Not my guitar or voice, but my words. (http://www.musicformylyrics.com/)

I believe I was closing in on 20 songs in 3 months  when I wrote this in late June coming into early July (as I write this in October, I am near the 30 mark). It could not have taken me more than 2 days to complete it. Usually songs are blocked out in that much time, but take far longer & require more teasing to call them done. This one burst forth almost in quick succession. For something I have only been doing for 7 months, there are occasions when inspiration does seem divine. This one was.

This song came while I was in a place of darkness, if not outright depression. The reason for why I had spent a good late May & all of June in that place is something I have never been able to put my finger on. With a couple exceptions, the songs I had written in that time were, if not dark, at the very least deeply introspective. I was full of doubts about the world & especially about myself. In short, we all have our dark nights of the soul. This song caught me in probably THE darkest. 

The day I began writing this (I believe it might have been a Sunday, the last day of June), I felt like I was at the bottom of my emotional hole, yet strangely inspired. I had had “Like A Rolling Stone” on my mind a lot then, particularly the Stones’ version on STRIPPED. To me, it seemed like a matter of time before they covered it. If any singer could equal the venom of Bob’s original, it was Mick & he did it perfectly!

Bob is rarely forthcoming on the inspirations for his songs, so what one gets from them may not be what he had in mind to start with. Since he keeps mum about his sources, we have no choice but to infer for ourselves. I remember reading somewhere that “Like A Rolling Stone” was Bob looking at himself in the mirror & not liking what he sees. I think it is a very powerful image & with that in mind, out came this song, certainly my darkest one to date. 

In keeping with the relative mystery of a Bob song’s focus, I left it open as to who the song is addressed to. Is it sung by someone who the one sung about once cast off & is trying to bring them back to reality? Or could it be the singer themselves taking a bit of painful inventory? The final spoken line may be a clue…or it just adds another layer of enigma to the tale. As Bob would probably agree, sometimes it is best to let the listener draw their own conclusions. Bottom line, this is NOT a suicide song.

I am usually more inspired by themes that I hear in songs to jog my creativity. Obviously, no one can write like Bob, so I did not even try to imitate him. Given that idea that Bob might be lashing out at himself more than someone else, I suppose one could say I was writing about myself with this. It helped to end what was a month of general black moods & a way to exorcise what demons I had then. I did my best to avoid a “Positively 4th Street”, where Bob lays into someone so hard, you can almost hear the sneer on his face.

I had doubts at first about keeping the “F” word in. Is it gratuitous or does it fit the mood? Eventually, I remembered John Lennon’s “Working Class Hero”, which dared to use an F-bomb in 1970, when a commercial song almost never did that. I decided the usage was appropriate to the general outlook.

When I got this recording made, I chose it as not only the most recent one I had, but also because it represented how far I had come in 3 months. The fact I could only afford the guitar & vocal option was a blessing in disguise because the stark nature of the song was appropriate for that arrangement. As of right now, best $100 I ever spent. $200 for the royal treatment did not seem right for a song that could have its message swallowed by an over-the-top approach. As I write this now, someday I can hear a fuller sound to this song, not unlike that of a “Like A Rolling Stone”. Besides, a demo is really just to give the idea of how a song is supposed to go, right? And also, what a trip to hear your own words on record!

Happy ending: the songs I began writing after this took a turn back towards positivity. So releasing all that inner pessimism was, in fact, therapeutic. If this is the darkest song I have yet, I am glad to say I have my brightest song yet, too (or at least, my brightest meaningful song; I have my brightest meaningLESS song, as well). 

Whether or not I will have $100 or more to set aside again is unknown. Because that other song on the other side of the emotional spectrum is worth getting it done. The best I can say is I have something tangible from this, so far. Not bad for someone who has words, but cannot sing them & is mostly “composing” in his head right now.

Look At You Now

Not my music or voice, but my words. (www.musicformylyrics.com/)

When writing up the summary for “Look At You Now”, I mentioned that as dark as that song was, there was another that was at the other side of that spectrum. Hope may have been just a glimmer on “Look At You Now”, but that was the song that pulled me out of a decidedly depressive phase & when I stumbled upon the service that I used to put music to it, I felt it was the best one I had & demonstrated how far I had come in just a short time.

2 months later, with that phase now mostly a memory, I wrote that “far happier” song. When I wrote that summary for “Look At You Now”, it was months after I first posted the song. I was not sure when I would have the means to have another demo made, but I always knew this song would be the next one for that treatment. Not merely to show the emotional extremes to which I will often go, but because I felt it was my newest creative high. And with a special deal on a “full band” arrangement that I could afford, I knew this song was the one to merit that. “Look At You Now” had been days old when I first sent it; this song was given 9 months to age before its time came. 

Around the time I wrote this song (roughly early September 2013), I had James Blunt’s “Carry You Home” in frequent rotation on my iPod. Themes usually jump out at me to jog my creativity & while the sound of “Carry You Home” guided me some, the title itself made me recall one I had conjured up some time ago for future use. 

As that happened, words began coming to me & the song was pretty much written top-to-bottom straight through. Sometimes, it is kind of like a jigsaw puzzle & what might fit for one song works better for another. This song was one of those where one line led to another. Granted, “Carry You Home” is actually about death, not too uplifting. But the title made me think in that direction & dredge up my old title to go from there. 

I tried to go for an almost conversational feel, hence the slight wordiness. Even with the word “brother”, the song is far more adaptable than one might believe. The guy must have heard a sort of lazy, ambling rhythm for it, while keeping “Carry You Home” as inspiration. He has never done me wrong with the songs I have sent him, but the first time I heard what he did with this song, I think he outdid himself.  

Hearing my words in recorded form for the first time is a euphoric feeling that never gets old. Still, this remains the proudest moment yet. If “Look At You Now” had come out of a time in shadow, this song came when some light had a chance to peek in.

10/28/14

Help You Up

Not my music or voice, but my words. (www.musicformylyrics.com/)

When I got "Help You Up" made in the summer of 2014, the discounted deal for a full-band arrangement was still going on. Best to take advantage of it while I still could. "Help You Up" had 9 months or so to marinate before it got this treatment, The very first one, "Look At You Now", the ink had barely dried on it after a frenzied 2-day inspiration flood.

For demo #3, I dug back even deeper. As in literally one of the first 5 songs I ever wrote. 

A musician friend (also one who has acted as a sounding board/friendly critic of sorts) had complimented one line of mine as sounding like something out of Joni Mitchell's "The Last Time I Saw Richard". That line: "Maybe it's seeing you here/maybe it's just the wine". Recalling that bit of high praise made me choose this song for the next demo, as I had nothing else terribly new at the time.

When I wrote this back in April 2013, I was in the middle of a book on Neil Young. "Harvest Moon" had always been a particular favorite song. The HARVEST MOON album (1992) was the sequel to his classic HARVEST (1971) & a continuation of that album's country-rock sound.

As themes in an existing song are often enough to jog my creativity, "Harvest Moon"'s apparent meeting between 2 old lovers was that trigger. I was seeing someone at the time & he was busy with school, making us unable to meet for a few weeks. My emotional paranoia regarding that ("Is he not interested in me anymore?") kind of got my brain working. 

The first line, "I wasn't looking for you & you weren't looking for me", was where it started & that was when I was still writing songs sequentially. I still do sometimes, but often, it is more like putting together a jigsaw puzzle: a later verse or a bridge might occasionally come first.

I also had kind of a music video idea playing in my head as I wrote it: a couple (since broken up) unexpectedly meet at a bar or a party. After the initial awkward greetings (and a general feeling of "What are YOU doing here?"), the song begins playing, perhaps with the artist or band at said venue performing it. Meanwhile, flashbacks to the couple in "together" times are shown. Song ends...couple goes off to reminisce some more...end of video. Like the song sort of has no resolution, neither should the video. Do they get back together? Do they just sit & reminisce, only to separate again? Who knows?

I think my demo guy, pointing out that Neil uses a lot of minor keys & chords, used the rocker side of Neil as inspiration. Then again, Neil is so unpredictable, you really cannot pin anything on him. I was impressed all the same, as I believe the guy injected his own sensibility into it. The slow, grungy, almost druggy air to it works well (almost like a country song on downers). 

And when he sent me the trial master that I signed off on, seeing him write, "I truly love this song"...my heart is full. :)

But as we will see with demo #4, my guy was just getting started.

Right This Time

Not my music or voice, but my words. (www.musicformylyrics.com/)

Recent songs of mine have tended to take on a “great American songbook” quality, with a verse & a refrain, rather than verses & choruses. Timeless though the form may be, it really has not been the commercial & cultural force that it was before rock came along. Nevertheless, it did help me turn a corner in my own writing, as I discovered how strongly I could do it & for a long while (around a year or so), what one could consider a “modern” pop song was a rarity in my output. And after all, what better schooling is there for a songwriter than going back to the way it used to be done?

This song is one of those happy rarities, reminding me that I can still do “modern” if my mind is put to it. 

Around late April of this year, I was watching a rerun of the 8th season finale ("Something New") of HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER. The final montage before leading up to a momentous occasion (I will not give away spoilers for those who have yet to watch the show & it does pay to do so from start to finish) was all shades of brilliant on so many levels.

All characters were caught in moments of crucial decision. But most importantly, music & editing carried most of the day. The choice of the Shins’ “Simple Song” to score the montage was a masterstroke. Ever since MIAMI VICE snagged Phil Collins’ “In The Air Tonight” for its pilot episode, TV shows have devoted larger chunks of their budget for music. Many MOTHER fans have claimed they discovered great music from the show, particularly the more obscure indie-based artists that make you hit Google afterwards to enter a lyric & find out what that song was.

A bigger name like the Shins works with the right choice of song to comment on the action. Watching the final scenes in the 8th season finale & the emotion it created while leading up to the “big reveal” brought my creativity out of slumber…after I stood up & applauded once it was over (no lie!). I believe it is one of the best-composed sequences in television history.

I had the beginnings of a chorus as late as a Monday the next week, with “Simple Song” close at hand in my head. That Thursday, while watching a season 6 rerun on another network (“Subway Wars”), things finally got cracking. As the finale montage almost all took place inside of cars, my mind turned to a “road trip” song. Of course, the characters in this song are more about getting out of town & starting somewhere new, with maybe the hope of coming back home having made good. Sometimes, to be the toast of your hometown, you have to get out of it first.

My demo guy has never done me wrong in 3 trips to the well, but I have become a bit conscious of his style, the resources he has at hand & what songs of mine will work for him. As this was one of the most recent completions of mine, that made it the one to send. Mentioning the Shins might have caused him to mix things up just a tad from his usual output. 

While “Simple Song” had me thinking “stadium anthem” as I wrote this one, the guy might have looked to earlier Shins’ work that was more chamber pop, particularly the use of instruments not often heard on a pop/rock song (i.e. the xylophone). That opening riff on “Simple Song” also well-seduced me as I wrote this & my guy agreed it was a great little figure, him twisting it around. It is a classic one, after all (re: The Ronettes’ “Be My Baby”, Badfinger’s “Baby Blue”; the latter best witnessed in the single mix, with an echo on the snare drum).

When I got the trial master, I was immediately charmed at how what I imagined a song full of pomp as I wrote it could work far simpler. Not everything has to sound like Muse, does it? :) My guy outdid himself again! And I LOVE how he took my somewhat jokey, treacle-cutter of a last line (at the fade).

A shame MOTHER is no more, as in my head full of fan-fiction on so many favorite shows, this song is one I could hear being used as an accent for a sequence in an episode. 

Back In Style

Not my music or voice, but my words. (www.musicformylyrics.com/)

Eric Nicholas Andrews