Songwriting

Singing a New Song
By James Mellick

When I began singing with a praise band of my local church I was reminded that much of contemporary Christian music lacks the poetic depth and content of some of the old hymns and gospels of the church. Some people have referred to it as "7 eleven" music--seven words repeated eleven times. I guess the idea is to keep it simple so that the congregation can sing along. Most importantly, this repetition in this type of music is more for an emotional elevation to spiritual experience rather than any reflection on verbal content or meaning of words. Some of the song writing is frankly, poor. We had a saying in school that "Holy shoddy is still shoddy."

I joined the Songwriters and Poets Critique, a group of musicians and writers who meet twice a month in Columbus, Ohio. There is quite an array of talent and taste in this group but much of the taste runs toward Country. Some of the songwriters have had their songs picked up by Nashville talent. Some writers can sing; some can't. Some dream of having their music chosen by popular stars and pay out a lot of their own money to musicians and studios to cut a demo. They take cassette and CD demos of their songs to Nashville music fairs and try to get them in the hands of the right people.

Depending on age, I find that songwriters are locked into the era of that most influenced their musical development. I and others my age, have been told that we write "like the 60's". Maybe it is age bigotry or maybe it is because we rely upon melodies and harmonies and words that mean something. It could be because we don't write with a lot of fancy chords.

I have few visions of grandeur when it comes to writing songs. I write for myself, in a narrative, story telling manner, like my sculpture. Of course I want to communicate an idea or emotion but I write with a sense of intimacy and not for commercial value. Less like my fellow songwriters, if I'm the only one who ever sings my songs, that is fine with me.

The music muse moves me every now and then. I'll sit with my guitar in the evening and find a sequence of chords and the right rhythm and sometimes the lyrics write themselves. A song is often built around a key phrase of an idea that comes to mind which songwriters refer to as the "hook". This is often repeated in the chorus.

My writing is not commercially viable because it does not meet the short attention spans of the popular culture audience. Radio stations favor a three minute formula. Words and meaning are important to me. I enjoy the poetry of Bob Dylan and James Taylor. I write poetry (good and bad) from the heart and much of the content depends on where my heart is at the time. Some of the songs are novelty and humor; some are ballads and some are gospel-funk-rock. Of the latter, I hear the Holmes Brothers when I write.

As a sample of the humor, I wrote a sardonic, contemporary version of the story of the prodigal son, based upon some first hand experience. It was written as a little send-up of country music.

The chorus reads:

I'm sorry I chose money over the love I had at home
I just pawned my guitar for a measly loan
My life has sunk so low it's like a bad country song
I wrecked my truck, my woman left and took my dog along.

In a later verse of the song, the father responds:

Son, you know we love you and we want you to come home
Even though you're thirty-three we'll give you back your room
We'll have a great big party on that reunion day
We'll buy clothes at JC Penny and feast at the Home Buffet.

In another song "Oh Brother Hold On" I include the traditional deliverance themes of Daniel, Jonah and the three Hebrew brothers but add contemporary social issues. One verse reads:

In schools we can not worship God yet we take His name in vain
We are killing Able while we're raising Cain
Children killing children in a culture wrong and wild
Forget about the village, it takes a family to raise a child.

I'm currently working on a demo for a Bluegrass number titled "Multi-Flora Rose". It will appeal to anyone who lives on a farm and has fought this thorny weed. It leads off with:

In the Garden of Eden way back when
Adam and Eve did the original sin
They ate of the fruit that only God knows
They had to leave the garden, had to put on clothes
Now that we are sinners, we have to wear clothes
Our garden's overgrown with Multi-Flora Rose.

In this allegory, the thorny flowering rose weed is a mean spirited woman. The constant refrain to each verse is:

She will leave you bleeding, she will rip your clothes
You don't mess around with Multi-Flora Rose.

The most recent number I'm working on is titled "In the Arms of My Father". The verses are written in sort of a jazz voice but the chorus is "old timey gospel" all the way with three part harmony in mind. Here is the complete song written shortly after the birth of my first grandchild:

In the arms of my father, on my newborn day
He wrapped me in blanket after washing the blood away
He carried me to my mother's arms and placed me on her chest
Kneeled by the bed, thanking God for their being blessed

In the arms of my father, getting home late at night
He'd carry me up to bed and tuck me in real tight
He'd stand watching over me and say a little prayer
Carefully he'd shut the door and head back down the stairs

Chorus:
Our Father's arms will lift us up every time we fall
Run to your Father's arms when you hear Him call
He's waiting by the river side to wash you in the pure water
There you'll find peace and rest, in the arms of your Father.

In the arms of my father, on a summer day
Put me under muddy water to wash my sins away
He pulled me from the river and walked me to the shore
Put his arms around me and said, son don't sin no more.

(Chorus)

In the arms of my father, my dear mother died
And then I held him in my arms, he followed to the other side
I held my father in my arms as the angels took him home
I stood on the riverbank and bid him sweet shalom

He's waiting with open arms across the great divide
He's standing with my mother, my brother at their side
They'll wade into the water and bring me to the shore
I can't believe this life is all, there must be something more

(Chorus)

These are only words that are best experienced with the music to which they were written. I think that is the difference between pure poetry and song lyrics.

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