29. März 2014
6
29
/03
/März
/2014
14:07
.. to match his music. This time I not only have the music with sung nonsense lyrics but also a text that Fabio had written himself but discarded. This I can use a my 'template' to match my own words with. I then use the music to double-check, namely if I intend to add or scrap a syllable.
An example:
Fabio:
Close my eyes, 'coz they went weaker
Candlelight to burn my pain
Close my eyes and cure my fever
Paralyze and suffocate
Me:
my mind seems to teem with maggots
tiny flies dance in my eyes
I can hear the wood worms knocking
in my dreams cicadas cry
Well, the idea as to what the song is supposed to be about, comes from Fabio: a man is going insane, someone - maybe an angel - appears and may help ... or not ;-)
It's not sure that Fabio and I will team up. He asked for assistence on a songwriting board, and I suggested a little competition. I hope that I'll win the competition and that my lyrics will make it on the CD he is planning. But then, if the result is just another cool lyrics, that's fine by me as well. It wouldn't be the first time my lyrics were rejected - or rather simply ignored. Normally, to be rediscovered sometime later ;-)
Published by Texter Bernd
28. März 2014
5
28
/03
/März
/2014
11:05
Published by Texter Bernd
23. März 2014
7
23
/03
/März
/2014
17:00
I need not write a new text after all. "Where shall we end up" nearly fits perfectly. I only have to throw out two parts and edit a few lines. In my mind it flows beautifully :-)
Published by Texter Bernd
23. März 2014
7
23
/03
/März
/2014
16:08
Yet again I have a backing track with no matching lyrics - as far as I can make out at the moment. I recorded and edited the track sometime earlier this year and only rediscovered it recently when I was about to record the vocals for "lifelong pleasure". You know, I name my music tracks 2014-01, 2014-02 and so on. "lifelong pleasure" was 2014-02. When listening into 2014-01 I noticed that it was complete apart from the vocals. Now I'm looking for fitting words.
I've made notes as to how many lines of text I will need:
verses: 4 lines
lift: 3 lines
chorus: 6 lines
no bridge
There are two verses.
Had I anticipated my recurring 'problem' I would have created a database to index my own lyrics as for their parts (verse, lift, chorus, bridge), the numbers of lines per part, and their respective lengths*. That would have made searching for a matching text much easier. As things are, I'll probably write yet another text - that seems easier than going through all 360 I've already written...
* I am a databse professional. You would not have thought that it would take me 12 years to come up with that solution, would you?
Published by Texter Bernd
17. März 2014
1
17
/03
/März
/2014
17:03
Do you remember "Mr. D."? I mean "my" Mr. D.:
no, Mr. D., I won't dance with you today
just watch me bouncing 'round, and listen what I say
Mr. D., I won't dance with you today
no, Mr. D., I won't dance with you today
In the second verse it says:
how about an agreement, you could
come back in, say, twenty years
Well, the lyrics I put down today - after dreaming them(!) - could be seen as follow-up lyrics, say, 20 years later:
I saw this man
who cast no shadow
and no reflections
in window panes
I double-checked
just to make sure
but each time
it was the same
who is he?
what does it mean?
can he be seen
by other people
or only me?
one day I died
quite suddenly
a heart attack
(that) did me in
to my regret
there was no time
for Goodbyes
with friends and kin
a man reached out to me
a man I thought I'd seen before
"Don't you remember me?
You're the one I've waited for"
who is he?
what does it mean?
can he be seen
by other people
or only me?
Must have been my appointment with the dentist that brought up such thoughts ...
Published by Texter Bernd
12. März 2014
3
12
/03
/März
/2014
11:11
Communication has two sides, a sender and a receiver. What the receiver 'sees' in a communication need not be what the sender meant. Lyrics have words, songs trigger emotions. What the listeners perceive and feel need not reflect what the songwriter thought when writing the song. As John Lennon would have put it: I only put down the words, you make up the meaning.
I'm a rhyming 'addict'. I'm unhappy when there are no rhymes in a song text. When I began putting it together "once full of hope" - then just a working title that read "old man" - I intended to write a cynical song. Its basic message was to be that powerful, rich, and conceited men will eventually die and probably suffer just like any poor sod. So, what was their power, money, or arrogance good for, after all? There are lines in my lyrics that still point to my original intention, like "once the big boss...". Yet during the writing process, i.e. moving forward from rhyme to rhyme, my lyrics actually became more serious than I had intended. They could apply to my father when he died, or any dying man in a hospice, someday they might apply to myself - not exactly a comforting image.
Anyway, my lyrics were taken seriously and were well received by fellow songwriters (and corrected as well):
reactions on Muse's Muse
I consider them "carpe diem lyrics", by the way, in a kind of reversed sense: see what could happen to you, so make the most of what you're having now.
Seize the day!
Bernd
Published by Texter Bernd
10. März 2014
1
10
/03
/März
/2014
15:03
... will be the title for the lyrics I had temporarily called "old age". I wrote a bridge today, although I must admit that it is not exactly the best bridge I've ever written. There is no twist and no surprise, I basically repeat in other words what has been said in the chorus. Maybe I'll replace the bridge sometime, should I come up with anything better. It flows well, though:
looking back you're not quite sure
who you were, or who you are
all glamour's gone, there is no cure
against old age, 'gainst waning stars
Published by Texter Bernd
6. März 2014
4
06
/03
/März
/2014
14:59
Lunch time lyrics!
Maybe it is that I'm often slightly bored over lunch time - my working place must be among the ugliest places that exist, planned by some misanthrope - or maybe that I'm just particularly relaxed during my breaks... Anyway, I'm getting the impression that my spontaneous lunch time lyrics are my best. Here's "borderline" that took about 8 minutes to write:
I'm not the guy you think I am
I'm neither true nor am I sham
I'm cute, I'm brute, and I'm kick-ass
I'm desperate, I'm in a mess
I'm borderline
sorry girl, I'm borderline
I love to hear what is untold
I like disasters to unfold
I dance with fairies, dance with elves
the only one I love's myself
I'm borderline
sorry girl, I'm borderline
touch me, make me feel
I can't reach you
try to make me real
I can't reach you
hurt me, cut me deep
can you reach me?
love me, make me weep
can you reach me?
I'm not the guy you think I am
I'm neither true nor am I sham
I'm cute, I'm brute, and I'm kick-ass
I'm desperate, I'm in a mess
I'm borderline
sorry girl, I'm borderline
Published by Texter Bernd
5. März 2014
3
05
/03
/März
/2014
13:30
once full of hope
you were the highschool star
breaking teenage hearts
now you can’t cope
once the big boss
now wretched and pitiful,
old, and laughable
you are no loss
I decided that the former lines -
when no-one understands
when all reason makes no sense
it can only mean
that your future ends
- don't really fit, so I stored them in my 'scrap book' for the time being. I'll still need a bridge, I guess, maybe cast a little hope or comfort on the rather shattering text. But then, maybe not ;-)
Published by Texter Bernd
2. März 2014
7
02
/03
/März
/2014
17:35
Over a couple of weaks I gathered verses for a new text with the working title "old age". These are the verses (I added the third only a few minutes ago):
a girl enters the room
one of the candy stripers
she switches on the light
she's come to change your diaper
it makes you feel ashamed
bein' helpless as a baby
a man who wets his pants
in front of this young lady
the girl shakes up your pillow
ignoring stains of spittle
she's also brought your breakfast
you'll try hard not to dribble
you envy the demented
the mercy of forgetting
how much would you give for
stop fretting and regretting
Then there is a chrous - or maybe just a bridge - I put down the other day:
when no-one understands
when all reason makes no sense
it can only mean
that your future ends
They could go together, I think, but should they? I'm not sure...
Published by Texter Bernd
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