Dave Grohl songwriting secrets

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tone

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« on: February 03, 2012, 07:04:58 PM »
If only this was less true
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Ramshackles

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« Reply #1 on: February 03, 2012, 08:34:11 PM »
Except that Dave Grohl is the last person I'd turn to if I wanted an interesting and varied catalogue of songwriting......
And the 'other dude from tenacious D' is the last person I would turn to if I wanted something other than a generic 'funny' song...

There is hope!

The Corsair

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« Reply #2 on: February 04, 2012, 12:10:23 AM »
I beg to differ about Dave's work. He isn't one of the best lyric writers of the day but he is at least varied in subject matter, which can't be said for many big musicians of the day. Also, Dave's main focus is to keep up no-bullshit rock and that's something he continues to do well.

Kyle Gass and Jack Black on the other hand ride the line between 'actual serious rock' and 'taking the piss out of rock' so it's hard to say they're 'generically funny'. In fact I think it's impossible to say there's such a thing as 'generic funny music'. Take a look at bands that dabble in comedy music and there's enormous variety. Flight of The Conchords, The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing, Puscifer and so on.

I don't think I've ever found myself in so much disagreement with one of your posts Ramshackles...
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Schavuitje

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« Reply #3 on: February 04, 2012, 12:16:03 AM »
And yet we know who they are and they don't know who we are...

Sadly I could have spent a month putting a video together and not come up with one that could

have put it better in such a short time.

There's a market out there for "other" music of course... But if you want hits then this is the best video

you could watch.

And it is totally backed up by the fact that if you analyze the songs that have been hits throughout chart history,

not many "hits" fall outside of this basic, 4/4, 3 minute long, standard way of writing.

I realized quite a while ago that "most general listeners of music" not all, are hapy to keep listening to the same chords repeated in thousands of songs.

Don't care whether it's a very clever piece of writing or that there's a really cool groove going on in 7's, or how that was really cool how it went from Am to A at the end

of the guitar phrase.

Most listen to music like children listen to nursary ryhmes... Which is why I like to call most of what's in "The charts" Nursary rhymes for adults.

I think most songwriters care too much about thier art ( I like to think I am one of them ) and care to much about stifling their creativity be restrict

themselves so strictly to those "rules", thankfully, and that's why there is so much great music out there. And the ones that don't care, write all the hit songs and

make all the money  :P
There are holes in the sky where the rain gets in  , but they're ever so small, that's why rain is thin.

Ramshackles

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« Reply #4 on: February 04, 2012, 12:48:06 AM »
Yeah Schav, ... I guess the question is do you want hits or do you want to enjoy making music? It must be hard to have fun when you are just writing variations on the same thing over and over...

But the internet and social media is (or hopefully is) making it easier and easier for people to find new stuff and what they like, rather than what the NME or Chris Evans tells them they should like...
Ever here of Gotye? He's a home-recording guy, had a hit in Australia, but never got airplay in the rest of the world (probably he couldnt afford the 'tip' for US/UK radio) and didnt get much press coverage.
Youtube to the rescue - 50m views later:

Without a few bigwigs controlling what we listen to on the basis of their own whims, the cream really can rise to the top...

Corsair: I guess it's just a difference of taste. Foo Fighters never did it for me. They peaked very very early with This Is a Call IMO. Best thing Dave grohl did since Nirvana was the drums for Queens of the stone age. I'd take Nirvana over Foo Fighters any day...
As for Tenacious D...maybe it's cause I just watched Gullivers Travels (mistake) and Im on an anti-jack-black wave....

The Corsair

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« Reply #5 on: February 04, 2012, 12:56:44 AM »
Again I beg to differ about Gotye. YouTube wasn't really what made him big and global. Several DJ's and the like had already picked up on his work and were putting it out on their 'hottest tracks right now'-type compilations.

Also, I'd take Nirvana over the Foos any day too but that's because Nirvana were one of the major carriers of Grunge music and have a place in history. A band like the Foos could never compete with that despite the obvious associations.
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tone

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« Reply #6 on: February 04, 2012, 03:50:41 PM »
I'd never even heard of Gotye before reading this thread - but that song is really beautiful, and has amazing production.

But that's not the reason I'm posting. There's two things that concern me - what does baa baa black sheep have to do with breaking up, and how did he come up with a single guitar part that requires 5 people to play it?
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Ramshackles

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« Reply #7 on: February 04, 2012, 04:47:42 PM »
That walk off the earth cover is amazing. Im not sure it is really live, at least not in that video...with those mics. Theres a video of how gotye made the original. He didnt write a guitar part that requires so many people to play it :P it
s all samples! No guitars involved... Theres also a video of him performing live and it's about 3 guys with different sample machines/synths/ I dont know what they are...

tone

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« Reply #8 on: February 04, 2012, 07:41:35 PM »
That walk off the earth cover is amazing. Im not sure it is really live, at least not in that video...with those mics. Theres a video of how gotye made the original. He didnt write a guitar part that requires so many people to play it :P it
s all samples! No guitars involved... Theres also a video of him performing live and it's about 3 guys with different sample machines/synths/ I dont know what they are...
hehe yeh I know, I was just playing ;)
I saw the live performance and really enjoyed that too - I'm off to look for the making of video now. Thanks Ramshackles :)
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The Corsair

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« Reply #9 on: February 05, 2012, 06:10:07 AM »
I never realised the baa baa black sheep thing before you mentioned that... I wonder if that's contributed to it being such a hit... It is the same tune to twinkle twinkle little star and the alphabet song so it's a pretty universal tune...

I think we should all show our support for Walk Off The Earth so they can afford some more guitars :P
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« Reply #10 on: February 06, 2012, 04:05:23 AM »
Like I said... Nursary rhymes for adults  ;) We do like to keep mistening to the same thing  :P

I'll forgive him though because it has such a great vocal. It's a really great song.

I don't know how he made it but I've been hearing this a lot on the radio lately and liked it instantly.

His vocals remind me of a mix of Sting/Jon Anderson(Yes) with a touch of Ozzy Osbourne.

Really great.

I'm with you Ram. I love Youtube, soundcloud, soundlick, this forum andall the other ways in which we can get to hear

so much more music than what they try to feed us. It's brilliant. There are some amazing people out there.

I'm with Nirvana over Foo Fighters though anyday although I still think that he's on the money with what he's saying in

the video, and whther he's better or worse than Kurt, we still all know who he is, so he can't have done that badly  :)
There are holes in the sky where the rain gets in  , but they're ever so small, that's why rain is thin.