Genre and à la's

[Geir]

Hi everyone!

I wrote this one with fellow Taxi-member Ave Topel.

This is purely to be considered as a demo to present for artist consideration.

Three questions:

1. Is this demo good enough to present for an artist's consideration, or do we have to aim higher?
2. What genre would you say that this is?
3. Suggestions for à la's??

Appreciate your thoughts ...

Geir

https://soundcloud.com/gk-songs/ghost-soldiers

These are the lyrics:

The Ghost Soldiers (Geir Keys and Avrim Topel)

Verse 1
To the halls of Valhalla and through Heavens door
They promised to bring us if we went to war
Called away from our children, our homes, and our wives
By the emperors' orders to give up our lives
We answered their summons without question or fear
And we charged to the edge of each new frontier
They told us our foe was a threat and too near
So we carried our shields and we died by the spear

Chorus
We're the ghosts of the soldiers who fought every war
When one war was over, they started one more
We followed our orders and believed every lie
And we marched into battle and we fought 'till we died

Verse2
We fought in the desert the mountain and plain
In hot steaming jungles we were tortured and slain
On cold freezing mornings with the sting of the rain,
So our chiefs could be heroes for their power and gain
We fought through the slaughter and swallowed our pain
In the heat of the battle where each man was insane
And we fought every war and then fought them again
So our captains and kings could continue to reign.

Chorus
We're the ghosts of the soldiers who fought every war
When one war was over, they started one more
We followed our orders and believed every lie
And we marched into battle and we fought 'till we died

Verse 3
They sent us to fight in a new senseless war
And in the height of battle with the carnage and gore
Berserk as we witnessed with blood in our eyes
A woman gave birth, and her new baby cried
We laid down our arms and stood there and stared
At the dead and the dying and the men who’d been spared
And others who saw us let the battle subside
And the madness was stopped after so many died

Chorus x 2

Outro
I once was a soldier who fought every war
But I laid down my arms and I won’t fight anymore

[lesmac]

Heir Geir,
Just my opinion, but I would imagine you have cleared the bar with this track for an artist pitch. The vocal is clear and in tune and the instrumentation supports it and coveys emotion well. I would guess this could be a hot contender for the Eurovision Song Competition.

Les

[Len911]

+1 Les

Elements of Leonard Cohen, Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd

Extremely well written and what's the word, Zeitgeist, certainly speaks for many!Kudos!

I know you're not asking, but I think the first line in the chorus

We're the ghosts of the soldiers who fought every war

could be punched up a little and made stronger. I would prefer something like maybe, "we're the soldier's ghosts of empires at war". The word "every" imo is the weak word, maybe some wars were necessary for protection somehow? And also it conveys the bulliness, wealth stealing, imperial, Noam Chomsky-esque perspective.

Again Kudos! A much needed, timely, and intelligently well written song!!!

[Casey H]

Hi Geir
I'm really enjoying this song. Genre wise, probably folk rock, Irish folk, or something retro from the 60's anti-war protest era only. A Caveat to "folk" might be the more rockin' lead guitar licks.

As much as I love the song, IMHO it's not at all an artist pitch song (unless you know a particular artist looking for this style and content). Once you have such a non universal subject (anti-war), you've narrowed your field way too much. Artists usually go for things they want to be identified with, usually not blood, carnage, etc. I always hear Ralph Murphy's voice in my head saying, "What in it for the 18-23 year old woman driving to work at 7:30AM?"...

Again MHO, but I would be more inclined to produce this for Film/TV as a 60's period piece a la the great folk/folk-rock artists of the day: Dylan, Phil Ochs, Joan Baez, Barry McGuire, etc. Keep the production completely consistent with who/when/what you are trying to emulate.

If you have more information on why you want to pitch it for artists, please let us know. e.g. As I said, if you are in contact with a particular artist looking for this style.

Best of luck!!
Casey

[Len911]

Once you have such a non universal subject (anti-war), you've narrowed your field way too much. Artists usually go for things they want to be identified with, usually not blood, carnage, etc. I always hear Ralph Murphy's voice in my head saying, "What in it for the 18-23 year old woman driving to work at 7:30AM?"...

Anti-war is not universal?? War is usually the blood and carnage, so an anti-war would be perfect!

While on the subject of non-universal, 18-23 yo woman driving to work?? That was probably back in the day when they actually had a job to drive to,lol! Though if we're to be that specific, can we be even more pandering and condescending and assume they're all warriors?

Anti-war is about as universal as puppies and kittens imo. Or was that, old dogs, children and watermelon wine, to quote Tom T. Hall,lol??

Imo, that narrow thinking is probably why so many movies today seem to be for kids.

As an aside, I just recently visited a website that had artists with the most sales and how many they had. I found it a little curious that many of them didn't really get a lot of airplay on the radio in their day. And Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd were a couple I remember being on the list, not sure about Leonard Cohen, though I remember him being the number one touring act a couple of years ago.

[Casey H]

No Len, anti-war songs, even if words like blood and carnage are used in the "anti" sense, are not universal at all.

Geir asked about ARTIST SONG PITCHES. How many charting songs do you hear nowadays with this type of subject and lyrical approach? What artist(s) would cover it?

Again, I really like the song!! I'm just saying this isn't one for artist song pitches IMHO.

Casey

[Len911]

Okay, I agree, truth is not universal, and there does seem to be a disproportionate amount of dum down keep 'em ignorant fantasy songs, universal to the preservation of empire, and complacent to the propaganda.

[Kolstad]

Casey's comments is pretty spot on to my ears.

1. Is this demo good enough to present for an artist's consideration, or do we have to aim higher?

The production sounds great, and as such is cool for pitching anywhere, I believe. The challenge is to find the right place for it, as most folk artists write their own material, but that might not be an issue here if it's written for a request.

2. What genre would you say that this is?

As is, I'd say folk rock, Irish folk, retro 60s-70s (agree with Casey). The lyric theme could also suggest a more hard rock approach, though (imo), but that would require re-orchestration and perhaps a Bon Jovi type singer.

3. Suggestions for à la's??

Roger Whittaker came to mind, also some of the chord changes reminded me of the ESC winner "Hard rock hallelujah" by Lordi (hence my comment under 2). So, it's pretty "classic" sounding to my ears, and could be given different treatments (folk rock, hard rock, and maybe a more cinematic type sound also).

[Geir]

Thank you Les, Len, Casey and Kolstad for your feedback - and also for your kind words.

Casey, you asked if there was a particular reason for me thinking of this as an artist pitch, so here's the background:

I showed the lyric to a very famous guitar player for an even more famous singer. He said "Wow" and then asked me to put together a song demo and bring it back to him. When he got the demo he decided to bring it with him to let the band and the very, very famous singer hear it. The band liked it, and the very, very famous singer liked it too and sent it to "their people" at the record company. I haven't heard more from them since, but you never know (as the famous guitar player said, "Things take time, sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't, you just have to wait and see."

So this is why I have been thinking artist pitch for this one since this Mega Star liked what he heard. Then maybe others might do the same??

But I can also see this working for a documentary or movie as you suggested.

Thank you for your thoughts and suggestions.

Geir

[Geir]

Thank you Les, Len, Casey and Kolstad for your feedback - and also for your kind words.

Casey, you asked if there was a particular reason for me thinking of this as an artist pitch, so here's the background:

I showed the lyric to a very famous guitar player for an even more famous singer. He said "Wow" and then asked me to put together a song demo and bring it back to him. When he got the demo he decided to bring it with him to let the band and the very, very famous singer hear it. The band liked it, and the very, very famous singer liked it too and sent it to "their people" at the record company. I haven't heard more from them since, but you never know (as the famous guitar player said, "Things take time, sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't, you just have to wait and see.")

So this is why I have been thinking artist pitch for this one since this Mega Star liked what he heard. Then maybe others might do the same??

But I can also see this working for a documentary or movie as you suggested.

Thank you for your thoughts and suggestions.

Geir