Why Does He Have to Live in Detroit?

Adding Sparkle to your Songs:

Why Does He Have to Live in Detroit?

by Bill Pere

You work hard to make your lyrics clear, and rich with images. They convey a message or story that is universal and heard in many other songs. Yet somehow, they still don’t measure up to other songs that are considered great. What's missing?

Great lyrics not only are clear and relevant, they also tickle the ear, the way bubbles in champagne tickle the palate. They have sonic activity. Sonic activity is the sum of all the points in a song (called "ping-points") that use the physical sound of the words, independent of meaning, to grab the ear. The primary ways of doing this are:

(a) Perfect Rhyme (two strings of sound in one or multiple words with exactly the same accents and sounds, except for the initial sound e.g., tumble/crumble; period/myriad; syrup/clear up; coincide/go inside) Perfect rhyme produces the strongest "ping" of any literary technique. Fresh, innovative rhymes jump out even more than the tired overused ones like love/above, heart/apart, life/knife, seem/dream, etc) NOTE: Multi-syllable rhymes should have the same accent pattern to work as effective pings. (e.g. the word "happily" flows as HAP-pi-ly; The most effective rhyme will be with the accented syllable "HAP", e.g. "RAP to me" not the last syllable e.g. "that will BE".

(b) Assonance (same vowel sound between two different consonants, e.g. sign/time; woody/fully; zipper/killer, etc.) NOTE: Assonance is not rhyme. It is sometimes called near-rhyme or slant rhyme, but it is NOT the same as a perfect rhyme, as it does not produce the same degree of 'ping'.

(c) Alliteration – words with the same initial sound e.g. "big bouncing ball"; " fresh fried fritters"; " silent searching souls"; etc. The repeated consonant sound does not always need to be at the front of the word: "complete unconditional hectic chaos"; "SnaKe SKin inKS"

A repeating consonant sound creates a very strong ping.

(d) Para-Rhyme - Same consonants at either end, with a different vowel in between:

Hip-Hop; pit/pat/pot/putt; bitter/butter/better/batter; etc. Again. like assonance, a very strong ping.

(e) Lexical Repetition - This is a repeating of the same sound, word or phrase multiple times.

"I love you in the morning/I love you in the night/I love you when I'm sleeping/So why are you uptight?" If used well, it can enhance the ping experience: "I was at the bottom of the bottom when the bottom fell out…". If used excessively and without clear reason, it dulls the senses. It dulls the senses. It dulls the senses. Oh yeah baby, it dulls the senses.

(f) Sonic Reversal - Same sounds, reversed (same SOUND, not same LETTERS). e.g.,

"at the TOP of the POT, and the TIP of the PIT" ; 'DRAWN ONWARD";

(g) Chiasmus – Reversing the order of key words in a sentence. e.g. "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country"; "Never let a kiss fool you or a fool kiss you". Chiasmus is considered one of the most effective devices in persuasive speaking and oratory.

So, armed with these devices for injecting sparkling bubbles into your lyrics, you can see why some songs tickle the ear while others fall flat, even if they are about the same thing. Sonic activity is not something that a listener is always aware of. It works under the surface to make the song hit with more impact and penetrate deeper into the listener's vault of good feelings.

Great songwriters write with sonic activity – some do it instinctively without conscious effort, and some very consciously choose and shape their words and sounds.

Everyone knows these lines from Journey's "Don't Stop Believing"

Just a city boy, born and raised in south Detroit

He takes the midnight train goin' anywhere…

Why does he live in Detroit as opposed to New York, L.A., or Racine (all of which have the right accent pattern)? It's so that the "oy" of "boy" can mate with the "oi" "Detroit" and give your ear a ping, followed up with the alliterative pair take / train. Of course he could also live in LaCroix , Des Moines or Hanoi, all sonically equivalent, but not quite the same image as urban Detroit.

Sonically active lyrics are nothing new. It's been going on since Gilbert and Sullivan and before.

( "I am the very model of a modern major general…). Look at any of the Gilbert and Sullivan scores and you'll see masterful use of all the above techniques. That's one of the reasons their work has survived for more than a century.

Sonic activity is the thing that enables a writer to write a song about nothing deep or special, with no lofty message or meaning, and still have something that gets into the collective consciousness of a generation.

Just because a song is about something simple does not mean that the lyrical craftsmanship has to be simple. An example from the 2011 Muppet movie:

I reflect on my reflection

Then I ask the question,

What direction should I go,

I don't know.

You've got lexical repetition (reflect/reflection); perfect rhyme, (reflection/direction); assonance (' question' pinging with both, reflection and direction); and another simple rhyme as a touch of garnish (go/know)

Even simpler, the 1962 Leiber and Stoller song "Ruby" was a hit for both the Drifters and Dion.

Everyone was singing Ruby,Ruby Ruby, Ruby will you be mine? Why is her name "Ruby" ? So that you have the ping of RUBY will YOU BE mine" It just doesn’t work if you said "Gertrude, will you be mine?" Same meaning, same accents, but no ping. Later in the song, even this filler line, which carries no meaning, works because of the high sonic activity: Ruby Ruby Ruby baby (roo-bee-roo-bee-roo-bee-bay-bee)

What's at workin these seemingly simple lines from the Cummings/Winter song "Rain Dance" recorded by the Guess Who:

Christopher was askin' the astronomer

Can your telescope tell me where the sun's gone?

I'm still sittin with my next door neighbor sayin'

"Where'd you get the gun, John?"

Why does it tickle the ear?

Christopher was asking the astronomer a a ( -opher….-omer )

Can your telescope tell me where the sun’s gone ? b c-d (your …sun’s gone)

I’m still sittin’ with my next door neighbor sayin b e (door….sayin’)

"Where’d you get the gun John ? " c-d (…. gun John)

That third line alone contains triple alliteration on "s"; assonance and a sonic reversal on still/sit; alliteration on "n"; a perfect rhyme back to the previous line with your/door; and a perfect internal rhyme with neigh/say .

Here’s another example showing effective use of alliteration, assonance, and rhyme from the bridge of "If My Mary Were Here" by Harry Chapin, enhancing lyrics which are simple and filled with emotion.

I could whistle up an old tune babe that your memory just might recall (a) recall
Rustle up some reminisce, ‘bout the good old days and all (a) all

If I were seekin’ someone else, I could find a place to hide (b) place to hide

But I’m just pleading like a pauper babe, (c)

And it leaves no place for pride… (b) place for pride

Sonic activity often does its best work while hiding, subtly embedded in the lines so that you don't readily see it, but you certainly feel the 'pings' when they hit you. Consider these opening lines from Kay Pere:

Welcome to my quiet little life

Well, come on in, leave your cares at the door…

Seems simple, but look closely:

WELCOME QUiet Little Life

WELL COME Leave Cares

Take these lines from "Put on a Happy Face" from the musical "Bye Bye Birdie"

Take of that gloomy mask of tragedy, it's not your style

You'll look so good, you'll be glad you decided to smile

So we see style/smile. That doesn't seem like enough to make these lines jump out the way they do. The big 'ping' comes from the exceptional hidden rhyme:

TRA-GE-DY / GLAD-YOU-DEcided

All it takes to sprinkle effective sonic activity through your songs is :

(a) to be aware that you can and (b) to push yourself to get as much 'ping' into each line as you can without sacrificing meaning or making it seem forced.

Take this line:

There's a lot of good holiday food in their freezer.

It has a natural rhythmic flow; It sits easily in 4 beats; It is clear and specific; It conveys information. It has the alliteration of food/freezer By those measures, it is an adequate line. However, it still comes across as dull and flat. No sparkle. It's like reading a government report on regulating cabbage.

The key question to ask yourself: Can I say this exact same thing in a more sonically active way? Of course!

Their freezer is filled with a fine festive feast…

Everything is exactly the same as above, except now you have the spicy zing of five-fold alliteration on the "f". Fantastic five-fold phonetic fun!

How about this line:

Her needle and thread bound together the sail for his ship.

Clear, specific, flowing, and you've got the two "s" sounds of sail and ship, so you're happy. Still, ask yourself, can you do better? Of course!

She sat and sewed the sails that swept him out to sea…

Now you've got a six-fold repetition of the sibilant sound of "s" like the hiss of surf on the deck of a ship. Much more sparkle.

One more:

Leeta is a popular girl, she don’t let many guys into her world

She knows she's got the fire, but no guy fills her desire

Now you must be on a roll, since you have two lines with two internal rhymes:

(girl/world and fire/desire). so you're happy. Can you do better? Of course!

Leeta's so elite, she says 'bout every guy she'll meet

That they just don't have the heat to hang with her very long…

Why does this version have so much more sparkle? A rhyming threesome: elite/meet/heat; A lexical repetition LEETa / eLITE; And a three-fold-alliteration: heat/hang/her, with a minor bonus of she/says and that/they . Lots more sonic activity than the first version.

As a final example of the sonic tools are used in the hands of a master craftsman, let's look a t a simple song which says absolutely nothing except "I love you". It's the most common topic for all songwriters. Most love songs from inexperienced writers although sincere and heartfelt, are just too plain to make an impression. You also see lots of current popular hits which have no lyrical zing at all – they are popular solely because of fancy production and good musical grooves. As popular as they are they don't represent good songwriting -- just great production and performance. How much better and long-lasting would they be if all that great production and performance also had great lyrics?

Randy Edelman is widely known as a writer of well crafted songs. His hit "Concrete and Clay" is totally simple in its message of "I love You". Yet it endures for almost five decades, while so many other love songs remain in oblivion. What elevates to a higher level?

A look a the lyrics below only seems to reinforce the idea that it is ordinary, with nothing particularly unusual.

CONCRETE and CLAY (words and music by Randy Edelman)

Verse 1: You to me are sweet as roses in the morning
And you to me are soft as summer rain at dawn,
In love we share that something rare

Chorus: The sidewalks in the street
The concrete and the clay beneath my feet
Begins to crumble but love will never die
Because we'll see the mountains tumble before we say goodbye
My love and I will be in love eternally
That's the way, that's the way it's meant to be

Verse 2: All around I see the purple shades of evening
And on the ground the shadows fall
And once again you're in my arms so tenderly

[REPEAT CHORUS]

So let's do a full Level 3 analysis and see why this is not just an ordinary love song.

In the song map below, you can see the massive amount of sonic activity that is constantly pinging the ear at every phrase. There is barely a wasted syllable in the song. It is high level songcraft, applied to a very simple message, and lives on after more than half a century.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE SONG MAP

BOTTOM LINE:

Map some of your own songs (the technique of mapping is discussed in detail in Songcrafters' Coloring Book ) and look at the amount of activity. When you have your song as "done" as you want it to be in terms of what is says and how it flows the information to the listener, give it one more pass with an ear toward sonic activity. Go line by line and ask "Is there another way I can say this exact same thing while adding more sparkle to the line?" With that sparkle, you'll turn your song from grape juice into champagne.

Bill Pere, is a Grammy-nominated songwriter, named one of the "Top 50 Innovators, Groundbreakers and Guiding Lights of the Music Industry" by Music Connection Magazine. With more than 30 years in the music business, as a recording artist, award winning songwriter, performer, and educator Bill is well known for his superbly crafted lyrics, with lasting impact. Bill has released 16 CD's , and is President of the Connecticut Songwriters Association. Bill is an Official Connecticut State Troubadour, and is the Founder and Executive Director of the LUNCH Ensemble. Twice named Connecticut Songwriter of the Year, Bill is a qualified MBTI practitioner, trained by the Association for Psychological Type. He is a member of CMEA and MENC, and as Director of the Connecticut Songwriting Academy, he helps develop young talent in songwriting, performing, and learning about the music business. Bill's song analyses and critiques are among the best in the industry. Bill has a graduate degree in Molecular Biology, an ARC Science teaching certification, and he has received two awards for Outstanding contribution to Music Education. The New York Times calls Bill "the link between science and music".

© Copyright 2012 Bill Pere. All Rights Reserved. This article may not be reproduced in any way with out permission of the author. For workshops, consultation, performances, or other songwriter services, contact Bill via his web sites, at http://www.billpere.com, http://www.ctsongwriting.com, and http://www.lunchensemble.com

In Brightest Day, In Blackest Night

A stroke of the brush does not guarantee art from the bristles.

It was a summer day in 1960, as I walked past a gardenia-scented hedge in the Bronx, and entered the local mom-and-pop newsstand, which always smelled of jasmine. I walked out with the first issue of Green Lantern, and have been a fan ever since. I just saw the new GL movie in 3D and despite the amazing visuals, I was more struck by something else – 50 years and hundreds of issues of Green Lantern mythos was successfully captured in a 2-hour movie, and told in a coherent story that a non-fan (like my wife) could understand and enjoy.

When aspiring songwriters ask me where I learned to write in the cinematic, story-telling style that I gravitate towards, the answer is simple. I learned from reading comic books as a child.

Stories were told from beginning to end in 5-8 pages, with 2-3 complete stories between the covers. There was a beginning, middle and end, usually with a surprise, and it was clear who the characters were and why they did what they did. This was storytelling 101, whether it is a comic book, TV show, movie, novel or play.

Comic books are very much like songs in that they blend two different sensory inputs – artwork and dialog. Songs blend music and lyrics. There was always discussion about whether the art or the story was more important in comics, and the answer came in the late 1980's-90's when new types of paper color, printing and digital output became available. Artists began to take over the pages with big splashy spreads, and became quite well known to fans as superstars of the genre. Then they decided they wanted to write their own stories to showcase their art. That's when it became clear -- the stories no longer made sense -- being a great artist did not make someone a great writer. Prices went up as readership declined. Without great stories, a comic book was just a portfolio.

In the music world, Midi, sequencing, sampled sound, and digital editing made new production techniques available. Producers and performers, not songwriters, starting writing their own material. Being a great performer or producer does not make one a great songwriter. Prices went up, quality declined. And it also became clear --- without great lyrics and a singable melody, a recording was just a production, not a song.

Songwritng is not production or performance – it is the fine crafting of words and melody to weave a compelling, complete, and memorable story – a three minute cinematic movie. I guess it was no wonder that I was always drawn to the work of Harry Chapin, one of the greatest of the story-song writers. Singers and producers often view a song as a vehicle for showcasing their talents. But great recordings of great songs happen when the talents of a good vocalist and producer are used in service to the song.

I do my best work when in the presence of gardenias and jasmine.

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Bill Pere was named one of the "Top 50 Innovators, Groundbreakers and Guiding Lights of the Music Industry" by Music Connection Magazine. With more than 30 years in the music business working with top industry pros as a songwriter, performer, recording artist and educator, Bill is well known for his superbly crafted lyrics, with lasting impact. Bill has released 16 CDs, and is President of the Connecticut Songwriters Association. He is an Official Connecticut State Troubadour, and is the Founder and Executive Director of the LUNCH Ensemble. Twice named Connecticut Songwriter of the Year, Bill is a qualified MBTI practitioner, trained by the Association for Psychological Type. He is a member of CMEA and MENC, and as Director of the Connecticut Songwriting Academy, he helps develop young talent in songwriting, performing, and learning about the music business. Bill's song analyses and critiques are among the best in the industry. Bill has a graduate degree in Molecular Biology, an ARC Science teaching certification, and he has received two awards for Outstanding contribution to Music Education.

© Copyright 2011 Bill Pere. All Rights Reserved. This article may not be reposted without permission of the author. Reproduction for educational purposes is permitted with proper attribution. For workshops, consultation, critiques, or other songwriter services, contact Bill via his web sites, at www.billpere.com, www.ctsongwriting.com, and www.lunchensemble.com

From Triangle to Wisconsin

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City on March 25, 1911, was the deadliest industrial disaster in the history of the city of New York and resulted in the fourth highest loss of life from an industrial accident in U.S. history. The fire caused the deaths of 146 garment workers, who either died from the fire or jumped to their deaths. Most of the victims were recent immigrant Jewish women aged sixteen to twenty-three.

The disaster gave rise to the cry "who will look out for the working girls"? One positive result of the fire -- the American Society of Safety Engineers was founded in New York City on October 14, 1911.

Now, in March 2011, 100 years after the fire, we hear a new cry emerging – "Who will look after the workers?" This is in response to the effort in many states to strip workers of the collective bargaining rights they have worked for so many decades to secure. In Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Florida, and several other states, legislatures under the thinly veiled guise of reducing spending, are trying to enact laws which prevent workers from having any voice in negotiating the conditions under which they work, undoing more than a century of gains in the areas of worker safety, fairness and dignity.

Massive protests of middle class workers – teachers, nurses, firefighters, police, road crew workers, and others who are losing their voices in the workplace - are converging on state capitols to have their voices heard. These people are the last vestige of the American middle class.

My mother worked for decades in a textile factory, hunched over a machine, for low wages, in a job that wracked her body and often had her wearing a sling on her arm. When the workers finally were able to join the ILGWU (International Ladies Garment Workers' Union), things improved dramatically. I worked there myself for a summer and saw firsthand what was meant by the often-used term "sweatshop".

Inspired by the protesting workers in Wisconsin, which was ground zero for this renewed labor movement, I posted the music video of my song "I Am Erica".

…Bill Pere

The Music Community Loses Another Influential Voice, and CSA Loses a Friend

by Bill Pere

I was saddened to hear of the passing of Jack Hardy this month, silencing yet another significant voice in the world of songwriting. The notice which appeared in the New York Times on March 12, written by Bruce Weber was as follows:

Jack Hardy, Folk Singer and Keeper of the Tradition, Dies at 63

Jack Hardy, a folk singer and folk music promoter whose Greenwich Village recordings and songwriting workshops kept alive the neighborhood tradition of counterculture troubadours, died on March 11 in Manhattan. He was 63. Jack grew up in New York City, Aspen, and Durham, Conn.. He graduated from the University of Hartford, moving to the Village in 1973. Mr. Hardy wrote hundreds of songs — protest songs, political talking songs and romantic ballads — his lyrics often consciously literary, his music tinged with a Celtic sound. With a singing voice raspy and yearning, he performed in clubs and coffeehouses in New York and elsewhere and recorded more than a dozen albums, many of them self-produced, though two boxed sets of his work were released by a small, independent label in 2000.

“I’m undoubtedly the least famous person with a boxed set,” he boasted in an interview that year. Perhaps he wasn’t famous, but he was, in his way, influential.

In the early 1980s, after Bob Dylan had gone electric and folk music had been shunted aside by disco and punk, Mr. Hardy helped found a musical cooperative for like-minded folkies. It established a performance space and made more than 1,000 low-budget recordings of local performers and distributed them to subscribers and radio stations, along with a newsletter, under the rubric the Fast Folk Musical Magazine.

Lyle Lovett, Suzanne Vega, Tracy Chapman and Shawn Colvin all recorded first for Fast Folk, according to the Smithsonian Institution, which holds tapes of the original recordings and the magazine archives. (A two-CD set is available from the institution’s nonprofit record label, Smithsonian Folkways.) Mr. Hardy’s song “St. Clare” was covered by Ms. Vega and appears on her 2001 album “Songs in Red and Gray.”

Since the late 1970s and up until recently, when he entered the hospital, Mr. Hardy was the host of Monday night workshops at his railroad flat on West Houston Street. Songwriters from as far away as Boston and Philadelphia would come to share a pasta dinner and their brand-new songs. Critiques were expected; the rule was that no song was supposed to be more than a week old, a dictum, Mr. Hardy said, that forced writers to write. Ms. Colvin, Ms. Vega and Mr. Lovett are all alumni.

Mr. Hardy said the “fast folk” idea was born out of a need to keep the music alive. “The whole idea was to do it fast,” he said of the music that he and others recorded and distributed in the 1980s and 1990s. “You could hear a song at an open mike or songwriters’ meeting and two weeks later it was being played on the radio in Philadelphia or Chicago. It was urgent, exciting. It was in your face.” --------------------------------------------------------------

So that was how the many obituaries and public notices went. On a personal note, I first met Jack in 2004, which was my first year as President of the Connecticut Songwriters Association, and thus I was in charge of arranging workshops and guest presenters. Knowing of Jack's reputation and influence, my wife and I contacted him and he graciously came to do a workshop for the Connecticut Songwriters Association. It was one of the most insightful, coherent, thought-provoking and informative presentations I have ever heard on songwriting in my 30 years in the music community. I learned a great deal in a short time -- the mark of being in the presence of a great teacher and mentor.

Jack also did a concert for the Mystic River Folk Concert series which Kay and I were producing, and in hearing Jack's songs up close and live, it was clear that he was truly a song crafter who thoroughly understood the art form and all of its complex nuances. As I was writing my "Songcrafters' Coloring Book" in 2008-09, Jack was kind enough to answer my questions when I contacted him to see what he thought of the ideas I was putting forth.

His legacy lives on in those whom he has taught and encouraged, as shown in the list of luminaries mentioned above. In my current teaching, I follow his underlying tenet that a song is essentially words and melody -- all the other stuff i.e. production, performance, arrangement, marketing, are expendable extras. If the song is great, it will transcend any of those things, crossing styles, artists, trends and time. Although he was not widely famous, there is no greater success a songwriter can have than to leave a legacy that lives on in others.

His voice may have been raspy, but it will be missed.

...Bill Pere

Rickenbacker - Full Circle

I joined my first band in 8^th Grade, supposedly to play bass. There were two other guitar players, along with a very talented drummer. – One guitarist had just gotten a Farfisa keyboard and wanted to play that, which was fine with the rest of us, as it was great to have a keyboard in the band. The other guitarist, having lots of money and not a lot of rhythm, got a Rickenbacker 12-string guitar, and couldn’t play it. So, he wound up as the bass player and I got to play a Rickenbacker 12-string, during the heyday of Roger McGuinn and that distinctive 12-string sound of the Byrds, the Turtles, and so many of the 60's groups. My fingers and ears never again felt comfortable with just 6 strings.

Eventually the band members went separate ways, and I said a lingering goodbye to the Rickenbacker. From that time on, I've always been a 12-string player. Over the years (with the famous Manny's and Bronen's music stores nearby in New York), I acquired a multitude of 12-string guitars, some later sold, and some being keepers to this day. These included a Vox Teardrop, Hagstrom electric, Guild acoustic (still a favorite!), Yamaha electric, Ovation Adamis, and at least 5 others that have come and gone. But I never had a Rickenbacker --- until today. I came across an offer I couldn't refuse, so here it is. It feels just like it did back in 8^th grade, with that same great sound, except I hope I can play it a bit better now.

...Bill Pere

Sept 11 Reflections

Sept 11, 2010: Having spent so much time in lower Manhattan as a child, it hit home especially hard as I watched 9/11/01 unfold on TV that morning. A week or so later, I started to write a song about it, and after a day or two, I had parts of a verse and chorus set to music, some assorted images, and pieces of other lines. To this day, it remains unfinished, as I came to find it had more meaning being left in fragments.

A short time later, Kay wrote her 9/11 reflection, "Because the Sky Fell Down", a wonderfully crafted song that captured much of what many of us wanted to say, woven in her own unique and artful way. I find it moving every time she performs it. It was recorded in Nashville and released in 2005

As the next several post-9/11 years unfolded, I wrote "I Am Erica" (using deliberate white space and oronym techniques to morph it into "I America"), released July 4 2008 on the "American Sampler" compilation and soon to be re-released on a 30 year retrospective album.

The songs we write, as well as those written by many of my colleagues, speak of the importance of tolerance by all people, for all people, of all beliefs, for all beliefs. Any type of extremism can only fan the flames of intolerance, and we've seen enough fire to last more than 3,000 lifetimes.

Music and songs can reach people in a powerful way, but still nine years later, it seems the lesson has not yet been learned, the message not yet heard. The music of the 1960's had tremendous influence on the social and political issues of those turbulent times. In this 21st century world of internet sound-bytes, the voices singing out on the important issues of our day are drowned out by pop, glitter, spandex, and pyrotechnics. Perhaps it is time to turn up the volume.

…Bill Pere

Remembering George David Weiss

The music world is a bit more silent with the passing of George David Weiss this week. One of all-time great hit composers ("What a Wonderful World", "Can't Help Falling in Love", "Lion Sleeps Tonight", and so many more), he was truly one of the best. He was a personal friend and mentor to me for many years. I first met George in 1980 in New Haven where he and Sheila Davis came up from NYC to teach us how to critique songs. Over the years, I had regular dinner conversations with George before his 15 appearances with CSA (we'd often meet at Friendly's) and we corresponded many times by letter (yes, the handwritten kind). In 1994 he wrote a personal endorsement for me recommending that I be appointed as Connecticut State Troubadour, which I was that year. He always commented on how much he appreciated the songwriting articles I wrote, which he said "finally made it all understandable" for him. He will be missed.

Here is his full Obituary:

George David Weiss, who authored such signature pop songs as Elvis Presley's “Can't Help Falling in Love" and Louis Armstrong's “What a Wonderful World," died Aug. 23 of natural causes in Oldwick, N.J. He was 89.
Weiss served as President of the Songwriers Guild of America for many years. He studied at the Juilliard School of Music before working as an arranger for the bands of Stan Kenton and Vincent Lopez.

His early stage efforts included the music for Sammy Davis Jr.'s 1956 Broadway vehicle “Mr. Wonderful." His later legit shows included “First Impressions" and “Maggie Flynn."

In 1961, Weiss co-authored “Can't Help Falling in Love," an adaptation of the French standard “Plaisir d'Amour," with producers Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore. Included on the soundtrack for Presley's film “Blue Hawaii," it rose to No. 2 on the national charts; Presley used it in later years as a closer for his live shows.

Weiss, Peretti and Creatore also collaborated on an adaptation of South African musician Solomon Linda's “Mbube." The Americanized version, “The Lion Sleeps Tonight," became a hit in successive versions by the Tokens, England's Karl Denver and Robert John.

Penned with producer-writer Bob Thiele, “What a Wonderful World" was not a success for Armstrong on its initial single release in 1968. However, it reached the top 40 in 1988 after it was used in the pic “Good Morning Vietnam," and became a standard thanks to constant employment in films, TV and advertising.

Weiss' other well-known compositions included “Lullabye of Birdland" (written with jazz pianist George Shearing), “Wheel of Fortune" (a 1952 smash for Kay Starr) and “Stay With Me" (a memorable vehicle for R&B singer Lorraine Ellison, penned with producer-writer Jerry Ragavoy).

His other screen credits included the Disney cartoon features “Melody Time" and “Fun and Fancy Free," Presley's “Wild in the Country," “Gidget Goes to Rome" and “Murder Inc."

Role Call - You Are Bartholomew Cubbins

"In the Beginning, Bartholomew Cubbins did not have 500 hats. He had only one hat." -- Dr Seuss

In the traditional music business model, you, the songwriter or artist would be under contract to a large record company and publisher, who would then call all the shots. In today’s world of Independent artists, YOU are the one who puts others under contract to you.

The key is to know

(a) what types of roles/tasks need to be done

(b) which ones you can do yourself

(c) which ones you need to engage others for

(d) how to find the right person(s) to do the tasks you want to contract out.

There are three parts in the journey from creative inspiration to released recording. These are:

• Creation – (Songcraft): the process of conceptualizing, creating and crafting the song, including getting critique and making revisions.

• Realization – (Studiocraft): the process of taking the finished song from paper (or in your head) to fully arranged master recording and/or performable piece

• Proliferation - (Salescraft and Stagecraft): the process of getting copies ofthe song as widely disseminated to as many people as possible through a recording or live performance

Within these three phases, a number of different things must happen, each requiring different types of skill sets. Each related group of tasks that must be done comprises a role. In big label, big budget projects, each role may have a dedicated person (or more than one person) doing those tasks. For the typical Indie artist, all the roles are filled initially by you. These are the many hats you have to wear. The reason it often seems so daunting is that the knowledge and skills you have will fit some of the roles, but not others, and when you come to a point where those roles need to be filled by skills you don’t posses, you feel adrift.

If you know what each role is, when it is needed, and the skills required, you will be able to make informed decisions and you will be able to continue to move ahead with much less stress. First, let’s take a look at some of the key roles required to get a song from beginning to end.

(GO HERE FOR DIAGRAM)

Actual songwriting occurs in the Creation phase. Realization involves arranging, recording, and production, while Proliferation centers around distribution, performance and promotion. Each of the roles above is a combination of creative elements and technical elements, but the skill sets and objectives for Realization and Proliferation are different than those for the initial creation of the song.

A song is traditionally and legally defined as a melody and lyric. For purposes of this discussion and the Creation-Realization-Proliferation paradigm, Creation means the initial writing of a melody and lyric, along with (optionally) the initial accompanying chords. Anything beyond that (for example when the rest of the band or the producer starts adding parts) becomes elements of Realization, i.e. deciding stylistic elements of how the song will be arranged and produced. As songwriters, we want to be able to create a lyric and melody which, if sung a capella or in any stylistic arrangement, will always stand on its own as a well-crafted song. That is how a song gets covered by many artists across several different styles.

As a self-contained Indie artist, you may indeed have to wear all 500 hats, but while you are acting as a songwriter, you have to deal with only four roles: Lyricist, Composer, Idea Generator, and Sounding Board. Remember that one person can fill more than one role (e.g., you write both the music and the lyrics) or one role can be filled by more than one person (e.g., two people collaborate on a lyric).

The Lyricist role is the one which writes the lyrics. The Composer creates the melody and optionally, the initial chord accompaniment. These are well known and easily understood roles.

But where do the inspirations for songs come from? What ignites the spark to want to write about something ? This is the role of the Idea Generator. The one who has the “songwriter’s antennae” always extended, scanning life for moments to be captured in a sonic snapshot. Many songwriters generate their own ideas, from life experience, from an event in the news, from a line in a book or from seeing something on TV. But just as easily, it could be someone else who provides the key idea for a song. That person may not write a single lyric line or melody note, but they can provide the spark, the hook, the central premise that becomes a song.

In that case, they are acting as the Idea Generator. It is important as a songwriter to always remain open to all sources of inspiration. The person who insists on being totally self-contained may miss out on some great ideas that come from others. If someone else provides the idea for a great song, an idea is not a copyrightable entity, thus you are not required to credit them as a co-writer, but it may be good business and interpersonal etiquette to do so. That becomes one of your early choices. If there is one less co-writer, you get a larger piece of the pie. But will it cause hard feelings and possibly burn a valuable bridge? Like all choices in the arts, there is not an absolute ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ decision. -- just the one that seems right for you, and you can only make it if you stop to think about it.

The fourth role in the realm of Creation is that of Sounding Board. This is one role which is usually impossible to fill yourself, and it is an extremely important part of Creation. Sadly, many writers are afraid of this role and leave it out of the process, to their own detriment.

The Sounding Board is the person (or persons) whom you let hear your early versions of the song, or see the initial drafts of the lyric, to get feedback and constructive critique. The skills required in order for this role to be valuable to you are that the person(s) filling it have no reason to say they like or dislike your song for any reason other than its own merits. This means that your spouse, your mom, you dog, or your employee will not effectively fill this role (unless they are also a qualified music evaluator whom you know can be objective) A music professional, a knowledgeable teacher, a qualified songwriting coach, or a Songwriter Association provide good sources
of constructive feedback.

Think of Olympic athletes – how would they ever reach their full potential if they didn’t have a qualified, objective person observing them and telling them what was good and what could be improved. If all they ever got was a supportive parent or partner saying “good job!” and “great effort” to everything, without someone pointing out areas for improvement, there would be limited advancement of skills and no intensifying of inner drive. However, there would be that warm fuzzy feeling of affirmation, which everyone likes.

On the other hand, if all one ever heard is relentless criticism, which unfortunately can also come from parents and loved ones, there is no better way to kill motivation and creative spark. And in both cases, your eyes would certainly not be wide open to what could really be achieved. Only you can determine where the right balance lies for you. Many songwriters tend to avoid objective critique, but it is one of the surest, fastest ways to advance your skills.

In my years of song critiquing, I’ve seen so many writers bring fully produced studio recordings, representing significant time and money, to critique sessions. This is clearly outside the Creation-Realization-Proliferation paradigm, as a fully produced song is ready for Proliferation, while the Sounding Board role as it relates to critiquing the song (as opposed to the production), is part of the Creation phase. When good suggestions are made that would really improve the song, the writers are faced with unpleasant choices: go back to the studio and spend more time and money to make the improvements, or live with a song they know could be made better. (NOTE: The Sounding Board role in the Realization phase relates to input on arrangement and production. In the Proliferation phase, the Sounding Board offers input on marketing strategies or live presentation).

The simple way to avoid this rock-and-hard-place situation is to get your constructive feedback early in the process, before anything is fully committed to a final form. Then, adjustments are easy to make and don’t cost anything. Rewriting and revising is an integral part of songcrafting, thus its value lies in the Creation phase.

You are always in control of your artistic choices, even when the options come from a source external to you. It is not easy to offer up your creation for strangers to pick at, but to avoid critique is to deny yourself the opportunity to make choices, and if your head is in the sand, you cannot choose with your eyes wide open.

Once you move beyond the Creation phase, there are many new hats to wear, each with a different set of skills. Your choice is always

(a) Do I do fill the role myself, and

(b) If not, how do I decide who to get to fill it ? .

These are important decisions for all songwriters and artists, and they are discussed fully at www.songcrafterscoloringbook.com

...Bill Pere