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Just finished, Figured I'd share here "Tired of Being Lucky" Copyright 8/2020 John W Selleck BMI
Lyrics on the song page. Trying new mic but still not good from the laptop.

https://www.soundclick.com/music/songInfo.cfm?songID=14102885
Tired of Being Lucky

Born to migrants workers
Poor as the day is long
When it came to privilege
We did not belong
Moved up to NJ
Father way to ill
Barely scraping by
Fighting all the bills

Some say I am Lucky---------} Chorus
Just because I'm white
Walk a mile in my shoes
Before you have that right
Tired of being lucky
You know it's not true
I walked all the hard roads
I have paid my dues

My first store bought clothes
Came when I was eight
Worked a neighbors farm
Tell you it was great
Extras to my mother
For her cookie jar
Not for toys or candy
We didn't have a car

Some say I am Lucky---------} Chorus
Just because I'm white
Walk a mile in my shoes
Before you have that right
Tired of being lucky
You know it's not true
I walked all the hard roads
I have paid my dues

All peoples have been slaves--} Bridge
At least a time or two
Why are you complaining
It sure wasn't you

Instrumental Break

Some say I am Lucky---------} Chorus
Just because I'm white
Walk a mile in my shoes
Before you have that right
Tired of being lucky
You know it's not true
I walked all the hard roads
I have paid my dues

Tired of being lucky
I have paid my dues

Copyright 8/2020 John W Selleck BMI

Hi John:

I attempted to listen but after clicking on the "Play" Button... it dithered and dithered until I finally gave up. Is it possible that I have to "join" to be able to listen?

Sorry, ----Dave

Sry Dave, their player seems to be a PIA, I added a soundclick link that will work.

Interesting message. So many people had no advantages and are being told to feel guilty anyway.

Not everyone will agree though, I suspect; it's an emotional topic these days.

The musical aspects of it need work. Try to get the voice and background to work together better, and needs better accompaniment. It could sound good with some work.

Thanks, John:

The new link allowed me to listen. Songbird has provided good advice. I know you are working with low-end gear and I advise you to keep working on this song. Time and practice can cure many faults and issues. Don't get discouraged... it has potential. ----Dave

Thanks for the listen. It's a true to life, "Me" story. It's the first one I'e gotten to try with a mic directly into BIABox. It definitely needs more work, and I will try to do some on it this week. I think backing off the mic will allow the music to be heard more. I sing love songs much better but these message songs are tougher for me.

Hi Dave,
Thanks for the listen and the advice. This is basically all new to me so I expect I'll hurt some ears along the way. Thanks for bearing with me. I just changed the music and the mix. Hopefully this will be a bit better.

Hi John, there are a lot of plosivves on the vocal - the popping P sound. I suggest you use a windscreen. My first windscreen was just a bent hanger with a stocking around it but it got the job done :-)

Hi, And thanks. I heard it while I was doing it, and when I was in the studio used one all the time. Here in Saipan, no studio, but I will have to try your idea. I don't even have a mic stand because anything I buy here, I have to take to the Philippines with me and I already have 3 full suitcases. I can't wait to get settled there and work on setting up for good.

The message is a little strident for me. Setting the validity of it aside, I write songs primarily about heartache and lost love. Been married for 30 years so it is not my personal experience, but maybe I have a resonance with minor chords.

The point being...I enjoy discussing politics and current events but set them aside when I write, so I'm not a very good one to make any meaningful comments on this song. See you on your next one.

Well, on a songwriting site or being songwriter you're not asked to be a performer. I Try to hear what you're doing. You could probably do better with band in a box, and it's hard to hear The melody when the notes are flat and sharp, and out of key...lol I'm no insulting you I'm aware you are a lyricist.

But whatever loop you are using for the track is not right for your song, and it actually sounds more on the happy side than sad. As Marty said it sounds more major based not minor. But there are many exceptions to that rule.

Lyrically there are two ways to do it. A descriptive lyric that shows your lifestyle, not says it. Or direct, straightly said, as you did it. It's pretty good for that style.

The main problem I see with the theme is that the current situation, nobody is saying your lucky cause your white, they are saying you have privilege being white when it comes to the police. If you had a verse about how you were pulled over for no apparent reason, and a cop hit you cause you looked poor, you might have a valid point.

Not saying I agree with all the current stuff, don't necessarily disagree either, it's a complex thing and every case is unique.

I told a story to a group of people I used to work with. One time I was coming home from a pickup basketball game. Was wearing sweats, so no pockets, totally zoomed out that I needed my drivers license. Didn't have it going or coming back.

My tail light was out, and it had gotten dark. And started raining . Cop pulls me over. White cop. Says license and registration please. I dont have license, I fumble through glove compartment, don't have registration, I had removed it day earlier for some reason .

So, no license, no reg, tail light out, I'm like thinking I'm gonna get 3 tickets and maybe even arrested. I tell the cop I don't have anything, he stares at me, and says...ahh man your all fugged up are you kidding me? I say no officer .

He thinks to himself for a minute, shakes his head, and says get out of my sight, and get that light fixed tommorow. Let me go! Completely.

So I told this story to the group around me at work, and my supervisor was black. She says your very lucky, but let me tell you something, if you were black, you would have been brought down to the station, car towed and gotten all kinds of tickets.

No way of knowing for sure, she could be right.

I should write that story into a song

John, I think the best way to approach this subject is all show and no tell. Don't mention race at all, just show hard work and overcoming obstacles. I took that approach with The Job as well as anything I've written about vets. No need to say "hero", just show what they do.

There's no evidence of any kind to prove "privilege", anyway. Just unverifiable speculation and anecdotes. Everybody's got stories of being treated unfairly. It's part of life.

If "privilege" was a provable fact, there'd be no need for the avalanche of race hoaxes over the past forty years. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to call the FBI...I'm afraid of my garage door.

It's a tricky subject, John. Hard to pull off without coming across as whiny or strident. Leaving aside, Couch's obvious nonsense about there being no such thing as "privilege," I think that there is a valid point like yours to be made. I would probably have taken a different approach, more along the lines of I hear you black brothers, and let me tell you you're not the only ones who have had it hard. This feels a little like a competition for who had it toughest. Kind of like this famous sketch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKHFZBUTA4k

Is the character the son of a Mexican migrant worker? This is not a topic I know a whole lot about. I ask because, if he was, he or his parents would probably be illegal if they moved up to New Jersey. Introducing that topic might complicate things a little. Maybe his parents could just be poor farmers or laborers or something?

Nonsense? Offer concrete proof. There is none. There are hundreds of race hoaxes, though. Hoaxes are unnecessary when proof is available.

I'll be back later. A mob is about to loot and burn my business. I'd better call a social worker!!!

If you can't see it exists, no amount of "concrete proof" would do the job. You could argue about degrees and the concept being used to justify all kinds of things, but I'm not going to hijack John's post to open that particular can of worms.

It's also hard to write song like this and not be considered a blm denier. And It does sound like an obvious attempt to negate the motion.

In my story, it didn't even dawn on me that I got a break cause I was white, or moreso, not black. I just thought I got lucky .

Who knows, maybe the guy wanted to get out of the rain, and figured with the paperwork involved, wasn't worth it, and I probably wasn't up to anything. I did have a basketball in the front seat. But it's also likely that the cop didn't even realize himself that he didn't think I was up to something cause I looked like a white suburban kid.

If the kid was black, then he might start thinking there's more to the story....I didn't have a license or the car was stolen, or any host of things, but he didn't suspect that with me.

Sometimes it's not so obvious. Do I think it's blown out of proprtion? Yeah, do I think racial profiling happens? No doubt about it.

I sometimes wonder if I was driving in downtown harlem, and a black cop saw me, he might immediately think I'm there to buy drugs, sell drugs, find a hooker, and alot of times he'd be right. But sometimes people make a wrong turn and get stuck in a place like that.

As I said, complex.

No proof.



My advice is sound, John.

Oh your own advice is sound huh?

Hi Martin,
Thanks for the listen and the comments. This is my way to get out how I feel. See you on the next one too.

Hi FD,
Yes, I need Melodyne on first takes for sure, or my studio guy saying up a little or down a little. I don't have either of those right now so it's raw.

On the content, I have been hearing most of my life how blacks have it so hard, not just with police, but in every aspect of life. This is a true story of my life. I went to work at 8 years old on a neighbors farm so I wouldn't be laughed at for my clothes in school. I have fought for everything I have ever had, or have today. this is not just about police. They are saying "Give me your house, give us Texas California and Arizona; because we deserve it, because our ancestors were slaves!". My ancestors were slaves too, so were yours.
I was in the pool hall in NJ I frequented a lot, and the only person not of color there when one guy said, loudly, "I want my forty acres and I want them now!". Everyone was listening to me as I calmly explained why I deserved that forty acres as much as he did and why neither of us really deserved them and neither was ever going to get them. the rest of the people there applauded. He quieted down!

Hi Robert,
Thanks for the listen, the comments and advice. I did change the word race in the bridge to peoples. For this one I have to use "White" because that's what all the complainants are saying is true. And yes, it was true for many years. Now, anyone that wants to can get ahead. Today, there are all races of people being shot by the police, and most of it is justified. For the ones that aren't, there are the courts. Blacks have more encounters with the police in situations that involve violence because a great percentage of violence is committed by them, especially against their own people.

Hi Gavin,
We all have our different approaches to writing about the problems we see. I don't see it as a competition, merely an explanation of why I don't think they are a special group. All of our ancestors have suffered. Are we going to go back in history and apologize to every people for all the injustices through time, and give reparations?

Not Mexicans, my own story. Before Mexicans, migrants were poor people of all races working together to earn a poor living. My parents worked side by side with everyone else. I was riding on a cotton sack being filled by my mother in Arkansas before I was a year old, in 1950.

Thanks for clearing that up, John. As I said, I don't know a whole lot about migrant workers. That's why I asked.

I'm not taking issue with your feelings. My comments were based on what I think would make the song itself more effective. But, of course, that might be influenced by my own feelings.

Hi John:

I listened again and agree the vocal is better... but needs to be a bit above the melody.

All of that can be improved with time, practice and possibly better gear.

The lyric is going to be a "hard sell" because our press/media will turn it into something racist. They will tag you as a racist even though it rings truth. American History has been infected with twisted facts designed to brainwash the modern student who knows little about History of any Nation, Race or Political Group.

You will probably have many doors locked or slammed in your face because of the story line. The road ahead for this song is covered in minefields and bear traps. Best of luck... because it is a story worth telling.

----Dave

If you are writing a song to prove a political point -- no one really cares.
If you are writing a song to describe the poverty you grew up in -- check out the great Dolly Pardon's Coat of Many Colors: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv4NBF8nQvs

Hey John,

Your story is heartfelt and I do agree that life isn't always fair and most certainly some folks are more privileged just being born wherever they are-- life is really the roll of the dice in some respects from the beginning. Being born into poverty as you have describe your early life, may have made your road to success a longer journey and more difficult, but probably as a result perhaps more valued once achieved. Conversely, even with unprivileged beginnings you did at least have the "privilege" in this country to overcome and escape those difficult roots and fair well and prosper. That doesn't change or always make up for perhaps early disadvantages however, and I would surmise that someone with your background has developed a strong character and better appreciation for climbing life's ladder. Me.........I was more fortunate than many no doubt, just had a "Leave it to Beaver" lower middle class family I would reckon--but lucky to have great model parents and grandparents for sure. I'd rather be from a poor family with good parents, than a rich one that had nannies or daycare nurture me...........

You have some good tips above, and never fret about not having the equipment/experience of producing a great song, even raw songs can stand out when the foundation melody and lyrics are good--like Fde alluded to to some degree. One sug lyrically perhaps worth considering.........maybe use the word "SOME" instead of "people" at chorus beginning, my thought process there is that the listener could imagine what "people" in their own mind to supplant in that phrase and less generalize that subject and allowing "peoples" used exclusively in the Bridge?

steady-eddie

There's tons of songs about growing up in poverty. Almost none, if any at all about being born rich. Ain't that strange? I guess cause so few are, and the ones who are don't write wongs, they go to college and become doctors and lawyers.

But I think there could be a niche there , why not have songs about being born rich....might develope a small following lol

It's also interesting that there are so few right wing protest songs. Only liberal ideas get turned into songs. Not sure why. I do think one reason is there are way more great liberal songwriters than conservative.

I mean there are extremists out there who do make albums, there are white supremacist bands, don't ask me for a name I don't know any. But I do know they exist and some are signed to labels and do live shows.

But far as mainstream music, youd be hard pressed to find a right wing protest song.

Hi Gavin,
That's why I answered the way I did. Funny thing is, later in life, I put in a few summers as a migrant worker picking fruit in southwestern Michigan. the workers were paid a lot better, given free if basic housing, and conditions were lots better all around. I was working on an incentive basis and averaging $100 for an 8 hour day in the late 70's with free housing. That was a very good wage back then.

And yes, we all look at things according to how we feel.

Thanks Dave,
I am going to be working on this and others for a lot of time before getting them close to right, I think. It's a steep learning curve for an old fogey like me. I won't get better gear til I can order it online and have it delivered cheaply, not possible here.

I won't try to sell this one, except maybe to get plays on indie stations leaning in my direction. Nobody else wants to hear stories like this.

Some care but many don't because they believe in the other story line and will never change their minds.
Dolly is a great songwriter but this is one I can't sing out loud because it hits too close to home.

Hi Eddie, thanks for the listen and for the very thoughtful comments and suggestions. I did use "Some" because it makes a lot of sense. I have never envied anyone their start in life, or any successes they have had, primarily because I know that anyone if they try hard enough, as long as they are not mentally challenged, can be a success. I know I could have made a lot more if I had more drive. I don't regret not having that either. All I have ever asked for was a roof over my head, food on the table, and the ability to afford the things I needed to make my life happy. For me that has been enough. And yes, living in America is a privilege. There are too many forgetting that these days.

I listen to advice, and take it all into consideration. The things I can wrap my head around, and do without breaking the bankroll, I will do. The things I can't, well, I won't.

Yes, there's an old expression from the North of England, "Where's there muck, there's brass." It used to be possible to make decent money from hard manual labor. Two of my brothers were ""tattie roguers" in the potato fields just north of Dundee in Scotland. The job consisted of trudging through seed potato fields and pulling out the "rogues," plants that were the wrong variety or diseased. It was back-breaking work from sun up to sun down, but at the end of the season, they had a pretty fat wad of cash. I don't know if it's possible to do that now.

I think no matter how technical life becomes it will always be possible to make a living with hard work because there will always be things most people won't want to do.

I don't know, I write plenty of them, of course I am not famous;yet!
I did write one about the rich and famous young women of a few years ago. It looks at it from their POV.

https://www.soundclick.com/music/songInfo.cfm?songID=6354638

I think it's fairly easy to see why there are relatively few right wing protest songs. It's in the label, "conservative." Those on the right are generally disposed to keeping things the way they are or returning them to how they were. Coming from this angle, a protest song would have to be about resisting change rather than promoting it. It may be a bit of a leap, but you could suggest that some kinds of patriotic songs and some songs that praise the good old days are the equivalent of protest songs.

I love this definition from Ambrose Bierce of the conservative as “a statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others.”

Well Gav...here is a quote from the forever disregarded Sunset Poet...

A conservative is someone who realizes what builds a country up and sustains it. So a conservative seeks to protect those things.
A "liberal" though not devoid of virtue, most often, only possesses the skills and knowledge to tear it down and take from the pieces.

Such is the echo of those differences in the strange presidential choice of 2020.

I think Ambrose Bierce's quote is funnier, Marty

Here is another one I stole. It's paraphrased, as I can't remember the source to look it up. I read it in a memoir, attributed to the author's father. "A conservative is someone motivated by fury at the unbearable thought that someone, somewhere may be sitting down to a lunch he didn't pay for."

The original quote might have said Republican instead of conservative. I'm sure there are plenty of funny ways to describe liberals too.

No. That quote is a liberal smear and attempt to cast someone whose feelings are based in correctness but over-reactive..as crazier than the liberal. Here is a liberal in their own words...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1IrRxoRkbQ

Something I came up with is liberals see things the way they SHOULD be, conservatives see things the way they ARE.

If you look at the trump admin. He knew and was friends with so many liberals in hollywood. How many were actually conservatives on the apprentice? A couple?

in general conservatives are not interested in the arts, they tend to do different things with their lives. I understand country music has conservatives, which is odd to me, cause so many country songs are based on the bare basics of life. Struggling and simple lives. Just acceptance no dreaming. But I'm not a huge country buff so maybe I'm wrong.

The songs that always knocked me out the most, beyond just being entertained, we're songs that one, seemed real, and two, that made me dream, inspired me, made me want to take action, even if it only lasts as long as the song does.

Conservatives are more boring that way....

If you are talking about the Ambrose Bierce quote, it's an equal opportunity smear. He's making fun of both. I don't see how you could call it a liberal smear.

If you are talking about the other quote, then, yes, it is clearly meant to be an insult coming from the mouth of the author's father. I just thought it was rather neatly phrased (even if my paraphrasing of it is an approximation).

I was talking about the walked check quote.

In other news...the "young woman" in the video is the best single depiction of a liberal that I have ever seen.
You should study it and emulate her, so as to blend in with the new dimocrap party.

I was a liberal until I had to work, and pay my own bills and taxes. Suddenly, where the money was going meant more to me.

"Walked check?" I'm not following you. As for the video, it just looks like gloating over someone's despair. You must be having a bad day to post something like that

As in...walked the check.

I am not gloating over the young woman's despair. I am disgusted by the lack of fortitude and public display of infantile emotion. I think that she is a poster child for what not to be. And obviously liberal. Very very liberal.

I still don't get it. Walked the check? Does that mean leave a restaurant without paying? If so, I need to get better at paraphrasing that quote. It means that someone is eating a meal that he did not have to pay for himself. That is what, in the eyes of the author's father, drove conservatives to fury.

As for the video, I don't think you would need to be "very, very liberal" to have felt that way, but I don't want to get into another of those discussions about Trump.

You never heard..."walked the check?" Ok. Yeah. it means left without paying.
You're like Kevin...when Trump's name comes up...you can't walk away.

And right now Trumpenstein looks like he's taken on a lot of water, but the dimocraps are doing everything that they can think of to get him re-elected. As we all know...it should have been Bernie. Therein lies the rub.

And you can bet the ranch and the town that the young woman in the video is uber-liberal.

Watch me

I did. You tried to stay away. But you couldn't, You had to come back and respond with..."watch me."
Donny J Trump lives in your brain and he may never leave.

Marty, I was looking over my shoulder. I can walk and talk at the same time

See Gavin, you cant move on. Donny was mentioned here and you have to be come back for more.
You dream about Donny J, do you not? You have been incarcerated in Donny J hell.