I have decided to give this another go, since my last attempt fizzled out and I ended up abandoning the song. This is a song I got the idea for last year and luckily I've recorded every step so far. Some of the audio I'm gonna share is...not intended for public consumption, but I think that is the spirit of this thread. Hopefully you guys find this useful or interesting, or maybe amusing haha. I think of it as like a How's It Made for one of my songs.
Georgie Wants to Be A Pop Star.
Initial Idea.
As with almost all of my songs, I start with a single lyric that I like, and it's from a conversation between my and my boyfriend. I am prone to fasting and bad dieting - going days or weeks eating very little - and he says it's not healthy. I agree and say: "It's not about living long, it's about looking good." That becomes the first line of the song.
One.
I find a key I like and write the melody for the first line. This time it happens to be the first line of the first verse that I had, but more often than not it is a chorus that comes to me first. Here, the tempo, melody, structure and genre are undecided and will be informed by my experimenting around the initial hook. As can be expected, this results in lots of unused melodies, bad chords etc. Below are the first initial few recordings. By 1.46 on clip one I have settled on a tempo and verse structure that is close to how the song ends up but is still very rough.
By the end of the clips, I have stumbled on the main melody for the verse and chorus, I just don't know it yet through all the other stuff. I also have a title character - Georgie.
Two.
I write the chorus melody with the name 'Georgie' in it, probably because I am reading Stephen King's It at the time and the main character's brother is called Georgie. I have decided the song is about me: I want to be a pop star, but I use the name Georgie because a) it isn't as on the nose as using my actual name and b) it sounds nicer and fits nicer with the chorus melody. With that in mind, I write the first set of lyrics:
It's not about living long it's about looking good
It's not about taking drugs it's about skipping food
And hanging out in Salzburg with a sad look on your face
Watching all the wheels go by
Georgie's crying 'cause he wants to be a pop star
Georgie's crying 'cause he wants to find it in his heart
To be a lover 'cause he needs to be a lover
Georgie wants to be a pop star now
Georgie wants to be a pop star now
I have also written a set of chords to serve as a musical break, and an ending with la's I am imagining a big crowd or choir singing to fade out. I now have the basic structure of the verses, the choruses, the middle 8 and the ending, with all the chords and some lyrics. To get to this stage has taken roughly a week. This is quite indicative. If an idea is any good it usually takes about 3-7 days to get here.
Three.
With the melody firmly in place I can complete the lyrics. This can take a long time for me because it is something I chip away at gradually, though sometimes they come quickly. With this particular song I am in no rush to record it. I have just begun work on my 80s album and know it doesn't belong there. With that in mind, it's a few months down the line before I eventually complete the lyrics.
It's not about living long it's about looking good
It's not about taking drugs it's about skipping food
And hanging out in Salzburg with a sad look on your face
Watching all the wheels go by
Georgie's crying 'cause he wants to be a pop star
Georgie's crying 'cause he wants to find it in his heart
To be a lover 'cause he needs to be a lover
Georgie wants to be a pop star now
And on the hottest day in June he looks for somewhere to go
They won the footie and took to the streets in their Volkswagon Carrados
He just stared at his continental and thought about Abbey Road
How the tape reels went round
Georgie's crying 'cause he wants to be a pop star
Georgie's crying 'cause he wants to find it in his heart
To be a lover 'cause he needs to be a lover
Georgie wants to be a pop star now
Georgie wants to be a pop star now
La la la la la la la
La la la la la la la
La la la la la la la x2
I have changed the odd chord here and there and moved the last line of the chorus to the second chorus only.
The song is finished! I do a quick version for myself on my iPhone so I don't forget it, but I don't usually do this. It goes on the back burner for a year or so. Today I have started recording the track for my next album, where I think it belongs. Updates to follow!
Some notes on lyrics: The airport in the first verse was supposed to be Schipol where I have actually been, on a work trip to Belgium as described in the second verse. Schipol sounds horrible sung, so I changed it to Salzburg. I'll always lose the facts to accommodate the song. The line "to be a lover 'cause he needs to be a lover" in the chorus was most probably inspired by It, too - in the recent film someone gets 'loser' scrawled on their cast and they modify it to read lover. Nothing else to it, really.