Tag Archives: songwriting genre

We’ve hit Hard Rock

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The trouble with attempting hard rock so soon after heavy metal is the potential to balk. Luckily this sort of shit doesn’t bother me.

Touching Story

Father went further than faith healers would 
Mother's what mattered he muttered but good
Brothers insist I broadcast the fact
You're only as good as your final act
It's a touching story

Friends now depend on a diplomatic jest yeah
Policing the pleases, ranking the thanks
Old chums still wielding charms
the armour of amour safest arms

touching story

The fingers that linger on buttons and batons
thumbed through manuals describing grabbing
a piece of the piece de resistance
lust in a sense lost innocence
 
The weird have won a ward
in the inn of the unexplored
The leisurely joints apply pressure points
to the need that exceeds all the others anoints
[CHORUS]

Glitters and Heavy hitters

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As is the practice, let’s review those last posts and see to what extent they could be mistaken for the genre I’ve mentioned. Given that we have already acknowledged that attempting to ape existing works in order to get it right or seem authentic is not a good approach for us, there is only so much change the songwriter needs to make to accommodate such urges.

We could ask Alvin or Ziggy using cut up method or something more Glitter than Gary but I haven’t got time for dress-ups. The priority for the lyricist is in taking the song where it needs to go. The choice is upfront in deciding a title or seizing on some passing scrap and building from it, after that you are going to see it form its own way.

I don’t know about you but I’m not that fascinated with the one time glitter rock to spend too much time ‘getting it right’. The thing to do is conjure it all up on your music carriage service of choice.

Ever So Slightly is a tongue twister; a dash through sibilance is a challenge or else a distraction for the singer, especially if they’re also playing a musical instrument. And this is antithetic to the whole ‘Come on come on’ that plays so well with the lads.

Stop You in Your Tracks is the same. It might form the basis for a symphonic metal beast but it’s not going to play well for the hairy biker you got to sing nor the swaying crowd.

Both look, for all their other traits, like poems to read on the page. The very decision to use the homonym means it will be extraordinarily hard to convey through a microphone, especially if you’re yelling and screaming or using a vocal pitch that is accentuated over playing to subtlety in meaning.

If we accept the fact that the songs aren’t bad, the only further observation of interest is what this highlights in the genres. Allowing that they all serve some purpose, be they crass or deluded, repetitive in uninteresting ways, it’s only to note mildly that no metal, be it doom metal, death metal, hair metal, power metal, black metal, thrash metal, dark ambient metal, gothic metal                               has started out vocally with ‘The fuddling of the feat to disappear’ nor fuddling of feet for that matter. Not to be critical of the many forms of metal which are musically dexterous, the wordplay here, which might be imperative in some alternative rock, just strips the impact that a more simply worded message would have.

So what do we gain from this trawl through the genres? The need to nod to fashion for our glam and glitter and to darkness and betrayal for our more metallic tinge, drove the direction of these songs.

Pause

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I suppose you could argue that, having had a flick at filk and fiddling with the form, I should complete the folk coverage by charging off to techno-folk and folktronica, but – again, with the kind of disclosure that may only be necessary when describing the relating of ideas or events – I think it’s important that a lyricist knows their limitations and is able to recognise when genres are blind corners. Blind corners are not useful when explored in a songwriting blog.

Besides, I think we have enough data on folk songs to be going on with.

II

The monster in the wings when it comes to genre is rock and that has so many roots and branches that a writer could get up in any one their whole life. Many do.

I want to take a break from genre (and, yes, being anal and completist I did once write a song about Genre Considerations)

Let’s talk a little bit about the inspirations as I believe these are key to committed lyric writing. If you are receptive to whatever comes down the pike then you aren’t held back. Recently I got ‘for those who built houses too close to the ocean/whose pools and pagodas cluster the coast[whose pools in rubble that clutters the coast]’ but that might be insensitive.

The other approach, as we’ve detailed, is to go to the title and the kernel of the idea it contains and work from that. I’d probably use this approach more than working out from lines or couplets but I couldn’t swear to that. You don’t normally stop the flow of what you’re writing to question how it’s being constructed.

The frustrating thing with writing from the potent title is when the original thought or idea is diluted, misdirected or forgotten altogether. This happens. I idly mused on False Alarm (not entirely convinced I haven’t used that one before) and this sublime line about the sirens. Now I’ve got a snippet that’s similar ‘The sirens are sorry they sought your assistance’ In fact, hallelujah, that could be it; it was something about the sirens being sorry

False Alarm 

The sirens resemble the things we love best
assayed and assiduous as we can attest
Deploy the lever on the Great Deceiver
had it up to here with believers

Bells still tell their role to toll
at time defined and in control
So bray and say you'll stay alert
at minor cant and manner curt

Signals single out the code
method in mad nest the motherlode
used to live just up the road

Pious peer at us as though possessed
if we'd rather be blissed than blessed
by luck or pluck arm in arm with charm
Treat the whole thing as a false alarm
The noise knows the news so
roll forward rock to and fro

Blare and blaze and make a racket
when you find what's in the packet
The sirens sound for the final test
importing importance until they're impressed


 

					

		
		
	


				
					
	

		

						
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

					

		
		
	


				
					
	

		

						
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