Seeing things from more than one side. The three-hundred-sixty-degree vibe.

[WarpCanada]

I admire Mary Gauthier's work a lot, and she talks about using song-writing as a way of getting out of her head, and walking around her own head, or some external subject, or what she feels about some specific thing, from all sides.

Recently an interesting, and I think illustrative thing happened to me while writing the alternatively savage and somewhat mordantly funny song "Blues Lawyer". I felt bad for savaging this hypothetical dude, and that urge lead me to look in the mirror, so that the character in the song looks at himself, and his mediocre blues licks abilities, and his mediocre gear, and feels a bit of the proper response (I think) to totally savaging another human being;  What's WRONG in my heart that I can be so cruel to people?       Anyways, I think that makes the song more interesting, instead of just shooting ducks in a barrel (who doesn't like to laugh at pompous arrogant foolish rich white men?).

Thoughts? Has this "what goes around comes around" feeling informed anything you've written? Have you actually felt sympathy for someone while also feeling they deserve their lyrical harsh words,  in a song?

[Hilary]

I actually feel that music is a great leveller and even rich guys deserve a creative outlet whether they are great musicians or not - it's all an expression of ourselves.

It's a bit like punching down rather than up.

But this site is all about positivity so I didn't say anything but as you are asking I felt for the metaphorical rich guy.

It shouldn't matter what they look like, or what guitar they are playing or whether they can even play it - what matters is they are trying to expand their horizons and express themselves.

It made me think though - if I had money who would I pay to help me write and produce my songs apart from Ray of course!

It also made me think of my truly awful open mic days and how that women who could barely even make a downward strum and couldn't stand up when playing because her legs were shaking too much ended up doing some almost amazing things singing fairly badly and playing a ukelele badly too.

[Hilary]

I came up with Gary Delaney but the way, to help me write my songs. He's maybe not super well known but utterley brilliant and writes for many of the popular TV comedians behind the scenes.

[StephenM]

a song I recorded last year "Rock and Roll Rebel" kind of does go after some groups of people.... especially those who attempt to stand in my way of getting somewhere and doing something....at the time i meant everything I said.... although as a general rule I am a very caring individual who is very generous and understanding.... I don't like gangs of people however... and it seems to bring about a mob mentality which i wrote a bit about and so my reaction to the people blocking the roads last year etc was a rather mobbish response.....  doesn't really fit with my core values...but I value freedom of choice above about anything.... I like the song... and at the time it was how I was kind of "beating on my chest".....false bravado I suppose...
but your song Blues Lawyer is just a song...like mine was too.... and I think it's a bit normal to have negative feelings toward others sometimes... i would add that what we do with those says alot about our character! 
I love your song... it is clever and funny and cliche...and while it ain't exactly country is why I sometimes like to listen to country....
I think people, sometimes myself included, tends to think songwriters are writing about themselves and after writing about 30 now I can see that I cannot ever make that assumption....

[Greeny]

I have a bit of a Songcrafters history of quite appallingly vicious songs which are reserved for very special cases of hatred. I really like how spiky and nasty they turn out, because I'm generally quite shy and amiable.

This is my favourite from way back. Absolute bile! Little Napoleon - a big-mouth cappuccino git-faced shrimp who wants to rule the world.

https://songcrafters.org/forum/index.php?topic=2485.0

And this is the most recent. A few of you know who this is about and how mad I got 

https://songcrafters.org/forum/index.php?topic=30372.msg359723#msg359723

I can't even remember them all. And there are some which should be left buried where they are 

[Ferryman]

That's why I mainly write songs about fantasy worlds, or just imagined scenarios and people. I don't like getting too personal or judgemental. But then I find writing lyrics really hard anyway, so now I leave it to people who have a real skill for it!

I guess I use music as a form of escape rather than a way of addressing any issues head on (which was why I liked prog rock when I was younger). And as a fairly privileged middle class English kid with a normal humdrum life, I never had any issues to write about anyway......





 

[Ferryman]

And this is the most recent. A few of you know who this is about and how mad I got 

https://songcrafters.org/forum/index.php?topic=30372.msg359723#msg359723

But I viewed that more as a very acute observation of a modern day phenomenon rather than a direct personal attack. And your song was a well-observed dissection of some of society's current obsessions.

I felt the same about Blues Lawyer (like Steve). It's an observation of a well-known phenomenon rather than an attack on a particular person. And it has a great twist at the end....

[Greeny]

And this is the most recent. A few of you know who this is about and how mad I got 

https://songcrafters.org/forum/index.php?topic=30372.msg359723#msg359723

But I viewed that more as a very acute observation of a modern day phenomenon rather than a direct personal attack. And your song was a well-observed dissection of some of society's current obsessions.

I felt the same about Blues Lawyer (like Steve). It's an observation of a well-known phenomenon rather than an attack on a particular person. And it has a great twist at the end....

That's very true.

[StephenM]

I have a bit of a Songcrafters history of quite appallingly vicious songs which are reserved for very special cases of hatred. I really like how spiky and nasty they turn out, because I'm generally quite shy and amiable.

This is my favourite from way back. Absolute bile! Little Napoleon - a big-mouth cappuccino git-faced shrimp who wants to rule the world.

https://songcrafters.org/forum/index.php?topic=2485.0

And this is the most recent. A few of you know who this is about and how mad I got 

https://songcrafters.org/forum/index.php?topic=30372.msg359723#msg359723

I can't even remember them all. And there are some which should be left buried where they are 

great stuff Greeny.... and the world is full of people who just love to boss others around...it's kind of a pet peeve of mine as well.... 

[WarpCanada]

I did feel bad for the guy as I was making fun of him, and I think that takes my song in a different direction.    The thing is this isn't an actual person I'm insulting. It's a story song with an imaginary protagonist (ostensibly me), making fun of an imaginary person and then "thinking better of it".  And so the "three hundred sixty degree vibe" I'm talking about is less about judging whether it's okay to do this in a song (it's art, it's fiction) and really more asking the question, do you think I'm INSANE because I feel BAD for the imaginary person?

It's incredibly validating to find out other people could feel sympathy FOR THE FICTIONAL character in the story, because I did feel some myself.  And so I reflect on the sorry state of my own soul, taking joy in taking such a punch. But I also think that "humor" can be too much of a cover for us.   The delivery in the song is meant to be heartfelt in parts, but in other parts its meant to be "all in good fun".    Saying that this guy doesn't actually know how to live, how to feel pain, is not possible for me to know actually, it's a huge assumption on the part of the main character in the song,  but it's well attested as a realistic human feeling. Thinking of the song "Common People" by Pulp:

Sing along with the common people
Sing along and it might just get you through
Laugh along with the common people
Laugh along even though they're laughing at you
And the stupid things that you do
Because you think that poor is cool

Like a dog lying in a corner
They will bite you and never warn you
Look out
They'll tear your insides out
'Cos everybody hates a tourist
Especially one who thinks it's all such a laugh
Yeah and the chip stains and grease will come out in the bath

You will never understand
How it feels to live your life
With no meaning or control
And with nowhere left to go
You are amazed that they exist
And they burn so bright whilst you can only wonder why

The undercurrent of class based resentment (even leading all the way into rage), and the "Tourist" quip are a real part of the actual phenomenon of people calling someone a "Blues Lawyer". It felt right to explore that fearlessly, as a song.

That is part of why I think it's a mess to try to sort out the "how I should feel about" my song.   I like it because it's hilarious and Punching Up is certainly culturally acceptable.  If the fictional lawyer can't take the fictional heat, he should be less fictionally silly. :-)

Where it gets real, is someone that really is this blues lawyer guy, except maybe an off duty surgeon who plays blues guitar to calm down,  may hear the song and be really reminded of a time when he went to some open mic night and someone saw him arrive in his Mercedes Benz and was a horrible shit to him, and so he would assume I am in league with that sort of person who would act that way in real life, which I am not.   The cut your hair and get a job line, is thus directed, at that person who treated said blues doctor abominably, after he worked all day on your granny, and saved her life.   Even Lawyers occassionally do nice things for people, so I could imagine a blues lawyer who just got back from pro-bono work saving someone's actual life.   Then they get treated to the gears.  Sure.  That could be a song!

That would be sad, if it happened. But perhaps this real person could hear this and find it uproariously funny, and take it in the spirit in which it's meant.  It's meant to make us all laugh a bit, and maybe think a little.


I might write a song where I make no effort to be kind or conciliatory at all, and that would be a different sort of song. An angry song is okay I think. This one wasn't angry so much. It was snarky. And I hope funny.