What's Up Forum? I tend to be long winded so I'm cuttin' to the chase. I had been working on a lyric for a song that was going to wind up as a Civil Rights, Martin Luther King Day, motivational feel good song. I've had this melody and chord progression around for about three years so I decided to use it. I began writing these words down and hopefully the song you listen too captures my ideal of this type song but I pose a question that always wonder about when measuring the success of any lyric work. How "simple" should a lyric be in order to be a commercial success? How complex should the hook be? My wife (my biggest critic no doubt) listened and said she felt my message was "cryptic" and I probably could conveyed the same message a lot simpler. She said she thought folks might miss what was being said. Heck, I am a college student of the late 70's/Early 80's and Shakesphere, Chaucer, Ellison, Nitsche-writers who inspired thought always impressed me most. I always loved the words of Harry Chapin (Cat's In The Cradle" comes to mind) Songs that make you think..........and that song was tremendously successful back then. I wondering if you write from an intellectual point of view, would a song still merit success-albeit the music is good? What do you think about that? Am I making any sense at all? I'd be real interested in your oppinions. : ) BTW, theres an illusion to the year 1976 in the song and if you really listen to the context of the lyric, you know the date should be 1977, October 20th, 1977. (I caught that after I finished the project)
The link to the song is: www.soundclick.com/bands/2/musicallymrmmusic.htm
I used a really "junky" rig to record this. It came pretty close to the analog sound I was after. Let me have it. I can always count on you guys to really be helpful-pro or con.
I really like this song, I appreciate the lyrics, great job there, tune has a nice flow. There are a couple of nitpicks. Some high-notes are a little off, there seems to be a resonance coming from something, could be the guitars.
Maybe the keyboard sound (I think it's a flute or something) could be panned off-center, are there two guitars playing right down center, maybe you could move one off to the side.
Thanks Lynx for the listen and the comments. Your words are always helpful to me although you didn't have to agree with the "long-winded" comment. Thanks A million
MusicallyMrM, Well, I just spent abot the last 30 min. or so listening to some of your stuff, I like it. You do have a way of rambling on though. I have no room to talk.
I am a college student of the late 70's/Early 80's
I guess we're about the same age group, maybe that has something to do with it?
Where about's where you born? It just seems odd that our musicial taste are very familiar.
Pretty good song.The recording isn't the best as you've already stated.I caught the wrong skynyrd date right off the bat.LOL
I was also expecting some ripping southern style guitars(The title of the thread said southern rock. ),but I never heard them.
Vocals are really good.This could be a good cut if you turned a couple of killer guitar players loose on it and recorded it on a decent rig.It's really lo-fi sounding like it is.
This was more along the lines of a Bad Company slow tune.Thats a compliment,and it ties into the southern rock theme,since Bad Company was the favorite band of most of the guys in Skynyrd.
Hey Kramer, thanks for the insight. Hey, Bad Company isn't too bad a company to be in. I'm cool with that as long as you don't say the song sounds like "Super Star" (Get's played too much on the local Clear Channel Station.)
And flash, I'm 44 and lived in North Carolina most of my life. Lived in Fayetteville, NC. Neighbors with Ft. Bragg/Pope Air Force Base. I grew up listening to that stuff all my life. (The area "black" stations went off the air everyday at 5:00-I was kind of glad of that.) It helped me appreciate all types of music.
Thanks everybody for the listen.
Oh and Kramer, I noticed that you are a 2K member so send me a 1/4K so I can by a new G4, Pro Tools, etc. etc.