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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 212
Serious Contributor
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OP
Serious Contributor
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 212 |
One of my songs, "Weapons of Love," is in Round 2 of the JPF Lyric Competition. You can see the lyrics posted here: http://www.justplainfolks.org/ubb/Forum59/HTML/000015.html Mine's number 45. Wish me luck! Michael
Award-winning, original acoustic songs with "the kind of lyrics that make Nashville writers salivate."
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Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 448
Serious Contributor
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Serious Contributor
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 448 |
congratulations michael i'll read and vote in a sec flo ------------------ http://floanito.tripod.com
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Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 75
Serious Contributor
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Serious Contributor
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 75 |
Congratulations, Michael.
Hey, Flo's back. Everybody look busy.
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Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 19
Casual Observer
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Casual Observer
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 19 |
Michael that's fantastic! They are great lyrics too...and I really liked two of the other songs on your demo! In fact, I think that your lyrics in general have a 'strong' quality about them in how they connect with me. May 'forces' be with you. Hey, I was wondering if "Morning In The Promised Land" on your demo's about your daughter??? It's beautiful to me. I really like the contrast you acheive in switching from the finger-picking to the strumming in that song. The lyrics make me feel like I have a "six-year-old" in a way, if you can imagine that ! You can email if you feel more comfortable although I feel that it'd be cool to talk a little about your songs here...
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 212
Serious Contributor
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OP
Serious Contributor
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 212 |
"Morning in the Promised Land" is one of my personal favorites, and yes, it is about my daughter(s), though it could be about any one of my kids. Although I generally consider all my songs to be works of fiction, this one is fairly autobiographical. It's been a finalist in several competitions, but I think it's a case of "too many words" and the fact that the opening lyrics are fairly complex for song lyrics. Incidentally, that song almost got a cut on an album in Nashville. In fact, I originally wrote the lyric on invitation for a project that eventually fell through. Even though the song wasn't recorded, I like the lyric and finally wrote my own music for it. I've reworked the chorus since the "Naked to the Truth" CD, and I think it works better now, though I cut out the second verse. You can read the story about that song in my book: http://hometown.aol.com/easyhero/page4.htm Michael
Award-winning, original acoustic songs with "the kind of lyrics that make Nashville writers salivate."
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Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 19
Casual Observer
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Casual Observer
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 19 |
Wow, you had responded a while ago and I don't think I saw it, Michael! That's wonderful to hear that you were inspired by personal experiences and your message got through to even me...someone who doesn't know what it's like having a daughter, much less do I see that on the horizon anytime soon! It was the way the chords worked with the lyrics that really got me 'into the narrator's shoes' and thus, I was able to appreciate your hard work. I know very well the work that can and does go into a song, even if it's just playing it over and over until it feels good to me. Heck, some songs will never seem to feel 'good.' There have been a few examples of seemingly excessive use of words that have deterred me from getting into songs. Conciseness can for sure count. But also, there's a well-placed use of words in "...Promised Land" and I'll tell you what I mean: Lyrics, as I use them, are most often a form of FUNCTIONAL poetry. I design my lyrics around some tangible/conceptual meaning AND this is most-often tied in to the music. Like one time in college, a music-major friend of mine read the lyrics of a song I had just written (before he had heard it.) He began to elaborated on how poetically, I could work on ways to express what I'm trying to express (he was also studying some form of poetry at the time,) until I interrupted him. I explained that since I can really only effectively sustain VOWELS in my lyrics, I HAD to design them that way. I played him the song and he dropped all of his poetic criticisms (although, there still was merit to some of his points, I felt.) You see, there seems to be a different basis of judgement between poetry and lyrics, to me. That's why I hope that when you guys submit your lyrics into contests, they at very least listen to them in the context of the song. Of course I know examples of solid poetic units existing very well as lyrics ("Scarborough Fare" ~Simon & Garfunkel present an old poem that works well to illustrate an erie story of a dying man--which is an old poem--and then they spice it up with auxilary lyrics to reinforce.) But much of the lyrics I hear seem to really hit me well when heard with the song. Simply reading lyrics may not give me their full impact. Anyway, great job on those lyrics again! By all means explore your talent and I would like to hear more of your work in the future.
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