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jefflewis · Joined: 21 Nov 2005 Posts: 1486

New article about songwriting, like the ones I did for the NY Times back in 2008-2010, has gone online today it seems... not sure how long this will remain accessible.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/07/waving-my-tweak-flag-high/

misshelenc · Joined: 23 Nov 2007 Posts: 943 Location: Cardiff, Wales, UK

I'm glad I had a chance to read it while it exists, then, it is so true. A few songs come to mind for me like this, ones that the live versions are different from the album ones, and my weird perfectionist mind doesn't like it, on the whole, that songs evolve and aren't definitively one thing or another....even though I also think it is totally necessary and should happen. I just don't like it when it does. Thank you for sharing your writings, let us know when there are others put up xxxx
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Dav · Posted: Sun Jun 09, 2013 11:06 am Post subject:

very interesting, thanks for sharing, i too think that sometimes changing a word or more in a song get it to a higher level, and sometimes it get it down.
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Dav · Posted: Wed Jun 12, 2013 3:57 pm Post subject:

I was thinking about that topic earlier this afternoon, and it made me think of the song "stop breathing" by Pavement, on an early version Malkmus sung "start bleeding" instead of "stop breating".
stop breathing is so much stronger than start bleeding.

you guys got more exemples of this?
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jefflewis · Joined: 21 Nov 2005 Posts: 1486

One example that they edited out of my article (to make my piece shorter, also because of the language i suppose) -

In some cases, censorship has had the effect of heightening rather than diminishing certain lyrics. The enforced editing of the Geto Boys' 1991 gangsta rap breakthrough hit "Mind Playing Tricks On Me" actually made it a better song. In the original uncensored album version the Geto Boys tended to use "mother-f_____in'" as a constant catch-all adjective and "n____a" as a constant noun. Being forced to rewrite a radio-friendly version added a significant amount of descriptiveness to a number of the song's scenes; for example the uncensored original album lyric "I got my hand on the mother-f_____in' trigger" became on the radio the more cinematically-sketched "I got my hand on the chrome-plated trigger"; and in the song's final sequence the person who is stalking Bushwick Bill is longer merely "the n____a I'll be seein' in my sleep" but "the creep I'll be seein' in my sleep," which is not only more spooky but adds an internal rhyme.