Noodles and Lyrics

Today, as I clumsily slurped up soft rice noodles from an over sized bowl of pho, I realized something: I have the worst chop stick skills in all of human history! I work as quickly as possible, but it takes me a while to finish. Still, compared to writing lyrics, this meal is a piece of cake.....except that it's noodles. 

For me, writing lyrics is something like eating a bowl of noodles. Really? That sounds weird. Well, it's not. It's hard to do, it takes me a long time, and I'm pretty sure that if I'm not careful I could poke my eye out.

Many times the hardest part is just figuring out what to write about. I'm sick of hearing love songs and dudes who are angry. Quit whining, man! Tell her how you feel and go kick your dad in the balls! I could go the AC/DC route and write 15 songs about rock and roll, but I could never pull that off. Rock n' roll is just rock n' roll, indeed. One technique I use a lot is just to start writing stream of conscious style paragraphs until I stumble upon something that I connect with. A few days ago, I was struggling with lyrics for a Saints At Sundown tune so I used the above method. I ended up with this short verse:

I'm trying to find a way back home
It's slipped away
No one wants to live this life alone
Or so they say


After all this time are you still mine?
We spent all of our lives and we're still trying
After tonight, there's nothing left but the crying

Ok, It's got a good beat and you can dance to it. Unfortunately, this is NOT going to work for the song I was working on. Even worse, it's a love song. I did take time to work up a quick demo for a song possibility for these lyrics. Check it out below: 
http://soundcloud.com/saintsatsundown/onlythecryingclipmp3 


Yep, I ripped off Led Zeppelin bigtime....but if Jack White can do it, then I guess I can, too. I have no idea if this song will turn into anything, or just go in the "vault." But I found it interesting in the context of making a record. Sometimes, inspiration takes you somewhere that you didn't think you were going. It's useless to fight it, you just have to keep plugging away and hope that you finally end up where you want to be.