Do you rework, or let it stand?

  • Thread starter Thread starter mrx
  • Start date Start date
Let a first draft stand and you'll have a pile of crap.
 
Heh... it's funny the timing of this post...

... I recently hooked up with my old rhythm guitarist/ backing vocalist to do some collaborating. He moved bact to the area about a year ago... anyhow. We were listening to some of our old stuff (yeah... on vinal :p ) and found ourselves picking it apart saying things like "You know what would be cool? Change this guitar part to do this..." and "A little sax or harmonica would really make this one work..."

Well, now we're thinking of re-recording the entire two albums.... hehehe

- Tanlith -
 
tanlith said:
Heh... it's funny the timing of this post...

... I recently hooked up with my old rhythm guitarist/ backing vocalist to do some collaborating. He moved bact to the area about a year ago... anyhow. We were listening to some of our old stuff (yeah... on vinal :p ) and found ourselves picking it apart saying things like "You know what would be cool? Change this guitar part to do this..." and "A little sax or harmonica would really make this one work..."

Well, now we're thinking of re-recording the entire two albums.... hehehe

- Tanlith -
Click to expand...

That's the beauty of it, it's your product and you can do anything you like.

I've got to address my earlier statement for rewrites. When you first put a song together it's at a delicate stage and full of energy and inspiration, and that's what makes it work. Wholesale adjustments then could kill the whole thing if you're writing solo. I'd say at that point, after a day or two, you'd want to take a good look at the melody against the chord structure and play around with some alternatives and then take a harder look at the lyrics and make sure your ducks are in a row.
 
philboyd studge said:
That's the beauty of it, it's your product and you can do anything you like.

I've got to address my earlier statement for rewrites. When you first put a song together it's at a delicate stage and full of energy and inspiration, and that's what makes it work. Wholesale adjustments then could kill the whole thing if you're writing solo. I'd say at that point, after a day or two, you'd want to take a good look at the melody against the chord structure and play around with some alternatives and then take a harder look at the lyrics and make sure your ducks are in a row.
Click to expand...


Sounds like a nice solid sound (pun intended) approach! :)

- Tanlith -
 
edit

i generally don't believe in editing a song BUT- if i've had a song laying around for awhile that has one or two little things that keep me away from the song, then i'll try to rework those bugs in a way that will keep the sentiment in tact. but, sometimes it doesn't hurt to add a fresher perspective to the idea now that you may be years older than you were then. it can be like talking to your younger self and giving or receiving advice.
 
finish

to finish that thought, my last CD
http://www.cdstreet.com/cgi-bin/artisthome_db.cgi?1237613
had a couple of reworks on it. one song (i saw a bird...) was from 1988 and the other (could it be...) was from 1993. the meanings changed in some ways, but the sentiment was there and the songs "grew up" along with me through the years. but, generally, NO to editing songs.
 
I'D write a new song ABOUT rewriting old songs and in it examine who I was, who I thought I was and who I might be now.
I would use the perspective of reading old lyrics (Like old love letters) that make a strong statement from the past, then I'd lyricaly express regret and dismiss the statement as "What was I thinking?"
Sum it all up with the notion that times change, people change, and songs change and admit that perhaps ultimatly its the TRYING to express things that is who we always were and always will be.....Unless we change.

(Then fade out with an acoustic guitar solo!)

I'd call it something horrible like "I'm the distance from here to here."


(Please try to keep in mind that I AM infact completly insane)
 
No, Maybe I'd call it "I'm the distance from me to me"
OR "Same old song"

(Still insane)
 
i say rewrite a song if its not perfect in your own opinion. If the theme of the song is sound the only thing you are doing is improving on a line here and there (if you can replace a so-so- line with a great line why wouldn't you want to change it?)

If the changes you want to make cause you to loose the original thought and idea you had to start with.....you most often have a flaw in you song theme.

IMHO you have to start with a great title and idea theme for the song (i write down what i want to say in a song without trying to rhyme or trying to stay in a song rythem....kind of like writing a letter...that format)
then, when i write the song and start trying to rhyme and make verses and choruses i refer back to my "letter to myself" and it keeps me from drifting away from the story line of the song.

Also, I get the rhyming dictionary and see how many useable rhymes i have for end line words of my chorus and verse ideas

some words will have 2 pages of rhymes while others will have 3 rhymes

i guess thats why I haven't written a song titled "You're sweet as sugar"....."bugger" would be kind of hard to fit into the theme of that song....

well i dunno...maybe in punk rock:

"you're sweet as sugar,
when you eat a bugger"

(hey, and i even made an "internal" rhyme with "sweet/eat)
 
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