates.

Does this mean that you tailor your words to the expectations of what a country song is? Or what an alt country or Americana tune is? I remain consistent in my advice that you need to build songs up from the needs of the song and let things like genre take care of themselves. This wouldn’t work so well if you were thinking of writing ‘You Can’t Have a Hoedown Without Hoes’ but if you stay away from the cliche you’ll be better off anyway.

III

‘Towing Back’, ‘Tow It Back’ sound too topical to past muster, especially when the subject strays a little into the opposite camp. Even when my whimsy touched down on ‘Towin’ Back Your Heart’, I thought of the tangential ‘You Can’t Take It Back’ but, even as I was assembling the first lines in my head, I had an overwhelming sense that this would be more of a gritty R&B. Let’s see

You Can’t Take It Back

You give out hurt and hate galore
The darkest corners to explore
You surrender planned splendour
Release a real ease of movement
The impact that sells improvement

But you can’t take it back

You give away the things you say
Watching it all come into play
You abandon the cause you stand on
Throw the game of second chance
While circling round a circumstance

No you can’t take it back

IV

I don’t think it fits either genre. It’s more my choppy style laden with different readings. You may encounter other stylistic tics that take you away from the country. This is only a problem if you’ve taken on the wording for a hoedown or been given the task of pitching some lyrics for a country & western song. As for alt-country, for the purposes of this exercise, I want to stick to a more traditional form even among more contemporary songwriters.

I’d thus suggest an approach more along the lines of:

You Can’t Take It Back

You gave me years of turns at tears
You gave me an escape
You surrendered your pretended
coy ploys and attack
You can’t take it back

You lent me rent me circumvent me
You turned me inside and out
You pawed me and ignored me
at the first prospect you lack
You can’t take it back

What you offered and you proffered
Off colour and profane
You slid across the chrome embossed
dream all dressed in black
You can’t take it back