Somethings Gotta Sell
If you're not the driver...
Last Week’s Bonus Round: “Saying Goodbye” is a song by folk/Americana singer/songwriter J.S. Ondara from his debut 2019 album “Tales Of America”. I’ll include some excerpts from Wikipedia and other sources below, but since there isn’t a Wikipedia entry specifically about the song, I’ll do this one. I first heard this song shortly after the album was released (I think) and was immediately hooked. I can’t remember exactly where I first heard it, but I remember watching the video, probably YouTube, but I don’t recall what led me to it. What struck me was the poetry of the lyrics in the verses and his amazing tenor from which he effortlessly soars to a gorgeous falsetto and back. Both lyrics and vocals grabbed my attention and wouldn’t let go, and the lilting acoustic guitar intro over the bass just adds to it, but when the “just right” bass line comes in underneath on the first chorus I was totally “hooked”! Finally, the falsetto vocal outro is stunning. Learning his story of coming to the US from Kenya just added to how much I enjoyed the song, the album and following his successful career since. While I’m usually not a fan of overly repeated lyrics, and the chorus of the song is pretty much just the phrase/hook “Getting good at saying goodbye”, he pulled it off with just the right amount of sorrow and resignation in varying the delivery. The poetry in the verses is uniquely that of a non-native English speaker, but it’s hard to miss the imagery it evokes:
“Bitterness, was right on her tongue
With her legs, painted like the drum”
and
“Heaviness of this heart shut wide
Now my flesh, at arms with my pride”
What’s he saying? I’m not sure I would ever get it from a strict analysis of the written words, but the mind’s eye visual image and the emotions are undeniable, at least in my interpretation (though he may have been speaking of something more personally metaphorical, dunno). To my ear it says: “A bitter, spiteful woman with legs you just can’t look away from broke my heart - I wanted her even as my wounded pride made me turn away.” My goodness - I just could not get enough of this song, and I still listen to it often.
Cool to play as well, 4/4 time, 103 BPM (better a little slower I think), originally in EMaj, but capo on 2 to use the DMaj chord shapes. The chord chart on Ultimate Guitar is good and adds an easy Dsus4 chord that gives an opportunity for an interesting “dawdle” at the end of the verse lines and the final line of the chorus. I wouldn’t even attempt the falsetto on the vocal outro, but if you’re feelin’ it…. Credit: me
J.S.Ondara - Wikipedia link
“J.S. Ondara, professionally known as Ondara,[1] is a Grammy Award-nominated[2][3][4] Kenyan singer-songwriter,[5][6] whose debut album, Tales of America, was released on February 15, 2019 via Verve Forecast.[6][7] The critical success of the debut led to a follow-up deluxe edition, Tales of America: The Second Coming, in September 2019 featuring the original lineup plus five bonus tracks.[8][9]
Ondara was born in August 1992 in Nairobi, Kenya.[10][6] As a child, he wrote poems and stories[11] as well as songs despite not having an instrument to play them on because his family could not afford one.[12] He was inspired by Radiohead, Nirvana, Death Cab For Cutie, Jeff Buckley, Pearl Jam, Guns N' Roses, and Bob Dylan.[10][6][13][14][15]
Ondara grew up listening to rock songs on his older sisters’ battery-powered radio. Having discovered The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan following a dispute with a friend over whether "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" was a Guns N' Roses song, Ondara resolved to travel to the United States to pursue a career in music.[16]
In February 2013, after winning in the green card lottery,[17] Ondara moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota[10] at the age of 20.[5][18] He taught himself to play guitar[6] and perform during open mic nights. Eventually, he decided to study music therapy in college, but dropped out of school to return to playing small shows at coffee houses after attending a concert.[10][14] “ Credit: Wikipedia
See also this clip from Mr. Ondara’s appearance on the NPR show “Tiny Desk”, where he plays the song “Saying Goodbye” and others. NPR Tiny Desk - JS Ondara. I included it in part because Mr. Ondara’s English is understandably somewhat accented when speaking, but when singing the accent is there, but much less noticeable. Which, somewhat oddly, reminded me of this funny story told during an interview with the wonderful and hilariously self deprecating singer Mr. Mel Tillis, who stuttered when speaking, but sang with no trace of the stutter:
“Tillis also relayed a tale about sharing a motel room with Johnny Paycheck (“Take This Job and Shove It”) when Mr. Paycheck forgot his key and had to break in through the front window. Tillis, unaware it was Paycheck, awakened his other roommates by stammering out loud. Then he switched to singing a clear line: “There’s a robber/ Comin’ in/ Through the window.” Credit at link: Mel Tillis Funny Story
Today is “The Day The Music Died” - Buddy Holly, Richie Valens & The Big Bopper died in a plane crash on this day in 1959. The event, and one songwriter’s lament about that, as well as the decline of culture and loss of a generation’s innocence in the decade that followed is the theme of the song Americn Pie by Don McLean. Credit: part me, part Wikipedia
So, for today, let’s talking about songwriting goals. We’ve talked about the “diary entry” types of songs that Taylor Swift can turn into mega hits, but may not be the best subjects for songwriters starting out. If a goal of songwriting is to play for your own enjoyment, for friends at a jam, around the campfire and such, then a straightforward song about something you did, how it made you feel, what you saw, how you reacted is great! Keep doing that, keep writing and playing what is important to you.
The hard reality though, is if you want to sell songs, writing for your audience is imperative. Your audience might care somewhat about your personal experiences, but the facts of human nature mean, quite understandably, your audience will be concerned mostly about their personal experiences, feelings and emotions and how your song influences those things for them rather than you. So writing in metaphorical terms that convey shared human experience is probably the best approach. Without too much analysis, we can figure out why Patsy Cline was “Crazy” - she was in love with someone who apparently wasn’t returning that love and had found someone new. How do we know the song has broad meaning for many people? Well, it was written by Willie Nelson, and presumably he intended it to convey common feelings, was perhaps himself “crazy” for someone who left him, or just observed the effects of a broken love in others. Doesn’t matter - it was metaphorical in that neither Ms. Cline nor Mr. Nelson were clinically “crazy” when they performed it or wrote it, but they did hook into that feeling of helpless anxiety when heartbreak occurs.
So - what “sells”? Well, love sells. New love, continuing love, romantic love, the ending of love, heartbreak resulting from lost love (really sells!!), rediscovered love, old love. And the underlying truth to that is, the sexual attraction we associate with love…sells (“Walk This Way”….), but too blatant can be too much - metaphorical shared experience is a narrow path to tread.
And, “heartbreak” sells. No doubt their are a lot more heartbreak songs than “happy together” songs - though we kind of like wistful songs about seeing an old flame again (“Another Auld Lang Syne”). So, how to write songs that sell?
Any of the themes I’ve mentioned here often do well, and lots of genres besides pop and Adult Contemporary (whatever that is) have hits - genres such as Christian, Country/Western, metal, goth, hip hop, rap, gangsta all have millions of fans (obviously, in terms of hip hop and rap) and there are audiences for each (again, obviously). I personally would never attempt a rap/hip hop song, though some flavors of that have made their way (somewhat hilariously) in C&W lately….
So you can write about anything you want: war/antiwar (“Alice’s Restaurant”), politics (“American Tune”), culture (“American Pie”) and sell songs (maybe more if you’re Arlo Guthrie, Paul Simon or Don McLean, though) - but the metaphor and allusion in those well written songs probably held more attraction for us than other strongly felt, but less allegorical songs.
Still, love and heartbreak songs sell and sell big. It’s a good place to start if you’re looking to make songs that speak to the feelings and emotions of others, even when you’re writing from your own experiences or those of friends and family and acquaintances. Can you capture those feelings, but have others recognize them in their own experience and empathize with them? Note I haven’t talked about melodic and harmonic accompaniment here - just lyrics. Writing either way (lyrics to music, or music to lyrics) is a related, but still separate skill in itself. Give a heartbreak or love song a shot in your writing, even if you never share it (I get songwriting can be a very personal experience, but also personally cathartic), and if you do decide to share, see if it evokes themes or emotions or meaning in the listener, other than the ones you felt or intended when writing it. You may be in for a pleasant (and confidence building) surprise…
My “WhatI’mListening2” playlist is loaded with heartbreak and pain songs today for inspiration, though there is no shortage of examples out there.
Okay, so lots to think about today, but I did have a disappointing experience that may have a silver lining that I wanted to share. If you don’t record your own music, this will be a bit down in the weeds, but if you’re even considering recording, this may be helpful. I record in Logic Pro X, Apple’s recording software for the Mac. Logic Pro is great, and a great platform to learn on. Regardless of software platform, as you start mixing you may want to customize your recorded bare “stems” - the audio that comes from recorded “tracks”, through “channel strips” that have controls for volume, panning and other settings, then “out” to speakers or monitors. The tracks display horizontally across one screen, the channel strips vertically across another. Channel strips are where you can start to play with the sound, and in addition to volume and panning and such, there are other effects as well. You can add what are called “plugins” that affect the audio you’ve recorded in different ways (things like reverb, compression, EQ, limiters, and a host of others). Logic Pro is a “DAW” - a Digital Audio Workstation and there are a number of other brands as well. Most of them will come with a stock set of plugins that you can mess around with, but there are lots of third party vendors as well, and plugins can get to be sort of an obsession. So, I was disappointed with a vendor, Waves Audio (yeah, if you know, you know) that are now requiring re-registration of all plugin serial numbers and it appears, requiring an expensive license update. There may be a perfectly good reason for this, such as piracy or password sharing or something but it’s not well explained, and “call customer service with questions” is not adequate. So, I’ve uninstalled all my Waves purchased plugins, and will no longer be doing business with them. Their loss, though there is another perfectly valid reason for caution. My recorded tracks go to other musicians who add overdubbed drums, guitar, bass, etc. It saves studio time and scheduling and is probably widely used by independent musicians. If you use the perfectly adequate stock Apple plugins (or whatever DAW’s stock plugins) then everyone you share tracks with in Logic or the agreed upon DAW will have the same plugins. Not everyone may have the same Waves purchased plugins, so some of your mix efforts will be lost if you go with them or other vendor’s non-stock plugins. FWIW… (told ya it was down inn the weeds…)
Bonus Round: It’s pop…
Cheers and keep playing!
Michael Acoustic
I'm a music lover that has a hard time finding music I like from this century. So, thank you for this one! What a great song! There is something about Ondara's vocal performance that evoked Tracy Chapman to my ear. Maybe it was the phrasing? Anyway, I'm adding this one to my iPod (yes, I still use an iPod!).