Why Learn Other People's Songs?

A few weeks ago, I was part of a Book Release Party for the Clay Eals biography of Steve Goodman (www.stevegoodman.net). It was held at Westwood Music on Westwood Blvd, here in Los Angeles. Because I was acquainted with Steve Goodman (the last time I saw him was at my house in Santa Cruz) and admired his work, I was invited to sing a few songs and Clay asked me if I would do the two Michael Smith songs that Steve did so well, The Dutchman and Spoon River. I believe that those are two of the best songs to come out of the contemporary folk catalog, as well as two of Michael Smith’s best (www.artistsofnote.com/michael).

Michael and I have often written together and did a duet album for Beachwood Recordings called Two Man Band Two (www.jamesleestanley.com) but I had never learned these two wonderful chestnuts. They are extremely popular in the folk world, so I guess that’s part of the reason I never learned them. Plus I write so much and when I do do covers I like them to be something really familiar to as many different kinds of audiences as can be; and then I like my new arrangement to make the song fresh all over again.

In any event, I learned the two songs and sang them at the book signing. What is most interesting about the experience in retrospect is how learning those two songs impacted my song writing going forward.

When we write songs, we usually go the places that are most appealing to us and we use the methodology that is most familiar to us. Simple speak, we do what we know how to do. We do what worked before. We travel upon our usual paths.

I come from the classic pop song world. All the first songs that I learned to play were 20’s, 30’s, and 40’s hits, so I always make my lyrics fit a very rigid pattern. What ever meter was suggested by the first verse, I attempt to faithfully reproduce in the succeeding verses.

But when we learn someone else’s song, we are learning a melody that is not placed where we normally place melodies; we are learning phrasing that is simply different that the way we do it; we learn chord progressions that perhaps we don’t normally use; or we learn to stretch out or condense a chord progression that we already use.

That being said, Michael Smith writes lyrics in a very conversational manner. He says what he wants to say and he doesn’t care if it doesn’t meter or match rhythmically the pattern that the song suggested. As long as it furthers the narrative and is poetic, he’ll make it work in the melody.

Michael, like Joni Mitchell before him, simply makes the phraseology fit the melody. This is not something that I do normally or naturally. I like a very tightly written lyric usually. But I find that this alternative manner of writing lyrics makes for some very interesting melodic changes that perhaps keep the song fresher longer? I don’t know.

All I do know is that I just finished a song called “Do As You’re Told” and it is like no song or lyric that I’ve written before, and I ‘ve written thousands of songs. But learning a few songs that go against what I naturally do as a song writer opened me up to a whole bunch of composing possibilities that I’ve not really explored before.

So I am suggesting that before you start writing that you learn some other people’s songs. If you are already a songwriter and are blocked, this might break up the logjam for you. I don’t mean rearrange the other person’s song. I mean faithfully learn their chord progression and their melody and their phrasing first. You can always rearrange it to suit your tastes afterwards, but learning it as it actually is forces you to go where you don’t normally go and that’s the point of this exercise and today’s post.

Go faithfully learn some songs written by other people and see if their influence doesn’t show up in the next few songs you write. I suggest that you pick some great songs though. You don’t want to echo someone else’s missteps.

Comments

[Bobby Brogan]

i went thru an experience that both changed my life and my writing:

my friend Cyrus and I met in High School...we became friends and wrote songs together and played in a band...he could come up with alot of melodies and often we would sit in his bedroom and he would play guitar as we talked or didnt talk every so often he would play something that would hit a chord with me...and I would write a lyric and then go over to his stereo that was full of connections from one mic to another...and another..etc...funny when i first saw this set up I was stunned as I had done the same thing in my bedroom...anyhow we would immediately record what little we had and then work to finish the rest recording then adding adding and recording...it would go on for hours and hours...sometimes days and days...finishing one song and starting on another...I sometimes thought we could compete with Lennon and McCartney...
Then one weekend his dad died of a massive heart attack...a few weeks later circumstances lead to he and his brother moving to CA to live with their mother...it all happened very suddenly and took a long time to accept...
I went along writing as I had for awhile...the same way I had written before I met Cyrus and the form we kept up...he would often write comical songs with great melodies but i could never stand the lyrics so I would rewrite the lyrics to fit the songs meter...very tightly and just as I was used to...
Somewhere along the way I came to a point where I felt like I couldnt write anymore...it was more than being blocked...it was coming to an ending and I was quite alarmed and frustrated and disturbed..."Why can't I go on writing as I had?"...I would force myself to write but it didnt flow...the lyrics no matter how cohesive I tried to make them they didnt flow...how ever much imagery i would put in they would remain static images that didnt connect...the melodies were banal and derivative...this after coming off of several years with Cyrus and by myself....
So for the next few years I would write on and off wither pushing myself or getting a good line or two in and then fizzling out and the metered lines felt more and more sing songy...also my melodies were becoming harder and harder to come by...I was used to the melodies just appearing in my head as the lyrics did...rhythm by rhythm...accent by accent...but that was starting to fade quickly...
Then providence moved
i was laying on my bed and I put on Joni Mitchell's Court and Spark album...i got inspired and with the music still playing I started to write lyrics...but in the tradition of Joni they were broader...and the melodies when they started coming shortly there after were the same...kinetic and sometimes abstract...
I have finally reached a place where I am rather proud of my writing...the songs are like Joni Mitchell and Grace Slick and Leonard Cohen...big canvas of lyrics and melodies that wove there own pattern out...like broadway as you pointed out James...it has occurred to me too...or even Art Song...
I often write in what I think is the style of someone else becos that is how the music and words are playing in my head but they come out another way all together...more original than I thought and richer and fuller...I might find a trace here or there of the song I was emulating...but more often than not I find that I have gone a new direction...

[Reencyloott]

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