Misfit

"Rob Roper", songwriting

by Rob Roper 2nd draft Dec 8, 2008

Too weird for straight
too straight for freaks
not a redneck
not a hippy
Don’t have a tatoo
don’t have piercings
don’t have dreadlocks
don’t wear a hoodie
Misft

Don’t watch sitcoms
or the cop shows
Don’t watch the Oscars
or the Grammys
Don’t like the Idols
or the hit songs
The music that I like
you never heard of
Misft

Don’t eat McDonalds
I’m not a vegan
don’t drink Jaegermeiser
or Bud-lite
Don’t have children
or a wife
not gay
or even bi
Misfit

Not a Democrat
or Republican
not a Christian
not a Jew
not a Muslim
or a Buddist

What’s a misfit boy gonna do?
Gotta find me a misfit girl
Like you.

Mama Had a Mohawk

punk rock, songwriting

A couple of years ago I was at my neighborhood bar, and met this young kid who was into to punk rock. He was a second generation punk rocker; he said his mom had a blue mohawk. Didn’t know his dad, he was just some guy in one of the bands his mom met. He was working at a tatoo shop on S. Broadway. I mentioned that I liked the song “Story of my Life” by Social Distortion, and he said, “man, that song saved my life when I was in high school”. I thought, “this is a song!” I made a few notes at the time, but just got around to really working on it yesterday and today. I took what he told me, and made the rest of it up. Here’s a first draft of the lyrics. I posted a rough recording on my myspace demo site, http://www.myspace.com/robroperdemos.

“Mama Had a Mohawk”
by Rob Roper 1st Draft Nov 18, 2008

Mama had a mohawk, painted it blue
black leather jacket, an angel tatoo
Daddy played the drums, in a punk rock band
Mama said, “son, one day you’ll understand”

Chorus
Mama had a mohawk
Daddy wasn’t around
They let me run wild
on the streets of the town
A rock and roll baby
Born and bred
I look back now
Can’t believe I’m not dead

Sometimes at night, mama wouldn’t come home
I’d have to call my friend, on the telephone
She’d pick me up at noon, and buy me ice cream
and say, “sorry, litle man, I was out with the band”

Chorus

High school was tough, I didn’t fit in
I was skinny and ugly, only had one friend
We were always skipping school
hanging out, smoking pot
Just sitting in the car
and listen to punk rock

Chorus

I remember the day, Social D came to town
Mama snuck me in the back, when the guard wasn’t around
Mike Ness looked at me, sang “Story of my Life”
Every word rang true, man, he got it all right

Chorus

Now I’m ok, work in a tatoo shop
got a hardcore band, and man, we really rock
I watch the kids jump around, from up on the stage
They remind me of me, when I was their age.

Chorus

Freestyle

freestyle, hip-hop, rap, songwriting

I saw a good movie last night. It’s a documentary called “Freestyle: The Art of Rhyme”. “Freestyle” is a type of rap where you spontaneously make up a rap. The lines can’t just rhyme, they have to flow logically and make sense. And you can’t pre-write any of it; it has to be spontaneous. Try it sometime, it’s hard! I think it could be a good songwriting exercise even for songwriters who don’t write in the hip-hop style.

Rent the movie. I got it on Netflix. It’s amazing the stuff these guys come up with on the spot.

-Rob

Fare thee well Ronnie Drew (of The Dubliners)

Irish music, Ronnie Drew, songwriting, The Dubliners

I just heard that Ronnie Drew, a singer and founder of The Dubliners, passed away in August.

I was living in Tucson, Arizona in the 1980’s, and my brother Greg, then in grad school, came to visit me. While floating down the Salt River in inner tubes, he sang a few Irish folks songs–drinking songs–and I was enchanted. They were funny and clever. Most of them were by The Clancy Brothers.

About the same time, I began listening to an Irish music show on the community radio station in Tucson on Sunday evenings put on by a fellow named Scott Egan. Among the bands whose songs were played regularly were The Dubliners. There were hilariously funny drinking songs, such as “7 Drunken Nights”, and sad, story songs such as “Donegal Danny”. Although Ronnie shared singing duties with Luke Kelly, it was Ronnie’s songs that I liked the best. He had a rich, gravelly baritone with a great Irish accent that I just loved.

Since my teenage years I’ve been into both rock music and quiet acoustic songs. Now I had a third love–Irish folk songs.

Today bands like Flogging Molly, which combine punk rock with Irish traditional music, are big. Flogging Molly was directly influenced by The Pogues, the first band to play and write Irish traditional music in a punk style. And The Dubliners were a huge influence on The Pogues. Without The Dubliners, there would have been no Pogues, and without The Pogues, there would have been no Flogging Molly.

Here’s a great summary of The Dubliners history:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/ronnie-drew-lead-singer-of-the-dubliners-900669.html

What I found interesting in this article is that, back in the early 1960’s when The Dubliners started out, Irish pubs generally didn’t have live music. It was O’Donoghue’s Pub in Dublin that allowed Ronnie and the boys to play a little music. The Dubliners are credited with reviving Irish traditional folk music in Ireland in the 1960’s. During my last visit to Ireland in March of this year, I stopped in O’Donoghue’s for a couple of pints. Old photos of The Dubliners were all over the walls. I felt like I was on sacred ground.

In 2004 I began taking up songwriting in earnest. In 2005 I was doing my 3-days-a-week jogging around the local park, and began thinking of a melody for a song. It sounded like an Irish melody, an Irish drinking song melody, the kind of song The Dubliners would sing. While jogging, it seemed like the lines should be saying, “here’s to this, and here’s to that”. I asked myself, “ok, that’s cool, but what are we drinking to?” I didn’t want it to be the normal stuff, and I had been working on another song where I was exploring the consequences of making mistakes, and not being able to go back and undo them, but what would happen if we could go back and undo them? After working on the song off and on for 5 months, “The Screwup Song” was born.

I couldn’t have done it without you, Ronnie. Thanks, man.

-Rob Roper

Here’s a beautiful video of Ronnie singing “In the Rare Old Times”, with footage of Ronnie singing interspersed with photos of old Dublin. Damn, the tears poured down my face watching and listening this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9T7OaDDR7i8

3 types of songwriters

songwriting

Being a singer-songwriter means learning three crafts: songwriting, singing, and playing an instrument. I’ve noticed a difference in songwriters’ strengths and weaknesses depending on their background:

1. the musician
2. the writer
3. the singer

I’m generalizing, of course, but here are my observations about the strengths and weakness of the three types:

1. The musician got his or her start playing other people’s songs in bands. The typical example is a male guitar player. When he begins trying to write songs, his strengths are his knowledge of music, and of course his instrument. He can easily come up with ideas for chord progressions, rhythms, etc. His weakness is with singing, unless he’s always been singer and guitar player. And he’s almost certainly going to find lyric writing difficult, since he probably never did any creative writing; he probably never read, much less, wrote poetry. (I’m in this category).

2. The writer wrote a lot of poetry, and has kept a journal for a long time. I’m going to stereotype this person as a female. She decided she wanted to put her writings to music, so she acquired a guitar somehow, but didn’t take lessons. She noodled around and came up with her own chords, which can be interesting. But due to her lack of music knowledge, the songs tend to sound the same. Being creative, she may also come up with good melodies, but she’s not a trained singer, so she doesn’t sing very loud. More likely, she copies her favorite singer rather than develop her own style. Her strength is her lyrics. She knows how to write about the senses, with imagery, and metaphor.

3. The singer’s strength, naturally, is her singing. I’m going to make my example for this category a woman also. Her weaknesses, obviously, are her musicianship and writing. She’s learned to play guitar at a basic level, so she plays simple first position chords. And her lyrics are simple and direct. But, damn, can she sing.

Our three songwriters should feel no shame about their weaknesses; we’re all beginners at some time. They should only be ashamed if they’re not willing to recognize, and work on, their weaknesses.

1. The musician needs to read poetry, and then try to write poetry. He needs to start a journal and write every day. He needs to learn how to write in a creative way; to “show me don’t tell me”. And he probably needs to take singing lessons, and practice.

2. The writer needs to take guitar (or piano) lessons. She should learn to play a bunch of cover songs by some of her favorite artists. She’ll learn composing skills from learning the cover songs. And she probably could use singing lessons also.

3. The singer should take guitar (or piano) lessons, and read and start writing poetry, and start a journal.

So what do y’all think? These stereotypes are based on real people I’ve known. Maybe I’m over-generalizing based on just a few people?

-Rob