lyrics number 11 returns to the crazy theme. (wait, did i leave the crazy theme?) this song came as quickly as anything i’ve written in a long time. chords came with the melody. sat down to write words and just wrote them. after a little bit of editing, everything was in place. the result contains […]
Author Archives: charlie monday
monday song #10: fall down
lyrics number ten has a bit of a country twang. i really like songs where there is a simple story, with a more complicated reality lurking underneath. if you take the words at face value, this tune, like “winston please” before it, is a simple heartfelt love song. but after a bit of listening and […]
monday song #9: the queen of spades
lyrics i’ve had the basic melody and chords for this song for some months now. the original chorus ended “she’s a star of stage and shingles vaccines,” which i still enjoy, but try as i might, it just wouldn’t spawn any lyrics i liked.
monday song #8: the weather
lyrics number eight brings us back to the wholeheartedly sad songs. this one came very fast. the opening chord sequence and the lines “too much history, too much you and me” came almost at once. most weeks, finding words is like stripping wallpaper – a lot of effort for little progress. with this song i […]
monday song #7: and here i’m standing
lyrics the seventh installment and first of 2009. i wrote and recorded this one a week before the first monday song was released. the musical idea that kicked this off was the opening piano with the A moving up to an unstable Dmaj7. (it’s somewhat rare for me to come up with the beginning of […]
monday song #6: the start of something big
lyrics number six. that’s an album side so far… i had it in mind to write something with a new year’s theme. and with the world in the state it is and obama promising a sincere effort but no guarantees, i stuck on the subject of change and how it rarely comes without anxiety.
monday song #5: winston please
lyrics i recorded the fifth monday song a few weeks ago, as i was preparing to launch the site. i had a few ready at the start: “ghost story,” “nadine,” “winston please,” and an up-tempo song called “and here i’m standing” i plan to premiere next week. the song i finished this week was too […]
monday song #4: walking away
lyrics after starting with three heavy songs in a row, number four is something of a palette cleanser. it’s an homage to homages: a kind of 20s music hall number that was a favorite of the psychedelic popsters of the later 60s. mccartney was a master of the style (“when i’m 64,” “honey pie”), […]
monday song #3: birthday (part one)
lyrics number three. the guts of this song – chords, melody, the phrase “it’s your birthday” – came to me a couple years ago on a family camping trip, playing it over and over by the campfire. i imagined paul mccartney singing it, solo, with an acoustic guitar, but as i fleshed out the lyrics […]
monday song #2: nadine
lyrics the second monday song. when i was in junior high there was a girl named nadine in my wood shop class. at some point, the boys started taunting her: “nadine, nadine, the header machine.” i never discovered the background, but, though she disappeared before high school, she was forever etched into my brain. years […]