If You Screw Up, Just Keep Going.

Over the last ten years or so I've noticed some acts seem to have lost the skill of covering up their on-stage mistakes. I was brought up with a mindset where to make it obvious to the audience that you'd just screwed up when they otherwise wouldn't've known, was a sin. I still believe this. Unless it's an absolute train wreck, the audience will never know. Who cares? Everyone makes mistakes. Hell, I can even recall a performance I was involved in long ago where the whole band did indeed grind slowly to a horrific halt mid-song. 300 or so people just thought it was the end of the song - That was more disappointing to me.

On more than one occasion I've seen live footage of a highly respected canadian singer/songwriter where he stops mid-song cause he can't hear himself or for some other reason. I've even seen him stop the band. Ugh, that's unnecessary. Those kind of petty annoyances always work themselves out within a few minutes. Whatever happened to having signals for those kind of problems, that the relevant technician sees but the audience don't? Is it good that as performers we allow examples like that to show people the wrong way to behave on-stage? Doesn't it just encourage legions of little spleen-venters to come running up behind us?

I even saw with my own eyes a somewhat seasoned and well-known british performerer stop a song on-stage cause his voice was too quiet against his piano in his foldback. It wasn't a loud gig and if you're sound messes up for a minute, in that situation you can hear yourself through your jawbone if you have to!

There are many singer/songwriters coming through today, too many really. But if you're one of them and you really want to stick out, do yourself a favour and rise above the rabble by learning stage etiquette. If you get that down you'll be far ahead of the game, and maybe even more acceptable as a performer than those who might actually be better musicians and more talented than yourself. Although I'll make it clear that I do not encourage lack of musicality, but that's another story.

I suggest watching the dvd of Elton John live with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in 1986. That was a by-satellite show broadcast live worldwide as it happened. No chance for excuses. His throat was absolutely gone but the show had to go on. He had about half an octave of range and his voice was constantly on the verge of breaking up completely. But he knew how to handle it and sung amazingly all night in spite of it. I've yet to see anyone else take that on to such an extent. It's one of my favourite performances of his.

This is the level of professionalism that is suffering today and not being handed down. If you're a singer, forget your attitudes and opinions of whatever and watch that show, because if you're serious, you may have to do that yourself one day, and jumping up and down like a girl cause your throat is killing you won't cut it.

Bob's Top Ten

For those of you unfamiliar with Bob Lefsetz, he keeps a regular journal on the state of the music industry. His readership is populated by many industry insiders and is often enlightening to say the least.

http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/

He knows his stuff. In his latest post he lists who he considers to be the top ten most powerful people in the biz today. He goes on to give opinions on other people and events too. His view on SXSW is frank. I suspected as much.

Joni's Lyric

I know it's long, but Joni's 'Song For Sharon' is a masterwork of confessional writing. I always perceived it as a letter, though there's really nothing in it to define it as such. If you're a lyricist and you're not familiar with the song, do yourself a favour and read it. Or listen to it on 'Hejira'.

The lines: "Sharon I left my man at a North Dakota junction, And I came out to the 'Big Apple' here to face the dream's malfunction", still bowl me over every time.

Who knows how much of it is true, but it feels like it is.
----------------------------------------------------------------

I went to Staten Island, Sharon
To buy myself a mandolin
And I saw the long white dress of love
On a storefront mannequin
Big boat chuggin' back with a belly full of cars
All for something lacy
Some girl's going to see that dress
And crave that day like crazy

Little Indian kids on a bridge up in Canada
They can balance and they can climb
Like their fathers before them
They'll walk the girders of the Manhattan skyline
Shine your light on me Miss liberty
Because as soon as this ferry boat docks
I'm headed to the church
To play Bingo
Fleece me with the gamblers' flocks

I can keep my cool at poker
But I'm a fool when love's at stake
Because I can't conceal emotion
What I'm feeling's always written on my face
There's a gypsy down on Bleecker Street
I went in to see her as a kind of joke
And she lit a candle for my love luck
And eighteen bucks went up in smoke

Sharon I left my man
At a North Dakota junction
And I came out to the "Big Apple" here
To face the dream's malfunction
Love's a repetitious danger
You'd think I'd be accustomed to
Well I do accept the changes
At least better than I used to do

A woman I knew just drowned herself
The well was deep and muddy
She was just shaking off futility
Or punishing somebody
My friends were calling up all day yesterday
All emotions and abstractions
It seems we all live so close to that line
and so far from satisfaction

Dora says "Have children"
Mama and Betsy say "Find yourself a charity
Help the needy and the crippled or put some time into Ecology"
Well there's a wide wide world of noble causes
And lovely landscapes to discover
But all I really want right now
Is find another lover

When we were kids in Maidstone, Sharon
I went to every wedding in that little town
To see the tears and the kisses
And the pretty lady in the white lace wedding gown
And walking home on the railroad tracks
Or swinging on the playground swing
Love stimulated my illusions
More than anything

And when I went skating after Golden Reggie
You know it was white lace I was chasing
Chasing dreams
Mama's nylons underneath my cowgirl jeans
He showed me first you get the kisses
And then you get the tears
But the ceremony of the bells and lace
Still veils this reckless fool here

Now there are twenty-nine skaters on Wollman Rink
Circling in singles and in pairs
In this vigorous anonymity
A blank face at the window stares and
stares and stares and stares and stares
And the power of reason
And the flowers of deep feeling
Seem to serve me
Only to deceive me

Sharon you've got a husband
And a family and a farm
I've got the apple of temptation
And a diamond snake around my arm
But you still have your music
And I've still got my eyes on the land and the sky
You sing for your friends and your family
I'll walk green pastures by and by

The Amil Nitrate Diary.

Sometimes ideas for song titles will occur to me out of nowhere. A recent idea was 'Amil Nitrate'. Not terribly original but I wrote it down anyway. Chemical names were a title trend for a while weren't they?

So how can I start a song with this title? Just because I think it sounds good isn't enough, I'd need more meat to get serious about beginning it.

What do I know about amil nitrate anyway? Unsure of it's official purpose, I do know that in recreation it puts you off your trolley. I know that in such a situation it's probably best not to drive and uuh...... that's about it. Not a lot to go on. But I did at least live through that once.

But that's still not interesting enough. It needs a twist. My limited teenage experience with a minor mindbender needs a certain element to flesh it out. Fiction! Who am I to think that my humble life experience alone could be enough to breathe substance into something as exalted as a lyric? (Yes, I can see you nodding).

Realizing long ago that lyric writing didn't necessarily have to be 'about me' was a revelation. Writing songs specifically about ourselves in our own voice is something we all do automatically when we first start writing songs, but only a true craftsman goes on to make it their thing. It's very difficult and to attempt it early on is like trying to run before you can walk. One major exponent of it, and my favourite, is Joni Mitchell. I'm terrified of going anywhere near it after I hear her. Let's find an example.......

ILike and Garageband

Ilike seems to be the new thing when it comes to promoting your musical wares online. Man, there's so many of those sites now and it's so time consuming if you want to establish yourself on them. In fact I feel a bit desperate and dateless if I go near any of those places.

Myspace is one thing, it works fine and is viral enough to be worthwhile. But on Ilike there is no user-friendly way to begin to attract listeners. They actually suggest you send a cold email to members with a link to your music enclosed, you announce yourself and say you thought this person might like your music. You've gotta be kidding me. There is no dignity in that. Is anyone really that desperate for people to hear them? Isn't it tantamount to walking off the street into some stranger's house waving your cd and yelling 'Hey, listen to this!'?

To add insult to injury, ilike are partnered with garageband.com. You need a thick skin if you have a page there, believe me, I know, I've had one for three years. That site has one use only, and that is gathering useful comments you might be able to use on your website. Other than that the site is songwriters and promoters with barrows to push throwing their toys around in a sandpit. I'm one of the guys over on the jungle gym who lifts my head up wondering where the noise came from whenever some runny-nose hurls unprovoked abuse at me.

And it all amounts to very little. Why would we subject ourselves to that? We must be masochistic.

No Sweat.

It's occurred to me on more than one occasion that a big part of being the kind of person that pulls stuff out of thin air, whether music is your thing or painting or whatever, is recognizing exactly what it is you want to conceptually achieve and then putting it out of your mind before you start.

Am I suggesting some kind of rulebook? Not so much in the writing but in the way the head is prepared for it, yes. With songwriting there are techniques that can at least stop you writing really badly, but I mean achievement in serving your initial inspiration or idea without being to overt or anal about it. It sounds like a paradox, to know what you want to do but avoid that knowledge as you do it. It's the place inbetween those two ideas where the good stuff happens.

Stravinsky once spoke of composition as 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration or words to that effect. Perhaps the ideal place is one where neither of those two things appear to be present in the doing of the deed. It can happen, rarely for me, but it does seem like people do their best work when it's effortless. I don't mean like it's dictated or channeled or any of that bollocks you hear about, but brought about in such a way that your ego has as little as possible to do with it. (That counts out all the first-person confessional guys doesn't it?)

So going by that it seems like writing good songs requires you to do..... well...... nothing. Maybe I'm nuts, but as the man who had the mishap on the fourth floor of the molasses factory once said, it's my storey and I'm sticking to it.

The Mellotron That Got Away.

'Trade Me' is an auction site which can be considered as New Zealand's version of Ebay. Recently I saw a pretty nice Fender on there, one of it's selling points actually being 'Original strings!'. (Being NZ, that'll probably move it).

But the real story is the mellotron I found on there. Here she is.



Isn't she gorgeous? I was tempted to bid but was put off by the fact that the engine had a fault and she's not currently in working order. That'll do it every time. Plus I knew that within five minutes of purchase my preference for practicality over aesthetics would prevail. It would've been a right can of worms. I made the right decision. But I still have a lump in my throat. It went for $1000 which is around $750 US at the moment. A steal.

I wouldn't be surprised if it's the only one in the country. It's most certainly the only one down here in the south island. Perhaps I'll get to meet it one day.

Write What You Know.

The songwriting cliche is 'Write what you know'. To help make a song ring true I certainly advocate this, but would extend it to 'Write what you know, but if you don't know your topic, make sure you know you don't know it (and perhaps even make it obvious)'.

This certainly goes for 'places' in songs too. I'm careful about referencing some place or other, even if I'm familiar with it. I had a somewhat ambiguous lyric happening a while ago where it was an apocalypse scenario with nuclear arms being floated into Long Beach etc. Haha. Talk about unwieldy. It had to go. For many reasons, not only would I need to be highly knowledgeable on the topic to make that one fly, but I'd also need to have a feel for whether those kinds of events could occur in that particular place. I have no clue.

Not to mention being concise which is also important. It doesn't always happen straight away though. The above-mentioned lumpy draft had enough ideas for four lyrics but I was gung-ho in my supposed ability to string 'em all together and make it work. Before long there were ufos on the scene as well, and all in a song that initially was about anger. How I got to all that other stuff I'll never know. I've done some doozies like that. You'd think I'd know better by now. The trick is in recognizing it and changing it.