Mandy Woods
  • Home
  • Gigs/Reviews
  • Homelessness
  • Albums
  • Wags Lyrical
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Photos

The title is vital...

30/10/2016

0 Comments

 
Very valuable critique session at the London Songwriters' Group this afternoon - some great songs, and very incisive feedback all round. For myself, I came away feeling much more confident about the song I posted about this morning - but rather less confident in my ability to come up with the right song title! I sang it without telling the others what it was called - deliberately... and when they came to guess its title after I'd sung it, the unanimous verdict was 'Before You' - which, when I thought about it, is clearly the right title. So 'Used To Be' is now what it used to be called.

I changed the title of another song last year after I saw that the keyboard player had written it down as 'It's Wrong'. First I corrected him, telling him that it was actually called 'That Kiss' - and then I realised that he was right, the phrase 'it's wrong' occurred much more often than 'that kiss' and was the much more obvious title - so there and then, that's what it became!

Funny how chipping away at a new song for days and sculpting it to say exactly what I want it to say feels so unproblematic, yet coming up with the right title for it is so elusive. But maybe that's what friends are for? Ooh... there's a song in that! (Not sure what I'd call it yet though...) ;-)
0 Comments

'It's not a criticism - but those lyrics are very personal...'

30/10/2016

0 Comments

 
I've written a new song (hooray!), and I'm very happy with it (twice I say hooray!), and I was both delighted and touched when a lovely chap came up to me after its first rather stumbly public airing and asked for a copy of the lyrics as he liked them so much (nay, thrice hooray!).

However, having turned to go back to his chair, he immediately turned back to me and said the words that I've made the title of this post as they really got me thinking, about (a) whether those particular lyrics are in fact any more personal than any other of my songs, and (b) whether a song can be too personal.

The truth is, for most of my songs, I take a small piece of factual information - from my own life or someone else's - and spin it into a 3- or 4-minute story that often takes off in a direction I hadn't anticipated when I wrote down the first few words that inspired the song. That can feel magical as the song takes on a life of its own, and in my case it does often tend to go down the road of poignancy. I don't stop it going where it naturally wants to go, though I do love the editing process that involves chiselling the rough shape into something more refined, and usually even more poignant!

I've taken to describing my songs as 'songs of heartache, humour and hope', and those three H's do seem to cover the range. The latest one tends more towards hope (and a fourth time, I say 'Hooray!'), and maybe that's where, to me, it doesn't feel too personal, as it's more speculative than anything. Listeners need to be able to relate the message of the song to their own lives, and if they can't because the details are so clearly about the person singing the song, then I think it can be too embarrassingly personal. But in this case it's a take on young versus more mature love - and that, hopefully, is how my listeners, the majority of whom, let's face it - like me - are of a certain age, will hear it!

I may update this on the basis of the critical feedback I get this afternoon from my London songwriter friends. For now, though, long live personal songs! They never did Joni Mitchell any harm, after all!
0 Comments

    Author

    Mandy Woods

    Archives

    August 2022
    June 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    January 2021
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    July 2017
    May 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    April 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    June 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    April 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012

    Categories

    All
    Angello Sound Studio
    Arran
    Bayonne
    Bazaar Cafe
    Bluebird
    Bluebird Cafe
    Brook Guitars
    Butterfly
    Butterfly Spirit
    C2C
    Calamity Jane
    California
    Cam
    Campervan Adventures
    Camping
    Cannes
    Carol Mac Photography
    Catweazle
    Cayman Islands
    Charity Shop
    Coda Music
    Copy-editing
    Corona Virus
    Country Music
    Covid-19
    Cowboy Hats
    Cowgirls
    Craft Fairs
    Dachshund
    David Naylor
    Deadwood
    Distinctly Blue
    Dolly Parton
    Doyle & Debbie
    Eastbourne
    Felix Macintosh
    Fisherman's Wharf
    France
    Freelance Work
    French Riviera
    Fringed Jacket
    Germany
    Gigs
    Gilet Jaunes
    Gilly Spencer
    Glastonbury
    Guitars
    Haight-Ashbury
    Handmade Guitars
    Hollister
    Holy Isle
    Homelessness
    Keith Urban
    Kibosh
    Kitten Kaboodle
    Las Vegas
    Le Mans
    Le Pilier Rouge
    Lesvos
    Lfest
    Little Silver Guitar
    Live Music In Norway
    Log Cabin
    Log Cabin Living
    Mandy Woods
    Memory Stick
    Mouans-Sartoux
    Musée Matisse
    Musee Mecanical
    Nashville
    Needle Felting
    New Life Abroad
    Nice
    O2 Concert Venue
    Oslo Open Mic
    Pandemic
    Peacock Butterfly
    Penny Arcade Museum
    Petula Clark
    Phantom Power Supply
    Pick-ups
    Proofreading
    Randy Moods
    Renegade Of The Road
    Rhinestones
    Roulette
    San Francisco
    Sausage Dog
    Scène Ouverte
    Scully
    Scully Jackets
    Seacliff State Beach
    Self-employment
    Self-reliance
    Social Distancing
    Social Separation
    Song Critique
    Songwriting
    Soquel
    SoulHuntress
    Southwest France
    Station Inn
    St Tropez
    Teaching Guitar
    The Chase
    Tigersonic
    Too Bad To Be True?
    Toyota Campervan
    Trail Of Goodbyes
    Under Ground Theatre
    Usa
    Virtual Open Mics
    Wags Lyrical
    Women's Centre
    Youtube
    Zoom Music Events

    RSS Feed

Mandy Woods