Monday, July 20, 2009

don't get too fancy!

Ever since David and I first started writing songs it was our belief that the best way to write a GREAT song was to keep it as timeless as possible. They should all be songs that we could drop into any moment in history and still be relevant. That’s why I was skeptical about putting the line “sending me pictures on the cell phone” in “Goin’ or Comin’”. Referring to a cell phone in a song is not very “Rock and Roll” (I say with a fake British accent) to begin with, but the thing that DID appeal to me was the girl in the song’s inventive persuasiveness and for lack of a better term, her unbridled lust. It is easily the mostly technology I’ve ever included in a song. I usually go out of my way to be lo-fi in my lyrics. I mean, take a song like “Lost Your Number”, if there was consideration of a cell phone in that little ditty her number probably wouldn’t have been lost at all (unless the dude had a piece of shit phone like mine!). She would have simply called him on the occurrence of their meeting and he would have stored it including her name. On “Boyfriend 2”, the line “you don’t live in a phone booth so let me in” (kind of a dumb line anyway) but how many phone booths do you see these days? That’s a lo-fi tech reference. And that’s gonna usually be your best option. Just imagine the great songs that couldn’t have been written had today’s technology been applied. “Wake up Little Suzy” comes right to mind. Riiiiiiiiiing! Riiiiiiiiiiing!...would go the cell phone, “Uuuuh, Suzy, where are you? Do you know what time it is? You better git your ass home!!!”

3 comments:

Unknown said...

It took very few years for Roger McGuinn's "Car Phone" to become dated and unrelatable.

You have great songwriting words of wisdom. I will abandon my attempt to update my own song "Abacus (She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not)" posthaste.

Tom C

Chris said...

That's too funny. The first couple times I listened to "Lost Your Number," I was trying to decide whether he really lost her number, or if it was just a lame excuse for not calling her. (I decided he was sincere, for what it's worth.) It never occurred to me that he would've just typed her number in his cell phone. Is that because I'm the last American who doesn't own one, or am I just ignunt? No reason it can't be both, I guess!

FBC said...

So, um......you're not gonna write a song with those ideas I sent ya?:

Momma wants a lap dog,
Daughter wants a lap top, and all
Daddy wants is a lap dance