SHARE THIS SHOW:
ON THE BLOG:
RELATED CONVERSATIONS:
RECENTLY ON TOL:
TOL Our Town
- A tumblr site dedicated to the people and places that make up Oregon and Southwest Washington.
TAGS:
Writing Love Songs
We all have those songs, the ones we turn to when love goes sour or when we feel ourselves falling for someone new. Maybe you've even tried your hand at writing about love yourself. It can be a challenging topic, whether you're writing an "I Saw U" ad for that person you spied across a crowded room, or trying to encapsulate your deepest feelings in a letter to the person who broke your heart.
Writing a love song meant for public consumption adds another layer of complexity to the challenges of putting intimate feelings on paper. And yet, it might be the most popular topic for song-writers.
The love song has infinite variations in every genre. What makes them so compelling? How do songwriters keep coming up with fresh ways to describe the complex, yet universal, feeling of love?
GUESTS:
- Mirah: Musician originally from Olympia, Washington
- Ritchie Young: Lead singer and songwriter for the Portland band Loch Lomond
- Tony Starlight: Owner of Tony Starlight's Supper Club and professional entertainer
Tagged as: love · music · songwriters
Photo credit: doctor paradox / Creative Commons
-
Getting personal, in songs I identify more with the pain of love, then the actual joy. Don't know if it is like that for others?---or, I am just a mess. Maybe I consider outward, showy, love a bit cheesy, or perhaps I just don't know how, and what, to do with it. Songs that do this for me, one old and obvious, Joy Division-Love Will Tear Us Apart---newer, Frightened Rabbit-Poke. Then there was the time my friend, albeit drunk, started crying hysterically to Marianne Faithfull's Don't Forget Me, not really over love---but, more likely over love he didn't, or was afraid he never would, have. My point---love songs, or songs about love, can deal with the good and the bad of it.
-
The expression or emotion, and connection, of a song, never comes from the words, lyrics, alone. Generally the lyrics separated from 'their sound' cannot speak for themselves. It is perhaps obvious, but I think we (I) often forget this. Songs are songs, they are complete only as a song, as an audible piece of music, something heard. The emotion, or the love, comes from this combination. In many ways the words are secondary to the actual sound they make, especially when combined with the non-vocal tune of the song. The tone, expression, speed, and emotions of the singer, are as much an importance as what they are literally saying, what words they are mouthing.
When songs attempt to communicate too much, in too literal a way, I think they often begin to fall apart. That is why in musical theater, the songs are so often unsuccessful, because there is too much of a linear mission, too much purpose---and, that art of pure sound, for sound's sake, is lost. So, I think the love song succeeds, when, like love, they don't try to make it happen, it just does.
This may lead to why it is not enough, to be a great singer in the technical sense, you must also possess the emotional intensity and brio, to enrapture in listeners, what it is you are feeling. The success of song, especially in modern times, is not just one of technique, it relies as much on the aesthetic style of all the participants. Which is why reality television and corporations cannot, with any real precision, manufacture stars. The star is a wunderkind, they are born, or given birth to, much like the love song.
-
I used the song " Falling in love at the coffee shop" by Landon Pigg. My girlfriend melted. It was a great segway for telling her for the first time that I was in love with her.
-
Me, I mourn the demise of the mix tape or the mix CD. There was so much time and effort and intentionality that went into making mix tapes and they could say so much more than any one song. Through juxtaposition, use of silences and "conversations" between the songs, you could express so much to the object of your interest!
When I first met my husband, I carefully planned out a mix tape. I made sure it didn't have anything too lovey -- it was too soon! -- but still was a fun and interesting tape. It worked! He was hooked and as our relationship went on we traded tapes and CDs back and forth getting to know each other in the meantime. When I finally felt like I could express my true feelings, I included on one mix the Flaming Lips song, "Do You Realize?" Looking back on that from 7 years later, I guess it must. have worked pretty well!
The question, though, is, does an emailed mp3 or a shuffled playlist on an ipod have the same effect? I think not quite.
-
It's the singer and the song delivery that does it for me. I like the wall of sound pushing a love song
THe great guitar on Karla Bonnoff's version of When you walk in the room" and the big brass version of Southside Johnny's "I don't want to go home" are emotional rockets for me. For some reason they always work to move me into a romatic place.
-
Raised in exclusively classical appreciation, my very first breakup made me understand, for the first time, the purpose of country music. "I lost my girl, lost my dog, lost my wheel, etc." In fact, I wrote a song in virgin sorrow, whose words have served me ever since! "What does it mean when someone says forever? What does it mean when they say I love you? What does it mean when you're given a treasure, a heart and a hand and a soul to cling to? What can I say except I've lived forever, for I've seen forever end. Eternity's shorter than I thought it would be, for I've lived forever again!" Not good music, but the words still serve!
-
I have such a deep love for music that I have 100's of favorite love songs & songs about lost love that I tie to events in my life. To shorten my post I will say the love song that I currently feel evokes my life is Deertick's "Easy."
I would have to say it is also really EASY to press repeat on this song & just listen over and over.
-
I believe "Moonage Daydream" by David Bowie to be one of the finest songs to capture the explosive feeling one gets when just falling in love.
The blistering music alone conveys the fire of new love and with lyrics that translate the inability to speak, the desire for truth and trust, down to the elemental need to jump in the air all hit it perfectly for me.
-
The one that always gets me is For Real by Bob Franke. I first heard it sung by Lui Colins (probably not much known locally). It isn't a happy love song, but it hits the center. The first verse is:
Death took the husband of a neighbor of mine on a highway with a drunk at the wheel.
She told me keep your clean hands off the laundry he left, and don't tell me you know how I feel.
She had a tape that he'd sent her from a Holiday Inn, and she never played it much in the day
but when I heard him say I love you through the window at night I just stayed the hell awayEven the words without the music hit the bull's eye for me. She has a lot of songs like that.
-
My Prince and I had been married 48 years and had raised four lovely daughters. A few days before Valentine's Day in 2002, we had a comical discussion about the words "iterate" and "reiterate." Early Valentine's Day morning, I stumbled into the kitchen, rubbing my eyes as I headed for the kitchen sink. My husband stood up to give me a morning hug and I laid my head on his chest and wished him Happy Valentine's Day. He gently held my head to him as he recited a poem that he had written for the occasion. A box in red wrapping contained a frame with hearts and ribbons in the borders and the poem inside. It was so perfect that I told him I never wanted another Valentine's gift, just a repeat recitation each year. These words have never been set to music, but they sing to my heart.
Tommye Jo Reese (the very happy Mrs. Richard M. Reese)
My Iteratiing Heart
Lay your head upon my chest and you will feel and hear
A heartbeat softly iterating how much I love you, Dear.
And all the beats that follow, follow, follow iterate the same,
Saying I love you, I love you, I love you, while whispering your name.
And when my heart in death is still, its echo will proclaim
My everlasting love for you, until we meet again.
-
That K.D. Lang singing at the Olympics got to me too, "a broken Hallelujah", just went right through from the optimistic "The Hallelujah Chorus" of Handel to the realities of today.
"a broken Hallelujah"
Concise and elegant. Right to the heart.
Fall in love with the potential of what we human beings can be and then deal with the realities of what we currently are and "a broken Hallelujah" says it all.
-
Michael Bublè - Everything one of my favs!
-
A love song ghostwriter? Isn't that Cyrano De Bergerac?
-
If you have any musical talent at all, if it comes to playing an instrument or sing, use it to their advantage. And no, a kazoo does not count. In fact, if you're wondering if the instrument is a romantic instrument, is probably the best way to learn guitar.
Best Regards,
Brow - Surveys -
I will bookmark your blog and have my friends check up here often. I am quite sure they will learn lots of new stuff here than anybody else .Thanks for sharing this information.
-Sell House Quick
-
If you have such a great talent about writting love songs then I would like to advice you to go further. To describe your heart feelings into words is such a complex task as expressions and emotions matters most here. Best of luck for your future carrier.. Here are my favorite quotes about Life and Love
Life is Short.. So be sure to wear FABULOUS Heels
Life Unexpected
-
yeah agree if you have talent about music,you must go keeping it up
celebrity news
movie trailer and reviews -
music is our feeling,if you feel sad then the music will be more emotional following our heart. Mahjong
-
Generally the lyrics separated from 'their sound' cannot speak for themselves. It is perhaps obvious, but I think we (I) often forget this.
Portland SEO
-
This is highly informatics, crisp and clear. I think that Everything has been described in systematic manner so that reader could get maximum information and learn many things. This is one of the best blogs I have read. Singing Superstar.
-
I was 48 and had survived countless failed relationships. I quit trying and wasn't looking. My friend dragged me to see a band. Joey and her girlfriend only wanted Mothers cookies from next door to the club. Then I saw her dancing alone and barefoot. One month later these words came to me effortlessly.
I closed my teeth into a roll with frosting it was warm and safe and good and I thought of you in the rain and the miles passed under our feet where honor and truth and agony have set up shop with a placard of steel over the door that drips loudly in winter and warms your family in summer never waning and we were young and strong and proud and vibrant and the miles passed under our feet nibbling comfortably at all but faith then by happenstance or cookies who knows alone I see you dance and the frosting is thick and rich and sweet and I think of you and I cry finally I'm in love! Tommy Joe Kelly