YOUNG DAYS - a Taxi collab

[deantaylor]

Hey Everyone,Thanks for the great feedback! Agree with you Squids and Casey .. it is not a 'true country' song. Maybe country-pop or alt country or .... We are not trying to fit it into the commercial country box, just trying to write and produce the best song we can that has some country feel to it. Springsteen and Elton were the two refs I thought about the most. But when you don't think of it as a 'true country' song, I think they fit real well. And remember Eddie Rabbit, Kenny Rogers, Dolly, etc. played on the same radio stations as Elton back then. The song is a song about growing up in the 70's/early 80's and what 'we' did .. how it felt .. NOT how it felt to be a big country music fan growing up in that time period. But I did slant the refs and the language a bit towards country, knowing I wanted a country feel to the music. ArkJack, I agree with you .. the lyric does not tell a story with a plotline. It wasn't intended to. It is intended to work as a collage of memory pictures. I think it works really well and interestingly in this way. But I can respect and see your perspective on it. Perhaps this method of 'telling the story' does not work as well for everyone. (Note: there is a 'time-line' structure to it. v1 - young boy, v2 - young girl, then v3, v4 - older teenage boys/girls, with v3 - music and v4 - friends related. So there is some organization. lol)We plan a male version and then maybe a duet, too. It has been great fun working with Matt on this. I think he's really captured the spirit of the lyric with his melody/music and there are improvements on the way.DeanPS We know it is hard to review a draft ... but this is the time when it is easiest for us to make changes based on your comments, so .... thanks!PSS May change the Springsteen ref afterall, because 13 year old girls dancing to Bruce is a little uncommon .. always bugged me a bit.

[jchitty]

I wasn't able to access "Young Days" on your TAXI link, but I was able to listen to "Faith" on your other link. Yeah, I know you wanted a critique of "Young Days" but I just have to remark that I loved "Faith!" That's a killer song....it's got a nice Shania Twain vibe to it, and I can see why people are interested in your music. Really good stuff! You gotta be gettin' fowards on that.

[deantaylor]

Thanks Chits. Appreciate your feedback on FAITH. I am very happy with that one! I'd welcome your impression of this (YOUNG DAYS) lyric above, if you want to give an opinion on the lyric only. Like:I'm thinking of replacing the SPRINSTEEN line with this:... And I can still see my sister, bell bottom blue jeansand in the bridge:... Pet rocks, Icees, Oh those hot pants tease(d)The other line comes out sounding a bit too much like you want the icee to wear hot pants. lolAnd I think we'll go with the lines in RED at the beginning of v2 and v4. No one gave an opinion on that yet, but .....arkjack gave an interesting critique of the overall lyric style .. I gave my opinion after that .. what do you think of the overall style 'debate' (not really a debate, since I see both sides, probably he does, too).Dean

[jchitty]

Quote:Thanks Chits. Appreciate your feedback on FAITH. I am very happy with that one! I'd welcome your impression of this (YOUNG DAYS) lyric above, if you want to give an opinion on the lyric only. Like:I'm thinking of replacing the SPRINSTEEN line with this:... And I can still see my sister, bell bottom blue jeansand in the bridge:... Pet rocks, Icees, Oh those hot pants tease(d)The other line comes out sounding a bit too much like you want the icee to wear hot pants. lolAnd I think we'll go with the lines in RED at the beginning of v2 and v4. No one gave an opinion on that yet, but .....arkjack gave an interesting critique of the overall lyric style .. I gave my opinion after that .. what do you think of the overall style 'debate' (not really a debate, since I see both sides, probably he does, too).DeanWell, first off, I love these lyrics, Dean! They paint of vivid picture of what it was to be a kid in the seventies. I like the opening Red Flyer line.....good stuff. Of all genres, country of course loves to 'revisit' childhood days, so you certainly have the kind of story Nashville would like. Since I can't hear the melody, it's hard to tell you if certain references like Springsteen should be scrapped because they're not country enough. (my words, not the other folks). It just depends where you want to go with the song. If you're pitching it to a mainstream, commercial country listing, maybe. If you're going alt-country with it, you definitely don't have to change it. However, even commercial country listeners down South grew up listening to Springsteen, the Eagles and Elton John, so that might not be a problem. And guess who had a song out in the Nashville market not too long ago? I'm sure you know all this anyway, but yep, Springsteen had a song being played on Country Music Television. And the Eagles were actually played on commercial country radio and CMT. Recently, Bon Jovi had two hits in commercial country radio and CMT, one a crossover with "Who Says You Can't Go Home." Nashville is really changing.....neo-traditional country like Alan Jackson will always be in, but people like Dierks Bentley (you spoke of him) and Gary Allan aren't strictly country, and they are using all kinds of different styles now when they get country radio play. Since your song lyrics are conversational and not too abstract, I think you could get away with this pitch. And if you don't feel totally comfortable with that, you could go alt-country as you said in a previous post. I'm finding now that my neo-traditional country is started to sound dated, so I'm writing the new 'modern' country, and your song could be considered that. Suburban Southern teenagers and even older country surbubanites could embrace your song, even with the references. I'm keeping up with those new trends. Country is definitely more 'country pop' now. Just recently, I heard Taylor Swift's "Teardrops On My Guitar" being played on VH1.....that's a country song that's not exactly crossover, but VH1 listeners seem to be digging it. I like to think that Nashville is becoming the new hub of the music universe...other genres don't seem to have as many fans, so people are moving to Nashville to make music. Jack White lives in Nashville now and makes music with Loretta of course, go figure. Okay, here's what I'd suggest since you asked me. I'd leave the Springsteen hoola hoop line...it's original and it pops. Hey, I like the pet rocks, icee and hot pants line, I think it works, although you may worry, but I like it. In fact, the reference to Icee is great....makes you think of hot humid summer days down South, and we all remember how refreshing those Icees were.I wish I could hear your chorus.....I won't comment on the chorus lines for now until I hear how they work musically in the song.

[deantaylor]

Chits,Thanks for the feedback. Much appreciated. I agree with you .. I think lots of people listen to both pop and country, so the pop refs are fine. I hope you are right about Nashville changing! We figured we'd write the song we wanted to write and hope mainly for film/tv, but try an artist pitch here and there if we thought we had a (long) shot.Dean