Here's an ironclad rule for you, from the master of ironclad rules: always, but ALWAYS record a quick snippet of each bit of the song you're writing, as you go. Because here's a little snapshot for you of the near-catastrophe that almost happened to a great new song I was writing just now: "Hey, Trouble!" (no relation to I guess there might be either a song or album called that already).
Anyway, this was a near-death experience, for the song at least. I came in with the refrain, which had already written itself as I was trying desperately to memorize it on the way back from grocery shopping. And putting the groceries away, I sing that bit of the ditty into the recorder. Then, grocs put up and away, I grab my mirror-black Fender Acoustic (my prime writing engine) and bang out an absolutely neat-a-riffic verse. The words, a perfect hit on the concept. Direct hit! The melody, great fit with the refrain. Chords chug together choppy-smooth chooglin' like the train metaphor I employed. All in all, a winner! But suddenly, something about the verse melody bugged me.
See, this happens to me all the time: I'll get a verse 1 and a refrain, and then for whatever reason, me and this proto-song will really "hit it off" and I'll play the progression through about a half-dozen times. Maybe two. Sometimes this process alone will generate the words for verses 2 and or 3, or a sudden tangent will wrestle me sideways into a good bridge. Usually though, I'm content to let the rest of the song percolate and take shape over days instead of minutes. So usually at that phase, I'm just grooving on what's already there - playing it through as a "whole song," but with verse 1 in place of every verse. Today I was just grooving. And then suddenly it struck: the dreaded brand-new-song deja vu. After about a half-dozen or two repetitions, the song inexplicably ("inexplicably" I say!) seemed strikingly familiar. Now how could it seem familiar? Because I'd been repeating the same verse 2, 3 times a song and playing that same "song" over and over? Or...because I must have ripped something off from one of my other songs! Off I went on an Odyssey, or if you prefer, a Ulyssiad, to track down which song of mine I'd subconsciously cloned the exact melody line from, and duplicitously pasted it into this new one.
This sensation doesn't happen a lot, ok? Still, it has happened before. Enough times that I ought to know. But for some reason, it never strikes me as telling that #1 the melody doesn't seem at all familiar until I've played it a million times, and from there, it never occurs to me that maybe #2 the reason it does seem suddenly familiar is that I just played it a million times.
Anyway, whew! I checked pretty exhaustively through all or enough of the possible suspects - songs with a similar key or vibe or tempo or length of line - and finally, I have finished reassuring myself that once again, I have thwarted my inner self-plagiarist. Off I go, happy as a clam to go out and about my day.
Except: I never recorded the damn melody.
I went to go play it now, and I rewound to play back the snippet as a refresher, and...there was nothing there! I hadn't bothered recording it, because it clicked so sweet straight off, and I went straight to playing it so many times, I forgot I hadn't nailed down the usual taped tentative initial melody.
The refrain was no problem. That was perfect and intact in my head, in fact, can't get it out. And the words and chords were of course written down, but the melody was a faded palimpsest. What I tried to recreate sounded nothing like the joyous effect I'd originally had in there. It went with the chords, but it wasn't what had been. I couldn't go forward with such a comedown as that.
So I went back to one of my old songs, and ripped off the melody from that one. Works fine.
Anyway, this was a near-death experience, for the song at least. I came in with the refrain, which had already written itself as I was trying desperately to memorize it on the way back from grocery shopping. And putting the groceries away, I sing that bit of the ditty into the recorder. Then, grocs put up and away, I grab my mirror-black Fender Acoustic (my prime writing engine) and bang out an absolutely neat-a-riffic verse. The words, a perfect hit on the concept. Direct hit! The melody, great fit with the refrain. Chords chug together choppy-smooth chooglin' like the train metaphor I employed. All in all, a winner! But suddenly, something about the verse melody bugged me.
See, this happens to me all the time: I'll get a verse 1 and a refrain, and then for whatever reason, me and this proto-song will really "hit it off" and I'll play the progression through about a half-dozen times. Maybe two. Sometimes this process alone will generate the words for verses 2 and or 3, or a sudden tangent will wrestle me sideways into a good bridge. Usually though, I'm content to let the rest of the song percolate and take shape over days instead of minutes. So usually at that phase, I'm just grooving on what's already there - playing it through as a "whole song," but with verse 1 in place of every verse. Today I was just grooving. And then suddenly it struck: the dreaded brand-new-song deja vu. After about a half-dozen or two repetitions, the song inexplicably ("inexplicably" I say!) seemed strikingly familiar. Now how could it seem familiar? Because I'd been repeating the same verse 2, 3 times a song and playing that same "song" over and over? Or...because I must have ripped something off from one of my other songs! Off I went on an Odyssey, or if you prefer, a Ulyssiad, to track down which song of mine I'd subconsciously cloned the exact melody line from, and duplicitously pasted it into this new one.
This sensation doesn't happen a lot, ok? Still, it has happened before. Enough times that I ought to know. But for some reason, it never strikes me as telling that #1 the melody doesn't seem at all familiar until I've played it a million times, and from there, it never occurs to me that maybe #2 the reason it does seem suddenly familiar is that I just played it a million times.
Anyway, whew! I checked pretty exhaustively through all or enough of the possible suspects - songs with a similar key or vibe or tempo or length of line - and finally, I have finished reassuring myself that once again, I have thwarted my inner self-plagiarist. Off I go, happy as a clam to go out and about my day.
Except: I never recorded the damn melody.
I went to go play it now, and I rewound to play back the snippet as a refresher, and...there was nothing there! I hadn't bothered recording it, because it clicked so sweet straight off, and I went straight to playing it so many times, I forgot I hadn't nailed down the usual taped tentative initial melody.
The refrain was no problem. That was perfect and intact in my head, in fact, can't get it out. And the words and chords were of course written down, but the melody was a faded palimpsest. What I tried to recreate sounded nothing like the joyous effect I'd originally had in there. It went with the chords, but it wasn't what had been. I couldn't go forward with such a comedown as that.
So I went back to one of my old songs, and ripped off the melody from that one. Works fine.
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Actually, good news! I was finally able to re-create the original melody. It was hard as hell, but once my mental needle fell back into that sweet groove again, there was no mistaking it! What a relief.
At one point, I was actually attempting to play the song backwards from the refrain - working back from how I remembered the two hitching together, at the hitch in my voice. Thank goodness I slipped back into the original groove! It would have driven me crazy.
Ironclad rule, peoples. Iron clad rule: record your original snippets before you go running away down the track!