Jesusetc84 Posted May 21, 2007 Share Posted May 21, 2007 So I wrote an amazing song two weeks ago. No, I'm not being immodest; it's an incredible masterpiece. a critically acclaimed masterwork. How can I be so sure, you ask? Cause I rewrote Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands. :(m The melodies are different, and I use different chords, but the basic motion is the same, and both are in 6/8, so I basically have to ditch my song, which is frusterating. I've always been able to write decent music, but nothing to write home about. I thought I had finally done it but...no. So have you ever rewritten a song? How many swigs of whiskey did you take afterwards? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
rwrkb Posted May 21, 2007 Share Posted May 21, 2007 when i was twelve i wrote a parody of "Lump" by The Presidents of the United States of America. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
froggie Posted May 21, 2007 Share Posted May 21, 2007 imagine how weird al yankovic feels! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
andrewwlyle Posted May 21, 2007 Share Posted May 21, 2007 If you truly didn't mean to copy the song, it doesn't matter and you can probably tweak it to make it sound less similar. This happens a lot and I notice it with new artists all the time. Just change a couple things, don't scrap it. I did something similar to this once and I just played with it until the song eventually morphed into it's own unique form. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
nettles Posted May 21, 2007 Share Posted May 21, 2007 I agree with Andrewwyle, it happens and if it's not a complete knock off of the melody, just play around with it and make it your own. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Somnambulist Posted May 21, 2007 Share Posted May 21, 2007 It's frustrating to work so hard on something only to find you accidentally ripped something off. I usually just give up and chuck the song out. If it's that close to something, I'd rather not deal with the legal problems when my tune makes me millions. I mean, I'd hate to give royalty checks over to Mick and Keef because I ripped off 19th Nervous Breakdown. There's got to be enough combination of notes out there for me to come up with something original. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
anodyne Posted May 21, 2007 Share Posted May 21, 2007 i've accidentally written neil young and drag the river material. it happens. it sucks, but it happens. the worst one was i had a song that i was super proud of and actually recorded only to realize as i was mixing it down that it was a bob mould song that i was playing in a slightly different time and one key up. for fun, i played it like bob and it sounded a zillion times better. damn. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
NationalDust Posted May 21, 2007 Share Posted May 21, 2007 I'm in a band with a guy who does that all the time. He'll present a song to m e, and I'm like "Dude, that sounds just like !" and he usually just keeps on going with it. Eventually, it takes a turn and ends up sounding like our song when we jam on it for a little bit. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
tongue-tied Posted May 21, 2007 Share Posted May 21, 2007 i don't think dylan had any problems with twisting pre-existing songs, why should you? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mpolak21 Posted May 22, 2007 Share Posted May 22, 2007 Ah it happens to the best of us. George Harrison and Lennon both famously did it, and more recently Wayne Coyne lifted the melody of Father and Son. --Mike Quote Link to post Share on other sites
KevinG Posted May 22, 2007 Share Posted May 22, 2007 i wrote "ticket to ride" once Quote Link to post Share on other sites
rwrkb Posted May 22, 2007 Share Posted May 22, 2007 i wrote "ticket to ride" once Quote Link to post Share on other sites
andrewwlyle Posted May 22, 2007 Share Posted May 22, 2007 "Ah it happens to the best of us. George Harrison and Lennon both famously did it, and more recently Wayne Coyne lifted the melody of Father and Son." The early beatles records are very much derivations on the late 50's/early 60's rock songs. McCartney was a huge Buddy Holly fan and that definitely shows in his early work as well. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
entropy Posted May 25, 2007 Share Posted May 25, 2007 So have you ever rewritten a song? How many swigs of whiskey did you take afterwards? Constantly. And I don't know. But a lot. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
tongue-tied Posted May 25, 2007 Share Posted May 25, 2007 imagine how weird al yankovic feels! like several million bucks. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
thermocaster Posted May 25, 2007 Share Posted May 25, 2007 So have you ever rewritten a song? How many swigs of whiskey did you take afterwards? In my early songwriting days, I wrote what I thought was a pretty nice ballad. Turned out I'd re-written "Patience" by Guns n Roses. And I'm not sure how, because I never listened to GnR until after I started writing songs. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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