"TOO LONG FEELISM...SAY/PLAY TOO MUCH ITUS" Syndrome
Phil, all joking aside, I would like to point out a few observations I have watching and listening to so many other people's music and seeing mistakes they make. OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER....(you get the idea) AGAIN. It might help on what we are talking about.
One of the things about songs is that they can be decieving. Especially when it comes to time frames. You might have a song that is only about three minutes. But it gets so REDUNDANT that to the average listener it FEELS LIKE TEN MINUTES. This happens a lot with the blues oriented songs. Blues being played by a solo person is singlehandedly just about the most boring things you can have. Even people who are very good, (and I consider myself pretty accomplished at this) can't really get away much with standard blues stuff without putting people out like a light. They may be still watching and listening, but their eyes and attention span are as glazed over as a five hour lecture on Ancient Greek History. The Blues have always been driven by INSTRUMENTALS. That is why BB KING, ERIC CLAPTON, ELMORE JAMES, ROBERT JOHNSON, STEVIE RAY VAUGHN, etc. have achieved such legendary status, because they PLAYED THE BLUES and that is what they are known for. Even the great blues singers, like Ray Charles and BB, depended on accompniment to put the blues over.
So when you have an ACOUSTIC song that is primarily a one four five song, it is going to drone on no matter how short it is. So it goes back to doing FEWER VERSES. Even the short ones "feel long" because there is nothing else going on. We see it a lot here. Actually had to listen to it for about 5 hours yesterday. People on writers nights and open mics, getting up, doing their songs, and you can put a stop watch on them. The songs are not that long time wise but because there is not much else happening, the FEEL like a lifetime.
On the other side of the spectrum is PLAY TOO MUCH and SAY TOO MUCH ITUS. This is where there are so many rapid fire lyrics, so many guitar movements that it is one big blur of nothingness. An interesting phenomeon I see over and over through this, is so many younger artists who do this. And not only with myself, who are actually TRYING to listen to what they are doing, but the general public, are finding themselves halfway through songs going "what is this even about?"
It's happening throughout the music culture, where you have tons of songs out there, that say A LOT without saying nothing at all. And is it interesting that there is a corresponding drop off in money for writers, artists, etc. as the general public tunes out? I don't think so.
It is all part and parcel to what I have seen over the past decade in what I lovingly refer to as "GLOW SONGS." This is where the entire audience, a table at a time, simply tuning out, pulling out their cell phones and texting away. You see the "glow" in their faces. "Glow songs." get it?
What I think it means to us that are trying to get attention (or KEEP ATTENTION) is that we have to analyze every line and every note on our songs. Phil, for my own thing, yes, I have wiffed plenty of times. Which reminds me that I have to do this too. The reason I write songs very tightly is that I CAN'T REMEMBER these lyrics. Try to get 2500-3000 songs and keep anything straight. Not very easily.
But you have to watch the other side of the coin as well, and not dwindle down into the boring world. If you are having trouble remembering these songs, you might want to go back and make sure what you are saying is interesting. If not, you might seriously think about dropping a verse or two. All in serving the song.
MAB
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