the blog quebecois

Oh, no, you're thinking. He's going to make us listen to all the takes of this bloody stuff!

Relax, dear reader (and grudging listener). Just the more "successful" tracks. Though keep in mind that I have a rather elastic view of what constitutes "success."

By the time we were done, I suppose I had written 300 songs or so; of which maybe 30 or 10% were actually worth listening to. That 10:1 ratio pops up elsewhere -- both Mick Jagger and Bruce Springsteen, talking about upcoming albums, estimated that they had each written around one hundred songs to get the 10 or 11 that made the cut. Or as Keith Richards famously described pre-'60s LP's: "1 hit and 10 tracks of shit," though that equally fits some Stones records, especially in the late seventies (I'm looking at you, Goat Head's Soup -- if the punks and new wavers accomplished nothing else, they at least woke up the Glimmer Twins, who started turning out some of their strongest work in a decade).

Probably the difference between professionals and amateurs is that the former are far better at spotting duds and quit wasting time on them. Whereas I would do a half-dozen attempts at songs that weren't going to be very good even if I hit every note on time and in tune. It's rare, even for accomplished writers, to get everything correct on the first take; but if there's no spark, nothing special by your third or fourth try, then the song generally wasn't meant to be.

But I like the process by which songs evolve, so I'll include a few examples. I'm kinda weird that way.

Previously: Just Like A Woman