Wish me luck

hannaugh said:
Bon Jovi thought Livin' on a Prayer was terrible, and it ended up being one of the biggest hits of the 80s.  Maybe not the best example, but I always thought it was funny that he didn't think it would go anywhere. 

Hey! Bon Jovi and I agree on something!
 
That's hilarious! Bon Jovi has better taste in songs than I gave him credit for then!
I am a bit behind you all in the song-writing department, I started recording some melodic ideas / chord progressions but I'm not really following through. I am taking a group songwriting class this summer, which if nothing else will force me to write stuff every week - they have homework and whatnot. I am, mainly, much too picky about lyrics. If it doesn't sound like Dylan, Neil Young, Townes Van Zandt, or Paul Simon would have been happy singing the words, I tend to trash it.
 
Hey! Neil had some duds in some of those "lost" albums.  Landing on water can be a bit 'challenging' to listen to...

But - the cool thing about Neil is he had no fear.  He'd just do the song and stick it out there.
 
Neil had some pretty low moments along with Dylan, tis true. But you know what I mean right - don't you kind of always compare your lyrics to "Desolation Row" or "Don't Let it Bring You Down" or something?
 
mayfly said:
hannaugh said:
Bon Jovi thought Livin' on a Prayer was terrible, and it ended up being one of the biggest hits of the 80s.  Maybe not the best example, but I always thought it was funny that he didn't think it would go anywhere. 

Hey! Bon Jovi and I agree on something!

I wouldn't say that I'm a Bon Jovi fan but at the same time I don't dislike them. As for Living on a Prayer, it's a solid tune all around. Played to death on the radio and MTV, but that is its only fault.
MULLY
 
tfarny said:
Neil had some pretty low moments along with Dylan, tis true. But you know what I mean right - don't you kind of always compare your lyrics to "Desolation Row" or "Don't Let it Bring You Down" or something?

I have the same problem.
 
The 2 weeks is over for me!  I got a bunch of stuff written, and now I can start recording and playing with orchestration in the computer. 
 
I basically did the same thing as this in 2007 - -though I extended it past two weeks and then gave myself a break if I didn't have something I liked every day. I also worked on one complete thing at a time before moving on. The results are all of the tunes I have up on the internet right now (expect for 2 that I did after I stopped.)

http://www.bigcontact.com/godwankotd/169798 - - that's the post where I explained what I was trying to do. The results are on that blog.

I think my biggest problem was working with the drum and bass program for backing parts. Usually by the time I got the backing part mostly nailed down I was bored of the tune and just was dying to record the guitar parts and get it over with. I did feel that it helped me a little with my creativity, since I was never that creative musically before. I'm kind of proud of how some of those tracks turned out.
 
I'm heading out to Ethiopia this summer for a service project and so I had to get vaccines (Typhoid and Yellow Fever). My girlfriend's dad told me a story about a similar trip he took to Uzbekistan with his band. About a week after you get the shot (I'm on day 6), you begin to feel a little weird for the rest of the week just because of the natural effects of becoming immune and the singer in my girlfriend's dad's band realized that the Typhoid-high made writing songs easier and he wrote a whole album's worth of material that week. They ditched everything they had rehearsed for the trip, took the new material and called themselves Typhoid. The best part? I'm headed to the states in 4 days so I'll add jetlag to Typhoid and Yellow fever, probably be stuck without a guitar BUT with a 20 year old upright. Let the creepy songwriting begin.  :toothy10:
 
cool idea!  :glasses9:
or everyone could be in a punk band and not give a rats ass if their song is good or not  :icon_jokercolor:
 
abandon_blink said:
cool idea!   :glasses9:
or everyone could be in a punk band and not give a rats ass if their song is good or not  :icon_jokercolor:

Whew, punk. I don't even know where to begin.

We tried out a new bassist one time and he had come over from a punk band. I don't remember exactly what song we practiced the first time he came in but the bass needed to do some pull offs or hammer ons or something, I really don't remember. But anyway, he couldn't do what needed to be done and I casually said "That's why I don't like punk music, you don't really learn any technique". About 3 weeks go by and he never called to let me know when he was available for practice so I called him. He said he didn't want to play with us because of the comment I made. He thought I was saying that he wasn't any good. I swear to God, I would have been able to stay patient and help him with different techniques and it wouldn't have bothered me one bit, because I'd known him for years and had always gotten along with him really well so I figured personality first and everything else will fall into place. He was adamant though, he thought I had insulted him. I wasn't insulting him. That was about 6 years ago and I haven't seen or heard from him since. Oh well, whaddya gonna do?
MULLY
 
Richard Lloyd.  That is all I will say.  His band Television was considered "punk" when they first came out, and he is a bad-ass guitar player with more knowledge of music theory than anyone I know.  Don't judge someone by some lable that some ass wipe has come up with to describe their music. 
 
This thread has inspired me to do more writing. Most nights before I go to sleep I pull out the lyrics ideas book and write down anything that comes to mind. So far, two whole songs! In a week! For me this is absolutely absurdly productive, so I'm a happy camper. Can't write any music at the moment though since all guitars are de-stringed after fretboard maintenance.

Oh and Bon Jovi sucks.
 
I sort of like Living on a Prayer... in fact it was on the radio this morning and I was all like :party07:  WHOAAA-HO, WE'RE LIVIN' ON A PRAYYY-EER!

I think that's the only Bon Jovi song I know  :tard:
 
Honestly, when I started this thread, I expected to get a few "Oh that's cool, have fun," type comments.  It never really occurred to me that it would inspire other members... so that's pretty cool!  Thanks for the support and for filling the rest of us in on your progress if you participated or are in the process of participating. 

As far as Bon Jovi goes... my theory is that if you were conscious of what was popular back in the 80s, you probably hate him or at least his two biggest radio hits (Livin' on a Prayer, and You Give Love a Bad Name... that's about it, right?).  He was everywhere, and he was annoying.  However, if you were born mid-80s or after, you're more likely to find those songs to be cheesy 80s fun because you don't remember when it was on the radio constantly because you were too busy being born or watching He-Man and She-Ra.  It's the same thing with my students at the high school.  They think that The Spice Girls were awesome in a kitschy kind of way because they were 4 or 5 when they were everywhere.  They don't remember the fact that you couldn't even go see a freakin movie without hearing "Tell me what you want, what you really really want" played 3 times on the movie theater loudspeaker before the film started because they were too busy thinking about Power Rangers and Pokemon at the time. 
 
hannaugh said:
As far as Bon Jovi goes... my theory is that if you were conscious of what was popular back in the 80s, you probably hate him or at least his two biggest radio hits (Livin' on a Prayer, and You Give Love a Bad Name... that's about it, right?).  He was everywhere, and he was annoying.  However, if you were born mid-80s or after, you're more likely to find those songs to be cheesy 80s fun because you don't remember when it was on the radio constantly because you were too busy being born or watching He-Man and She-Ra.  It's the same thing with my students at the high school.  They think that The Spice Girls were awesome in a kitschy kind of way because they were 4 or 5 when they were everywhere.  They don't remember the fact that you couldn't even go see a freakin movie without hearing "Tell me what you want, what you really really want" played 3 times on the movie theater loudspeaker before the film started because they were too busy thinking about Power Rangers and Pokemon at the time. 

Well I think that sums it up.  (I was born in 1985.)  Side note: mmm-bop, doopy dop dee dop dooooooooo bop, yeah yeah.
 
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