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Showing posts from September, 2009

A perfect Pop Song Co-write

Co-writing "Things Change" This tune is a monster smash hit. AC and I have been working diligently on this song for months now - the lyrics were picked apart and gone over until we were both seriously happy with them. At the end of the process when we wrote in the last lyric the hair stood on the back of my neck. I have a sheaf of paper's an inch thick of re-writes - but it was all worth it -' just cause you write the verse first doesn't mean its the first verse' ...Pat Pattison. We produced the track in MB's studio in NJ in Summer time looking out over a lovely golf course and he suggested we change the key again to suit the target singer. It was an accurate and great suggestion and in all was the third key change. Producer did an excellent job recording a guitar based track with some programmed drums from EZ Drummer with some fills played and quantized to taste. We booked the Singer and Studio and late last Wednesday we finished the track - I'm ver

A well-written song makes you feel a thought - Yip Harburg

Right now I am interested in my socially conscious lyrics and being the times we are living in am looking at the famous Depression Era song 'Buddy or Brother can you spare a dime'. The lyricist Kip Yarburg was introduced to the composer Jay Gorney by Ira Gershwin and they were trying to put lyrics to a tune that Gorney knew as a child -originally a Polish lullaby. On their walk to central park they met a well groomed young man who asked them 'buddy can you spare a dime' and so a great title was born and a classic song written. In an interview, lyricist "Yip" Harburg spoke about words and music. A well-written song, he said, "makes you feel a thought." I really want to learn to write like that - to make people feel a thought. Yip was originally a verse writer who along the way became a successful businessman in order to support his family that is until the Depression hit in Oct '29 and it forced him to change career.