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Question for song writers. How do you put together a song like this?

Posted on 11/23/23 at 12:48 am
Posted by James11111
Walnut Creek
Member since Jul 2020
4659 posts
Posted on 11/23/23 at 12:48 am
Tuesday's gone

Is it a melody and lyrics that were creeping and crawling around in the lead singer's head ( Van Zant ); then the band runs with it after a shite load of practice sessions?

Or

Do they have the melody they want, and write lyrics to it after?

I've never been in a band.
Posted by imjustafatkid
Alabama
Member since Dec 2011
50499 posts
Posted on 11/23/23 at 12:52 am to
Usually whoever writes the song will write it and then play what they came up with for the rest of the group.

Then the band gets together and expands on that original idea.

In some cases it may be a team effort for the writing process. Some people work better when they can bounce ideas off each other or sometimes you get a writers block and need someone to help get you over it.

ETA: I typically write lyrics first then music but most others I know do the opposite.
This post was edited on 11/23/23 at 12:54 am
Posted by James11111
Walnut Creek
Member since Jul 2020
4659 posts
Posted on 11/23/23 at 12:58 am to
So in most cases, the originator creates the melody and lyrics?

Or is it mixed? Some people come with a melody, and don't have any lyrics.

I dont see the point in coming with lyrics only. The melody is what makes the song.
Posted by Kafka
I am the moral conscience of TD
Member since Jul 2007
141958 posts
Posted on 11/23/23 at 12:58 am to
Different people work differently

Dylan usually wrote lyrics first

Paul McCartney came up with the music for "Yesterday" a couple of years before writing the lyric we now know. This was the original "dummy" lyric:

Scrambled Eggs
Someday soon you'll have to shave your legs...
Posted by James11111
Walnut Creek
Member since Jul 2020
4659 posts
Posted on 11/23/23 at 1:01 am to
quote:

Scrambled Eggs
Someday soon you'll have to shave your legs...


Still would have been a hit. Cash money proved this.

Also the Beach Boys.

Melody's rule!
This post was edited on 11/23/23 at 1:03 am
Posted by Carson123987
Middle Court at the Rec
Member since Jul 2011
66422 posts
Posted on 11/23/23 at 1:02 am to
Music is written first 99% of the time.

Someone in a band will bring a melody, riff, bass line, drum beat, etc and then they'll iterate it on it
Posted by Kafka
I am the moral conscience of TD
Member since Jul 2007
141958 posts
Posted on 11/23/23 at 1:02 am to
quote:

So in most cases, the originator creates the melody and lyrics?

2 Broadway show teams:

Rodgers & Hart - Rodgers wrote the music first

Rodgers & Hammerstein - Hammerstein wrote the lyrics first

Same composer, but modified his M.O. to best suit the collaboration
Posted by Kafka
I am the moral conscience of TD
Member since Jul 2007
141958 posts
Posted on 11/23/23 at 1:10 am to
quote:

I dont see the point in coming with lyrics only. The melody is what makes the song
Classic if almost certainly apocryphal Broadway story:

Mrs Jerome Kern and Mrs Oscar Hammerstein were at a party. Mrs Kern introduced herself by saying, "My husband wrote 'Old Man River'".

To which Mrs Hammerstein replied, " No, my husband wrote 'Old Man River'. Her husband wrote, 'Daaah dah, dah dah'".

Posted by James11111
Walnut Creek
Member since Jul 2020
4659 posts
Posted on 11/23/23 at 1:12 am to
quote:

'Daaah dah, dah dah'"


One of my favorites.
Posted by EarlyCuyler3
Appalachia
Member since Nov 2017
27290 posts
Posted on 11/23/23 at 1:14 am to
quote:

ETA: I typically write lyrics first then music but most others I know do the opposite.


Yeah, that's definitely the opposite of the way most people do it. But if it works for you, it works.
Posted by geauxbrown
Louisiana
Member since Oct 2006
19462 posts
Posted on 11/23/23 at 2:14 am to
From what I’ve read. Ronnie normally wrote lyrics after hearing a melody. For example when Ed King came up with the Sweet Home riff, he told Ed to keep playing it. After a little while he sent the rest of the band outside and penned the lyrics.

I think he was inspired by melodies to write lyrics
Posted by GeauxTigers0107
South Louisiana
Member since Oct 2009
9727 posts
Posted on 11/23/23 at 5:27 am to
quote:

Music is written first 99% of the time.


This is 100% wrong

quote:

that's definitely the opposite of the way most people do it


No it isn't
This post was edited on 11/23/23 at 5:30 am
Posted by Willie Stroker
Member since Sep 2008
12892 posts
Posted on 11/23/23 at 6:26 am to
quote:

2 Broadway show teams:

Rodgers & Hart - Rodgers wrote the music first

Rodgers & Hammerstein - Hammerstein wrote the lyrics first


Thank you. Someone needed to please the OT’s broadway show tunes crowd.
Posted by Breesus
House of the Rising Sun
Member since Jan 2010
66982 posts
Posted on 11/23/23 at 6:36 am to
quote:

I dont see the point in coming with lyrics only.


You don’t understand how song writers might like to write poetry?
Posted by LSU Neil
Springfield
Member since Feb 2007
2502 posts
Posted on 11/23/23 at 6:54 am to
quote:

After a little while he sent the rest of the band outside and penned the lyrics.


Ronnie went down to the river and fished off the dock at hell house, coming up with lyrics, as he could hear the band inside the shack playing.
Posted by mmonro3
New Orleans
Member since Apr 2013
3923 posts
Posted on 11/23/23 at 6:56 am to
Probably the worst Skynyrd song out there!
Posted by Doctor Strangelove
Member since Feb 2018
2963 posts
Posted on 11/23/23 at 7:06 am to
In college, I would collaborate with a friend of mine who also played the guitar. We would sit around and come up with some chords and just start adding lyrics. Sometimes he would take the lead and vice versa. Most of the songs were pornographic and raunchy but we were a big hit at parties and sang at a local juke joint from time to time.
Posted by Doctor Strangelove
Member since Feb 2018
2963 posts
Posted on 11/23/23 at 7:07 am to
quote:

Probably the worst Skynyrd song out there!


Meet me at the sonic in Gluckstadt at 4:30.
Posted by MamouTiger65
Baton Rouge, La
Member since Oct 2007
794 posts
Posted on 11/23/23 at 7:11 am to
Watch the Get Back documentary on the Beetles. As someone with no experience or musical talent, it was fascinating watching them work and morph songs until they turned into the hits most people know today.
Posted by fr33manator
Baton Rouge
Member since Oct 2010
124242 posts
Posted on 11/23/23 at 7:13 am to
Usually I get a booger in my brain and just build off of that, and the melody comes during the process or later.

But writing with a group is different
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