IT’S THE SONG, STUPID!

I read the story below and had to laugh and cry at the same time.

Writing a hit song is an exacting science?

Try telling that to someone like Paul McCartney today.

Wish I would have told this to Lennon.

Or were able to share this crap with Dylan, Keith Richards, Irving Berlin, Hoagy Carmichael, or any of the greats from Tin Pan Alley.

“Er, Bob, can you lose a few verses from “Like A Rolling Stone” and give me a HUGE chorus?”

“Keith, that riff, man. Whoa, waaaaaaay too long and I can’t for the life of me understand what Mick is singing.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyM-j_49nk0&feature=fvwrel

Reference: Hit Songs Deconstructed

When music is reduced to graphs and lengths of intros and choruses and “key words”, it only shows that the heart of music has gone.

It brings back my own annus horribilus or pain in the arse relationship with an ex who said that “words don’t matter. It’s the beat.”

“Beats” are fine and from Gene Krupa to the great Hal Blaine and Ringo and Charlie Watts toSteveGadd and Jim Keltner, there has always been a need for a solid backbeat.

It gave the melodies and the lyrics “space” and “wall of sound” for those vocals – with lyrics – to stretch out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pP66xUuGGQc

People played how they felt and for as long as the riffs, the melody and the lyrics needed.

Intuitively one knew when to shut the fuck up and how enough was enough.

Iron Butterfly and, perhaps, Isaac Hayes and Vanilla Fudge were the exceptions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aWFaZgwerY

But with so many not knowing how to go from major to minor, one is left with gadgetry and gimmickry.

Or formulaic and bloody boring Diane Warren song which one can hear a mile off.

Ahhhh, a Diane Warren song – two verses, big chorus with gooey theme line, twiddly middle part, another “bulbous” chorus, verse, key change, whack that chorus outta the ballpark.

And it’s worked very well for her.

Overall, however, this is what has really been the demise of the music industry: LACK OF GREAT SONGS.

Music companies fucked up the business side.

The Gimmick Makers fucked up the music side – or are making money from it by creating music-by-numbers.

It’s why there are so many tin-pot “singers” and knob twirlers masquerading as “arrangers” and “producers”.

What “arranging” and what “producing”?

Which is probably why songwriting is so much of a fucking struggle for so many: They are trying too hard to make it “different.”

And trying to make a song “different” means being pretentious and too damn clever by half.

Just like this rubbish about “songwriting trends.”

#bobdylan #thebeatles #Musiccompanies #jimkeltner #dianewarren #HoagyCarmichael #RingoStarr #SteveGadd #CharlieWatts