"The Great Ones"

[jwebbinspired]

Hello all, While I'm working on "Lines Want Crossed" I thought I'd post this new one that my cowriter and I just finished. It is not mastered yet, so keep that in mind when poking at production.http://www.taximusic.com/download/18744 ... in.mp3“The Great Ones” ©2008 Andrew Scott Wills/John JolinWhen things are going rough,And you feel that you’ve had enough,When it’s all too heavy to lift,Stuck in idle and you can’t shift,No matter where you start,God knows where you are,And in your lowest times in life,Know that God is by your side,All the hard times breed the great ones,They make you stand up and say “the future’s just begun,”And all the memories that brought you to your knees,Will in the end show how far you’ve come,Because all the hard time breed the great ones,I think we settle way too much,Get lost and out of touch,In a world that does not care,About our prayers,I just glance at history,And the struggle to believe,In all the great ones there is a trend,They were stronger in the end,

[ideascapes]

Andrew,Sounds good, nice production values. I heard a few squeaky string slides on the acoustic guitar. Since they're "printed" you might be able to quiet them a little with a de-esser on that track (or you could selectively EQ those couple of phrases). Or, if you are the producer/engineer, re-record?I think the vocal could be stronger, both in pitch and energy. You didn't say whether this was just a demo, so I don't know how important that is to you.I'm not an expert on lyrics (see previous critiques of my stuff!), but to me this reads too generic. The 1st verse sets a good mood and theme, but to me the subsequent lyric doesn't go into enough detail. What were the hard times? Who were the great ones? What was too heavy to lift? How do we settle? They're all good sentiments, but I found myself having to fill in the blanks and that made it more difficult to connect with the song emotionally.I'm not sure "the hard time(s) breed the great ones" is a hooky enough title. Maybe something pithier, such as, "what doesn't kill us makes us stronger."Good luck with this!Vince

[deantaylor]

I like your melody. I had a few problems with the lyric, too. For me, the first verse might be better if you could stick to the same metaphor idea, maybe keep it all 'car' based.This verse:No matter where you start,God knows where you are,And in your lowest times in life,Know that God is by your side,Does not have anything specifically to do with your main lyrical theme. It just says some generic stuff about God. I'd make this verse more specific to 'hard times' and how they 'mold and shape you'. The same can probably be said for this verse:I think we settle way too much,Get lost and out of touch,In a world that does not care,About our prayers,Dean

[jay10music]

J....I Love your voice ..... Fits good with this piece...I'm not qualified for the teck stuff in the lyric dept, but I think the tune itself is very nice.. I think if u listen 2 the Big Dogs on this piece u can turn it in to a real winner... Just needs a little bit of fixin..Good job...Good feeling here..Good message... Stay With This One....VERY NICE.. Jay.....

[jwebbinspired]

Thanks guys for the input. This is not the final production. It needs some serious Eq and compression, the voice needs to be brought up, etc. We are trying to straddle two genres with this lyric. We want it to be marketable both in Christian and Country and that's why the lyrics might have come across as vague. So maybe the hard time could be "breaking down" or "smoke under the hood," etc?