Hello pickers!
I haven’t blogged in a while and I missed you. I have been busy writing a play called “paradise lost”. More on that in future posts. I have been writing some songs too and as always, you ask yourself: ” is this song any good?”" what makes a good song? some songs are great because they make you pound your fist on the dashboard of your car and yell like an idiot. other songs have lyrics that tear your heart out. other songs just make you feel good. Other songs are wildly popular and everybody knows the song. So what is it? First of all it’s not popularity. It doesn’t take a good song to sell a million copies. You could record Taylor Swift taking a dump and sell a million copies. The thing I do is ask my self if I like it AND how excited am I to play it for other people. I think if you are excited enough to call up your friends and turn the phone on its side and say “Listen to this!!” and proceed to bang on your guitar and sing your heart out, you’ve got a good song. If you believe in it, you can convince others to believe in it too. Which brings up another point. You can’t please everybody all the time. so don’t try. Write what you know and you will find your audience. What if I want to write a big hit? Is there a formula I can follow? Sure there is and you probably can figure it out for your self. If it’s country, pick up some brooks and dunn records and take notes. If it’s pop you want just mash some hip hop with some rock guitar and club beats and sing about all the money you have and whores your bangin’. If you can do that and still look at yourself in the mirror, more power to you. You will be a rich man. I will stay outside, concentrate on writing great lyrics and melody in music from an angle that people haven’t heard before and finish out my time on earth broke and bitter. HA! I WIN! ( where’d my drink go?)
The song for this blog is called ” Vincent BLack Lightning 1952″ written by Richard Thompson. I think it is one of the greatest songs ever written. Great lyrics, great melody and music. This is a recording of my friend Nathan Phillips and I off our lost recording Public Domain. This goes out to Robin, Jennifer, and Jack who have been bugging me to post this song. You can download it for free at my website. I also noticed that some people have been looking for the lyrics to Castleneck. Leave me a comment on this blog and I will post them for you on the next blog if you want a copy.
cw
What the hell er you lookin' at!?
04 vincent black lightning 1952
I LOVE IT CLIFF! send lyrics Please!!!!
Comment by alex — April 14, 2010 @ 2:41 am |
lyrics to vincent black lightning or castleneck?
Comment by Cliff Wagner — April 14, 2010 @ 3:20 pm |
A good song is what The Fuhrer says is a good song.
Comment by Banjo Sam — April 14, 2010 @ 12:47 pm |
Howdy! I guess for me, first it’s pretty much all about the lyrics. Give me some sort of interpretive ambiguity and dust it with some saucy metaphor, melancholy and/or celebration and we’re in business. I think it was Woody Guthrie who said “If you play more than two chords, you’re showing off.” Next in line is the overall feel or groove if you will…you can save the showoff weedly-wee sort of playing and give me a solid cohesion of folks that are locked in and tight. I was listening to Johnny Burnette & The Rock and Roll Trio yesterday…not one drum fill…not one cymbal crash, no Hi-Hat. The beat is so solid that you don’t even notice that there’s basically nothing extra curricular about it. I guess the last point for me might be that when the singer opens his mouth, I don’t care how good a song might be, I’ll turn that shit off if I don’t like the mood and attack of their voice right off the bat….and if I may, I’ve always thought that Richard Thompson is way over rated but the only song that I like by him is the one you’ve featured here. He pretty much ruined all of the Nick Drake stuff that he played on. He’s always seemed to be a bit too haughty for my taste…I’ve seen him live and was bored to tears. So there you have it! One expert’s opinion about everything! By the way, you win but I know you ain’t bitter! I’ll get you that drink when I see ya!
Comment by DV — April 14, 2010 @ 4:59 pm |