Rock and Roll stories #48 - Songwriting as a storyteller

 One of the nice things about playing with The False Dots is the fact that we get a lot of compliments about my songwriting style.I have three main themes in my songwriting these days. The first is autobiographical stories. I am very influenced by Ian Dury in my songwriting, and Dury wrote classic songs like "My old man" and also some of the work of the Faces such as Ooh La La (written by Ronnie Wood and Ronnie Lane). These songs are filled with nostalgic imagary, and they are three minute long stories and tales, with a large amount of personal history. Examples in our set are songs like Men & Motors (about growing up in a family in the motor trade and the characters that worked for my Dad), Rambo's rampage (based on stories our drummer Graham Ramsey told us about his experience as a Mod in the late 1970's) and our single last year "Don't be scared of a finger up the bum", about my experiences with Prostate cancer. All of these songs have got a great reaction by people who hear the lyrics and are reminded of their own experiences. I have to admit that until recently, I never actually opened up on my honest feelings in songs, apart from our 1982 classic, A memory for you, which I wrote the night my sister Val had a bad bike accident and we were told she was likely to die. She didn't, she got better and I felt self consciously embarrassed about the song. The song was released on a compilation album and has recently become a minor hit in New York college circles, after being included on a playlist of bands with female singers. When I was younger, I found it harder to open up about things, and thought people wanted shouty slogans about the world. Most of the time, they don't, unless you are a very good songwriter.

The second group of songs, and this is something that goes back to our earliest songs, are what I like to call musical novels in three minutes. Often there is some sort of element of truth in there. One of our earliest songs that got noticed was "Not all she seems", the tale of a cross dressing prostitute and their struggles. There was an element of truth, but we embellished it. Sadly the real ending is worse. Then there is Longshot didn't die. It was inspired by the Pioneers "Longshot kick da bucket". My original idea was to write a Ska song for Lee Thompson and Jenny Bellestar to sing with the band. When I played it to Lee, he said that I sang it pretty well, so I never acutally asked him. It is the keystone of our set. It tells the story of how bad betting can ruin your life. It was actually inspired by a good friend of mine, who split up with her husband after his gambling nearly lost them her house. Another song from this school is Action shock. I wrote this in bed with an ex girlfriend, watching the news coverage of the Battle of Goose Green. It is the story of a squaddie who buys into the idea of being in the army being great fun, only to find that when it is you against another human being and one of you will die, it's not much fun at all. I edited the lyrics, after I met a mate who'd been in the Royal Marines and had been there. After he left the army, he spent three years smoking spliffs up a mountain in Nepal to get his head together. 

The third group of songs, are the ones which really mean nothing, but I get a strong riff and a hookline in my head. A good example of this, was the False Dots last single Groovetown. The inspiration for this, and I hope he doesn't mind me saying, was when I was at a gig with my mate Boz Boorer and his wife Lyn. I was boozing at the bar with Boz and Lyn was dancing to the band. Boz said "When Lyn dances, she is the sexiest woman alive". I thought it was a great line. As I developed the song, it got lost, but I  just wanted a song that people could have a dance and a laugh to and not really think about too much. It seems to work as people have started doing the Conga to it.

In the early days of my songwriting, there was a fourth category of song, as mentioned earlier. These were largely political rants, that weren't very good. We were inspired by bands like Crass and wanted to be really hard core. My then songwriting partner Pete Conway and myself were advised by my eldest brother Laurie to listen to The Velvet Underground, saying that was where punk rock started. When we listened to them, we immediately dropped all of the hardcore political sloganising and embarked on writing mini stories. We were only sixteen and it took a long time for me to get my style properly together. 

The most important thing for me, and I'd recommend this to anyone, was when I did a professional songwriting course in 1985. The key message was "be focuseed on what you want the song to do". Whereas I'd written some decent songs before the course, The False Dots set was a mish mash of ideas that sometimes worked and sometimes didn't. I like to think that now the songs are at least coherent and when we play a set, the right songs are played at the right time in the set. One of the absolute key takeaways from the course was the need for musical hooks. As most people don't know our music, the challenge is to get them singing along by the third chorus. That is a measure of a strong hook.  My advice for all budding songwriters, is simple. Be focussed, make sure the songs have great hooks, have lyrics that connect to an audience. It can be one word, or it can be a verse that tells a story. Make sure it is musically interesting all the way through. I do not really like tempo changes as middle eights, as this can mess up the vibe and distract and always keep the key melodies near the heart of the song. I hear so many songs by new artists that have a great melody that gets lost. I am not a big fan of long, meandering intros with no melody or lyrics. Also make sure you write songs that suit the players. Write in a key that a singer can sing in. We've relatively recently acquired Tom Hammond as a trumpet player. Tom recently commented that some of the songs were in "difficult keys". I have taken this on board going forward. Historically I wrote songs in keys with easy guitar chords. When I started working with good singers, I realised that it is best to write in keys that they can hit the notes in, without straining. I hope all of these tips are useful. 

On Tuesday, I was on classic Rock Radio. My mate and presenter Griff Griffiths commented that my songs tell a story and I explained how I was inspired by other songwriters and the stories in their songs. So he asked me to do a playlist for him to play on the show, along with some new songs from customers at Mill Hill Music Complex.