Deacon Blues obscurity vs drive-time prominence

Songwriting Basics: Song Structure Part 2 — Songwriting paths & the main types of song

Section 3 (of 5 sections)

*Please note that there are currently free audio podcast read-aloud versions of parts of this article available here in The Whistle Test section.

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Overview of all sections

1. Introduction

2. Historical background

3. Songwriting paths & the main types of song

4. Songwriting building blocks

5. Popular song forms, a song’s structure

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SECTION 3. 

Songwriting paths & the main types of song

This next section is actually an excerpt taken from my book: “Your Song Online — For All Time: Pro-Songwriting”

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Deacon Blues obscurity vs drive-time prominence

In a nutshell, a songwriter probably should (in my humble opinion) choose a direction, or at the very least, be aware of two totally polar opposite different songwriting paths.

This section is about these paths and the main types of songs they usually produce. 

As a songwriter, who do you want to be and what do you want: Deacon Blues obscurity? Or drive-time prominence? Or maybe, a bit of both? For sure these two paths mentioned, and their prospective styles, do not form a definitive list, so maybe there’s another path you want to follow?

Anyway…

Deacon Blues obscurity

It’s my experience that at ten or eleven in the evening, after a few beers, at my local live music open-mic hangout, when I’ve just poured out an angst-filled self-penned ballad or two, some tipsy-type will, a bit sheepishly at first, try to catch my eye from a distance. Then rapidly approach me, and dive headlong in. Unstoppably telling me how wonderful my heartbreaker and I both are. How my song’s lyrics really resonated with them. They then proceed to explain in minute detail exactly why… So starts their drunken diatribe, their life story. Twenty minutes later (if I’m very lucky) I’m free again. My new fan is off back into the night, never to be seen or heard of ever again. They definitely didn’t pay me directly for singing my song, or directly buy a copy of it online during my performance. At very best they may have bought me a drink, that my liver or I really didn’t need. Oh, and obviously I wasn’t organised, I didn’t have a box of CDs, of my latest angst album,` with me to sell directly to my new fan, or any merch, no T-shirts, nothing… And for sure, the next day my new fan will have forgotten it all. Buying my song online didn’t miraculously appear on their ‘definitely have to do today’ list. Oh, and let’s be honest, of course, you also have to factor in that at that time of night, and after a few or more beers, almost anything sounds good.

And so it goes, this is the life of the lonely bard. The heroic ramblin’ singer-songwriter who attempts to be ‘real’ and ‘authentic’ by writing and singing about what they feel, from their perspective. Tramping from town-to-town, from venue-to-venue, from country-to-country. Like a rollin’ stone. Pouring out their angst. It’s a valid form of songwriting. The songs of these valiant singer-songwriters are their personal lyrical scripts. Tailor made for them to recount their real-life experiences, feelings, and thoughts, to a live late-night, usually hard-drinking (etc) audience. They momentarily let their audience — those right there then, face-to-face in front of them — into their inner world. It’s all about ‘I’. I did this. I said that. I felt this way. She/they did this to me. It’s all very personal. All self-centred.

These introspective heroes whine, proselytise, whinge, rant, protest, and weep. Then romantically disappear into the sunset. Leaving the world, well, maybe a bit better, but more or less unchanged. Their audience drunkenly sympathises, very briefly, whilst soaking up the ambience of this shared nocturnal moody moment. Then goes home. Sleeps it off, and forgets… 

*Please note that there are currently free audio podcast read-aloud versions of parts of this article available here in The Whistle Test section.