Category: SBS

This April marks the 30th anniversary of National Poetry Writing Month. When I signed with my literary agent for my novel Real Women Wear Red, she told me that my writing was “poetic, almost lyrical” and I wondered what that meant so I started exploring poetry and songwriting.

When I wrote my first official song for professional feedback, the mentor asked if I knew the difference between a poem and a lyric. It was obviously a poem. He helped me turn that poem into lyrics and it became “Everybody Lies.” Often my song lyrics start off as a poem. But can lyrics also be a poem?

What about “Just Another Dude.” Is it a poem or strictly a song?

“Just Another Dude”

You were the one I’d dreamed about
You were the one who hurt me most when I found out
I thought you’d be the one who’d be there forever
No, not ever

It may seem so simple from where you stand
You think you can just reach for my hand
But let me tell you something that may seem rude
You’re nothing more than just another dude

When we were together
We thought we were so clever
But that’s what you do when you are young
When you feel so strong

It may seem so simple from where you stand
You think you can just reach for my hand
But let me tell you something that may seem rude
You’re nothing more than just another dude

You know I hate plans that fall apart
I play my hand from the start
You like secrets I can tell for sure
Under cover lover is the allure

It may seem so simple from where you stand
You think you can just reach for my hand
But let me tell you something that may seem rude
You’re nothing more than just another dude

What do you think? A poem? A song? I can only hear it as a song now, especially with the repetitive hook.

Here’s the song written during FAWM 2025. 

My favorite songs I’ve written vary from time to time. But usually it’s the song I’m working on. But, in-between challenges, looking back, as of this moment, these are my top songs that I wrote during the songwriting challenges hosted by the FAWM (February Album Writing Month) community.

This collection includes comments from the FAWM community, where available. This is such a treasured testimony to some of my best times in the music community. Thank you!

Like my dad loved to listen to music, strap on some headphones, sit back, and enjoy. Thanks for listening!

Lonely Girl, Lonely Boy

What If

Just Another Dude

Ghost of My Younger Self

Living My Best Life

Tequila, Take Me Home

One

Survive

Pondering

Night Moon

Woman in Black

Once Upon A Time

The Bungalow

Broken Man

Pom Pom Cigarettes

 

 

 

Excerpt from this week’s Bad Song Club:

More than once, I’ve heard a songwriter mid-session dismiss a lyrical or melodic idea outright because it bore too strong a resemblance to something they’d written previously. I don’t know why this is, but, more than practitioners of any other art form as far as I’m aware, songwriters act like it’s our cosmic destiny to constantly reinvent the wheel.

Tell me why Monet got 250 chances to paint waterlilies, and ceramicists can make a hundred clay bowls, but every song idea has to emerge from whole cloth or else it’s “derivative” or “unoriginal.”

Other mediums seem to inherently understand the value of refining an idea over time, also known as iterative practice. For one thing, most ideas are multi-faceted and require more than one examination in order to be fully understood. For another, feelings change over time; the song you wrote in anger a year ago might hit different now that your rage has cooled. Maybe you came up with a great melody/chord progression for one song, but it never really gained traction in your repertoire for whatever reason. Should that brilliance be doomed to languish in obscurity simply because it was already promised to another song? Heck no.

I couldn’t agree more. We’re so hard on ourselves. On our music. Thinking it’s all crap. Especially if we don’t have people praising it as often as we’d like. But sometimes it’s good to re-listen to a song you’ve written, produced, recorded and appreciate what’s good about it. And with the FAWM community, I get to revisit all the lovely comments I got. Here’s one I’m especially proud of.