First of all, here are some comments on three songs, followed by my thoughts on earworms, plagiarism and other topics.
Three songs
‘Go away’ has a nice melody, good words / story. It would be ideal to be used in a west end musical.
‘When I think of you now’ – Nice ballad, Suitable for Michael Buble. Not a number one, but a track on a compilation.
‘My brother and I’ – I can imagine this song being sung at a folk session in a bar. The repetition of ‘My brother and I’ would be what the audience would join in with. Note – the song is actually called ‘My Brothers and I’
Earworms
These are tunes that keep repeating in your head, sometimes all day long. I often wake up with an earworm. This morning it was ‘Ten green bottles.’ More common are ‘Everybody loves somebody’ and ‘Chatanooga choo choo.’ Sometimes an earworm can be slightly irritating, for example ‘Tie a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree’ or ‘Raindrops keep falling on my head’ (apologies to Burt Bacharach)–and of course ‘Puppet on a string’ Usually my earworms are other people’s songs, but sometimes one of mine creeps in, e.g. the other day I uploaded One two three and it’s been playing in my head ever since.
If you want to stop an earworm, they say you can override it by humming ‘God save the Queen’. I’m not so sure about that. If I’m on a crowded street singing ‘God Save the Queen’, I might get some funny looks. Or the whole shopping centre could come to a halt, with everyone standing to attention.
Earworms are very long lasting. The other day I was humming an ad that used to be on Radio Luxembourg in the 1950’s:
Take a tip, take a Bristol. Today’s cigarette is a Bristol. The real cool flavour you’ll never forget. Bristol is today’s cigarette – Bristol
Plagiarism
You probably remember the ‘My sweet lord’ case where George Harrison had to pay the writers of a similar song called ‘He’s so fine’. I hadn’t noticed the similarity and neither had George. But I often wonder about ‘Fly me to the moon’ which is almost the same as ‘Happy heart’. And the Elvis hit ‘Can’t help falling in love with you’ is a dead ringer for ‘Plaisirs d’amour’. Plagiarism is usually regarded as deliberate, but sometimes it is accidental and unconscious. My songs are original, not consciously copied from other tunes I’ve heard. But after writing ‘The fountain song’ I realised it was very similar to ‘Charlie is my darling’, although this is such an old song it probably doesn’t matter. Another suspect similarity is ‘Twist and Shout’ by The Beatles, which has the same tune as ‘La Bamba’ by Richie Valens.
Work-in-progress
Lyrics. I would like to improve the lyrics for some of the songs, e.g.All of me all of you, Beautiful, Can’t stop the love, Clouds in my eyes, Easy riding, Everly Brothers song, Gentle with me, I need a man, Lady in black, Little rose, Might-have-beens, Ready for the rock, Red moon, Walking in the rain, When I’m loving you. Red moon – the ‘red balloon’ is a bit yukky – ‘that there was something coming soon’ might work. I need a man – some people say ‘hormones and glands’ is a bit yukky. ‘Hormonal plan’ has been mooted.
Songs. City of sin–possibly needs a more catchy chorus based on the song title. Eric or me–I’m exploring ideas for an intro to make the song longer and clarify it’s “message”.
Rock choir
I tried this form of community singing a few years ago because group singing is said to be good for Parkinson’s disease. The snag for me was the lack of sheet music. Without musical notation, I am too slow at learning the songs. I am a visual learner. Apparently they can’t provide the music because of copyright issues. For me, some of the songs were a bit boring!
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