Saturday
Feb042012
• You get an idea for a song. But is it any good?
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 9:58AM 
On evenings when moisture is mostly in the water and not in the air and the sun is at the right angle, I could look outside the kitchen or living room window and snap the above photo. But I don’t. Because while this scene is common, in that it happens on so many evenings, it is also rare in that I so often fail to see it, or if I do see it, I am too busy to grab the camera and the tripod and do the scene justice with proper equipment.Ideas for good songs are similar. They, too, happen every day, but mostly I miss them.
Of course, unlike a sunset, song ideas cannot simply be captured and remembered forever in under a second, regardless of any equipment on-hand, so even if I do notice them, they still, mostly, slip away. Further, song ideas can’t be immediately sized up and judged, at least not by me. I have to notice them, capture them, cage them and then observe them for a little while before I can decide if they’re worth further effort. And this is the hardest part. I mean, songs are so subjective and it is so hard to tell what’s good and what’s not. It’s like that scene Basquiat in which Warhol (played by Bowie) looks at a piece of his art and says, “I can’t even tell what’s good anymore.” And then I want to be brutally honest but how do I that if I don’t know what’s true?
Sigh...
Reader Comments (8)
Ah, but you do know what's true, Jeff. Whatever feels good in your heart when you play it; whatever makes you want to play it over and over again, that's the idea worth pursuing. The real point is this: Yes, you have to capture the essence of the idea, on some device or other, on paper, somewhere. But what the true artist has to do is devote him/herself to the development process. Ideas are one thing, finished works of art another. Inevitably, life gets in the way, and we bog down. But somehow we find the time. We simply have no choice.
Tom, I agree, I have no choice, I have to do this stuff. But I can't say I know when something is good. I know when I like it, but not for others. Maybe no one does. I read so often about bands thinking a song is going to tank and it gets huge and vice versa. Maybe that's why it's art.
What Tom said. Just about any idea for a song can be a good idea. Whether it turns into a good song depends on what you do with it.
Coincidentally, I wondered about this when I started my latest song. It could be kinda clever, or it could be really stupid. I hesitated for a few seconds, then decided to just try writing the thing. If it turns out stupid, it turns out stupid.
And if it's catchy enough, the stupidity might actually work in its favor.
I struggle so much with this. When I lived in Hong Kong, the view from my apartment was so awesome - and yet, I often didn't take photos. In the same way, I have no idea how many times I've come up with a promising riff, or an idea for a chorus and not turned it into a song.
I find this quite funny. I am never far from my camera and I find when I look back that I have taken the same photograph many times over. Of course the subtleties of nature mean it's not exactly the same. And then I get into a fine analysis of which one is the best and which are the ones I can delete (one of the great benefits of digital is not feeling like you are. Urging through expensive film!)
I find it works like this with songs. I just write everything down, passing no judgment. Then gradually things coalesce...with fragments I thought were separate songs becoming joined in one composition.
To me it's all about the moment when you start judging. Delay that moment as long as you possibly can and things flow more easily. Early judgment kills everything. How can you judge an idea or a few lines or even decide what part of a possible song the lines represent until it is fully formed?
As for the not knowing what is good even when it's finished concept - that will always be true. That has to do with the writer's inability to judge the work from an uninvolved position. I agree with Tom, if it satisfies you in any way then it is good - good enough to be shared with others. Some of whom will agree with you and some will always disagree.
I think the creative process depends greatly on an artist giving himself or herself the freedom to produce crap. You'll recognize it as such later - just as you'll recognize the gems. But in the initial stages they can look frighteningly similar!
Urging???
I wrote "Burning" - by my damned iPad decided I meant urging.
But there's something poetic about "urging through film" - if only it hadn't decided on a period too!
Sometimes I wish technology would stop trying to do everything for us!
Susan, I agree, a lot rides on execution. And because of that, I tend to try to my hardest to make sure my efforts won't be in vain. Mostly a fruitless exercise, I admit, but it's how I'm wired.
Fernando, in looking back at my post, I think you've caught something I don't actually agree with. I wrote: "They… happen every day, but mostly I miss them." In hindsight, that's actually not true. Now that I think about it more, I do a better job than ever of capturing ideas thanks to my smartphone. In fact, I've got too many ideas for songs and that's an issue because of what I wrote to Susan: to execute them all to the fullest would be impossible, so I have to pick. Which brings me to…
Dave, I start judging the moment an idea comes to me. I can't help it, probably a vestige of all my years in adland! I'll have to write about this more.
Coalescence, that is true, that does happen and thank god. Simplifies things a bit. By the way, good title for an album.
Yay for trying stupid things! I finished my aforementioned song today and played it for some songwriters. Results were favorable.
I don't have too many lyrical ideas to deal with them all, but I could see it happening with melodies and riffs.