I'm curious.

Obviously a very sensitive subject.

The fallout for me has been once mutual friends snubbing me :(.

I tend to be so tired on saturday afternoons/evenings after a busy week then hospital radio, it can be a bit of an introspective time. Thankfully at least I know I've felt worse...don't feel too bad, just puzzled about life's twists and turns.

I do have some good things to look forward to tomorrow, monday, and maybe tuesday too come to think of it...it *could*be the day i find out about joining a band, in theory :)

Back to my question tho...have you written a song about someone you fell out with. Did it make you feel 'better'? What were your intentions? Were you aware of the potential 'fallout' and prepared for it? How did you deal with the conflicting emotions any 'backlash' - felt, heard, or even imagined?

Sorry stranger but I really cant see you getting many replies, (Id love it if this thread did take off,..) so a bit off topic,
I heard somewhere that Gary newmans, 'Are friends electric' was written just after his girlfriend left him.
There are some lyrics to that effect in the song.
It just made me laugh to think that she might have been kicking herself after he hit it big.
You can imagine the conversations--"but why cant you play normal music"
"you,ll never have a hit with this weird stuff".
,



quiet tonight isnt it,

Yeah, who hasn't written a song about being snubbed, being looked down upon blah blah blah

back to the teen-chat line

http://www.myspace.com/ohsees

Listen to this lot and get over it.

Either that or play .... no just listen to thees.


:D ;)

Yeah cha cha when I grow up to be a real man I'll deal with my problems with hard drugs...

Better to write a song than to reach for the handgun. Writing a song, at least you'll learn something and have a product of your efforts even if no one ever sees it.
It might be a worthwhile endeavor to get out a fake book and pick a song with a chord progression that will stretch your playing and song writing a little.Ditch the lyrics and keep the chords. You may even try the Samuel Beckett method of writing: start with the very particular, if you have to, and then edit and pare and substitute until nothing but the most general and universal remains.

Interesting, thanks for the advice.

What do you mean by 'fake book' though?

Fake books , now legal, contain several hundred songs. Usually only the lyric, notes of the melody line, and chord names are given so you can always fit one song onto one page, often you can fit two.
If you're playing a lounge, say, and someone asks for "Melancholy Baby" and you don't know it, you glance at your fake book, see the key, the chords, and the melody and Wham-o, Melancholy baby and a tip[maybe].
Anyway: a fake book is a book with a large number of songs in it with only the melody line, chord names and lyrics - no arrangements.

Thanks.

I'll bear it in mind.

So far I've had lyrics sort of building up, and I've picked the favourite ones, and I know as and when I need something new, if I don't have something fresh I could go and look over the lyrics I've accumulated. If I've done that so far, my reaction has varied to - yes, still, one to finish, do it when ready, to hmm, remodel that, to :confused: what was I thinking then? :rolleyes:

The mind has a funny way of getting ideas and running with them, I can't always articulate them well, so if that's happened on the day I've written something even I can't sense what I was driving at.

As for tunes, been sort of lucky...either at the time I've written something I've thought of a simple one to go with what I'm writing.

A couple of other times, I've had a 'riff' (in quotes as I've worked on piano a bit) I've worked on then I've welded it to lyrics and luckily it seems to have worked.

I've been worried about being derivative, but normally I've recognised any similar bits of songs that may have triggered the idea, and made enough differences. It's not like I've tried to publish anything.

I found Iggy's work quite simple at first when I heard things like 'The Idiot' and 'The Stooges'...I sort of liked at, but at first I thought it all seems too simple. Now I admire that simplicity more than ever and for now it's almost a guideline.

:)

I think it's really hard to write a 3 chord song....it's been done so often where do you go? I think John Fogarty was terrific at writing 3 chord songs - so easy it's almost impossible...I guess what I'm getting at is writing fresh-sounding 3 chord songs is difficult.

i wrote many songs about girls in high school and middle school

I've never been a real fan of confessional-type songwriting, unless it's either so oblique there's room for my own imagination to make it relevant to me, or it's so universal I can identify with it. Doesn't mean I haven't written personal songs, but they tend to be approached more like poetry, quite spare, easy on the obviously personal details. I hate the gnashing of teeth. It can be a good idea to couch a personal experience in a song that sounds like a story about someone else. As to the issue of people taking offence at being referred to in a song, well if you play a song in public, or release it on a record, and everyone knows who it's about well, think - would you stand up in a pub and shout loudly about how you feel about this person? Would you do it in the office? I wouldn't. But David Gedge might feel differently. Each to their own.

'Are Friends Electric' was written about the lonliness of being alone in your flat when your tv set has gone bang.

Like The Shrander, I'm not at all fond of woebetideme songs. But if you've written one, and you like it, then you should bloody well stand by it. If the lyrics were important enough to you to write down and memorize and put to music and perform, then there's no way that you should recant just because someone didn't like it or got offended.

Stick to your guns, or ditch the song. Neither option is 'wrong' I suppose, (I don't know the ins and outs of the situation), but whichever option you choose will say a lot about you, so keep that in mind.

Thank you for the opinions.

I was aware I could make my songs more 'coded', to be fair, but I find it difficult too.

I do intend to try it more and have started to.

I can be quite plain speaking and very compelled to be honest and open.

In this situation I sought advice before writing more songs and a friend or two said go for it, as long as the person isn't named.

Because I got shunned by once mutual friends and I wrote to the person. I've not received a reply, but then that was often the problem :(. We were once very good friends though so I thought I owed them an explanation as to why what went on upset me so much.

I feel better than I did when I wrote that post...the power of having new and exciting things to focus on can't be underestimated.

:)

I'm all for it. Revenge can be the essence of good song writing. It's uncool in real life, but this is music we're talking about.
Dunno if Lou's Berlin was a revenge album, but that was pretty savage, deliciously so....."I'm just the waterboy/the real game's not over here...but since she lost her daughters/it's her eyes that fill with water/and I am much happier this way"
Makes ya suck the wind thru your teeth that song.
If it's a crap song, throw it away. If it's not, it might just be "Bad News Girl" or "Sing Harpy".
Be ye not discouraged, empathy abounds amongst yon hordes!!!!!!
Some disnfranchised fool out here might just feel better for hearing it.
"Caroline No", anyone?

PS Unless you use her name. who's to know? I was gobsmacked when I learned that Pete Hamill was happily married when he wrote all those despairing/angsty heartbreak songs. People appreciate it as art, ask Scott Walker.
And if you're feeling better, drum that stuff up anyway if there's a tune in it for the rest of us, but only relive it for the duration of the song of course. I so admire and envy people like Bob Mould who can scream their heart out on stage and then seem like a happy chappy afterwards, lucky bastard.