McnaughtonPark

Don't Eat The Yellow Snow - Frank Zappa

There was a band out of Mackinaw Illinois who used to sing a song called "When Surf's Up On The Illinois", I think. I heard them while growing up near Peoria but haven't heard that song in a very long time. Now I can't find them on the web to double check it. "And we'll be dodging all the beer cans Keep an eye on the buoy and we'll be rockin' and a rollin' when surf's up on the Illinois" Oh well, maybe I'm losing my mind so how about Let's Get Drunk and Screw - Jimmy Buffett

Rock Steady - Bad Company

Right into Rock and Roll Never Forgets - Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band

Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid - Bob Dylan is too obvious....so how about the Daily Double? Louie Louie - Richard Berry Looked this up too. Another very interesting song history with a huge list of cover bands.

I thought of "Billy Don't Be A Hero" but couldn't remember who wrote it....From www.wikipedia.org ""Billy Don't Be A Hero" is a 1974 anti-war pop song by Paper Lace and was also recorded by Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods. It was written by Mitch Murray and Peter Callander." " Chart performances Paper Lace's version of "Billy Don't Be a Hero" hit number one on the UK singles chart on March 16 1974. The band made plans to release it in America but the song was covered and released by Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods. Their version was rushed out before Paper Lace could release and it hit no 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. on June 15. Subsequently although Paper Lace had the chart-topper in the UK, its version stalled at #96 on the Billboard Hot 100. The Bo Donaldson version failed to chart at all in the UK." So.... Billy Don't Be A Hero - Mitch Murray and Peter Callander

Old Friend - Lyle Lovett

Hello Old Friend - Eric Clapton

Brave Strangers - Bob Seger

Had the pleasure of listening to Dave Frishberg on WMNF out of Tampa on the 100th Anniversary of Johnny Mercers birth. He reminisced about the little time he spent with Johnny in New York. Of course he played and sang Mercer tunes and dotted the show with amusing stories. i immediately came home and looked up Dave Frishberg. Nice article and some great advice. MP

Space Truckin' - Deep Purple

Simple Man - Lynyrd Skynyrd

Son of A Poor Man - REO Speedwagon

try writing in the morning if you can, your brain is more active. But you're right, if you only have time at night, write then. All night spent dreaming.dreaming of anything at all. Sometimes running when I can run or swimming about to drown, brething water. Salty, thick inmy lungs, thin as paper, luminescent in front of the camera..Focus, twisting out the backgrounds fuzzy trees with the birds song fading in reverberation. I guess the worms are sfe, the birds are blinded by night fog so dense I can feel it, brab it, take a whole hanfull of fog wnad wrap it in newspaper like a smelly old fish, or maybe just it's guts. pale red intestines and the bright green lure of a fisherman with a tale of the one that got away. got away, gone to dream in a silver brook rippling water, water I can't breathe but feel. ICy cold in the early spring, the frost on dewy leaves, the warm scent of birch wood burning on an open fire. Then sit back and find something in there that relates to you. Then begind writing some interesting words around that. Find rhymes for those words, develope a story where does it begin and end and what is the poihnt. I didn't use spell check to show you that it's ok not to be perfect all the time. Just go with it and the flow will become a few minutes of your day, uncorrected and exclusively you. Your imagination just needs a path wherever that taakes you is fine.

Candle In The Wind - Bernie Taupin (lyrics)

Another technique, along with what John suggested, is free-writing. 10 minutes a day, early in the morning, before starting your day. Pick a subject, like "Gasoline". Now write anything at all that pertains to that for ten minutes, using all the senses. This is important. Use memories, if you've never felt or tasted gasoline, imagine how it would feel or taste. You have to use the senses, you have to write everything that comes to mind without editing, don't erase, if you make a mistake just keep going. Don't worry if it doesn't make sense, you'll later find that some new and interesting ideas come from mistakes. Don't think, write. Write often, everyday if you can, MP

Don't Know What You Got(TIll It's Gone) - Cinderella

Wildfire - Michael Martin Murphey

Basketball Jones - Cheech and Chong

I think I might. I think it would be useful, espescially when focused on a particular subject. Using words reserved for agriculture could help write a song about the plight of raising crops during a drought, for instance. This tecnique could be useful for writing jingles. Just for kicks, I think I might go this direction and see how it turns out.

I've babbled blubbering blunderbuss before but never cut - up. Never heard of this technique. Did you try it?

Dizzy - The Archies

That is something about the process that I find rewarding actually. In a weird way, I feel it validates the effort. I have an adjustment period, at first it sounds out of sorts. That part is understandable, but what happens after I hear the songs melody a few times, is that it becomes the melody I remember or relate the song to, not my original melody. I don't feel ripped off, quite the opposite. I consider my melodies to be dummy melodies. I was once asked to sing my lyric to the melody it was written to. I did. It changed. Musicians have so many wonderful tools at their disposal, and I'd much rather write to an existing melody, or defer to the musicians melody, than use my own.

I swear to Blackbeard's ghost this said Drafting Lyrics when I responded. Sorry if i misdirected the thread.

Standing On The Corner - (I remember this version) Dean Martin