I’ve worked up a totally new demo for “Going to Memphis”. It’s still one of those Nah Nah La La demos in the verse and bridge but the loyal readers of this blog should be completely acclimated to that sort of thing by now. If you heard the original demo you’ll notice a few things with the arrangement, besides the obvious fact that the original demo was only a chorus and a verse.

First of all the verse from the first demo is now the bridge. I think it works better as a bridge. The chord changes (Em/A, D/A, Dm/A, C…if you’re following along at home) are too strong and have too much pull to function as a verse. And the melody is just plain bridge-y.

Secondly the chorus is now half as long. The double chorus doesn’t happen until the end. If I had left the chorus at it’s original length it would have been gross overkill with three double choruses. I really like the turn around in the middle of the double chorus (D, A, C#7, F#m, Bm, B7, E, E7) but it only works if you let it lead to another chorus. So I kept the second chorus from the original demo and made it the main chorus. The turn around in this one sounds much more final and leads nicely to the verse (D, A, C#7, F#m, Bm, Dm, A).

Of course this is just an acoustic demo but there definitely needs to be something that texturally sets the verse apart from the chorus. The change is just not obvious enough. I’ve got some ideas. We’ll worry about that later. The bridge also needs to build more as the background vocal is added. The bridge is just too damn long if we don’t find something to keep it moving along.

So that’s my thought process so far. Hope ya like it.

Click here to download the new demo.

4.23 MB (at 192 kbps)

3:05

Click here to download the original demo.

1.5 MB (at 192 kbps)

1:05

I just finished reading this book about songwriting by Jason Blume. He talks about everything from writing strong melodies to mechanical royalties to publishing deals. Pretty interesting stuff. He said that for a song charting in the top 5 the songwriter usually makes anywhere from $300,000 to $800,000. For a “Song of the Year” the writer usually makes millions.

I’ve been interested in persuing a publishing deal for a few years now. That’s why I bought the book. I’ve got two or three songs that I think could possibly draw some interest. The great thing about the publishing scene is that it doesn’t matter how good looking you are, how old you are, how willing you are to tour, or how willing you are to blow the A&R guy. The only thing that matters is your writing skill.

Now I am completely aware of the fact that getting a song published by a major recording artist is almost as likely as getting your face on the cover of Rolling Stone but it’s worth a shot right? Yes. For a shot at a few hundred grand? You betcha.

If anyone is interested, I’ll sell Twenty Miles from Waterloo right now for a carton of smokes and a book of stamps.

For the last few days my blog has been getting bombarded by spam bots. Today I had 35 new comments by some online casino. I’ve been doing my best to delete these when they happen but if you see one before I get to it for God’s sake please don’t click on the link. That just let’s them know we exist.

My voice is feeling 100% better these days. My mucus problem isn’t completely solved yet but we’re getting close. I haven’t been doing so great with the quitting smoking thing. I’ve cut way back but I still smoke a couple-two-three (that was for my fans in southern Missourah) a night. I don’t buy my own cigarettes anymore so now I just have to bum Angel’s toxic shit. That’s been an effective deterrent so far.

I also bought a humidifier as suggested by my doctor. The first night I used it I put it on our dresser and it didn’t seem to do that much. I woke up with a substantially lower booger count but I was still pretty dried out. So the next night I decided to look humidity right in the eye and put the humidifier on a TV tray by the head of the bed. The bastard must have felt threatened by my bold faced challenge. I woke up in the middle of the night and my face, pillow, and comforter were completely drenched. I don’t mean just a little damp—I mean fucking soaked. So I did the logical thing and turned my pillow over and went back to sleep. I’ve since moved it a little farther away so as not to be in it’s damage radius.

I just got home from a songwriting session with Brian McClelland (Maxtone Four) for a super secret government project that I may or may not be involved in. I cannot confirm or deny that we worked out three songs that I totally dig. Could this be my first side project ever?

I’m definitely not a side project kind of guy. I get a precious few song ideas as it is so I have a tendency to be very protective of them. But when Brian approached me with this idea of his and told me of the other writers/musicians that had committed to doing it I couldn’t say no.

This is going to be a huge undertaking and it’s certainly ambitious to say the least so I don’t expect the progress to be quick but we definitely got a great start tonight. I’ll keep you posted on the progress as I am allowed to.

My wife has recently returned to the blogging scene. I hate it when she does her blog because it just reminds me that she’s funnier than me. That’s OK though…I have the bigger penis.

Whenever she reads my blog she’ll usually give me a consolation laugh. It’s one of those laughs that’s more like blowing a little air out of your nose. I know that means “Keep trying honey. You’ll get it.” It’s the same reaction I used to get years ago when I’d play her my demos. It was that very thing that inspired The Beautiful Text.

My songwriting has gotten a little better over the years. Now every once in a while I’ll actually get some tears out of her when I play a new song. That’s the best. She still cries when I play Home. I intend to milk that tear cow for all it’s worth.

Tomorrow night I’m going to see Maxtone Four at The Pageant. They’ll go on around 9:30 or 10:00. Come out and say hi…or show me your boobs…or buy me a drink…or tell me I’m sexy.

I’ve been working on the “Going to Memphis” song a lot lately. I’m having a hard time with the lyrics. I always do. In The Beautiful Text (a song about songwriting) I wrote “when words are coming slow they’ve come quite blessed”. I don’t really know if that’s true…probably not…it just fit the song…and it probably took me two months to come up with that line.

Whenever I write a song I usually have one or two lines that come early in the process. In Dog and Pony Show I had the line “I hope you gave ‘em attitude” for a long time before I figured out what the song was actually going to be about. It’s the same thing with Going to Memphis. The line “I’m going to Memphis gonna sell my soul away” came right off the bat. But now I’m wondering what that means. Do I really want to write another “sell your soul to the devil” song? I don’t know. Maybe. I guess I need to determine exactly what the song is about before I just keep on writing random lines that may or may not work. I’ve got page after page of lyrics for this song and I still don’t know if they even go together.

I was listening to NPR the other day and heard an interview with the widow of some songwriter I had never heard of. She said that he always wrote lyrics first. He (and she) insisted that the words were more important than the melody. I completely disagree. If someone were asked to quote lyrics from their favorite album and then asked to sing melodies from that same album which do you thing they would be able to do more of? Melody is everything. You can tell a story many different ways using many different combinations of words but you can’t do the same with melody. Changing the melody can quickly turn a great song into a completely forgettable song. A great melody can tell the story for you. You don’t even need lyrics…just a title.

Alanis Morissette is the worst about cramming her lyrics into a great melody. In her song “Uninvited” she sings “I am flattered by your fascination with me”. That’s a perfectly good line until you insist on putting it with the melody of that song. Because of the rhythm and accents of the melody, the line comes out as “I am flat turd”.

Melody is king. Words are for pussies.

I’ve almost reached the end of day two without a cigarette. This sucks. I feel a lot better and I hate it. The only place in the house that I used to smoke was right here in my computer chair (No, we never smoked around Riley. He stays upstairs and we smoke downstairs) so the longer I sit here and write this the more I want a smoke. I have lost all sense of humor so check back tomorrow.

I swore I would never let this blog turn into a series of links (like BoingBoing or Slashdot) but this deserves an exception. Natalie Portman’s rap on SNL is one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a long time. This is one of those jokes that could have gone horribly wrong but went perfectly right.

Angel and I have been on a movie-watching losing streak here lately. Here is a list of movies we’ve seen that I was supposed to like but didn’t.

The Constant Gardner – This was probably a good movie but I didn’t like it. It was well acted and it looked great but there was absolutely no flow at all. The intensity was turned up to ten the entire movie.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire – Pfft. I liked the last one…The Prisoner of Asskissband or whatever.

A History of Violence – David Cronenberg has the most amazing ability to direct great actors to act like junior high students. The spoon feeding of the story was laughable. Nothing was implied.

Good Night and Good Luck – Half of this movie was the original footage from the McCarthy mess. The other half was good actors talking over each other. I really wanted to like this movie.

Yeah I know, it was a slow news day around the Johnson compound.

The assault on my mucus problem begins tomorrow. I figure I might as well go ahead and quit smoking while I’m at it. It shouldn’t be a problem. Hell, I’ve quit like 500 times before. I’m an old pro.

I’m going to try and not sing until our gig on April 1st. That should be enough time to get me back to normal.

Speaking of that gig…the band that was opening for us has cancelled. If you know of any good bands that are available that night let us know.

Here’s a comment Jeff posted on yesterday’s blog.

“Drew and Angel,

Saw The Shazam last night at the ‘International Pop Overthrow’ festival here in Nashville. Hans said to tell you both hello. Drew, he also said to tell you he feels like a complete ass because he hasn’t e-mailed you back yet- something about a Myspace account that someone else runs and he didn’t get your e-mail till recently or something. Anyway, he also mentioned that he thought you were a musical genius- so there you go.”

Well my feelings towards Hans are mutual for sure. For those of you not familiar with The Shazam you need to drop everything and get with the program. Hans is the singer/guitarist for The Shazam and a long lost friend of mine. Hans, Angel, and I used to work at a record store together when we all lived in Nashville. Hans is the guy who said “Dude, that chick is like totally into you. Quit fuckin’ around and ask her out.” So I did and here we are 13 years later all married and shit. Thanks Hans.

I’ve been friends with many talented songwriters over the years but none have caused me to feel as much envy as Hans. Their second album “Godspeed The Shazam” is probably in my top ten favorite albums of all time. When I first heard it I did not feel joy for a friend’s great accomplishment. I thought “I hate that fucking prick”. It was so far ahead of anything I was writing at the time. I think that’s still pretty much where my feelings for Hans stand. Pure envy.

Hans has been the yardstick by which I measure everything I do. I think I’ve finally caught up to him in songwriting, singing, and guitar playing skill but he has far surpassed me in success…then again who hasn’t? Godspeed The Shazam. Bastards!