“Music, at its essence, is what gives us memories. And the longer a song has existed in our lives, the more memories we have of it.”
Stevie Wonders
Working on the new CD is really challenging and educational. This being my first endeavor to record a CD of all original songs, those “originals songs” being my original songs. Oh Boy! For most musicians recording an entire CD of their songs, is the most natural thing in the world. I agree it is natural. So what’s my problem? Welllllll
To start off with, I must know about 2000+ songs (melody and lyrics), plausibly more if I include nursery rhymes. Thinking about how many songs I know, is not a priority pass time. It’s something that presumably very few singers/songwriters ponder over while having their morning coffee. I invite everyone who is reading this blog to take a minute and count all the songs they know, melody and lyrics. It is surprising…….
I am seriously writing again. Melody and lyrics.
As far as creating a melody, I find myself confidently writing a song, overjoyed with how effortlessly it is flowing from deep within, how every note is so perfect and then, oh, oh, on closer inspection, (especially listening to the playback) the horrible realization hits that this orgasmic, life-altering, organic emanation subsequently exists. The writer? Take your pick of any one of the composers of the 2000+ songs that I know by hard. And yes, it sounds juuuuust like a jazz version of “I’m A Little Tea Pot”; which by the way, was written by George Harold Sanders and Clarence Z. Kelley and published in 1939.
OK, that is a little depressing, but not an inhibitor. The key is to just keep doing it. To quote the movie Galaxy Quest, “Never give up, never surrender”.
As a singer-songwriter, an important element of a song, of course, will be the lyrics. How to write lyrics that don’t sound as if your native language is foreign to you. What am I trying to say? How to say it. What is the story?
The other equally important part of a song is the melody. How to pair lyric and melody together so that they fit like a hand fits a glove. Yes, yes, it is a challenge.
From time to time I would like to share with you lyrics of singer-songwriters that I admire tremendously. Writers that are great at what they do/did. They are my teachers and are my inspiration for surrendering to this love that I have for great songs and welcoming my return to eternal memories that live lives such as ours.
The best place to star is close to home, then move outward. My close to home is none other than the great Michael Franks.
You Were Meant For Me is a perfect combination of melody and lyric.
This song can be found on Dragonfly Summer CD, release in 1993 on Reprise Records. It was recorded as a duet with late, great Peggy Lee, shortly before her passing. Listen to sample here.
You Were Meant For Me
Lyrics and music by Michael Franks
Flirting with temptation.
Falling helplessly.
From the moment I say you
I new that
You were meant for me.All those years to find you.
Love’s telepathy
Guided me like a heartbeat.
Repeating
You were meant for me.Such a samba.
Ay caramba!
Dancing close so
Sensuoso.
Rhythms underneath the
tropic skies.
Helped me to realize
How evidently
You were meant for me.There’s just one solution
To this mystery.
Give your heart
In surrender.
Admit that
You were meant for me.
copyright 1992 Mississippi Mud Music/Warner Tamerlane Publishing, Corp. BMI