Seems like something I should try at least once, right? So I've started. Here are the first two lines:
News on the radioYeah, this is gonna be great! Further updates as events warrant.
Tells stories of upheaval and despair
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Arrangement is everything
Every now and again, someone will tell me my songs are all depressing. While this isn't precisely true, it occurs to me that in over a decade of songsmithing, I've never written bubblegum pop.
Seems like something I should try at least once, right? So I've started. Here are the first two lines:
Seems like something I should try at least once, right? So I've started. Here are the first two lines:
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5 comments:
"But I don't care/that's all...over there/You're here, and I love you!"
There, make sure I get co-writer credit. :)
Do you think Leonard Cohen or Tom Waits ever get people coming up to them and saying "Hey, I'm a big fan, but do you think you could tone down the gloom a bit?"
Probably. People are dumb.
A lot of your songs feel positive to me. Even when they describe a bad situation, there's an underlying understanding of what the world is supposed to be like instead of what it seems at the moment. That is optimism. Sometimes the happiest bubblegum pop is depressing because there is no worldview outside the bubblegum in the song. That is pessimism.
Brian: Who knows. Maybe not so much now because it's their schtick, what they're made their name on. When they got started? Bet they heard it all the time.
Unknown: Those are interesting definitions. I don't know if failure to have a worldview outside a song is pessimism, even if people who want something smarter find it depressing. But I do try to inject some hope into a lot of my sadder songs.
Hmm. Buddhists say that all suffering comes from desire, and the discrepancy between what is and what we want to be. They say the way to end suffering is to stop desire. I've never heard a song written from a Buddhist perspective. Seems like it would be kind of boring, though.
I'm giggling as I type - that made my day, thank you!
Wow, I haven't even performed this song in public yet and it's already making people happy. Must be on the right track. ;)
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