Songwriting tip: Symbolic cities can be a person
“Sweet Home Alabama,” “New York State of Mind,” “Ventura Highway”–these are three memorable songs that capture themes about a place we all can share. Writing about a city is a helpful tool for the songwriter to make lyrics memorable.
Oh my Kalamazoo, how I miss you!
Sometimes a song not only needs a setting, but a symbolic city. Places are the landscapes around the people we know–or knew–there, and using a metaphorical city to represent a person can add depth to a static tune. I borrowed this strategy when writing “Kalamazoo.” The last verse invokes the memory of walking on that herringbone bricked street found at Kalamazoo Mall years after I had graduated from WMU. Revisiting my college town was like revisiting the steps of my past. Even though most of the people I knew there had moved too, the memories of those people came rushing back to me.
Let’s consider another song with a symbolic city, Ryan Adam’s hit “New York, New York.” The song became an anthem for NYC after 9-11 because of the chorus’s optimism: “I still love you New York!” However, the song is really addressing lost love, a girl associated with the city. I love how the verses nostalgically walk through the memory of the unnamed person as much as the memory of the named city, with such odd lines that only Ryan Adam could find.
Symbolic cities help us to add depth to a song and give us a palate of details to use. If you get stuck during the Noreastr 24 Hour Song Challenge, revisit a place from your life and a person you knew there.
“New York, New York”
Well, I shuffled through the city on the 4th of July
I had a firecracker waiting to blow
Breakin’ like a rocket who makin’ its way
To the cities of Mexico
Lived in an apartment out on Avenue A
I had a tar-hut on the corner of 10th
Had myself a lover who was finer than gold
But I’ve broken up and busted up since
Chorus
And love don’t play any games with me
Anymore like she did before
The world won’t wait, so I better shake
That thing right out there through the door
Hell, I still love you, New York
Found myself a picture that would fit in the folds
Of my wallet and it stayed pretty good
Still amazed I didn’t lose it on the roof of the place
When I was drunk and I was thinking of you
Every day the children they were singing their tune
Out on the streets and you could hear from inside
Used to take the subway up to Houston and 3rd
I would wait for you and I’d try to hide
And love won’t play any games with me
Anymore if you don’t want it to
The world won’t wait and I watched you shake
But honey, I don’t blame you
Hell, I still love you, New York
Hell, I still love you, New York
New York
I remember Christmas in the blistering cold
In a church on the upper west side
Babe, I stood their singing, I was holding your arm
You were holding my trust like a child
Found a lot of trouble out on Avenue B
But I tried to keep the overhead low
Farewell to the city and the love of my life
At least we left before we had to go
And love won’t play any games with you
Anymore if you want ’em to
So we better shake this old thing out the door
I’ll always be thinkin’ of you
I’ll always love you though New York
I’ll always love you though New York, New York, New York
Adams, Ryan. “New York, New York.” Gold. Lost Highway, 2001.
(If you just asked, “What is the Noreastr Festival?” read this blog and check out their website.)
Breaking news! I just pitched an idea and the board liked it, so I will be hosting the first ever 24 Hour Songwriting Challenge during the Noreastr Festival in June. Best of all, it’s free for festival attendees to participate!
Here’s how it works. On Saturday (probably around 11 AM), I’ll be hosting a songwriting challenge workshop. Particpants will be assigned three words, and they will have 24 hours to write a song using those three words. The only rules for the competition is the lyrics must use those three words in some way (not only in the title).
Then, on Sunday participants will meet up for an “in-the-round” songwriting circle to share their creations. Prizes will be awarded for winners, but the main goal is to inspire creation and community. Also, I’ll be featuring regular blogs with songwriting tips each week leading up to Noreastr Festival (June 10-12).
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I must give credit where credit is due: My idea was inspired from my participation in last year’s Ypsilanti Songwriting Festival‘s at the Ypsilanti District Library. Here’s a video of me playing at the YSF10.
June 10-12 – Noreastr Festival
1889 Caldwell Rd
Mio, Michigan
Noreastr Festival is, hands down, my favorite music event in Michigan. I’ve performed at it years past, and have been attending it for the last three years as a concert-goer. I encourage you to join us for a fun weekend of music, food, and community!
20 reasons I love to attend this festival:
- Excellent roots music line-up, blending Michigan musicians and national acts
- Small enough to be apart of the music, large enough to be an event (roughly 1000 attendees)
- Close enough to drive in an afternoon for Michigan residents, but still feels like an adventure
- Camping where the musicians camp too
- The gorgeous, scenic Michigan setting
- Free workshops about songwriting, guitar playing, mandolins, etc.
- Larry’s “Gobs n’ Knobs” workshop about PA set-up tips!
- Multiple chances to see an act from the main stag or the parlor room
- Campfire guitar circles late into the night!
- Rootstand’s informal drum circle sing-alongs at the bonfire
- Annie Capps’s enthusiastic MC presence!
- Seeing an act for the first time, and becoming an immediate fan (Last year fav: Caravan of Thieves)
- Checking out the vendors selling crafts, hand-made drums, metal work, art, etc.
- Buying food for affordable prices
- The Blue Water Rambler’s late-night/early morning jam sessions
- Meeting new people at the campsites
- Being interviewed by A3 Radio who broadcasts live from the festival
- Affordable ticket prices
- Seeing impressive guitar playing on stage (like Jason Dennie!)
- Easy to find, easy to park, easy to depart
Noreastr Festival is about community. You get to know the people at the festival, and you’ll see them again if you continue going to local shows like Carrick’s House Concerts in Clarkston, a Seth Bernard show at the Blind Pig, a Step ‘in It show at the Green Door, or Blissfest. This is a place where friendships form, where musicians rub elbows, where you will be introduced to new roots music.
I encourage you to join us!
Here’s a tip for the beginning guitar player, the one who is starting to get discouraged, the one who might give up. Go grab a pair of shoes and put them on your feet. Tie those shoelaces, and really think about how you do it. Then come back and read the rest of this blog.
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OK, your back! Boy, remember how hard it was to learn to tie your shoes when you were little? Remember the pride you experienced after finally tying those sneakers on your own?
Actually, no. I don’t remember either. I’ve forgotten what that felt like too. We take it for granted. We tie our shoes everyday without anxiety, without frustration, without thinking about it…
Van Halen Nike shoes, awesome.
I want to remind all of you beginning guitar players that learning to play guitar can (and will) become the same! If you keep at it, you will one day forget how hard it was to learn, like tying your shoes. The problem is the learning curve to guitar mastery is higher. Guitar playing requires a physicality and mental prowess, and these two things need to work together.
The physical part? Your fingers’ muscles need to get stronger. Your fingertips need to develop callous. Your two arms and your two hands need to develop the fluid motions of working together. The mental part? You need to learn chords and scales. You need to learn how to read at sheet music and tabs. You have to learn a new vocabulary, the vocabulary of music theory.
Then you need to put those two things together, and stop thinking about it all when you play! If it was easy, everyone would do it. But it’s not easy. None of this is automatic at first. Your brain needs to tackle these concepts, and it will.
Just remember this the next time you tie your shoes, that strumming the three chords of “Sweet Home Alabama,” playing the opening riff to “Purple Haze,” or soloing a pentatonic over “Layla” will one day be automatic.
Tying our shoes is our daily reminder that what is hard now will be easy after practice.
Yes, guitar players, we need to have extra capos. Just like extra packs of strings. And backups for the extras.
Have one in every acoustic guitar case. Have one in your glovebox of your car. Have one separate for practice at home. Just don’t simply survive on one capo. Why?
I learned the hard way when I was just getting started. Aaron Noone and I were hired to play an island party in the Fenton area. I think it might have been our first or second “real” (that means paid) gig as a duo. A pontoon boat had to transport us and our gear to the island where we were performing to an excited crowd celebrating the Michigan/Michigan State Football team seasons.
So we get step up, are about to start, and I realize I had forgotten my capo. Yep. I had hitch a ride on the pontoon boat to get back to my car, drive home, and cause a late start time. (Sorry about that Aaron!) An hour and half later when I arrived with capo in hand, the island partiers were getting antsy. One of them said, “Wait, the hold up was for that clamp thing?”
Yep. The capo is that important to the acoustic player. Keep extras. Everywhere.
