#23: Working on a New Song July 1st, 2007
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One of the first things my boyfriend, Indigo, did after we started dating six months ago was give me the Maus books to read. There isn’t a lot I could say about these that hasn’t already been said more eloquently, so I won’t try to say a lot. But what especially amazed me when I got to the second volume was the way that the artist’s own story of having worked on the first volume had now woven its way into the second’s story. “And normally all the self-referential nonsense would have really bothered me,” a blogger who could have been me writes, “but that is the beauty of Maus. The self-referential stuff is what keeps it honest and grounded. It is what keeps it from becoming another Holocaust survival story and makes it into something much, much larger. It is what makes it so amazing.” Honest and grounded is all I’m ever trying for as an artist, and reading and loving these books has helped me figure out that maybe self-conscious, self-referential writing can serve that purpose instead of getting in its way. But anyway, here’s what I’ve been working on for the last six months.
No, don’t get up
I just need a pen before I lose this line
I left my notebook at home again
This happens every time
I gotta wake up and write this down
This ought to make a good start:
“Maybe we can’t stay together,
but it’s not enough to keep us apart”Six a.m.
My flight gets in
Of course I’m still awake
I went through all of my paper when
The sleeping pills didn’t take
Stretch, like a bass string, from the inside
Learn as I go along
Maybe we’re both out of practice,
but I’m working on a new songNo, don’t get up
I just need a rhyme for ’self-referentially’
I know my timing is terrible –
so, what time should we meet?
Not like I ever understood what the use is
of giving up before we start
You’re pretty good with excuses,
but it’s not enough to keep us apart
At 1:41 pm on July 2nd, 2007, Andrew Derksen wrote:
Hey, wow. I know that I am a musical philistine and such, but I still also know what I like. This is catchy, and well-delivered with what I feel is good pacing. It also feels consistent with your existing body of work. I’ll have to listen to it about four or five more times before I let it settle in and decide how I really feel about it, and whether I want to describe it as “better” than anything else you’ve done, but as of right now it is a potential contender for that coveted position of “favorites from this artist”.
At 8:33 pm on July 2nd, 2007, Lindsey wrote:
Thanks, Andrew. Better than anything else I’ve done…I don’t think I’d go so far as that either, but I am happy with it. I’d better be; it took long enough, right?
But, yeah, people have different ideas of what’s ‘best’. Often, the ones people like best don’t even break my personal top five…but I love that there’s a variety of opinion. I’d rather it be that way than have one knockout song and then a whole bunch of filler.
At 9:27 pm on July 4th, 2007, Eric wrote:
Hey Lindsey. So I took the plunge and listened to your song, even though I know you personally. :)
I like this one very much. I think it has a nice rhythmic pulse through the whole piece… I also like that the bass notes don’t go where I’d expect them to, but they’re a pleasant surprise when they hit. It’s one of my favorite things that a bass line can do in a song. :) (I don’t know if I described that well)
There was one small thing I thought I could offer some constructive criticism on, even though it’s totally a matter of taste. I hope you don’t mind (and I hope this is the kind of discussion you said you were hoping for and that I’m not just being an ass). :) I felt like the line “stretch like a bass string, from the inside” would have been a really nice opportunity to play up the exact same accents in “like a bass string” and “from the inside”… maybe my singing them on the same notes, or in the same rhythm, instead of stretching out “insi-ide” into three syllables.
But again, that’s just a matter of personal taste, and I’m certainly no songwriter, so I’m not really one to talk. :)
I hope it won’t be another year until the next song… I look forward to hearing more.
At 11:45 pm on July 4th, 2007, Lindsey wrote:
Eric, this is wonderful! It’s just the kind of feedback I want! Thanks!
Oh, man, the ’stretch like a bass string’ line. I heard a couple years ago that bass guitar strings break from the inside, and that idea’s metaphoric potential has never let me go, plus there’s that nice double rhyme on “breaking/bass string”. In two years of thinking about it, though, I’ve never quite been able to come up with something that I really want to write a song about that I’m willing to say is breaking from the inside. I finally went with “stretch” for the lack-of-sleep thing and because it (along with “learn”) implies something that can be good for you even if it hurts. (”Break” seems pretty hopelessly final.) I think that I was lamenting the loss of the double rhyme so much that I failed to notice the matching rhythm on “like a bass string”/”from the inside”. Hm. I don’t want to lose the third note on “inside” because I like that it’s the same descending three notes as “write this down” in the earlier verse. Ooh, what if I sang “from the inside out”? Then I get all three notes and the matching rhythm and it’s even a near rhyme with “down”. Yeah. (Heh. This is how it is with me: every word that makes it into the song better pull its weight.)
At 4:25 pm on July 8th, 2007, unbottled soul » Blog Archive » Breaking radio silence for this message from our sponsor. wrote:
[…] news, Lindsey Kuper’s latest (after what I hope is only a six-month hiatus) is called “Working on a New Song” and brings us a noteworthy shift in her style. While most of the other songs in her catalog […]
At 9:30 pm on September 2nd, 2007, Brian wrote:
Hey Lindsey, ecstatic to see you’re at it again after our little project floundered, I have missed being able to hear you. I still listen to all the old stuff, both on iPod and at home, and I’m glad I now have more stuff to add to the library… :]
Sorry I’m non-existent these days, it’s been a wild last year. Please know I still think of and miss spending times with you! My absence was never due to a lack of enjoyment or caring. And thanks again for posting new music, it was a sad year checking this site every few days and never seeing any activity…
At 12:37 pm on December 1st, 2007, Shoebox Full of Tapes » #27: Working on a New Song wrote:
[…] is a new version of the original. I tried to tighten it up, tweaked some of the chords (thirds on the bottom! CRAZY), and even tried […]