Lyric of the Week: SONGWRITING BLUES
I got my life
I got my money
I got my car
But I ain’t got no honey
Ooooooh yeah I got the blues
Ain’t got no honey
And boy I got the blues
Johnny loves the blues
It’s got him shaking in his shoes
When he’s drinking beer’n’booze
Man he paid his dues
Ooooooh yeah he got the blues
How many words rhyme with ooze?
Oh yeah he got the blues
She got a bad reputation
Haven’t you heard
She got a three letter name
But it’s a four letter word
Ooooooh you know she got the blues
Love’s a four letter word
And you know she got the blues
Joe is into rap
Moe is into funk
Bo is into metal
And Zoe is into punk
But me?
I’m into the blues
I don’t go for all that junk
Just dig those rhythm’n’blues
The moon in June
The rain in Spain
Shines in the afternoon
Falls mainly on the plain
Ooooooh yeah I got the blues
Rhyming is a pain
And yeah I got the blues
I try to be original I try my own ways
But there’s no way to avoid plagiarism or clichés
Just when I think I got a line that can’t go wrong
I buy a new record and hear the same line in somebody else’s song
Ooooooh yeah I got the blues
If it will it can go wrong
And oy, have I got de blues
So back to square one:
I got my life
I got my honey
I got my car
But I ain’t got no money
Ooooooh yeah I got the blues
Ain’t got no honey
And boy I got the blues
©2019 The Hesh Inc.
This one was probably completed in the early part of the 2000s, though it has elements dating back to my first attempts at writing songs. The first verse is from "Lonely Blues," which I wrote at the age of 14 while trying to prove to one of my friends that I was a better songwriter than he was (I don't think I convinced him, but that's another story). The second verse and the first four lines of the sixth verse are from several years later, when I was commiserating with another songwriting friend/partner about the difficulty of finding words to match the music. The third verse comes from something I once said about an ex-girlfriend of mine ... 'nuff said. The rest of it came from a lunchtime songwriting session in which I completed the whole thing. Of course, it is in a simple 12-bar-blues form, which itself has become a cliché and a trope ... but that's part of the fun of it.
Posting this today because I am attempting to smash through a backlog of semi-finished songs as part of my magnum opus and other endeavors ... there are few things as frustrating as slaying a beast of our own making. A sense of humor always helps to get through it.