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Songs written in 10 mins

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Sing4me88

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« on: May 29, 2017, 09:22:31 PM »
Following on from some great chat in threads about songs that follow their own direction and how to know when a song is 'finished' I thought I'd share this article on hit songs that were apparently written in 10 minutes.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/e1598eeb-14eb-4c0a-a07d-473a1209e52f?intc_type=promo&intc_location=sport&intc_campaign=10minutesongs&intc_linkname=bbcmusic_ent_article1

Gill

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« Reply #1 on: May 29, 2017, 11:03:03 PM »
Yes sometimes the best songs ever written were also the quickest written too  ;)

Viscount Cramer & His Orchestra

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« Reply #2 on: May 30, 2017, 05:29:56 AM »
Typically misleading journalism where they lure you in with a sensational heading... 10 hugely famous songs that took less than 10 minutes to write...then backtrack.

'Within minutes he had the basics of one of his biggest hit singles'

'within minutes they had the essentials of a song'

'This clip....appears to be an accurate representation in real time of how long it took..'

'Which puts the length of time it took to complete the song as somewhere between no time at all and several weeks'

I don't doubt that the germ of an idea or the main riff or the hook can come quickly but songs don't get written in 10 minutes.....OK I can almost accept 'What'd I Say' by Ray Charles which is a basic blues progression with throwaway lyrics...

Hey mama, don't you treat me wrong
Come and love your daddy all night long
All right now, hey hey, all right

See the girl with the diamond ring
She knows how to shake that thing
All right now now now, hey hey, hey hey

Well, tell me what'd I say, yeah
Tell me what'd I say right now
Tell me what'd I say
Tell me what'd I say right now
Tell me what'd I say
Tell me what'd I say yeah

etc

...but nobody wants to hear about a song being agonised over do they? They want to hear that Mick n Keef wrote Satisfaction while Charlie Watts was off taking a dump.



Take it easy.

You can check my stuff out here. Mini-album getting bigger slowly. Free download if you're poorer than me.

Easy Life - Viscount Cramer

Sing4me88

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« Reply #3 on: May 30, 2017, 09:14:01 PM »
I dunno VC... I still think its a big feat to A) have written a hit at all and B) to have organically and naturally come up with some major component of that in 10 minutes.Imagine how easy it'd be if writing hits in 10 minutes were the norm. One hour a month for a year or so would set anyone up for life on the royalties  :D

Marrianna

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« Reply #4 on: May 30, 2017, 09:50:17 PM »
Maybe songs written quickly have a more natural flow than those agonised over? Crafting a song already written can either improve it or, in the end, spoil the 'ease' of the song. I wrote new lyrics for the song Three Coins In The Fountain and won first prize in a TV contest. I was inspired because of the contest being set by the American lyricist Sammy Cahn who wrote so many successful songs for Frank Sinatra. I think that, because of such an amazing chance to meet Sammy Cahn, I wrote the best words I could in 10 to 12 minutes. I had the reward of Sammy Cahn travelling back from the USA to appear on TV to sing my lyrics with me standing in the wings listening. It was the biggest accolade I could have had. I didn't recognize the royalty cheque because I had never had one before so it was not ever cashed. :-)
All a long time ago now but an experience never to be forgotten.
Marrianna :-)

Martinswede

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« Reply #5 on: June 03, 2017, 10:40:18 AM »
Maybe songs work by their own set of conditions apart from other
art forms or is it just a western industrialist thing to give merit to
things achieved quickly?

I'd say it's just about a big contest.

Also I see a parallel to the obsession with wonder children and
so called geniuses. Some kind of raw talent. A person who defies
such mundane things as gravity and taps straight into the mysterious
realm of music.

While I had a cigar with the cat I came up with the line
'I wanted to want you' For me it related to some emotional content I
considered strong enough to write a song about so I tried it.
I put the timer on 10 and started writing.
I wrote a first verse and got half through a B part when the jazzy new
age melody of my phone told me Times up Buddy.

All in all the question that still occupies me is how long it took for
G. Harrison to write 'I got my mind set on you'.

Thanks for the space!

Martin

Andyb

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« Reply #6 on: July 17, 2017, 11:58:41 AM »
While waiting my better half to get ready before a gig I grabbed my acoustic and pretty much wrote our song (The Signal Fires) "consequence of love" in 10 mins I had the melody, hook, and a good chunk of the lyrics down. It just flowed out so easily, I wish I could say this happens a lot but it doesn't. HOWEVER by the time we hit the studio we got bogged down in production hell and this happened to be the song that took the longest to release. Sometimes less is more and all that.

adamfarr

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« Reply #7 on: July 18, 2017, 09:49:30 AM »
I sometimes think "they" enjoy spreading these rumours so that we feel they "have it" and we don't, so we'll just give up...  ;)

In a way I don't really care - not only can I personally not do this, but I am also unlikely ever to have a hit record, and both of those things are OK ...

Wicked Deeds

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« Reply #8 on: July 18, 2017, 12:51:52 PM »
Some songs are written in the briefest of time, others take much longer.  When you strip both kinds of songs back to a single instrument and guitar, they both have their merits and sometimes flaws.  it's important to write, no matter how long the process takes. I think with practice, it's quite possible to write well in a short space of time.

Paul

PopTodd

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« Reply #9 on: July 19, 2017, 06:55:05 PM »
I barely remember writing this one. Took me about as long to write as it took me to actually write the words on the page.
Quite a few folks think it's my best song. Me? Not sure. But it seems to have held up.
https://hoponpop.bandcamp.com/track/i-got-it-back

LYRICS:
I looked at myself, with my own eyes
And said, "You'd better do something"
I took my life in my own hands, and felt its weight
And then I threw it as far as
I could
Feel my hot breath on my neck
And I put that all aside
I got shook down
When I looked around
I found I'd lost my life

And I had to get it back, but didn't know where to start looking
So I wandered aimlessly, saw some old friends
But they didn't know me
So, I broke down
Sat on the ground
And I heard something snap
Then, I got up and, sure enough
It was broken
But I got it back

I got it back

And now I watch it twice as hard, in doing that
I think I'm losing
What I've been dedicated to, and cannot lose
Because I'll never find it
Again
I'm lost
And I know this time
I'll never get it back
It was held too tight
With all my might
And now it's more than cracked

But I got it back