Month: January 2014

Categories
Song Vault

Me And The Devil

It’s hard to be good when when keeping such bad company
Diminished Ragtime Blame-shifting Blues
Download     mp3 demo     Chords (pdf)     Lyrics (pdf)

Ain’t nobody here ‘cept me and the devil
Nobody here except me and the devil
Nobody here ‘cept me and the devil
Hatchin’ out plots and schemes

If I get caught I’m gonna blame the devil
I get caught then I’m gonna blame the devil
When I get caught I’m gonna blame the devil
And he’s prob’ly gonna blame me

Oh me, oh my
Be good? I’ve tried
Bad fruit, bad tree
It’s hard to be good when being bad comes naturally

My woman says sometimes I speak like the devil
Pound on the pulpit and preach like the devil
Swears she’d rather switch seats with the devil
Than be married to a man like me

Oh me, oh my
Be good? I’ve tried
Bad root, bad seed
It’s hard to be good when when keeping such bad company

Gonna get drunk and blame it on the devil
Gonna blow chunks and just blame it on the devil
Show everyone my junk and claim it was the devil
Let the lawyers plead insanity
That’s how it is between the devil and me

Categories
A Blog's Life

New Songs And Beatles Tips

Boy, things are so busy round these parts I’ve hardly a minute to let y’all know what’s going on. So –

I have two new songs in the Demo Vault – Cast Aside Your Rebel Flag is a song I started working on in 1991 and finished at the end of last year. That’s 22 years in the making. I’ll let you decide if it was worth the wait. I am proud of the harmonium sound – which was created by mixing a flute sound, close miking the keyboard, blowing into something (can’t remember what) then rerecording it through hifi speakers.

Next up – just after Christmas I recorded a song and a video in a single day – for a crazy football chant about Luis Suarez. The tune for Suarez Is His Name is taken from Camptown Races by Stephen Foster, but the track also includes a snippet of the Uruguayan National Anthem and two other mystery tunes. Can you spot them?

I’m hoping to get two more old songs recorded next week. Me And The Devil and Shrove Tuesday. Then I’ll be taking part in FAWM again and I’ll be posting a songwriting tip everyday during February over at Beatles Songwriting Academy. Be sure to check em out!

Who Ya Gonna Call? Abe Lincoln!

Categories
Deep Vault Liverbard

Liverbard Sessions 0.5: Suarez Is His Name

Why can’t Roy Hodgson sleep at night?
1 minute 20 seconds of punk rock football bragging
Download     mp3 demo

Who’s scored more goals than your whole team?
Suarez, Suarez
Who’s scored more goals than your whole team?
Suarez is his name
He can score at home, he can score away
Who’s scored more goals than your whole team?
Suarez is his name

Give that man a golden boot
Suarez, Suarez
If anybody should get two
Suarez is his name
He can score all day, he scores from miles away
Give that man a golden boot
Suarez is his name

Why can’t Roy Hodgson sleep at night?
Suarez, Suarez
The nightmare ‘nine’ from Uruguay
Suarez is his name
Brazil is hot and wet, but that’s not why he sweats
Why can’t Roy Hodgson sleep at night?
Suarez is his name
Who’s scored more goals than your whole team?
Suarez is his name
Suarez!

Categories
Behind The Song Songwriting

33 Song Stories

As I gear up for FAWM with my guitar pupils, here’s a whole bunch of cool, weird or just plain interesting stories behind the writing of 33 classic songs

Categories
Song Vault

Cast Aside Your Rebel Flag

My mothers’ lips reciting verses underlined with tears
A revivalist lament
Download     mp3 demo     Chord Sheet (pdf)

Just another soldier
Dying lonely & betrayed
Clinging to a banner
My beloved’s blood has stained
The colours of a bitter heart,
My standard, borne with pride
Rallied only sorrow to my side

Cast aside your rebel flag,
Lay it down, lay it down
At the foot of Calvary’s cross,
Oh lay it down
Cast aside your rebel flag,
Lay it down, lay it down
The battle’s done, the victory won
So lay it down

I hear voices of those lost in battle
Crying ‘cross the years
My mothers’ lips reciting verses
Underlined with tears
The singing of a silent voice
Whose name I do not know
Beseeching my rebellious heart “come home”

Categories
FAWM

Minecraft And Free Daisies

My FAWMbuddy and all round songwriting Yoda Mr Gee (aka Steven Wesley Guiles) is working on a very special project – Songs In The Key Of Minecraft. Rather than just buying a copy you can help him finish the project by donating here

 

Would you like a free acoustic guitar? Making Music Magazine are giving away a Daisy Rock Wildwood Artist Acoustic-electric Guitar plus a Girls’ Guitar Method book and a signed copy of Lisa Loeb’s The Way It Really Is music book.

The guitar is perfect for anyone with a smaller frame but I have no idea what ‘girl’s guitar method’ is. Guess you’ll have to enter the contest here and find out!

You can also get a free copy of the magazine here

Categories
Quotes Songwriting

Tchaikovsky On Working For Inspiration

The only music capable of moving and touching us is that which flows from the depths of a composer’s soul when he is stirred by inspiration. There is no doubt that even the greatest musical geniuses have sometimes worked without inspiration. This guest [i.e. inspiration] does not always respond to the first invitation. We must always work, and a self-respecting artist must not fold his hands on the pretext that he is not in the mood. If we wait for the mood, without endeavouring to meet it half-way, we easily become indolent and apathetic. We must be patient, and believe that inspiration will come to those who can master their disinclination.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

(read the full quote on Brain Pickings)

Categories
Music Biz 2.0 Quotes

Signing The Great To Attract The Successful

Derek Sivers has an interesting insight into Elektra records founder Jac Holzman. After recounting a story where Jac was able to get permission from the Beatles to license something because he signed an artist they respected…

“[He] told me that it was actually a long-term strategy of Elektra. That sometimes he’d release records by amazing artists, knowing they’d probably lose money, because not only was it the right thing to do, but other successful artists would later choose to sign with Elektra instead of another label, because he had proven that Elektra would support their artistic exploration”.

If only more labels would take this bigger picture view…

Read Derek’s article

Categories
Humour Ruining Songs With Science Songwriting

Ruining Songs With Science #1 – I Knew You Were Trouble (Taylor Swift)

Now I heard you moved on from whispers on the street
A new notch in your belt is all I’ll ever be

In cheap western novels and old hollywood films, gunfighters gouged a mark into the handle of their guns for every man they killed. That inspired the (equally fictional) poetic image of a lover carving a notch into their bedpost for every woman they’d (ahem) ‘romantically conquered’. So I guess what Taylor means to say is

Now I heard you moved on from whispers on the street
A new notch in your bedpost
But of course I mean that figurative-ly!

Making another notch in your belt, simply means your belt is too big. Yeah! The joke is on you Taylor! Unless that’s what you meant?

Now I heard you moved on from whispers on the street
A new notch in your belt is all I’ll ever be
You’ve lost weight, you’ve lost weight,
And it’s all because of me
Yay yay! Go me!

To be fair Taylor isn’t the first ‘country’ star to mangle the expression, it even turned up in the film Wedding Crashers. But “Vince Vaughn did it as well” is no defence for anything. These TSwift words on the other hand make perfect sense…