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Hey everyone,

Sometimes when I hear a song (that I like), I sometimes think...I wish I could write a song like that. For instance, I wish I could write some profound meaningful song. Ya know, something really deep, but I think my being a smart ass gets in the way. I'm not very good at passionate "romantic" love songs either, or praise and worship. I really do wish I could write something for churchm but it just hasn't come to me yet.

So how about you? What kind(s) of songs do you wish you could write ..at least once [Linked Image])?



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Ashleigh
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Great topic, Ashleigh. Usually when I hear a song I really like, I find myself saying "Gee, I wish I'd-a written that."

Some examples of songs I feel that way about include:

Bridge Over Troubled Water
Hey Jude
Mull of Kintyre
Tuesday Afternoon
Independance Day
I Hope You Dance
Late Night Grand Hotel


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Thing with this ask Asliegh, is, the ask in fact suggests you have not thought about it enough.
Otherwise you would have writen someting toward one, or some of your wish list.
As a writer, that is what we al hope to do I would think.
Leave a mark somewhere to say we have been gere.
Reach out for our boundries, then kiss them godbye and seak a new one.
It is us who controls our ability to reach that little further each time.
Our lives, and those of others is a golden goose that never moults or goes off the lay.
It is only our falure to see the potential in every breath and every minute that limits us.
I don't have a wish list.
I simply have goals.
And they also change with every day.
But never a backward step do they take.
Graham


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Ashleigh, if you want to write a song for church, just open up the scriptures. The psalms are a good place to start. Meditate on them, take the bits of it that speak to you, mix in your feelings and the song will pop out. There is a lot of great imagery in scriptures. Tons of stories to retell. Lots of great hooks as well. [Linked Image]

JeanB


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Hi Ash...interesting question.

Like you, I tend to be impressed with the profound and deep. I've actually made advances towards that, though I'm certainly not at the point I yearn for. I believe practice helps, so keep trying!
It's quite difficult to be profound and deep in a song because you have to condense everything down into brief lines which all flow well. And..it requires a LOT of thinking, a LOT in insight, a LOT of time, annnnd.. a LOT of inspiration. Seems we are always lacking one or the other, eh?

My examples would be the entire first side of Jackson Browne's "Late For the Sky" album, not to mention a lot of his other earlier work. Not only did many of those songs paint easily accessable visions, but they also carried deeper meaning directed at the heart and soul of humanity...all presented in an advanced musical structure. His earlier work amazes me to this day, and I dare suggest he's famous for a reason. [Linked Image]

-gary

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What constitutes a great song?I think I have written some great songs but the world doesn't know it yet.LOL.

I've heard some songs that have gotten a lot of attention and success,that I thought were the pitts.I've heard some other songs that I thought were beautiful but went no where.In order for a song to have commercial success it has to appeal to the masses but does not have to be a great song,novelty songs some times have this appeal,they don't last long but they are hot for a short time,like a shooting star.A great song, to me, is one that reaches down in your soul and reveals a truth to you,it gets you to look at something in your life differently,it may not even appeal to the masses, but the ones that it touches,it becomes a great song,their song.If it touches the masses,man,
you have a hit.Bring it on.


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Ash:

I don't know as I ever look at someone else's work on a "boy, I wish I'd written that" basis. If I'da written it, it woulda come out way differnt (and probably not been the hit it was). A number of the songs I have written have happened because of precisely the opposite: ("You mean nobody's ever written a song about *that*? Well...")

Don't know as there's a *kind* of song I wish I'd written, either. I don't know how many "kinds" there are, for starters, and I have difficulty envisioning myself operating off a checklist ("Okay, I've done one of these, now I need to do one of these").

Most of what I do is really inadvertent. I hear music. It grows words. (I did try an experiment in the other direction this past month. I took someone else's words and grew music.) Something will trigger it. Sometimes it's something that's been banging around in the head for a while (mind like the Internet--lots of data and no index); sometimes it's "Ooo. That's a line that needs a song to go with it." The thing I haven't been able to get away from is the tongue planted firmly in cheek--even in songs that were supposed to be serious--and I've just come to live with it over time. Mah Style, as it were.

I have written a few serious songs over the past 30-odd years, and I mostly don't play 'em; I would rather use what talent I got to make people laugh rather than make 'em sad. I have written one religious song (quite inadvertently, as usual)--but again, it's got that tongue-planted-firmly-in-cheek aspect, and I'm not sure how it would be perceived by the religious folks, who get appallingly lacking in humor when it comes to "their" music. I have a couple of very religious musician friends I will eventually try the song out on, when I screw up the courage.

And I've also written a love song--again, tongue planted so firmly in cheek I haven't been able to figure out myself whether it was serious or not. I think it may have been. No, it's never going to be The Great Love Song--it can't be, if you can't tell whether the author was being serious or not--but audiences have started requesting it, so I guess I struck a chord (sorry) somewhere.

I guess the only thing I wish is that I had more control over what I write--but I only wish that occasionally. Most of the time, I really enjoy being surprised.

Joe

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Ain't that the truth Joe.
Ya write one. Maybe even kill ya self writing it. Love it, and the genral reaction it gets is . Blah.
Bummer. You still love it, and play it for youself all the time. You would love to wack it in the set as a regular but know it doesn't float.
Then out of the blue, somebody else sees what you see in it, and is hooked on it.
The rest of them don't matter. Sombody else sees, and loves what you are doing.
Yep. I got one like that. I love it and it went like a lead balloon.
Then an across the water band heard it, in one of my very basic renditioins, loved it, and it is now a regular in their gigs.
Life's good.
Graham

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id like to write a song like "3 Am" by matchbox twenty. its about his mom having cancer when he was young, and how she was always tired and saying how she wished the rain would stop

you'd have to hear/watch them do the song on storytellers, with just piano.

it takes on a whole new level.
and yet, put to some simple strum upbeat pattern, it becomes a "stupid pop radio boy/girl smash hit"

what they did with the song is such a huge lesson for all of us writers. they have a song with a serious message, but they didnt try to go commercial with the serious version knowing most people dont give a [naughty word removed] about good storytelling songs. radio wants what brian mentioned in another....a deodorant ad. something stupid and catchy.

so they did a stupid catchy version for radio and the real version for people who give a [naughty word removed] about the band and their message and what he's actually writing about.......people like me.

scott


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When I hear Don McLean's "Vincent" it reminds me of how much of an amateur I am.

I wished I could write about very strong emotions with out using cliches or overused metaphors.

Ria

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There was a time when I tried to write noble songs about meaningful things.

Now.... a song about just how good this cold glass of water feels in my mouth would be fine.

I've come to the conclusion that life is a succession of small miracles, and I'm trying more and more to write about them.

Jean is right about religious songs...just open the book and turn to a page....
People have been taking stories out of that book for a couple of thousand years...there are plenty of songs in there too.

Bob

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Or. Come in here and have a read.
That just about sings Bob.
And it isn't all that boring either.
heck I wrote one about a well today.
You channeling me Cobber?
Graham

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Great topic...

Two songs I'd really like to write:

1) A great love song for my wife.
2) A wonderful song full of praise for my mother.

I could just sit down and write some sappy crap like a million other such songs but I'd really be happy if I could come up with something great for both of them. They are the two women in my life who deserve more than just regurgitated crap.

So far, I've only come up with bits and pieces, nothing that makes me think that I'm on to something. Seeing that the subjects of these songs (love of wife and love of mother) are so difficult to write something truly profound, I'd be happy just being able to come up with something that is just solid and at least a little bit unique. The latter is the hard part. Hell, even saying that I'm not saying anything new is an old, overused idea.

But I'll keep trying...

Van


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BuzzG--Just saying that you'd LIKE to write something for them that is good enough for what they deserve...wow! very sweet! Sounds like you have 2 really special people there. --Jean

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Hi Jean,

I'm very fortunate to have these two wonderful women in my life. I did have to wait until I was 35 to meet my wife but it was worth the wait (HEY!!! maybe that's my hook right there [Linked Image]). It's not like life wasn't good without her. She just made it a few hundred times better.

My mom has always been special to me and I really want to write a meaningful song for her, hopefully by next Mother's Day or something like that.

Anyway, this post has me thinking about how to approach this from a different angle. I'll have to check back with you later.

thanks for your comments,

Van


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Hi Van:

I know what you mean.I wrote one about mothers in general about twenty years ago.It did well for me locally,gets played every mothers day,it's called Precious Mother.I still haven't got a good one about my wife yet,must go to work on one I guess,she must be a saint to stick with me all those years.


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May the flowers of love forever bloom in your garden of life

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Hey ECA333,

That's cool that you have a song that gets played every year for twenty years. I think I'd rather have one of those than one that gets played for a few weeks and is then forgotten.

I've always found true love songs (meaning songs about being in love) to be the most difficult to write. Only because there are so many out there that it's difficult for me to feel I'm saying anything that hasn't been run into the ground a million times before. I know there's no getting around but I can't seem to come up with something that says the same thing in a way that I haven't heard before. ARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!

Oddly enough, I'm pretty good at writing about love gone wrong, though I'm well past that stage of my writing for the most part. I can still do it once in a while but I'd like to think that I can come up with more creative song ideas though there's nothing wrong with a broken heart song now and then.

It'll come to me eventually... I hope...

Van


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Ha ha! Hardy har har! Good one! [Linked Image] --Jean

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Loss.

I've been unable to write about the death of my dad in '89. It's just too sensitive.

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HIDee Ashleigh!

I wish I could write one..maybe Two..heh..with as much Depth as "I Hope You Dance" or "Don't Laugh at Me".

Those fine "Lump-in-the-Throat" Songs come from within, & prolly come along once in a Lifetime IF you're educated & lucky.

Wish I could pen a Standard like Len-Mc Cartney's "YESTERDAY", too...somethin' that sings SO easily yet feels SO deep.
(& Hangs Around for the next 100 years!)

Prolly settle for a "Louie-Louie" of Course..heh-heh--it might just be Schlock,...but it's GREAT (Successful/Classic) Schlock, too. I've never forgotten that the Guy-Who-Wrote "Carwash" can get into ANY Publisher's Office he ever wants to---

Good Luck with Your Songs,
Big Hugs,
Stan


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