Song writers: When is your song done? Is it ever?

[jwellsy]

I asked this same question in a creative writing class this past year. The consensus of the class was that if the piece has the message and feeling you want to convey, then it's done enough.

[Deliberate1]

I have been making songs for about 5 years. I've been playing guitar for 4.5 years of that. The gap explains why I picked up a guitar in the first place. Singing while playing the clarinet proved frustrating.

My songs are born when they are ready. They live an unpredictable life. Sometimes they die. And sometimes they don't. To me, it is a mystery.

When I hear someone say that it took them "ten minutes" to write song, I first ask myself whether it sounds like a ten minute song. If it has chops, I often think of a story a client once shared with me. He is a "professional" artist, successfully selling his paintings for thousands of dollars. After 30 years at it, and years of university study, he paints with great efficiency and proficiency.

One afternoon at his gallery, a man was taking in a painting on the wall. While it was demure, it carried a substantial price typical of my client's work and status. The man confronted the artist:

Man: Wow, that is a lot of money for such a small painting

Artist: You think so?

Man: Ya, I mean, its really small. How long did it take you to paint that?

Artist: 35 years.

Like my artist client, the next song, or version, I write is like a marginal tax rate - it is just the most recent musical expression standing on the shoulders of everything that came before it. I may only have been at song-writing for 5 years, but I did a lot of stuff for 62 years before that. My songs wont ever be done, till I am.

"Write on."

David

[firenza]

Originally Posted by Deliberate1

To me, it is a mystery.

David

Yes, I think there are many 'straightforward' songs and poems which are good and aren't to be criticised, but the real mind/soul-stoppers are mysteries. Where they come from, how they develop, how they combine so many strands that often couldn't be paraphrased. I think so many Leonard Cohen songs (for one instance) are like this.

I don't think it's usually a matter, as jwellsy suggests, of getting a message across.

[The Bard Rocks]

A song is never done, but the changes come slower and slower with time. At some point, I commit it to paper and consider it "done" - retaining the right to revise it. The ones which are copyrighted (most of them) are, I suppose, officially finished, since if I made significant revisions, I might have to re-copyright it. And that is both a hassle and expense.

[Charlie Bernstein]

Originally Posted by jwellsy

I asked this same question in a creative writing class this past year. The consensus of the class was that if the piece has the message and feeling you want to convey, then it's done enough.

James Joyce thought everything he wrote was a work in progress. Salman Rushdie thinks it's done when it's good.

They're both right.

I've taken dozens of creative writing classes. One thing I learned was to ignore the consensus of the class. Michael Chabon, who should know, wrote the book that got turned into the movie Wonder Boys.

You might want to check it out. Very funny, and in my humble, it nails what studying creative writing and teaching creative writing are all about.

[dilver]

I’ve written songs I one sitting and I’ve written songs that take several iterations before they’re right. Once I record them, that’s usually the final version, but sometimes I find myself adding little nuances here and there. Usually, I end up wishing I had better lyrics and the songs that don’t give me that feeling are usually the best ones.

[Charlie Bernstein]

Originally Posted by dilver

I’ve written songs I one sitting and I’ve written songs that take several iterations before they’re right. Once I record them, that’s usually the final version, but sometimes I find myself adding little nuances here and there. Usually, I end up wishing I had better lyrics and the songs that don’t give me that feeling are usually the best ones.

Yup. It brings out the Tricky Dick in us: In your heart you know when it's right.

[Slothead56]

Been writing for almost 50 years. (Never had a Top 40 hit though!)

I’m not prolific and most of the time a lot of emotional and intellectual energy go into the finished product. And then it’s finished. Never had the urge to fine tune once it’s “in the can”. (I may change tempo or style while performing but lyrics are locked and loaded.)

But that’s just me…you be you!

[Charlie Bernstein]

Originally Posted by Slothead56

Been writing for almost 50 years. (Never had a Top 40 hit though!)

Heh heh. Been writing for over fifty and never had a top zillion hit.

Originally Posted by Slothead56

. . . But that’s just me…you be you!

Thanks, Sloth! I'll do my dernedest!