Learning How to Write Songs in the Folk Tradition
The first song I ever wrote was a song called "Bumble Bee". Nothing fancy. It was a 50s style a cappella song that pretty much repeated that word over and over.
In college, I started writing some more. I remember hooking up a guy named Andre who was also learning to be a songwriter. We started to collaborate on a song, but college kicked in. He was too busy with various illicit drugs and a bit of a flake.
After becoming an Amway distributor and realizing I wanted to be a musician, I started writing a lot more. Again, most of the songs were junk. They were of the the great Alt Rock. Pretty much nonsensical songs, like "Got No Brains... Singing", satirical as in "Got So Cock-Y My Balls Blew Off", or had a hidden meaning like "Peach Cobbler Pie". It really wasn't until I started playing the autoharp that my songwriting started to improve. Sure "Lounging in La La Land" didn't add any great credibility to my improved songwriting, but "O'er the Way" did.
"O'er the Way" was probably the first real folk song I ever wrote. I wanted to write a song that sounded old, and had a great folk twist.
Now it didn't start off that way. It started off with a cool waltz-y melody and me setting the stage. But it's one of those songs I started to immerse myself into. I started to put myself in the shoes of the main character, a man riding on a horse to see his true love, who's stopped, robbed and killed by a father and son Highwaymen.
I added some great folk twists like the man's true love dying and blood streaks magically appearing on her back from the cat o'nine tails that killer her love.
Every time I sing that, Andrew cringes. It's a very sick thought--"streaks of blood with her blisters".
But the thing I love most about the song is the ending. The story unfolds and the Highwaymen find their sister (now dead) was the lover of the man they killed. Kills me every time I think about it.
The style of "O'er the Way" was part of what inspired "Buttercup's Lament.
Again, it began with a haunting melody that just wouldn't go away. So I started creating the story. Another ancient folk tale of a woman who lost her lover at sea. I wrote it over Christmas vacation of Dec 2000. And since I also got my TASCAM 4-Track recorder, it was also one of the first songs I ever recorded.
Before it was called "Buttercup's Lament", wanted to draw in the elements--wild animals, trees, puddles. They would be just as much a part of the story as the woman... a reflection of her sadness and desire to escape from her broken-hearted torment.
Okay, that's probably all a little bit too deep for most traditional folk songs, but I ran with it. I wanted to make the listener feel the sadness. To feel the elements that continue to torture. The wind blowing on her face. Wild wolves and foxes darting through the night's sky. And there beneath a tired leafless tree was a woman kneeling down and crying. The tears slowly forming a puddle that grew. All the while she begged for the heavens to bring back her love.
*sigh*
Yeah, it continues to touch me. But it wasn't till later, when I was brainstorming a name, that my ex-fiancee said it kinda reminded her of Buttercup from The Princess Bride. Sure, Buttercup's love, Wesley, was supposedly taken by the Dread Pirate Roberts. But I decided to overlook that since it was the tears that struck home. Who knows how many times before Wesley was captured that she thought his ship might've gone down in a storm.
But then that's the folk tradition. It's ever evolving. I wrote a song a long time ago that I called "Reflexology", not because it had anything to do with the healing art of reflexology, but simply because I wrote that word on the sheet of lyrics when I saw something about it on TV and wanted to research it.
I was so pleased with my recording of "Buttercup's Lament" that I released it on my CD, Soul Of A Harper. But not after, I had released it on MP3.com and it climbed into the Celtic Top 40.
Oh! And speaking of the folk tradition, the Kerrville Folk Festival starts this weekend, and will have some absolutely incredible music as usual.
Bumble bee, bumble bee, bu-bu-b-bumble bee.Obviously, no great lyrics, but hey, I was in grade school so give me a break. :)
Bumble bee, bumble bee, bu-bu-b-bumble bee.
I am, a plain old bumble bee.
I sing, just like a bumble bee.
I like, being a bumble bee.
Bumble bee, bumble bee, bu-bu-b-bumble bee.
Bumble bee, bumble bee, bu-bu-b-bumble bee.
In college, I started writing some more. I remember hooking up a guy named Andre who was also learning to be a songwriter. We started to collaborate on a song, but college kicked in. He was too busy with various illicit drugs and a bit of a flake.
After becoming an Amway distributor and realizing I wanted to be a musician, I started writing a lot more. Again, most of the songs were junk. They were of the the great Alt Rock. Pretty much nonsensical songs, like "Got No Brains... Singing", satirical as in "Got So Cock-Y My Balls Blew Off", or had a hidden meaning like "Peach Cobbler Pie". It really wasn't until I started playing the autoharp that my songwriting started to improve. Sure "Lounging in La La Land" didn't add any great credibility to my improved songwriting, but "O'er the Way" did.
"O'er the Way" was probably the first real folk song I ever wrote. I wanted to write a song that sounded old, and had a great folk twist.
Now it didn't start off that way. It started off with a cool waltz-y melody and me setting the stage. But it's one of those songs I started to immerse myself into. I started to put myself in the shoes of the main character, a man riding on a horse to see his true love, who's stopped, robbed and killed by a father and son Highwaymen.
I added some great folk twists like the man's true love dying and blood streaks magically appearing on her back from the cat o'nine tails that killer her love.
Every time I sing that, Andrew cringes. It's a very sick thought--"streaks of blood with her blisters".
But the thing I love most about the song is the ending. The story unfolds and the Highwaymen find their sister (now dead) was the lover of the man they killed. Kills me every time I think about it.
The style of "O'er the Way" was part of what inspired "Buttercup's Lament.
Again, it began with a haunting melody that just wouldn't go away. So I started creating the story. Another ancient folk tale of a woman who lost her lover at sea. I wrote it over Christmas vacation of Dec 2000. And since I also got my TASCAM 4-Track recorder, it was also one of the first songs I ever recorded.
Before it was called "Buttercup's Lament", wanted to draw in the elements--wild animals, trees, puddles. They would be just as much a part of the story as the woman... a reflection of her sadness and desire to escape from her broken-hearted torment.
Okay, that's probably all a little bit too deep for most traditional folk songs, but I ran with it. I wanted to make the listener feel the sadness. To feel the elements that continue to torture. The wind blowing on her face. Wild wolves and foxes darting through the night's sky. And there beneath a tired leafless tree was a woman kneeling down and crying. The tears slowly forming a puddle that grew. All the while she begged for the heavens to bring back her love.
*sigh*
Yeah, it continues to touch me. But it wasn't till later, when I was brainstorming a name, that my ex-fiancee said it kinda reminded her of Buttercup from The Princess Bride. Sure, Buttercup's love, Wesley, was supposedly taken by the Dread Pirate Roberts. But I decided to overlook that since it was the tears that struck home. Who knows how many times before Wesley was captured that she thought his ship might've gone down in a storm.
But then that's the folk tradition. It's ever evolving. I wrote a song a long time ago that I called "Reflexology", not because it had anything to do with the healing art of reflexology, but simply because I wrote that word on the sheet of lyrics when I saw something about it on TV and wanted to research it.
I was so pleased with my recording of "Buttercup's Lament" that I released it on my CD, Soul Of A Harper. But not after, I had released it on MP3.com and it climbed into the Celtic Top 40.
Oh! And speaking of the folk tradition, the Kerrville Folk Festival starts this weekend, and will have some absolutely incredible music as usual.
posted by Marc Gunn, Music Marketing | 9:11 AM
links to this post
