Writing Songs..... the ADD way

When I was about 11 and I made my mind up that being a rock star was definitely the right career path for me I glossed over the small print mentioning that poetry is a huge part of making it if your gonna be going it alone or having your own band. I kind of struggled with this idea when I was big into heavy metal and instant classics about kthulu and satan weren't exactly forthcoming. By the time I was 13 I had discovered punk rock and found my niche in singing song just about life and love and pet peeves and stuff that actually happened in my head. Every song I have ever written has just been about stuff that pops into my mind and as much as I sometimes wish I was super politically minded that just aint me and I have over the years come to terms with this.

Now there are two different ways I come up with song ideas and I'm not sure either are particularly productive means by which to write a song. The first and most basic is when I'm in the shower and something is on my mind and I just kind of start humming a tune along with whatever was going on up in my head. you can spot these songs by them being a little more structured than others and generally feel a little more topical. The second and most inconvenient way I come up with songs is that I dream them. Yeah it's a pain and often means I have to jolt myself awake at four in the morning and try desperately to find something to write the fleeting thoughts down on. These tunes are normally a little more vague in content and normally have the words kind of jammed into verses in slightly irregular ways.  On being able to actually remember what was going on I find I like these tunes more, but the problem with them is often I wake up the next morning having scribbled a tonne of total nonsensical bollocks down so more than half of the songs that start life this way are scrapped before anything productive can be done with them.

Out of the innumerable amount of songs I have written in my life I have probably only kept about 40% of all of them due to repeated playing making me decide I don't like them any more. I figure if I don't like one any more then everyone will likely think it sucks too!

I have decided that since I have started this blog then maybe I can use it to help with this process by getting some (hopefully) objective appraisals on songs I'm writing by putting the ideas I have up on the internets for anyone perusing these pages to leave a comment and I'll use the feedback to make a better decision on what is worth developing and what should be left by the wayside. So for your first up is a recent dream idea I had, I think it may have potential so here is the first verse I worked out, I'll put the words here and also you can check the vid to hear the idea for the melody. I realise I may be setting myself to receive a bunch of hostile troll commentary but hey, it's worth a shot.

"Punk Police"

Verse:
I'm sorry I don't give a fuck about the people in power
But as long as I can string four chords together
And provide for my family I'm gonna be happy

And I'm sorry that my hair is just it's natural colour
And I don't own a leather jacket or have a mohawk
But I have my music in my soul and carry it with me......


Yeah so that's it so far and here is the tune:

So this is me in the shed at the end of my garden. It's the only place I have found where I can make noise once Summer goes to bed so This is where I'll be for the forseeable future, freezing my tits off with a flashlight and a digital camera until I can figure out somewhere to play that is a little bigger/warmer/nicer smelling. If you would like to see videos of the tunes that I actually have finished off then let me know in the comments.