However, as I’ve been improving in the craft, I’ve watched the noble art of the craft plummet into the depths of despair.  Perhaps I’m being a bit dramatic here, but often, when I’m reading or hearing many of today’s lyrics, I find myself groaning over the cheesiness of the content and the hollow and paltry result of the lack of craft.

OK, you say, give it to us, Pete.  Do your thing.

So glad you asked…

Rhyming
I come from the world of the theater where rhymes had to rhyme (“shoe” does not rhyme with “blues” nor does “time” rhyme with “fine”) and if your rhymes ‘cheated’, you would be severely reprimanded by the critics.  I studied under the tutelage of Alan Lerner, one of our masters, (Brigadoon, My Fair Lady, Camelot) and he wrote perfect lyrics that rhymed, scanned to perfection and are still today treasures of the American Songbook (If Ever I Would Leave You, The Heather On The Hill, I’ve Grown Accustomed To Her Face, and on and on).  He would work, not hours, but weeks on one song lyric and, when presented, it would be a flawless piece of masterwork.

He turned me on to the one and only professional’s rhyming dictionary – the only one I’ve ever used and still highly recommend – The Clement Wood Rhyming Dictionary.  None others come close.  I keep one in each room of my apartment and hardly ever leave home without it.  With it, the world of rhymes is literally at your fingertips and every possibility is represented within its pages.  Short of the Bible, it’s my favorite book.

Rap music today has simply slaughtered the craft of rhyming.  I am in no way against Rap music.  It is a completely legitimate style of music representing the urban culture of today, but in it, most rappers rhyme with no regard to craft using any word in the vicinity of the vowel sound.  For instance not only can ‘street’ rhyme with ‘beep’, but it can also rhyme with ‘ease’ or even with ‘help’ because ‘help’ has an ‘e’ in it.

To my ear that’s a point off – any of those kind of false rhymes.  Ultimately they disappoint the listener’s ear and prove unsatisfactory.  The trouble is that we now have a couple of generations so used to bad or cheated rhymes that they don’t even know what to listen for in the first place.  And so it strikes me that the powerful tonality of rhyming is in jeopardy of being lost for generations.  The result of this ignorance of style is that bad rhyming has now spread into pop music and even the theater where it is unfortunately now accepted and used often without criticism.

Call me ancient and stuffy, but it’s said that the decline of a civilization is often first seen in the decline of its language.  Look around you, America, it’s like happnin’, you like know what I mean?

I’m a total hard-ass with my students when it comes to perfect rhyming.  Cheat once and you get a point off.  Get 5 points off and you have a mediocre song.  Get 10 points off and you better start over and get to work.

Scanning and Jamming
I spoke to a ‘professional’ lyricist the other day and mentioned that in her second verse her lyrics did not scan.  She said back to me, “What’s scan?”  I stood dumbfounded.  This is like saying to a musician, “ You’ve got a mistake in the third measure” and them saying back to you, “What’s a measure?”

The most powerful tool in popular music is repetition.  It’s how we learn a song and it’s why good songs are ‘sticky’ or considered to be memorable melodies – because they scan – each time you hear the hook it’s the same notes in the same rhythms scanning (repeating) perfectly.  Each time you hear the verse, the melody is exactly the same even though the words are different. Change a word or jam two words into the line where there should only be one, jam two or three syllables in where there should only be one and you lose the scan, you lose the repetition of the melody and confuse the ear of the listener.

So much of the music I hear today is ruined by lazy lyricists jamming words into melodies and fouling up the repetitions so that the listener’s ear is confused and the otherwise good melodies are ruined.  In perfect scanning the repeated melodies are perfectly repeated even though the words change keeping the integrity of the music.  Even the accents of the words – 1^st syllable/2^nd syllable, etc are honored in the repetition.  So much of what I hear today is junked up by amateur approaches where scanning is ignored and melodies are slaughtered.

On top of that riffing and licks are also confusing the listener’s ears all in the name of two generations of vocalists trying to be as brilliant as Mariah Carey.  I like Mariah Carey, but she singlehandedly destroyed melody for a couple of generations as vocal wannabe copiers trying to sing like her and forcing a twist and turn onto every note – a severe defect that I call being “lick happy” — turned melodies into a series of riffs.  Oh, get me my soapbox.  I’m feelin’ a rant comin’ on!

Enough.  I hope you get the point.  Bottom line: Proper scanning is crucial to repetition.  Repetition is crucial to commercial music.  Without each, music is just not memorable and becomes lost in the wash of mediocrity taking over our industry.

Ira Gershwin, Oscar Hammerstein, Alan Lerner, Lennon & McCartney, Billy Joel, Michael Jackson, Alan & Marilyn Bergman, Lorenz Hart, Irving Berlin, Johnny Mercer, Cole Porter – all followed the great traditions of true rhyming and perfect scanning.  It’s why their songs are still sung, played and remembered today.  These are the masters.  Don’t let their discoveries and work slide away in the dissolving of our language into mediocrity.

John Lennon's Original - "Imagine"

Disneyfied Retreads
And then there’s the content…  How many more “I want you, I need you, I love you” songs must we wade through?  Don’t we, as a people, have anything better to think and sing about?  When’s the last time you heard a great song with a new fresh lyric that wasn’t a retread of teenage discovery?  Certainly love is a most powerful subject to write about, but can’t we yet find something new and interesting to write about that has a new twist, a new insight?

Every time a new animated film comes out I groan at the feeble attempts of the omnipresent love song in the score.  They all sound as if they were written by a room full of people trying to write a hit instead of a one talented pro coming up with an original idea.

R&B music, long the bastion of solid lyrical writing especially in the Motown era, has now sunk to pandering the teenage mind consumed with sexual encounter.  I listen to some of these blatant sexual references and wonder if any of the writers of today ever listened to “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes” or “Baby It’s Cold Outside” or “My Funny Valentine” or even “I’ve Got You Under My Skin”.  Here were songs that smoldered in their sensuality without clobbering you over the head with blatancy.

Art evokes.  Commercialism steamrolls.  I’d rather a song tickle my fancy than slap my face.  I prefer discovering a rich dramatic moment rather than being deafened by the obvious.  Give me a song that stimulates my brain and softens my heart and I’ll carry that song with me in the back of my mind for the rest of my life.  After all, isn’t that why we write ‘em?

Summary
Every age has its mediocrity.  “Flat-Foot Floosey With A Floy Floy” had its moment in the sun in the 30s but not many of us go around singing it today.  But decades are not remembered for their mediocrity.  They are remembered for their ground-breaking flashes of brilliance.  What will this music generation sing to their kids?  “I Want Your Sex”?

My generation sings John Lennon’s “Imagine” and Paul Simon’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water”, Seals and Croft’s “Summer Breeze” and Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues” and The Beatles’ “Let It Be”.  I could go on… and I will – Stevie Wonder’s “I Wish” and Earth, Wind and Fire’s “September”, Billy Joel’s…

Even More Inspiration

• Wonderful
• Even Now
• Gabriel, Come Blow Your Horn
• My Body
• You Must Remember This!
• Love Is The Reason For Living

Previous to this month I had only ever written one Christmas song – a song recorded by the Jenny Burton Experience called Christmas In My Soul.  They say, in the music business, that the month of June is the month to write and begin one’s Christmas album, the preparation of such to be around 5-6 months.  Who can write Christmas songs in June?  What a silly notion.

This year the Missus has come up short in her search for the perfect Christmas song for her Christmas Day performance in church.  She had decided to employ a terrific Boston harpist and together with her organist, Bryan Ashley, keep it small and delicate in accordance with the spiritual implications of the morning.  Last year she used a brass quintet plus the church four manual pipe organ and blew the roof off, so this year she wanted to do something completely different.

But no song came to mind to fit the criteria.

While watching her go through her turmoil, I happened to mention one day several weeks ago that perhaps I could write one for her.  This was said in a fit of compassion for her plight while I was in the middle of the mad dash of the final throes of my own CD, Goin’ Home.

Seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, she grabbed at the offer and signed me up.  At first I thought, “Oh no, what have I gotten myself into?”  Where would I ever find the time to do this?

Then she came up with the notion that not only should I write it and arrange it for harp and keyboard, but that we should also record it and sell it for Christmas.  Then she came up with the idea that we should also do the sheet music for it and sell that too and let others use it in their churches for their Christmas services as well.  Then she came up with the idea that as long as we were going to do all that, she may as well use the song for her musical Christmas Presence lecture that she does around the country with lecturer, Chet Manchester.  This only moved the deadline for all this up by about 2 ½ weeks!  “Egads,” thought I.  “What have I done?”

So I did it.  In the next 3 days Julia will record the lead vocal to the orchestrated track, Craig Wagner, the designer, will design all the packaging, I’ll mix the song, the WFM staff will manufacture about a hundred singles to start with and by Thursday we’ll be selling this song that will receive it’s first performance in St. Louis on this coming Sunday.  Whew!

Will we make it?  With God’s help, we shall.

It’s a new world.  Things like this can be accomplished in a matter of weeks, a matter of days now.  The power of computers – the power of Mind.

The writing was fun and accomplished in a matter of 48 hours.  Once that was done, I knew we’d be OK.  The rest was just a matter of getting’ it done.

Julia directed me to the Bible for my text and chose the tried and true – think Handel.

“And his name shall be called Wonderful,
Counsellor,
The Mighty God,
The Everlasting Father,
The Prince of Peace
Yes his name shall be called Wonderful”

But I also wanted to shed some new light on the subject – not just rehash George Fredric.  Julia suggested that I combine the Bible text with some of the text of Mary Baker Eddy and her thoughts on the life of Jesus.  Julia and her big ideas!  Using text (non-lyrics) always makes good songwriting very difficult in that text is not metered and has a way of not particularly sounding very musical much less poetic.  On top of that the text of Mary Baker Eddy cannot be changed by even the alteration of a comma.

However the text she gave me was poetic to a certain extent so I thought I’d give it a go.  I had a great deal more content than I needed to begin with.  Julia can have her long-winded moments, so I had to do some clever editing.  Always easier to cut than to add.  While fooling around with several lyrical directions the line struck me like a lightening bolt — “And his name shall be called Wonderful,”

“What a great idea,” thought I.  Call the song Wonderful!

And so I did.

I was on my way…

Here is the finished lyric.  In another magical musical week you’ll be able to hear, sing, play, perform, buy and listen to the whole thing through the wonderful world of MIDI, LOGIC, the INTERNET and God’s gift of inspiration.

Hot off the presses!

Wonderful

Text by Mary Baker Eddy
Lyrics adapted from the Book of John
Music by Peter Link

The wakeful shepherd beholds
The first faint morning beams,
Ere cometh the full radiance
Of a risen day.

So shone the pale star
To the prophet-shepherds;
Yet it traversed the night, and came
Where, in cradled obscurity, lay
The Bethlehem babe,
And his name shall be called Wonderful,
Wonderful

The people that walked in darkness
Have seen a very great light:
For unto us a child is born,
And a son is given:
And the government shall be upon his shoulder:

And his name shall be called Wonderful,
Counsellor,
The Mighty God,
The Everlasting Father,
The Prince of Peace
Yes his name shall be called Wonderful

Now the Son of man is glorified,
Yes and God is glorified in him.
Verily, he says unto you,
“He that believeth on me,
The works that I do shall he do also;
And greater works than these shall he do;

If ye love me, keep my commandments.
And I will pray the Father,
And he shall give you another Comforter”

The prophet of today
Beholds in the mental horizon
The signs of these times,
The reappearance of the Christianity
Which heals the sick
And destroys error,
And no other sign shall be given.

When a new spiritual idea is borne to earth,
The prophetic Scripture of Isaiah is renewedly fulfilled:
Saying “Unto us a child is born, . . .”
“Unto us a child is born, . . .”

And his name shall be called Wonderful.”
Counsellor,
The Mighty God,
The Everlasting Father,
The Prince of Peace
Yes his name shall be called Wonderful
Wonderful
Yes he is wonderful
Wonderful!

Even More Inspiration

• Even Now
• Love Is The Reason For Living
• The Decline of Lyrical Craftsmanship – Part 1
• Nothing
• You Must Remember This!
• My Body

My body lies over the ocean
My body lies over the sea
My body lies over the ocean
So bring back my body to me

I warned you that they were stupid.

Now today I’m writing lyrics on the same subject – hopefully with a little more content.  Here’s one drawn from a previous blog post on Sparks From The Fire.  The content, as explained in the post, has been capturing my imagination for months now and it finally all poured out in song form this past two weeks.

Both song and orchestration are now finished and will be presented in Julia Wade’s forthcoming CD, Silk Road, due to be released in early 2012.

Not her usual fare?  Perhaps, but watch for some fascinating new directions from this most special vocalist as she branches out and develops this new Classical/Crossover genre.

This song will be a guaranteed eye and ear opener.  Enjoy!

My Body
Music and Lyrics by Peter Link

I am not my body
My body is not me
I mean to live beyond it
In some capacity

I believe I’ve lived before it
Though memory fails
I cannot ignore it
Everything else
Pales in comparison
This wondrous invention
Of flesh and bone technology
Only belongs to me

Ladies choir

Temporarily

I know not where it came from
I know not how it works
I took no part in its conception
Its genius or its quirks
It carries on in sleep
Requiring little of me
It is mine to keep
And cost me nothing

Yes it is the house of my consciousness
For nearly a hundred years
It manufactures babies
And laughter and tears

It’s a miracle of invention
In its breath
In its sight
In its tubes
In its muscle
In its appetite

In its pleasure
In its pain
In its taste
And its touch
In its foot
In its hand
In its amazing ability
To discern Tchaikovski
From Sargeant Pepper’s Lonely
Hearts Club Band

I am not my body
My body is not me
But me and my body
We basically agree
To live, for a time,
On this spec in space
This embrace of mind and matter
This interface

Through this vast universe of illusion
And conjecture we go
For reasons
That I’ll probably never know

Well we might as well make the best of it.

So let’s dance!
Yeah let us dance
We got to dance now
Work yo’ body
Work yo’ body
Work yo’ body
Let us dance

I am not my body
No my body is not me
But I’m amazed
By both its function
Oh and yes
Its mystery

But I go about my business
Mostly unawares
I sit in thought
I climb the stairs
So little do I think ahead
And tell it what to do
It seems to work just fine

Ladies choir

From its matter-mind

Every blink
Every step
Every breath
Every heartbeat
Every quick reaction
Every wild attraction

I am not my body
No my body is not me
It bears no real resemblance
To my true being

But hey, better make the best of it!

And let’s dance!!!

 Tag

Yeah let us dance
We got to dance now
Work yo’ body
Work yo’ body
Work yo’ body
Let us dance

Even More Inspiration

• Even Now
• Wonderful
• Kickstarter.com Campaign – I
• Light At The End Of The Tunnel
• The Decline of Lyrical Craftsmanship – Part 1
• Spiritual Scientist

Last week in her church service (which gets broadcast around the world on the Internet) the Missus performed a new song fresh off the presses.  It has received tremendous feedback, the kind of response that makes all the blood, sweat and tears of this industry totally worth all the effort.  I’ll have to admit that we were not prepared for this response.  Who knew that this national occurrence would come?

Julia Wade (The Missus) chose the song to fit the sermon of that particular Sunday over a month ago, but it turned out to be the right panacea for the moment.  The trouble is, it is a new song that she has been working on for her new forthcoming CD, Silk Road, due to be released this coming Christmas season.  We have no single completed; we have no sheet music to sell – yet.

So we’re going to rush this one out to you ahead of its time.  We’ll release it as a single and its sheet music in the next couple of weeks.  I guess it’s just a song that demanded its own time – not on my schedule or Julia’s, but on its own schedule.   Like a baby who comes early – once it’s born, you simply have to stop all else and deal with it no matter what.

Here are only a few of the comments that we’ve received:

“We had the great good fortune to hear you perform “Even Now” in the Mother Church last Sunday.  We were traveling and just happened to be there in Boston. We both wept, it was SO gorgeous… even my husband cried — who is a Methodist!

Is there a recording of that song available?  My husband is an accomplished guitarist and he loved the guitar music so much too. Of course your singing was a gift!

Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful singing with all of us.  We will never forget how special that was!” –Carolyn

“Thank you Julia and Peter for your loving support.  That new solo is so right for what we’re going through… It was as though you were singing to us!

Thank you.  And thank you, Peter.  Deepfelt message.

And we’ve already heard from family in South Africa who listened and loved the Internet relay.

Your support means so much to us.” -Love, K.

In the meantime, here’s the lyric to tide you over…

Even Now
Music and Lyrics by Peter Link

Even now
The sun will rise
The morning come
The day begin
Even now
When all seems lost
And darkness falls over all
Even now
God’s watching over you
Here in the dawn’s first light

At every turn
In every need
With every breath you take

Even now
With cross to bear
He’s always there
In simple truth
Even now
With heavy heart
His love will lighten your way
Even now
He soothes the salted wound
And eases your troubled mind

At every turn
In every need
With every breath you take

God loves you
Hallelujah
God frees you
Hallelujah

Even now
With broken dreams
And weary soul
He’ll carry you
Even now
When all has failed
And mountains are in your way
Even now
He stands a sentinel
The shepherd of all you do

Your every turn
Your every prayer
And every move you make

Your every turn
Your every need
And every breath you take

God loves you
Remember these words that I sing
God loves you
God frees you
Hallelujah

Even More Inspiration

• Wonderful
• You Must Remember This!
• Love Is The Reason For Living
• My Body
• Nothing
• Spiritual Scientist

Unfortunately we humans have not been built with a USB port located just behind our left ears.  Instead we have to put up with a slower form of data transference called “teaching”.

As we gain knowledge and acquire skills, we owe it to the human race to pass that knowledge on to others.  “A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.  ~Henry Brooks Adams

I’ve always loved to teach.  I’m deeply indebted to the great teachers in my own life – most of which were tough, sometimes scary and yet ultimately loving deep wells of vital information.  They passed that food of life on to me in a variety of ways and, thinking back on them, I realize now that each of them had that same central quality – they too loved to teach.

And so, we here at Watchfire Music recognize this necessity to communicate knowledge and have decided to create within the company a center for data transference – the Watchfire Music Learning Lab, a school of sorts, for students of all ages, where specialized professional music classes of a most interesting variety will be taught.

We will open this lab to beginners, intermediates and even have a series of master classes all taught by top professionals who have this same desire to pass on their acquired knowledge to others.

We’re excited about the diversity of subjects that will be presented starting in early March of 2011.

Again, we’re presenting here specialized classes – not the usual stuff like singing and acting, but courses that are possibly more specific and particularize skills to the individual.  We feel that here in New York City where there is such a huge talent base, such specialization is very much needed.

And so we will offer the following classes for Beginners and Intermediates:

Songwriting 101 & 201

Learn to write a hit song, a story song, song form, chord progressions, melody expression, songs for the theater,

Lyrics 101 & 201

Learn proper rhyming, scanning, song form, conceptualization, title search, color words, story telling, all the skills of the masters.

Logic Studio Pro 9.1.2

This is the world’s #1 software program for computer based music recording.

Midi Rhythm Section Arranging 101 & 201

This is often the most difficult skill to master for music arrangers and  orchestrators.

Vocal Performance 101 & 201

Not just ‘how to sing’, but rather, ‘how to act the song’ – Meisner Technique.

Music Recording Production 101 & 201

Essentially, ‘how to produce your own music in your own home studio’ – a skill more necessary than ever in this evolving world of home studio recordings.

Acoustic Guitar 101 & 201

Still the preferred method of learning to play both acoustic and electric guitar.

Studio Background singing 101 & 201

Learn number system of instant sight-reading, ear training, the art of blending, professional techniques that make this such a specialized skill.

The WFM Learning Lab will also offer Master Classes in the following subjects:

Composition

Lyrics – The Art

Logic Studio Pro 9.1.2

Midi Orchestration

Act Development

Music Production

Most of these classes will be private classes – one on one with the teacher, but a few may evolve into group study though kept small and personal.

For more information on the WFM Learning Lab presented only in New York City, stay tuned or watch the Home page of watchfiremusic.com for further developments, pricing, contact info and schedules.

Even More Inspiration

• It’s A Small World And Gettin’ Smaller n’ Smaller
• WFM Learning Lab – Grand Opening!
• Even Now
• The Decline of Lyrical Craftsmanship – Part 1
• Gabriel, Come Blow Your Horn
• Wonderful

Sonically, we’re at an all-time high.  The ability to capture the actual sound of the instruments in perfect, pristine quality has never been better.  Those who still grumble about the “coldness” of digital just haven’t been really listening lately.  The advancement of processing power and ram in computers has finally caught up and now the warmth of analog is back.

But much of the rest of the creative part of our industry is mired in mediocrity.  I blame this on humanity and our penchant to always try to attain perfection the easy way.   Nothing wrong with that except when it doesn’t work.

I just wrote a 7-part blog post (The IRA Awards) on great lyrics just to remind us of what could be, of the greatness of craft, of the delight of a well-lyricised song.  I write “remind us” because I think we’re losing track of a great tradition – the well written lyric.

Popular songs today are slaughtering the time-honored tradition of rhyme – “Blanch” does not rhyme with “France”, “father” does not rhyme with “mother” and “pets” does not rhyme with “let”.  In the good old days of craftsmanship the rhymes were perfect rhymes.  “Joy” with “boy”, “sorrow with “tomorrow” and “friend” with “end”, not “friend” with “again”.  But today, and the worst offender is rap, although the decimation of rhyme did not start there, today the state of rhyme in lyrics is at an all time low.

Also what’s with songs today that are so obtuse that we have no earthly idea what the songwriter is talking about?  I’ve heard young songwriters actually say that they don’t want their fans to really understand them – they want to maintain their mystery.  Ha!  This is really just an admission that as a lyricist, they haven’t a clue.  They have no idea how to tell a story, they know not the difference between a lyric and a poem, they have no craft.  Harsh words, perhaps, but unfortunately the state of the art.

OK, it’s a lot less expensive to make music these days – a lot less expensive to make cheesy music.  You can now actually buy music construction kits where some musician has made some tracks and then broken them down so that you can put them back together again.  Some people call this creativity.  It has perhaps a touch of creativity in it and it is perhaps educational, but really, isn’t it akin to painting by numbers?  Fill in the blanks created by someone else.  Complete the puzzle and call it creation.  Ha!  (he scoffs) Some of this reconstruction music actually makes it to the top of the charts!

I blame this on the youth that want the easy way to make music.  Play an instrument without having to waste time practicing.  Write music without ever really studying music.  Record music without ever really studying the art of audio engineering.  There is even now an accepted style of music called Garage – ie, sounds like you made it out in your dad’s garage… and boy does it ever!

Kids love it!  (Some kids love it.)  Oh look what Billy and Bobby down the street created last night!  Why they sound just like the Rolling Stones!  Somehow I doubt it…

I also blame the adults and my contemporaries who, in the name of money, have created product to facilitate the ease of making music, have gone overboard to sell this product to an undiscerning youth bent for stardom, and have, in fact, created music that the inexperienced can simply reconstruct and call their own, reveling in their brilliant creativity.  Egads!  What ego!  All in the name of their 15 minutes of fame!

OK, this is turning into a rant, but I’m passionate about this because I see it ruining the art of music making – an art that I’ve spent my life studying.  Today, popular music, to a large extent has fallen to its knees, overwhelmed by its lack of creativity.  Great songs are seldom written any more.  There are still great records out there, but how many great songs did you actually hear at the top of the charts in 2009?  For the life of me, I can’t remember one.  Can you?  If you can, please send it to me.  I’m interested.

The better the musician, the better the music.  The better the education, the better the composer.  I’m not talking about college education here; I’m talking about years of experience learning your craft.  I’m talking about studying the music that went on before you.  There are many young musicians out there today that don’t even know the history of Rock n’ Roll much less the history of Jazz or Swing or Classical, for that matter.  What physicist would not study the works of Planck, Bohrs and Einstein?  How could you call yourself a physicist and not know of these giants’ works?  How can you call yourself a composer and not know the work of Duke Ellington or Igor Stravinsky or Pete Townsend, for that matter?

It was Stravinsky who said that he could not have changed the face of music the way he did without first knowing all of classical music that went on before him.  In order to break the traditions, you have to know the traditions.  Otherwise, you’re just throwing feathers to the wind.

Lyricists, learn your craft.  Study the masters.  Musicians, learn your instruments.  Study the masters.  Study music, for God’s sake!  Composers, learn music.  Just because you can play 3 chords on a guitar doesn’t make you a composer.  That takes years of study and deep consideration of the power and depth of music.  Again, study the masters.  Singers, study!  Go to a voice teacher and learn your instrument.  Learn how to control your vibrato so that you can sing a straight tone or a wide vibrato or a narrow one or even a straight tone emerging into a vibrato.  Learn pitch, again, for God’s sake.  Sing on pitch.

We’ve now given you a machine that corrects your pitch as you sing.  A sad state of affairs, but make no bones about it, while it’s working hard to digitally manipulate the sonic zeros and ones, it is, in fact, leaving your soul behind in the dust.  The “Cher effect” is laughed at today because though it does put the singer on pitch, it steals ones humanity and robotizes the performance.  Wouldn’t it simply be better to first learn to sing?

OK, enough.  This is supposed to be an inspirational blog…

But, I guess, sometimes in order to inspire, one must first identify the problem.  At this time in history, the state of the art in the music business is in a state.

Even More Inspiration

• The Decline of Lyrical Craftsmanship – Part 1
• Wonderful
• Even Now
• Watchfire Music Learning Lab
• 1/1/11
• Through An Open Door

Irving Berlin - Playing the black keyes

Great songs have long been a deep and rich part of the American culture and consequently the world culture as well.  I can safely say that it would be any composer/lyricist’s dream to someday write a classic – a song that is so universal and so iconic that it becomes a part of the fabric of history and lives beyond its time.

This century’s, no make it this millennium’s Ira Award for Best Lyricist of classic songs goes to Irving Berlin.  Of course he was also the composer of these songs as well.

The story goes that Mr. Berlin, who had small hands wrote most of his songs in the key of F# because he preferred to play on the black keys of the piano where the stretch was not so large for his fingers.  Later in life, when he could afford it, he had Steinway make him a special upright piano with a large crank on the side that when turned, tightened the strings and thus changed the sounding key of his F# fingerings – sort of a guitar capo for the piano.

This man had his fingers not only on the piano but also on the pulse of America like no other lyricist since.  Among the many great classic songs he wrote were “Alexander’s Ragtime Band”, “Easter Parade”, “White Christmas”, “There’s No Business Like Show Business”, “God Bless America”, “A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody,” “Always”,  “Puttin’ on the Ritz”, and “What’ll I Do”.

He was a lyricist of great simplicity, humor, conviction and depth.  He spoke to the common man; he spoke to kings and queens, and he spoke to future generations of people that he knew nothing about.  He spoke to the heart of human beings and captured time in a bottle.  He could write silly stuff one day and then turn around and tear your heart out the next.

Don’t ask me just how it happened,

I wish I knew.

I can’t believe that it’s happened,

And still it’s true.

I got lost in his arms, and I had to stay.

It was dark in his arms, and I lost my way.

From the dark came a voice, and it seemed to say,

“There you go, there you go.”

How I felt, as I fell, I just can’t recall.

But his arms held me fast and it broke the fall.

And I said to my heart as it foolishly

Kept jumping all around.

I got lost

But look what I found.

Was there ever a love song so succinct, so simple and yet so jaw-droppingly breathtaking?  It took him just 14 lines to nail down the impact of love for all time.

And then in this next offering, he writes the most iconic song about the entertainment industry ever written.  Will this song ever fade from the human consciousness?  Probably never.

There’s no business like show business like no business I know

Everything about it is appealing, everything that traffic will allow

Nowhere could you get that happy feeling

When you are stealing that extra bow

There’s no people like show people, they smile when they are low

Even with a turkey that you know will fold,

You may be stranded out in the cold

Still you wouldn’t change it for a sack of gold, let’s go on with the show

The butcher, the baker, the grocer, the clerk

Are secretly unhappy men because

The butcher, the baker, the grocer, the clerk

Get paid for what they do but no applause.

They’d gladly bid their dreary jobs goodbye

For anything theatrical and why?

There’s no business like show business and I tell you it’s so

Traveling through the country is so thrilling,

Standing out in front on opening nights

Smiling as you watch the theater filling,

And there’s your billing out there in lights

There’s no people like show people, they smile when they are low

Angels come from everywhere with lots of jack,

And when you lose it, there’s no attack

Where could you get money that you don’t give back?

Let’s go on with the show

There’s no business like show business like no business I know

You get word before the show has started

That your favorite uncle died at dawn

Top of that, your pa and ma have parted,

You’re broken-hearted, but you go on

There’s no people like show people, they smile when they are low

Yesterday they told you you would not go far,

That night you open and there you are

Next day on your dressing room they’ve hung a star,

Let’s go on with the show!!

Can’t ya’ just hear Ethyl Merman’s vibrato yet ringing through the theater?  I live 2 blocks from the Broadway theater district in NYC.  If I lean my head out the window, I can hear her still, echoing through the canyons of this great city.

What do we do at Easter?  Walk Fifth Avenue and sing, “In your Easter bonnet, with all the frills upon it…”  And a Christmas, what do we hope for?  Only the most iconic and best selling Christmas song of all time – “White Christmas”.  Sing it, Bing.

And what got reinstalled into every baseball game after 9/11 all across this land?  The singing of Berlin’s “God Bless America”, the icon of American patriotism.  Sing it, Kate!

I can’t let you get away tonight without my favorite, again, oh so simple, but wrenchingly touching love song.  Here’s another Irving Berlin gem that lives in our hearts and goes to the root of the sadness of love gone wrong.

Gone is the romance that was so divine.

‘Tis broken and cannot be mended.

You must go your way,

And I must go mine.

But now that our love dreams have ended…

What’ll I do

When you are far away

And I am blue

What’ll I do?

What’ll I do?

When I am wond’ring who

Is kissing you

What’ll I do?

What’ll I do with just a photograph

To tell my troubles to?

When I’m alone

With only dreams of you

That won’t come true

What’ll I do?

Even More Inspiration

• Even Now
• Kickstarter.com Campaign – I
• Gabriel, Come Blow Your Horn
• My Body
• Light At The End Of The Tunnel
• WFM Listening Room – Series II Finale

Joni Mitchell-Self Portrait

If you’ve already read Part 1, then welcome back!  Tonight let’s start with Joni.  In Part 1 I opened with the expression “A poem doth not a lyric make”.  Joni Mitchell, in my book, comes the closest to writing poetry that works as lyrics.  It is her genius to do so.  Even though she can make it work sometimes, I still wouldn’t try it if I were you.  Joni Mitchells only come along once in a lifetime.

Joni writes a lot like Paul Simon – she paints an impressionistic picture.  She is a poet at work on a lyrical canvas.  She sometimes tells a story, but that story often just has splotches of through line and she leaves it up to the listener to fill in the blanks.  She is also, you may already know, an accomplished painter whose work often graces her album covers.

Here’s one of my favorite Joni’s.

Just before our love got lost you said

I am as constant as a northern star

And I said, constantly in the darkness

Where’s that at?

If you want me I’ll be in the bar

On the back of a carton coaster

In the blue TV screen light

I drew a map of Canada

Oh Canada

With your face sketched on it twice

Oh you’re in my blood like holy wine

You taste so bitter and so sweet

Oh I could drink a case of you darling

And I would still be on my feet

Oh I would still be on my feet

Oh I am a lonely painter

I live in a box of paints

I’m frightened by the devil

And I’m drawn to those ones that ain’t afraid

I remember that time that you told me, you said

Love is touching souls

Surely you touched mine

Cause part of you pours out of me

In these lines from time to time

Oh you’re in my blood like holy wine

You taste so bitter and so sweet

Oh I could drink a case of you darling

Still I’d be on my feet

I would still be on my feet

I met a woman

She had a mouth like yours

She knew your life

She knew your devils and your deeds

And she said

Go to him, stay with him if you can

But be prepared to bleed

Oh but you are in my blood you’re my holy wine

You’re so bitter, bitter and so sweet

Oh I could drink a case of you darling

Still I’d be on my feet

I would still be on my feet

When you get done reading or hearing this lyric, you’ve only gotten sketches, but you really have an insight into their relationship and the analogy used is just terrific.

I grew up writing theater lyrics.  They have to be more straightforward, less obtuse, because, especially in today’s musicals, the lyrics must advance the plot.  That’s a lot to require in a medium where most people pay little attention to the lyrics being absorbed by the music, but the surroundings of the theater, the stage, the costumes, the characters, the plot itself make the audience focus more on the lyrics.

Oscar Hammerstein pretty much invented this tradition with the advent of the ground breaking “Oklahoma” (No one who has ever seen this musical will ever have trouble spelling this word).  After “Oklahoma” the songs pretty much always had to forward the plot.  Previous to that, songs turned up most often as nightclub routines that had nothing to do with anything except pure entertainment.

Pop music is a whole different story.  In the 50’s when rock was born, lyrics went from great sophistication to great simplicity.  “Da doo run run” and “Purple People Eater” tickled the sensibilities of millions, but I couldn’t say that the 50s or the 60s were exactly a high watermark in the craft and art of lyric writing.

Then the Beatles came along and smashed all the traditions and turned the musical world, and the rest of the world for that matter, upside down.

Lennon and McCartney not only could write with beautiful, cogent and intelligent simplicity (think “Yesterday”), but they could also take you far beyond Joni and Paul in the art of impressionism.

In terms of simplicity, here’s a beauty from John:

Imagine there’s no Heaven

It’s easy if you try

No hell below us

Above us only sky

Imagine all the people

Living for today

Imagine there’s no countries

It isn’t hard to do

Nothing to kill or die for

And no religion too

Imagine all the people

Living life in peace

You may say that I’m a dreamer

But I’m not the only one

I hope someday you’ll join us

And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions

I wonder if you can

No need for greed or hunger

A brotherhood of man

Imagine all the people

Sharing all the world

You may say that I’m a dreamer

But I’m not the only one

I hope someday you’ll join us

And the world will live as one

Lennon and McCartney could also write with a kind of off the wall sense of humor.  It was Stephen Sondheim who said that one of the hardest things to do in the theater was to write a song that got laughs.  Then he went out and proved himself wrong with “Gee, Officer Krupke” and “Comedy Tonight”.

Lennon and McCartney tickled our funny bones with songs like “Octopus’s Garden”, “When I’m Sixty-four”, and even the following great straight rocker that gives a tongue in cheek nod in the middle to the great Brian Wilson’s “I Wish They All Could Be California Girls” and also squeezes in a tip o’ the hat to Ray Charles.  I may not have a boffo laugh from this song, but I can’t hear it without breaking out into a big grin.

Flew in from Miami Beach BOAC

Didn’t get to bed last night

On the way the paper bag was on my knee

Man I had a dreadful flight

I’m back in the U.S.S.R.

You don’t know how lucky you are boy

Back in the U.S.S.R.

Been away so long I hardly knew the place

Gee it’s good to be back home

Leave it till tomorrow to unpack my case

Honey disconnect the phone

I’m back in the U.S.S.R.

You don’t know how lucky you are boy

Back in the U.S.S.R.

Well the Ukraine girls really knock me out

They leave the West behind

And Moscow girls make me sing and shout

That Georgia’s always on my mind.

I’m back in the U.S.S.R.

You don’t know how lucky you are boys

Back in the U.S.S.R.

Show me round your snow peaked mountains way down south

Take me to your daddy’s farm

Let me hear your balalaika’s ringing out

Come and keep your comrade warm.

I’m back in the U.S.S.R.

You don’t know how lucky you are boys

Back in the U.S.S.R.

And then, of course, in the impressionistic tradition of Joni and Paul, there’s Lucy.  For two decades my generation argued about what this song was about, but when you were on what they were on, you didn’t care.  The song is an icon of its time.

Picture yourself in a boat on a river,

With tangerine trees and marmalade skies

Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly,

A girl with kaleidoscope eyes.

Cellophane flowers of yellow and green,

Towering over your head.

Look for the girl with the sun in her eyes,

And she’s gone.

Lucy in the sky with diamonds.

Follow her down to a bridge by a fountain

Where rocking horse people eat marshmallow pies,

Everyone smiles as you drift past the flowers,

That grow so incredibly high.

Newspaper taxis appear on the shore,

Waiting to take you away.

Climb in the back with your head in the clouds,

And you’re gone.

Lucy in the sky with diamonds.

Picture yourself on a train in a station,

With plasticine porters with looking glass ties,

Suddenly someone is there at the turnstile,

The girl with the kaleidoscope eyes.

Lucy in the sky with diamonds.

Stay tuned.  Coming soon: Cole Porter, James Taylor, Lieber and Stoller, Johnny Mercer, Irving Berlin, and the great Oscar Hammerstein.

Even More Inspiration

• The Ira Awards Part 3
• Gabriel, Come Blow Your Horn
• My Body
• Light At The End Of The Tunnel
• Even Now
• Hitting The Wall