Take Me To The Movies
Poetry and music go back hundreds of years. You can find poetry and songs in the Bible but they’re called Psalms. When we look at the old songs and stories you find that people back then, had the same desires as we have today. This is good news and bad news. The good news is that the topics that were relevant back then are just as relevant to us today. The bad news is that the same topics that we’re writing about today have been used a million times. Everything starts to sound familiar so there’s a tendency to say when you hear a song that it kind of reminds me of…fill in the blank. If you’ve been around for a while you’ll find similarities. You tend to say ‘well it reminds me of the Beatles. You’ve already heard the Beatles so you don’t really need a cheap imitation of the Beatles.
This is pretty daunting for us as songwriters. We’re saying the same things that we all want to hear, stories about life, love, finding love, and losing love but not saying it in the same way that’s just tired and unoriginal and that’s been done a million times.
Some of you may have aspirations to become a commercial songwriter. It’s not a walk in the park. I chased that star for many years. I’ve never had a hit record, but I’ve played on them. It’s easy to get confused in this business as to what you hear on the radio. They play a song that is in your style so you think ‘okay that type of song is my benchmark. That’s what I have to be able to do in order to make it in Nashville or wherever or whatever style of genre you desire. That’s the level of excellence that they want. So you run home and use the same technique and present your work and they turn it down. Why? You used the same formula and techniques and followed them to a T. Let’s go back to what I said before. It’s already been done. It’s already been said. The same mediocrity. I’ll tell you this, if you come to Nashville or wherever just to add to the mediocrity, you had better stay home. They’ve already heard it. They’ve already recorded it and it’s already been done. So what do you do? What do they want? How do I get my foot in the door and get past the ‘Gatekeepers?’ I’ll tell you what they’re looking for…some color, some color that no one else is using to paint with.
Awhile back I saw a movie called “The Black Swan.” I came away thinking what a great movie. Great acting, great scenes, great story line, great music and great cinematography. I got thinking that we as songwriters don’t have as many weapons at our disposal as filmmakers do. What we do have are lyrics, melody and we have control of who the actors are. So let’s take a look at our movie and see how we can make use of what we have in a three-minute song and see how it can become a deep and colorful Oscar winning film. I’ll break it down into four parts.
#1- the story is the best way to get a point across. #2- Poetic Devices are rhymes and meter and metaphors. These are powerful weapons for songwriters. #3- Characters are the messengers who are going to convey the story to people, and hopefully they will be interesting in some way. The details are important as they put us into the characters shoes. #4-The music is a whole subject in itself. The music sets the tone of the movie. The movie would be flat and lifeless without it.
There’s a line in a Joannie Mitchell song that grabbed my attention right from the get go. The song is called “Workin Overtime.”
I met you on a midway at a fair last year
and you stood out like a ruby in a black man's ear *
and you stood out like a ruby in a black man's ear *
When I heard that line it grabbed me and made me want to hear the rest of the song. Now I know that some of you are not into country music and that’s okay. It doesn’t matter what type of music that you work with because if your lyrics are more original and interesting and stand out, people are going to take notice of your work. If you can paint beautiful pictures with words like these; I met you on a midway at a fair last year and you stood out like a Ruby in a black mans ear, instead of saying “I met you and you really impressed me as being different” Then you’re on the right track in creating a three minute movie.
