Finished vs Unfinished Songs

  • Thread starter Thread starter Whatmysay
  • Start date Start date
It could be apocryphal, but I did here of a porn mag for amputees called 'Stumpy' - if we start now perhaps we could submit it to next years 'Idol' song competition. I know Simon would love it

And I always thought Stumpy was one of the seven dwarves. I hope you two remember the rest of us when you are rich and famous.
 
In my case, I rarely finish anything. I sometimes complete a whole tune worth of chord progressions and even record it, but rarely can come up with a complete set of decent lyrics. Heres the latest frustration, trying to write a 4/4 rocker about how chasing after some bitch's affection is like walking a highwire. I like the chorus, which came together in 10 minutes of uncharacteristic inspiration, but have been a month coming up with the first shitty verse.

--------------------

HIGHWIRE CONNECTION

V1
Same old bad dream every night
I'm high above the screaming crowd
No room to move to the left or the right
And a long way down to the ground
Never been close enough to reach out and touch
No matter how hard I tried
Babe you got me stuck on a highwire
And you're standin' on the other side...
Standing on the other side...

C
Highwire connection
That's all I have to you
I got no sense of direction
To help me make it through
Babe you got me walkin' a highwire
And if I should fall down
I'll still be wantin'..,your sweet lovin'
When I hit the ground

V2
<blank stare>

GUITAR SOLO INTERLUDE
(over chorus progression)

V3
<more lack of inspiration>

C3
<thoughtful variations on C1>

FADE OUTRO

Highwire connection ... to you
(more minor pentatonic rock blues guitar slop)
Highwire connection ...
(more slop)

etc.

--------------------------------------------------

Anyone out the want to help me complete this piece?

Tom
 
My finished song percentage is in the neighborhood of 0%.
 
up-fiddler,

I can't speak for Whatmysay - but once Simon Cowell and I are hangin' and sipping Crown Royal from the high heels of super models........I probably won't have time to hang around here anymore.
 
In my case, I rarely finish anything. I sometimes complete a whole tune worth of chord progressions and even record it, but rarely can come up with a complete set of decent lyrics. Heres the latest frustration, trying to write a 4/4 rocker about how chasing after some bitch's affection is like walking a highwire. I like the chorus, which came together in 10 minutes of uncharacteristic inspiration, but have been a month coming up with the first shitty verse.

--------------------

HIGHWIRE CONNECTION

V1
Same old bad dream every night
I'm high above the screaming crowd
No room to move to the left or the right
And a long way down to the ground
Never been close enough to reach out and touch
No matter how hard I tried
Babe you got me stuck on a highwire
And you're standin' on the other side

C
Highwire connection
That's all I have to you
I got no sense of direction
To help me make it through
Babe you got me walkin' on a highwire
And if I should fall down
I'll still be wantin' your sweet lovin'
When I hit the ground

V2
Same old story every morning
Woken up to the lonely clouds
Somehow it still feels as if I'm falling
Falling down
They told me I would be fine
As long as I stayed awake
But as these moments pass on by
I can't stand to watch them waste away

C

GUITAR SOLO INTERLUDE
(over chorus progression)

V3
<more lack of inspiration>

C3
<thoughtful variations on C1>

FADE OUTRO

Highwire connection ... to you
(more minor pentatonic rock blues guitar slop)
Highwire connection ...
(more slop)

etc.

--------------------------------------------------

Anyone out the want to help me complete this piece?

Tom

And now I'm out of ideas :o
 
HIGHWIRE CONNECTION

V1
Same old bad dream every night
I'm high above the screaming crowd
No room to move to the left or the right
And a long way down to the ground
Never been close enough to reach out and touch
No matter how hard I tried
Babe you got me stuck on a highwire
And you're standin' on the other side...
Standing on the other side...

C
Highwire connection
That's all I have to you
I got no sense of direction
To help me make it through
Babe you got me walkin' a highwire
And if I should fall down
I'll still be wantin'..,your sweet lovin'
When I hit the ground

V2
Same old story every morning
Woken up to the lonely clouds
Somehow it still feels as if I'm falling
Falling down
They told me I would be fine
As long as I stayed awake
But as these moments pass on by
I can't stand to watch them waste away Nice work Guitarer

My suggestion

Ch (no change)

Bridge

In the circus of my dreams I never fly for you
The vertigo always bring me down
In the circus of my life I die the same way too
The slap-stick love of a clown

GUITAR SOLO INTERLUDE
(over chorus progression)
Ch (no change)

Ch (no change)

FADE OUTRO

I think you could justifiable rhyme love and above in this one somewhere and it not sound contrived?

I wrote and recorded a song the 'Acrobats Wife' last year - it similar in illusion but is a much more explicit narrative based on Wim Wender's Wings of Desire. Anyway please listen and plunder from it what you can - thanks for offering up the 'stem'.
 
Thanks Guitarer and Whatmysay. I'll have your ideas in hand when I sit with the piece later today.

Tom
 
whoa...

prety cool... somethng in the guitars sounds ZZtop, something else sounds slightly 38 special.... but overall slightly more country than rock.

really cool.




do you take unsolicited lyrics submissions? to see if you can have another original song to play out?

I concntrate on trying to make music, rarely does the music suggest a lyric(s) and i cant really capitalize on the verbal hooks that present themselves.

Anyways, this was a lyrics idea that just "wrote itself". Noothing special on its own merits, as naked lyrics, but... made the boss's wife cry when she read the "bad poem". I have tried and failed to make any music for it...

anyways, back to YOU, lol. Much later on, I got two guys that do karaoke at the cowboy bar to "sing it with me" acapella at work. The only "rhythm" I can get to "sing" it off key (I can not sing, LMAO) sounds sorta like a country song to me, and to other people too.

about the only thing I know about country music and lyrics is that I dont know anything about the subject, lol

hearing you do this song here, and reading back the development of it, makes me toss it out there. Because our friend was killed, and the story country song is a fantasy response to it? Always wished I could get "something" to "report back" with, you know?

I ended up here from a much smaller site, when it died, and i know I only meet "minimum specs" on technical ability here, thats why I am so formal and polite. I *strongly suspect* but cant prove that some people on here probably mixed the toothpaste commercials I hear on the radio, for instance, LMAO

hearing your voice be "half country" makes me think of trying this.
 
At the opposite end of the spectrum, I once read in the McCartney autobiography that he and Lennon sat down to write together just over 200 times and never once came up short. That's not 'magic' or 'special'; simply amazing talent.
... or standard autobiography BS :)
 
...

I had always heard there was a "period" where they were writing 10,20 songs a DAY, and later picking out the "gems".

Heck, Jeff Lynne is known to have holed up in an expensive suite with a few guys for a week or two and have completed most of the raw material for a whole concept album...

there are days i think "they" are no different from "us"... they just DO it more, hundreds and thousands of times over a couple decades and then when all the "gems" have been picked out, its 20 pretty cool songs overall, not just one.

maybe they just put numbers up on the board.

*shrugs*
 
prety cool... somethng in the guitars sounds ZZtop, something else sounds slightly 38 special.... but overall slightly more country than rock.

really cool

......hearing your voice be "half country" .

Oh yeah .... thanks for the kind words. The resemblance to ZZ is a persistant comment to the simple stuff I do. Half country indeed -- I have always thought that when the rise of disco and dance pop cut the heart out of the rock business, all the hippy guitar players traded in their headbands for cowboy hats and started to call themselves country. Of course this one can only ever be half country as nowhere did I say God bless America, or a word about trucks, or anything my mama or daddy taught me.

Thanks for listening.
 
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