Falling in love with your own songs

[mojobone]

The process is longer for those of us who self-produce and mix; we can get pretty tired even of songs we love, and God help the singer/songwriter who has a career hit that's sheer drudgery to perform.

Sheila Davis is exactly right; it's why her book is still relevant, despite her example lyrics getting mighty long in the tooth.

[Hookjaw Brown]

Write, arrange, record, rewrite, re-arrange, re-record, mix, re-mix, re-re-mix, ad nauseum, master, check it, check it again, upload the release, check it on all the sites to make sure it stayed pure. A song gets to be listened to at least a hundred times before it is released. Then it is practiced and performed.

After all this if the song does not make you happy - chuck it......

[billg1]

Why in the heck would anyone write a song they didn't like or love? You might not love it forever, but gee whiz,lol! I believe there are more than just two types of people in the world, people who love their song and see no room for improvement and would be devastated for a change and the "professional" whom only writes from the head and will change anything if they think it will make them a buck. Of course if you read that in a book, that is a book author firstly and foremost. That's almost like a singing book instructing performers to sing without any passion and emotion. Imo if you don't like or love your song in the first place, why make changes, just drop it in the garbage. I usually find something I love in every song I write, but often times the rest of the song built around the part I do doesn't work or develop properly.
The thing with songs is that even if a million people like your song enough to buy it, there are hundreds of millions of more who didn't, and probably at least 5 million who think it totally sucks, so if you don't love it, destroy it already!lol!

When I first started writing songs (a long time ago) I loved all of my songs. I mean I REALLY loved them, thought they all should be hits. Many songs and years later my band got a deal with a major label, after which I got a writing deal with another label, then an international (meant something at the time) management co., . . . long story short, if you write enough songs you eventually learn that your judgement is clouded "by the moment". I do have songs of mine that I really like and some that I wish I'd never written but I don't think you can pass a true judgement with a clear head until long after the song is finished.

When I said in an earlier post that I never love any of my songs it might have been a more accurate to say that I try to reserve judgement until way after the song is completed. I'm constantly surprised by how the songs I thought were pretty good can suck and some that I thought were failures can become my favorites.

Just recently I sent a few songs to a publisher. One I really thought was one of my best & it was rejected, another in the same batch that I figured would probably not make it was signed & received some fairly high praise.

I just try my best to do my best, not to bail on any ideas, and NOT get too attached to my songs. I have to assume the idea for the song is a good valid thing in order to finish, and when I do finish I take some pride in an "I made that" kind of way. Sometimes it's a stronger sense of pride than others, but the word "pride" comes to mind more than "love".

[eeoo]

I've found over the years that the songs of mine I love the most tend to be headscratchers for others, especially those looking to license. So for me I put a different hat on for songs I'm targeting at licensing opportunities, I tend to write from the heart for my band but am a bit more cerebral and objective and strategic for songs I plan to license. Occasionally you get the best of both worlds and write a tune that seems to be universally appreciated but for me that is the exception.

Also, there have been several times lately that we only have afew days to write, arrange and record a tune, I'm thinking about these quick turn-around ad agancy listings. In these cases obviously we can't shelve a song and come back to it down the road for objective analysis cuz it's just petal to the metal from inception to completion.

To each his own but I definitely try not to love my songs and then along the way if I start to love them I'm fairly confident that there's something there.

eo

[boatrider]

Hiyo folks,

I like this discussion alot, it's fascinating to look into this ...
thanks, sincerely, for sharing ,
I needed some reflection from you all
because I have been feeling really sad about a recent returned song ...
perhaps I was too attached to it...

Thanks

[fret17]

I was thinking about this some more and wanted to add that I think there are songs that I've written that I love, not because they were written well, but more because they are attached to a certain time of my life and people I loved back then....Remember the first song you ever wrote?...remember how much fun it was to write?....how you thought it was the greatest thing and you played it so much it inspired you to write another one....and now that one's the better one...and on and on and on....but at some point you start reading how to write, how to structure, how to rhyme and search for new ones...etc until you reach a point that, although you've become a better commercial writer...the old beginning songs were your best in that pure innocent stage of life when dreams were in abundance and you thought you had forever to get to them.....It might be fun to start a thread with everyone posting their very first song, on the instrument they composed it on,....I think that would be a hoot!

[Hookjaw Brown]

Ah the old times. It makes me sad to remember that the first song I wrote was a Jazz tune for a music class. It was recorded on paper, performed with a trio, turned in and promptly lost in time, lost from mind.

Made me REALLY appreciate recording techniques using tape and eventually digital devices.

[feaker66]

Best I can say is "that one's pretty cool" when I play them in my truck. Not love

Nope, I just love the feeling of creativity and the associated "hunt".

Paul

[DonaldM]

While I, like others, love the process of creating a song. I don't know that I have ever been completely happy with a finished song...even when many others told me how great it was. I always hear the flaws...the things I should have or could have done different or better.

There's a lot of my songs that I like...even like a lot...but I never seem to consider any of them done. What does that say???!!!

[DesireeBowen]

This thread has been great, and very funny. Fret- you are hilarious.