Songwriting

[pegkerr]

I've been thinking about songwriting lately. Uncharacteristically, I went to a panel on songwriting at Minicon. markiv1111 was on the panel; I certainly consider him the most talented songwriter than I know personally. I guess I've been toying with the idea because of how fun it was to do that one wizard rock filk and because of what soulcollaging has cracked open for me--I can be creative; why not consider poetry? Why not consider songwriting?

It was extremely interesting. The one comment that stood out for me--I think markiv1111 made it--was that the best songs are extremely simple, but the words just feel right. As I've been listening to the Holy Tree playlist I've put together, both from my own music, and from the .mp3s people have sent me, one song stands out as illustrating exactly what the panel was talking about: this is a song that's extremely simple but perfect, and I've fallen in love with it.

Here it is: Richard Shindell's "Wisteria." This is a live performance, not as polished of course, as the studio performance I have on .mp3. (The studio version has the added loveliness of using a poignant violin on the bridge.) But as a piece of songwriting (in my admittedly amateur opinion), I think it really couldn't be improved upon.

Here are the lyrics:

Let’s not drive away just yet
Give me a moment more
To walk through those rooms again
To walk through that door

If we turn off the radio
I’ve only to close my eyes
And the wind in the sycamores
Will carry me home

The vine of my memory
Is blooming around those eaves
But it’s true it’s a chore to tame wisteria

I’m tempted to ring the bell
Maybe they’d ask me in
Or maybe it’s just as well
To let it all be

Remember the price we paid?
It seemed like a lot back then
Remember the love we made
The day we moved in?

(chorus)

It did need some pruning back
And I know that it's not my place
But how could they just cut it down
And leave not a trace?

But let's not drive away just yet
Give me a moment more
To walk through those dreams again
To walk through that door

(chorus)

Comments

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

Do you listen to James Keelaghan? Somehow I think you'd like him a lot.

Some of the songs whose writings I love are the deadpan ones with a hook you somehow don't expect, like Robert Earl Keen's "Feelin' Good Again" and more recently the pop song "Hey There, Delilah" (no idea who did that one). And the ones with add and tricky tunes married perfectly to the words, like Stan Rogers' "Lockkeeper".

A few days ago I started hanging out on the Absolute Write poetry crit forum. It's been interesting; there don't seem to be too many things posted that are painfully bad and it's been fascinating to watch the ones with potential but with some clunkers improve as people get critiqued and rewrite them, and to be a part of that process. So far my only complain is that I haven't gotten much feedback on anything of my own I've posted. My current theory is that they're not particularly good or particularly bad technically, it's just that they're not engaging people's interest. That's a problem I don't know how to solve. However, that's one problem you don't have!

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

I love James Keelaghan, although I don't actually have any of his albums; I keep meaning to buy one, but money's been tight. I actually started writing a short story about one of his songs ("Cold Missouri Waters") but I never finished it.

I'll check out the forum, thanks.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

Do you know the story of that one? If I recal right, it's based on a short story by the guy who wrote A River Runs Through It (Norman MacLean?) but I think it was originally a true story.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Yes, it is a true story; I read several books about the incident when I was doing research.

Pity after all that research I couldn't write the story. But there was SO MUCH to learn about the technical aspects of firefighting that I just got bogged down. And damn it, I lost what I'd written when my computer crashed and I upgraded computers. That's one story I would have liked to have gone back and tried again--I'd put so much work into it--but what's written was lost. I feel really badly about that one.

Then I gave the idea to scott_lynch and invited him to write it. He liked the idea, but he's sort of buried in writing his own books. So the idea has gone fallow for now. If I ever picked it up again, I'd have to start from scratch, on the research, too.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

Oh, how awful to lose what you'd done. It would have been interesting to read your perspective on the story.