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Writer's pictureHeshy R

Daily Lyric: SONGWRITING BLUES

I got my life

I got my money

I got my car

But I ain’t got no honey

Ooooooh, yeah I got the blues

Ain’t got no honey

And boy, I got the blues

Johnny loves the blues

It’s got him shaking in his shoes

When he’s drinking beer’n’booze

Man, he paid his dues

Ooooooh, yeah he got the blues

How many words rhyme with ooze?

Oh yeah, he got the blues

She got a bad reputation

Haven’t you heard

She got a three-letter name

But it’s a four-letter word

Ooooooh, you know she got the blues

Love’s a four-letter word

And you know she got the blues

Joe is into rap

Moe is into funk

Bo is into metal

And Zoe is into punk

But me?

I’m into the blues

I don’t go for all that junk

Just dig those rhythm’n’blues

The moon in June

The rain in Spain

Shines in the afternoon

Falls mainly on the plain

Ooooooh, yeah I got the blues

Rhyming is a pain

And yeah, I got the blues

I try to be original, I try my own ways

But there’s no way to avoid plagiarism or clichés

Just when I think I got a line that can’t go wrong

I buy a new record and hear the same line in somebody else’s song

Ooooooh, yeah I got the blues

If it will, it can go wrong

And oy, have I got de blues

So back to square one:

I got my life

I got my honey

I got my car

But I ain’t got no money

Ooooooh, yeah I got the blues

Ain’t got no honey

And boy, I got the blues

©2024 The Hesh Inc.


"Songwriting Blues" - photo by The Hesh Inc.
I try to be original, I try my own ways.

This one was probably completed in the early part of the 2000s, though it has elements dating back to my first attempts at writing songs. The first verse is from "Lonely Blues," which I wrote at the age of 14 while trying to prove to one of my friends that I was a better songwriter than he was (I don't think I convinced him, but that's another story). The second verse and the first four lines of the sixth verse are from several years later, when I was commiserating with another songwriting friend/partner about the difficulty of finding words to match the music. The third verse comes from something I once said about an ex-girlfriend of mine ... 'nuff said. The rest of it came from a lunchtime songwriting session in which I completed the whole thing. Of course, it is in a simple 12-bar-blues form, which itself has become a cliché and a trope ... but that's part of the fun of it.

Posting this today because I am attempting to smash through a backlog of semi-finished songs as part of my magnum opus and other endeavors ... there are few things as frustrating as slaying a beast of our own making. A sense of humor always helps to get through it.

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