Can I Write A Song Like That? And If I Do, Is It Stealing?
Wednesday, March 19, 2008 at 12:41PM About a week ago, my wife and I were guests of Timothy B Schmit (www.timothybschmit.com) at the Eagles Friends and Family concert at the Forum (yes, they evidently have a LOT of friends and family). The band was gloriously tight even tho this was their warm up show, and they made me want to go home and practice. You hear them play and you realize that you aren’t working hard enough.
After a few days, I got to thinking about all the great songs that they’ve written and decided that I was going to write an Eagles tune for the fun of it;. try to write and arrange one as they would. I put down a very Eagles like progression and then starte working on a melody and trying to find a lyric idea that would fall into their genre.
My wife came out to the studio and wondered what I was doing and why I was doing it. “Shouldn’t you try to write a song like you write? Be true to your own artistic gifts?” And it got me to thinking, about this creative force and inspiration and originality. I know that prior to my becoming besotted with the Beatles, whenever I heard a song that I liked, I simply learned it.
Then the Beatles came out and everyone had to write their own songs, which I tried to do as best I could. Then reading an interview with John and Paul I discovered a really interesting writing technique. They talked about where they got their inspiration and they were very up front about the fact that when they heard something that they liked, they tried to write a song like that.
The example that comes to mind is the Sebastian song, “What A Day For A Daydream”. John and Paul loved that song, but instead of learning that song and singing it, they wrote their own song, “Good Day Sunshine” which sounds absolutely nothing like its inspiration.
“Hey Jude”, according to Paul was simply the chords to the Drifters “Save The Last Dance For Me” with the cha cha taken out. Something coming out of something else. Should we think less of Paul for using that chord progression? Hardly.
What I try to do, as a composer and arranger, is to leap upon the inspiration, wherever it comes from, and run with it. I know that even if I start out trying to emulate someone else, my own artistic gifts will emerge and take it down another road to another place. Trust your gifts and trust your inspiration. It doesn’t matter where it comes from, it only matters what emerges.
Remember that recording trick I told you about that Don Was allegedly does? Whereby he brings into the studio a recording that he really likes and then gets the band to cop that feel and apply it to the song that they are recording that day? It’s the same thing. Did any of Bonnie Raitt’s hit songs sound like anyone else’s recording? NO! They took it someplace else. Inspiration is where you find it and where you take it is what makes you you. Don’t be discouraged by someone else’s greatness. Be inspired by it.
My only caveat is for you to make certain that you don’t copy the song exactly. I just put a Beachboys tribute up on my Myspace site. It’s not one of their songs, it's one of my songs called "Wait For The Summertime, but it is arranged as like them as I could do it. And while you hear the echoes of the Beachboys on it, it doesn’t sound like the Beachboys, even tho I tried to make it so. Check it out: www.myspace.com/jamesleestanley you'll see what I mean.
You want to use the inspiration as a jumping off place and then let yourself go. It’s great fun and it’s instructive from every aspect, compositionally, recording-wise, arrangement-wise and performance-wise. Try it…you’ll like it.
Reader Comments (4)
Inspiration always comes from somewhere other than ourselves...or rather...its the connecting of what we already have to what turns us on...its like striking a match...when we spark its that outside source meating with a force inside of us...the flame (Which is whatever we create) is the result of this...i sometimes get a melody in my head and thing:'oh great this isnt mind it's so-and-so'sit happened the other day but then when I went and listened to the song I was afraid I was ripping off it was not only different melodically it didnt even have the same groove...I will often listen to other peoplefor inspiration...joni mitchell is an example...I cant listen to Court and Spark or Blue without getting some melodic or lyrical idea...this can be a problem cos I listen to music as I go to sleep and I regularly will put on COurt and Spar...and it can start a floodgate ...i'll be all relaxed drifting off...the there's a spark...and i cant help but get up and write down the lyric idea even if its only a few words or put a tape in my cassette recorder and sing the melody...There is also the viewpoint that its all been done before anyway it your own point of view that will make the inspiration genuinely yours...and even the greats sometimes end up with a song that sounds almost identical to someone else's song...Take George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord"...he was sued becos the melody is identical to "He's So Fine"...yet 'My Sweet Lord" is still considered a classic...the melody may have been the same but the view point of the lric is at the other end of the spectrum from "He's So Fine"...other artists freely emulate and are very honest about it...Madonna has always been up front about this...The video for "Open Your Heart" was her paying tribute to Liza Minnelli in Cabaret...The song "Express Yourself" was an homage to Sly and the Family Stone...and the video was inspired by the film "Metropolis"...SO use whatever comes to you but participate in the inspiration...make it yours...
bobby, thank you for your thoughtful post. inspiration is where you find it. and what ever you do, if it is filtered thru your voice and your life experience, is bound to be different than your inspiration.
THough it's probably perfectly obvious, may I say that this applies to way more than music. Whatever your "art" is, however you practice it,inspiration is all around. All you have to do is pay attention and stay open to whatever comes along, then listen to what it has to say to you. It's often quite surprising what ends up being created when unexpected things enter the process. Try it...it's fun!
Good songwriters borrow...great ones STEAL!
http://www.howtowriteasong.net