Songwriting Competition

The open stage I play on Monday nights at Tip Top Tavern had a songwriting competition. Last week the host came up with a phrase ("the crossroads of nowhere" or "the crossroads to nowhere", not really sure if it's of or to) and encouraged everyone to write a song that used the phrase. I had decided that with all the fuss and struggle writing a song can be for me, I wasn't going to try to force it. If I write a song, I want it to be about something that I feel I need to express; it should be a healthy release of creative forces. I was certain that trying to fulfill an outside requirement would dilute the entire process to the point that I wouldn't be able to come up with anything good.

After an extremely busy weekend, I hadn't really touched my guitar since Thursday. I made a post on Facebook about how I wasn't sure if I was even going to show up to open stage in the evening, but a small handful of people did their best to convince me otherwise. So I sat down at about 3 to play a bit. I put my capo on the third fret to play "Clementine", but before I even started the song, a few other random chords just stumbled out of my hands without even thinking about it. I sang some lyrics.

When you finally find where you should be
I hope it's next to me
So I can still see your smile

That's it; that's what I had to work with. Not the greatest lines I've ever written, by any means. It all just poured out in a flash, and I played the chords and sang those lyrics a hundred times. It seemed like it could be the beginning of a song about someone who wants to hit the road, and I thought that might combine well with the songwriting challenge phrase. I decided that if the song was just going to pretty much present itself to me, ripe for the plucking, I might as well see it through and do the competition after all.

I wrote the entire song in less than an hour. It was a blur. I look back on some of the phrases now and I don't even remember coming up with them. I recorded a comically sloppy demo in haste, threw it on my iPod Touch, and listened to it over and over in the car as I drove around town. I played through it a dozen times after I returned home, before heading out to the bar, but I was still having trouble with the melody.

I got to the bar just in time to write out the lyrics and chords before my turn. I wound up having a little trouble remembering some of the melody, as well as how to connect the verses and choruses and bridge, etc. But I covered my mistakes well and managed to get through the song without falling apart, and I suppose I couldn't have hoped for anything more with a song only a few hours old.

There were some other really great songs, both before and after me. I was happy to see so many other people participating. I had resigned that I wouldn't win, and it didn't bother me in the least. And why should it? I had been given a week to participate, had told myself that I wouldn't, and had decided in the final hour to give it a shot. I am and always have been and always will be a terrible procrastinator.

The vote was held by secret ballot and the winner was announced about half an hour later. And it was...me? I admit I was surprised. I kept trying to work out what I had just heard; there's no way it was my name. I just didn't expect to win with my hastily thrown together jingle jangle whiny junk.

Anyway, I'm glad I did it. It actually wound up being kind of fun writing the song. I don't often write fictional songs, but incorporating the challenge phrase seemed to trigger a series of creative reflexes that might not have otherwise occurred on my own. I still don't know if I'll include the song into my live set. Maybe with a bit of polish it might make it someday. Maybe I'll record it and put it online for you to hear someday. Maybe. Someday. Procrastination...

Oh, you're holding on to a faded memory
And losing sleep, though it's not like you to worry
Everyone who knows you knows you will get lost

New Song "Stacy Please" (Recording)

Wrote a song. Recorded it. I don't really remember what it's about. Maybe it was about Stacy Dupree? Or perhaps Stacy Keach? Possibly Gwen Stacy? Seems plausible.

Maybe I didn't even write it. Maybe I just remembered a song written in a former life. I don't even own a bed, birds don't talk to me, and I've never had a sip of alcohol in my life.

I actually wrote this song in elementary school on the playground during recess.

This was the fifth and best take, and I discovered after I was satisfied and closed the book on recording for the evening that there is a weird stutter/glitch in the first chorus. Guess what, that's just how it is for now.

Sorry for all the computer noise in the background. This crotchety old laptop likes to keep both of its fans on high pretty much all the time these days.


it's friday night, 1 a.m.
no idea where i've been

stacy please don't go
i am dying to dream tonight

it's time to sleep, but i hate my bed
it's much too large for just one head

stacy please don't be cruel
i am trying to scream your name
but you know i'm a fool
thought that you might want the same

it's saturday, i hear the birds
saying to me it could be worse

stacy please don't cry
smoke your last cigarette
and for now i'll try
to drink until i forget

stacy please
stacy please
stacy please
stacy please

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