Man, last night I was all ready to write up a post to the effect of, "I just wrote a song that's LAME. And it's depressing, 'cause I haven't done that in a while. And it often is a sign of a whole patch of lame songs to come. And what a bummer."
No, I'm serious. I was going to do it. But it was a little too fresh a disappointment, I couldn't ratchet up the motivation to cop to it just then.
So today in the cold light of morning, I awoke, and I reassessed its defects.
1. A bit too similar to the previous song I completed straight through from scratch ("Figured Out All"), in certain respects and effects.
2. Good verse lyrics, clever and tart - but not a good match to the concept, the pain, the world the refrain is living in.
3. Great refrain!
Technically, #3 is not a defect, but also technically, it is. Because if a great refrain doesn't fit, it's not helping! Even though the refrain came first. It still has to fit.
So this morning (cold light, as I said) I played it through a few times. Hey! Not bad. A good, bouncy groove, and melodically pretty sweet. Some very good lyrical turns. I was happy playing it, even though it was no great shakes and I swore there was more potential there that was being stunted. But it was not a bad song. Good enough? A keeper? Filler? Should I settle for that? And if not - what to do? Re-write ALL the verse lyrics to the same melody? Re-do the verse melody/chords, to avoid that twinge of similarity (which is ridiculous, because really they're nothing alike structurally, they just have a similar jaunty effect)?
Or Plan B: jettison the verse entirely. Write a new verse with chords in a different direction, and lyrics that speak right straight to the point of what I guess in retrospect I must have been trying to duck the night before, with clever wordplay.
Plan B rules. I love this song! It was previously called "That's Not All," but now it is called: "The Rest..."
The old verses can always hang around the depot on the lookout for a refrain that better suits 'em. I still like them a lot. And honestly, the similarity issue isn't even there without the refrain. It's hard to explain, an odd effect. The verses of song A and song B, compared to each other verse to verse, not particularly similar. The refrains, again, not all that similar (they both put a stress on the word "all," but so what? So does "You Shook Me All Night Long" - and a million other great songs that are hardly knockoffs of each other). But there was something strange about the way the verse and the refrain of each song fit together, that created an illusion of similarity. The bopping along verse and soar/chime chorus effect - too close, even though the bops were different paths and the soars different trajectories.
And now? Problem 100% solved! This new song is so much better than the old version (last night = "old" apparently)! And I'll be honestly, while all that nutsy-bolt stuff is important, I don't think all this song mechanics crap is the real factor. The biggest difference is the words. I forget how effective it can be to have words that hit what you're talking about dead-on. I love a good oblique lyric as much as the next guy, I love some impressionistic or abstract imagery, but sometimes you need to cut the crap.
Or anyway, I do.
"Boo yah" - in my FACE, song!
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