Grateful Dead Music Forum

DeadlyHeptet wrote: So again, my take is you write music because first and foremost, you need to write it. Listen to everything, steal what you can, but run it through your own grid and say what you can within your abilities. Also, I'm often too lazy to figure out music from a recording and would just rather spend the time with my own stuff.

Agreed, that's the only reason to do music original or otherwise . . . well, and to get chicks

I don't think it's laziness - it's what you do.

You gotta follow the path that you find interesting. If others come along, great. If not, then at least you're amusing yourself. I'm not a songwriter. I don't have the knack for it. I like to play guitar live, that's what does it for me. Songwriting and performing have always been two different animals to me. Two different skill sets. Some have both some a great at one or another. Hopefully for those who are strong in only one area they find a match that they can work with in the other. I've played with some great songwriters and hopefully I added something somewhat original to them.

Here's a Jam-Band style original I wrote about a combo of characters I used to go to shows with and/or guys I used to run into at shows but never knew or saw in daily life (east coast... anyone remember a guy named "Star'?).
I rolled em into one and named him (and the song) "Spacious James" (which was also our band name when we opened for The New Riders, Dec '05).

It came out kind of like a Subdudes version of an up tempo version of the St.Stephen verse chords E>D>A, with some F#m>G breaks at the end of some verses...
After the F#m>G, the solo is like a funk jam in B7 (kinda like the B jam in MNS).
Every DeadHead has a friend like this, no???

'Down to the pub to have a brew [Hey Spacious James]
He wants to shoot some stick with you [Hey Spacious James]
Step out back to have a smoke [Hey Spacious James]
Let Spacious James get one more toke [Hey Spacious James]
... He'll thank you Kindly

If you're runnin' dry, and in a bind
Ol' Spacious James, will treat you Kind
Pack up your ride, it's time to go
With Spacious James, off to the show
[Hey Spacious James]

Out in the lot, he's sellin' beer
'Say's "'Soundcheck's soundin' good from here"
Grab two more, that's what he'll do
Cuz Spacious' is goin' in with you
... They opened with Shakedown

Oh Man, What were those songs I missed?
Don't worry Bro, Space' makes a list.
Hey Spacious James, are we still tight?
Yeah Bro, Crispy 'Boards of all three nights!
... Check out my J-Cards

Hey Spacious met two Deadhead Chicks
With a Frisbee Dog, and Rhythm Styx
"Hey Space', You comin' home with us?..."
He just waived, and hopped right in thier bus
[Hey Spacious James!!!]
... I'll see you like, Tuesday......

I also wrote and performed a few country and western swing style songs during the years I was playing that style.
When I lived in Wyoming we lived near the Montana state line... Wyoming bars close at 10pm on Sundays, so we had a good Sunday night gig at the State line (Warren, Montana), and by 10:30, the place was hoppin' with Wyoming folks.
Anyway... there was a waitress who had the name "Leather" on the back of her belt, and a town drunk named Van, and I wrote a song about my observations of them (I changed her name to "Midnight" and the story is told by Van).

4/4 shuffle, moderate tempo-
Verse 1:
When the sun sets on the streets of this ol' one horse town
Night rolls up the avenue, and pulls the curtains down
There's a place where I can go tonight, just across the state line
To see a waitress working grave-yard shift, who calls herself Midnight

Verse 2:
A cup of coffee, and the blue-plate please, fine and you?... though, I'd be lying
Were I to say I felt no loneliness, nor sorrow deep inside
I'm just killing time this afternoon, but this evening, yes that's right
Just across the state line, you'll find me... closer to Midnight

Chorus:
Towards Midnight I'm driving, till I see that flashing neon sign
My heart beats anticipation of, eleven-fifty-nine
She'll wave away my loneliness, she'll make everything seem right
Just across the state-line you'll find me closer to Midnight

Solo
Chorus
Repeat and Fade out on the line:
Just across the state-line you'll find me closer to Midnight

2min 38sec...
Corny enough for ya?

tcsned wrote: Songwriting and performing have always been two different animals to me. Two different skill sets. Some have both some a great at one or another. Hopefully for those who are strong in only one area they find a match that they can work with in the other. I've played with some great songwriters and hopefully I added something somewhat original to them.

I am like that too. My words are usually horrible or unclear, and with as much as I talk I should be good at it. I can come up with chord progressions, bridges, jams, codas, blah blah but I can't write words to save my life. I tried to write a ballad song we are working on right now, and everyone gets tongue tied trying to sing it. I have proposed re-writing it or someone else can chop it up, but they are trying to make it work to save my feelings... The funny thing is, I want it to sound good, so the real solution is to rewrite it. I can tell when something is just plain wrong.

What Pete did there, I just can't get the right words to paint an event in 5-8 words or less with rhyme and meter. That sounds cool Pete. Tell me the chords, that song would go over well down here, maybe it will be a hit in the deep south! (that is if you give me permission to play it without having to pay royalties)

Anyone want to try collaborating on some tunes? Like swap music and have someone write lyrics for it? Don't quite know how the logistics could work, but might be an interesting experiment.

I would. I have a hard time writing lyrics, I can write the music though... PM me if you have an idea of the best way to do this...I have one right now ready for words... My Son has my analog 4 track and I am stuck with a voice recorder to jot down ideas so I don't forget but the fidelity is horrible. Is there a free program you can lay down track by track out there?

You can do that with Audacity. Great program.

Sweet thanks Rusty.. .

I play in an orginal band. We play a good amount of dead and other tunes. They all pretty much get flavored as we dont get crazy about replicating anything.
Heres a link to our FB page (im low tech and dont have any audio on my puter). http://www.facebook.com/pages/Stealin-t ... 769?v=wall

First track is two songs, Welcome Woman (countryish tune) and Music with my Brothers (reggae). Shadows in the sky and Moments Made of gold are also a few newer tunes. Actually Shadows in the sky was wrote the night before the show that the recording is from.

We(High Peaks) got together about 5 years ago now. We started out with the whole 6 man GD lineup. 2 drummers, keys, guitars and bass. Worked hard at getting the gear, tones, licks and arrangements down. We did all GD. It didn't pay off. We would get about 20 people in the crowd. About 10 would sing along to Truckin, Casey Jones or Touch and there would always be 1 or 2 Heads that were really into it.

I had been playing Dead stuff for over twelve years by that point and was ready to not play it so much. About 2 years ago we really started working originals into the sets and some other obscure covers.

The originals have been going great and we are currently looking for a management company to do some serious recording and marketing.

Heres an original: Its a little more politically charged then the rest of our stuff.. More about class disparity than any party line.. Dems and Reps are just different sides of the same coin, working for the uber-rich, sending the sheeple to war to die for their wallets.
Sinking Ships
123123123123123
G A B A C G
G D Em C
Have you ever felt lost out at Sea
C Em D G
With your ragtag bitter company
G D Em C
With the illusion of democracy
C EM D G
You can't grab it, its just out of reach
"" "" "" ""
When your wandering to and fro
In your travels wherever you go
Rest easy cuz its good to know
I'll shelter you from the cold

Em D Bm C
We've been dashed on the rocks, and flown with the flocks from a million miles away
Say it again, bring blood to my skin, thats all i want to say

G A B A C G
G D Em C
And time is moving so fast
C Em D G
Wonder who'll have the last laugh
G D Em C
Because your guns and money and such
C EM D G
Really don't add up to much
"" "" "" ""
Truths that are held paper thin
Traditions have been locked in
Like the wall will come tumbling down
No longer time to fuck around

Em D Bm C
We've been dashed on the rocks, and flown with the flocks from a million miles away
Say it again, bring blood to my skin, thats all i want to say

G A B A C G
Bridge:
Em, Em, Em, Em
Em D Bm C
repeat x 4

G A B A C G
G D Em C
If your still lost out at sea
C Em D G
Drowning in your apathy
G D Em C
This used to be the land of the free
C EM D G
Now a third world corporate colony
"" "" "" ""
Promises broke by the hour
In their constant pursuit of power
But your guns and money and such
Really don't add up to much

Em D Bm C
We've been dashed on the rocks, and flown with the flocks from a million miles away
Say it again, bring blood to my skin, thats all i want to say

G A B A C G

This is a list of characters appearing in the related shows and films. The information is broken down by production and sorted by original air date or release date.













justice league characters

With Beyond Further we will sandwch one of our originals into a setlist like Eyes>Squeeky Clean4x4's>Not Fade Away. and the crowd usaually likes it and so does the band

Did any of these collaboration ideas ever take off? I have whole songs written and no lyrics so i am would be on board with some of you more lyrically inclined folks.

David

Not much of a writer but years ago I wrote one about politics over the years...started with probably my best verse ever...referring to JFK and RFK
Come around her people
Got a story to tell
Just a couple of players
And you know them all pretty well
Starts in Dealy Plaza
On a grassy knoll
You've all seen it a thousand times
They let the cameras roll
5 years later
A little more of the same
Different man, Different vision, Different gun
But not a different name.
We remember the bad times,
That's what keeps us bitchin'
Don't drive with the top down
Don't go through the kitchen...Yeah


I'm plagued with the story telling lyric...I have no idea how to be artistic with word play like Hunter.