Category Archives: Rewritten Song

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It’s So Hard Knowing (Version 2)

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For this re-recorded version of It’s So Hard Knowing (click here to listen to the original) I actually used the melody of another re-recorded version of a different song from a few years ago. This one.

It's So Hard Knowing (Version 2)
Blisters happen. It’s a FACT.

I was going to do the same fingerpicking guitar part too. I did a bunch of recordings. I tried and tired. But I’m out of practice, it hurt my fingers too much and I couldn’t get the tempo right, so I scrapped those recordings and just sang the fingerpicked part. Made it more different than I originally intended.

And then my fingers were free to pick other things, like noses, ears, butts, fights, scabs, fruit, lint, teeth, toejam. And they were only mildly blistered.

Anyway, have a listen:

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Rewritten Song: On down the road (version 2)

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On down the road (version 2)

Here’s the last thing I’ll do in 2013. It’s a rewrite of this tune from 2011. I’m not sure if I improved on the original version. I really enjoy that one. I actually didn’t think I’d be able to re-write it at all. At first I just played around with time signatures to change up the recording, but kept the words all the same.

That didn’t work.

I settled on this right here. I’m fine with it. I enjoy it. It uses repetition, which is something I’ve found to be useful when writing songs. I figure out a pattern of how words or phrases or ideas can repeat over and over and then I fit different words into that. It gets easy the more you do it.

This recording is a great example of that. I finally found a musical pattern that sounded good to me and then I crammed all the words from the first version into that. Some words dropped out when I cut out what I didn’t need, but I think I kept the idea of the song the same.

Except that I turned it around to you. It’s not about me anymore. It’s yours now.

I’m going to do that a lot more in 2014. This new song every week thing is going to change a little bit. Instead of me just vomiting out all the songs I can, I’m going to explain how I get each one. IN DEPTH. I’m going to create some sort of How-To manual of songwriting. Like, How-To write a song every single day. It’ll be fun. I think.

I haven’t totally got it all straightened out yet, but it’ll just be a little different. You may not even notice.

So that’s what’s coming soon.

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Rewritten Song: I’m bound (version 2)

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I'm bound (version 2)

This new version of this old song from late-December 2011 is a little bit more honest, I think. Instead of putting it all on someone else, like the first version does, this new one sort of takes some ownership.

Sort of.

The narrator is still kind of a jerk because he’s unwilling to change. Still saying, “Well, this is how I am, and you’re going to have to accept me like that, cause I’m not going to try and be different.”

It’s a good thing I don’t write songs about myself. It’s a good thing. Yep. Sure is. This song is definitely not about me.

#MAJORBIGTIMEJERK

Also, I stole the melody from Johnny Cash’s tune “Let the Train Blow the Whistle.” It just happened to pop into my head while I was re-writing this one and it worked out pretty well. That’s an easy trick if you get stuck at songwriting. Just steal what someone else already did. NO ONE WILL KNOW.