Ok, stay with me on this. Here's how it went down.
Yesterday - I hear a Kenny Chesney song on the radio, Don't Blink (see video above). Now, I'm not a big Chesney fan, but right away I dig this tune. Especially the lyrics. They just fall right to me or something. I've always heard of how we as songwriters should endeavor to say something simple in different ways. Don't Blink is a genius example of this (IMO). Think about it. You could say Time Flies, Time Goes On, Don't Let Time Pass You By or any number of things. But Don't Blink. Freaking genius. Many of my tunes revolve around time, life and experience {cough}Tiny Footprints, {cough}for example{cough}, so when I heard that chorus, I literally said "Daggum... That is so good". Dug this tune so much so that today I go looking for the writer.
Today - I do a Google search for the writer of Don't Blink. I come across a songwriter forum called Tunesmith.net. There's a thread there that has this song as it's subject (although he doesn't call the song Don't Blink in the subject line). The post was made back in March of this year, before the release of the song (later in the thread, "Lester" tells us it was actually the day that Chesney cut the song in the studio). But anyway, in the beginning of the thread "Lester" comes off as a new songwriter looking for some feedback. In actuality, it's Chris Wallin, the very successful Nashville songwriter (and co-writer of Don't Blink) posting as a newbie. Anyway, I was pretty amazed about the whole thing.
The Thread
You really need to read the whole thread to get the gist of it. This thread incited a variety of very intense reactions from various folks. As I understand it, one of the lessons of his post was that we should not be too quick to take random critiques of our songs to heart. People will apparently even rip multi-million selling songs if they don't know what it is. The thing is, to be true to the vision (while employing general guidelines of sound songwriting). Another lesson that seemed to be given is that if you don't know how to write great songs, don't be quite so quick to criticise another's work. One particularly vocal poster basically wrote that everyone there didn't know squat and that this thread simply illustrated the fact. There are some posts in that thread that I definitely don't agree with, but I'd be interested to hear what you all have to say about it. At first, it made me somewhat angry, but, with some further thought, there were some good lessons to be learned from the whole thing.
Take care... and Don't Blink.
J
p.s. And Chris, if you're reading this (what? I'm sure he has nothing better to do!), that was a dirty rotten underhanded trick. But a great lesson. Thanks, man.
1 comment:
Thank you for the post.
I enjoyed the song and video, sitting here with tears in my eyes. This is wonderful writing and great arranging combined with THE VOICE. I honestly believe that there are alot of people out there writing wonderful stuff that just can't get it in front of the right people with the right vision.
It seems like people are out there looking for something instead of looking at what is out there and well written. But this goes back to music production and the inability of anyone to risk anything anymore and so we end up with a more of the same music.
Thank goodness for people like you who are out there supporting grass roots writing. This is where the good people come from. The larger sites out there seem to lose their subscribers and are out there making money instead of doing what they really came here to do. Help out the songwriter.
Here's a big thanks to Sonwriting Apples. Youi gouys have made me responsible to someone and I am writing and recording again.
Thanks for the motivation and I look forward to working and collaborating with everyone here and everyone else who joins to teach me more and blend our talents to be greater than what we came here with
Gene Gorski
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