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It's really hard as an older person to write lyrics. When I was young, I put my whole self out there; ugly bits, romantic bits, angry bits. But the older we get the more our spiky edges are rounded off. And the less as listeners we respond to naked emotion; the more we respond to the craft of expressing that emotion, the lesson learned from that emotion - the profundity of it. And the older I get, the more I realise I was not as profound as I thought I was when I was young.
I've not got past that block. Everything I've written for the last four years has used other people's lyrics. I think if you've got an idea you're happy with, and only one bit is causing you grief, you're doing better than most, and it's worth sticking with. Sometimes the most painful bit of a song for the writer is the best bit for the listener.
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ReekBlefs
Dooks-Fatberg
Not strictly guitar but songwriting... For the last week or so I've been making a concerted organised effort to finish a song that's been kicking about for at least a couple of years and although I'm kinda blocked, i'm actually finding the process strangely interesting.
My run-rate is about one a year lately so i'm not worried about the amount of time it's taking, no-one is exactly waiting for it so I'm letting myself do some navel-gazing as to what does and doesn't work. Thought i'd stick it down here in case anyone else finds it helpful.
The thing that I'm finding interesting is that the central foundation of the song is the bit that I think i'm gonna have to kill off if i'm ever going to finish it. The lyric is build around a couple of images and feelings that are all tied up with the passing of my last grandparent shortly after I became a parent a few years ago. What does it mean when someone dies? What happens to all of those memories and all of that love. All of that. What Not a novel concept i'm well aware, but it's a classic theme for a reason. All of the lyrics kind of spin off off from this super-vivid childhood memory of being with my grandparnets in this kind of (probably imagined) idyllic pastoral situation. But as i've fettled and changed the song and added and deleted verses i've come to realise that the one bit that I just cannot live with is the bit that overtly references that memory. It just really sticks in my throat when I sing it. It feels forced and like really obvious piece of artless sentimental guff right in the middle of what (i think) has turned into a reasonably decent piece of writing.
It's the trigger's broom effect.
I came to the realistion this morning that it has got to go. Now -just need to replace it with something. *chews pencil and looks thoughtfully out of window