Week 4 - SAC Songwriting Challenge - Rock the Cliche

Week 4 - SAC Songwriting Challenge - Rock the Cliche

Well we're just over the half-way mark.This week's assignment was to choose ten cliches, and think of how they could be used in a song in a fresh way, or a different perspective. Then choose one of the cliches and work a song with it.

1.   Muddy the waters
2.   Sink or swim
3.   Wake up and smell the coffee
4.   Stop and smell the roses
5.   Go with the flow
6.   Take it like a man
7.   Thank my lucky stars
8.   A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.
9.   Actions speak louder than words
10.  A shot in the dark

Mark and I started this song, before the challenge started. It fit in so well with this week's theme of working with a cliche, that I decided to go with it. We worked on improving the lyric to the song, and Mark put together an enhanced work-tape. The cliche "A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do"....was changed to a question "What's a man to do?" as the hook and title of the song. The lyric is about a married man who feels that he needs to be the strong alpha male type, but is also working on being the sensitive type. Also, in the lyric we worked with the cliche 'thank my lucky stars', but changed it to 'the stars have all lined up'.

Here's the link to the song:

https://soundcloud.com/midnight-mama-music/whats-a-man-to-do-1

What’s a Man to Do?

© 2014 Lucy LeBlanc, Mark Dolin

Baby here I am

I’m right here by your side

I can see you’re hurting

Won’t you tell me why

I’d do anything for you

I can’t stand to see your tears

Baby I’m a man

And Sometimes I make mistakes

I feel a little helpless

Am I the one to blame?

Tell me what you’re feeling

I’m listening…..I’m right here.

Chorus:

What’s a man to do?

I try to be Superman

But I outta be Clark Kent too

What’s a man to do?

I try to understand you when you’re down and feeling blue

How can I show you

What you mean to me

What’s a man to do?

Since the day I met you

The stars have all lined up

And waking up beside you

Is more than enough

When you cry it kills me

Can you help me understand?...can you help me out here?

Chorus:

What’s a man to do?

I try to be Superman

But I outta be Clark Kent too

What’s a man to do?

I try to understand you when you’re down and feeling blue

How can I show you

What you mean to me

What’s a man to do?

Bridge:

I wanna see you smile again

I wanna feel your love again

I’ll do anything, anything for you

 Chorus:

What’s a man to do?

I try to be Superman

But I outta be Clark Kent too

What’s a man to do?

I try to understand you when you’re down and feeling blue

How can I show you

What you mean to me

What’s a man to do?

Week 3 - SAC Songwriting Challenge - Time to Experiment

Week 3 - SAC Songwriting Challenge - Time to Experiment

Half way though our songwriting challenge: this week we're to identify our songwriting ruts, and write a song that breaks out of our normal routine.

This one was a little more difficult for me. When it comes to song forms I've written in both verse, chorus style, and AABA type songs. So song content would be my focus.

I've never written a patriotic song before (actually it was my co-writers idea); and I wasn't sure that I wanted to....that we could say something relevant or different. It was my first time writing with him. He had composed some music that he thought would suit, so we decided to explore it. I told him a story about the first time I crossed the border from Vancouver into Blaine, Washington. There was a flag flying at half mast in Blaine. When I inquired at the local store about it, they said that one of their boys had died in Vietnam. So that American flag became the focus of our song. We would weave a story around it of a young man coming back home. 

https://soundcloud.com/midnight-mama-music/that-old-flag



That Old Flag
© 2014....John Condrone,Lucy LeBlanc,

VERSE
Rounding the corner by Bingham's Hardware store
Three years and nothing's changed since I was here before
And there's that dairy queen where me and Ricky hid
Right after we threw those cherry bombs on top of that old dumpster lid
Across the street is the school where we used to go
the stars and stripes are hangin' halfway down the pole

CHORUS
That old flag is standing lonely
against the Grey Georgia sky
It keeps speaking to me
And my heart just wonders why
It seems like time is standing still
And the years have come and gone
But, that old flag keeps waving on and on

VERSE
Head on down the street beside the railroad track
all those childhood memories are quickly coming back
Down by the river, across that one lane bridge
I just passed that cottonwood where I got my first kiss
Turn down that dirt road that leads to Daddy's home
There above that picket fence half way up the pole (Chorus)

CHORUS
That old flag is standing lonely
against the Grey Georgia sky
It keeps speaking to me
And my heart just wonders why
It seems like time is standing still
And the years have come and gone
But, that old flag keeps waving on and on

BRIDGE
Daddy threw his arms around me
tears welled up in his eyes
he said Ricky won't be coming home this time
thats when I realized



CHORUS
That old flag is standin' tall and proud
Against that grey Georgia sky
and I hear every word it says
My heart fills up with pride
When the battles over and the dust is almost gone
That old flag keeps waving on and on