~ and how I’ve learned to keep it simple
I’ve been a Springsteen fan since the early 70’s and I wore out my vinyl copies of “Greetings From Asbury Park”, “The Wild,The Innocent and the East Street Shuffle” and of course “Born To Run” from repeated plays and air guitar concerts. Springsteen’s style of songwriting and story telling appealed to me even as a 12 year old and there was something about the songs that spoke to me on a primal level.
As a teenage developing musician, I was particularly fascinated with songs like ‘New York City Serenade’ and ‘Jungleland’. They were not the 3 minute 30 second commercial friendly tracks we were all used to in the 70’s. These tracks were symphonic and they lived and breathed and told a grand story and after hearing them, I knew I wanted to write songs like that. I wanted to stand on stage and sing that type of song to an audience that would hang on every word and ride with me from beginning to end. When I joined a band at age 14 and started to write my own songs I always felt that the best songs needed to be long, drawn-out, epics with tempo changes and soaring solos. Like ‘Jungleland’.
Over the years I have had my chances to write epic songs for rock bands that I’ve been associated with. I learned the hard way that it wasn’t always easy to present those songs to a band, especially if most of the guys didn’t read music. It wasn’t until recently that I started to take a close look at the way I was writing songs that I realized I did not have to write a 6 minute 40 second epic to have it qualify as a well deserved song. The song didn’t have to have every chord known to Western music. And, perhaps the most telling aspect of my realization: I didn’t have to show the audience that I knew how to compose a symphonic art song for rock band.
Initially my realization came about from observing my audience. I could see that I didn’t have all of their attention when I played some of these longer songs. Also, I was now playing primarily solo acoustic and when you play these types of songs without a band they tend to ramble which adds to the chances of them tuning out.
Now I’m not saying that I’m going to stop writing and performing long story songs, but I have to be careful. Every song cannot be ‘Positively 4th Street’, people need to get up and get a beer or go to the bathroom. But in my case I just need to simplify and stick to the tried and true song forms; they work for a reason. I also realize that I can get my point across a lot more efficiently if I force myself to work in a more limited form.
So these days when I’m playing at the coffeehouse or the pub I try to think about the audience and whether they want to sit through one of my epics or if they just want to hear a nice tidy blues song. Sometimes it’s the former and sometimes it’s the latter. The thing that I don’t worry about is proving that I can write the epic. In some ways it’s much more difficult to write a four chord ABACA country song. I think even Bruce figured that one out after Born to Run. Not every song can be or needs to be Jungleland.
Dear Coffeehouse owners/managers/baristas,