I'm writing folk music

[Geiseric]

What should i write about? Obviously it's going to be communist folk music, however specific topics or lines I could rip off, I mean give credit for :laugh:, would be appreciated.

The first song I've written is "Talkin Iraq blues." A comma means

Well I get home from work, turn on the news
CNN has a camera on the troops
Talkin bout, spreading liberty
Those terrorists won't be able to get me
After we invade, Al Quaeda won't be a problem!
Because Saddam is the one whose helping them
We have proof from a guy we tortured, he said so!
We'll be dead by tomorrow unless we go now!

Rebuild the country with help from haliburton
And our friends at Lockheed Martin
It's a war for freedom, liberty, all of that crap
While the owners of BP are getting fat
Creatin jobs so those muslims can toil
While we steal all the oil
Sell it in the U.S. for 4.50 a gallon
Justified by patriotic jargon
From a guy who fakes a texas accent!
(guitar solo)
Back in '03 the president said
We gotta go to Iraq to make to make Hussein dead!
Because he's got yellow cake that aint too tasty
And the U.N. Inspectors aren't being hasty,
The war isn't about oil, it's about freedom
If they don't want it, we'll force it on em
With some artillery, and a few hundred thousand troops

That's not the entire song, but once I record it and a few other songs i'll upload it to uTorrent.
I've written another song but I don't feel like posting it. However talking blues are kind of a staple in folk music because they're entertaining, and there's a long history of them from Leadbelly to Phil Ochs. Eventually I hope to form a folk band and spread the word of communism.

[#FF0000]

Haha I think it's pretty good, guy. Look forward to seeing/hearing the rest of it.

[leftistman]

Great lyrics, maybe I'll take credit for them myself. ;)

[Ostrinski]

nice

[Geiseric]

The later verses are much better. I'm gonna record the songs this weekend, and I'll let you guys know when they're ready.

[Fawkes]

The song seems to be missing direction. Compare

"After we invade, Al Quaeda won't be a problem!
Because Saddam is the one whose helping them
We have proof from a guy we tortured, he said so!
We'll be dead by tomorrow unless we go now!"

to

"My daddy was a miner
He's now in the air and sun
He'll be with you fellow workers
Until the fight is won"

(Which Side Are You On by Florence Reece)

Not only is the latter personalized by the singer ("my daddy"), it also has a clear target audience ("you fellow workers") and a target of contempt (the rest of the song provides that in the form of references to J.H. Blair). That personalization is what defines folk music for me.

Just some advice, hope I'm not just sounding like a douche

[Geiseric]

Thanks, i'll take all the advice I can get :D. The only writing experience I have is in the horrorcore rap genre haha. I was gonna re-write it anyways during my sociology class.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

Think about how it'll sound when you sing it.

Folk music should be less syllabic, I feel, and have a simpler lyrical element to it. Not simple per se, but it shouldn't be as lyrically complex as hip-hop/rap bars, for example.

I think your direction is good, but try and cut it down to size. I'm also interested in folk-writing, though with a greater rock 'n' roll/Americana sort of feel, a la Springsteen, Mellencamp etc.

Here's a few verses for a song I wrote recently, for comparison. They're just draft-work at the moment and i've only tentatively put them to chords:

Verse 1 Johnny washes cars all day and all night,
He gets paid 6 pounds an hour and not a penny more.
The boss-man tell him, "don't worry son, it'll be alright",
But Johnny ain't got nothin' to his name at all.

Verse 2 These sunny days have passed us by,
August is filled up now with pain and hurt and rain,
Now i'm workin', makin' money for some guy,
Whilst he's sittin' atop of this gravy train...

Chorus:...This gravy train, This gravy train,
It comes around again, this gravy train.
This gravy train, this gravy train,
Brings us nothin' but pain, this gravy train.

Verse 3 Out in the shadows tonight, i'm gonna meet a man,
He's gonna give me some goods to sell, I ain't got no other plan.
And if this plan goes awry, i'll end up doing time,
I'm not yet thirty, but man i'm past my prime

Verse 4 Johnny's girl Marie, she ain't got the fear,
She's gonna go out tonight, dancin' with her man.
Under the moonlight tonight, an angel will appear,
It will take Johnny and his girl tonight, in its hands.

I'm not sure how 'folk' that counts, but it's one of my lyrical influences, the notion of romance and personal stories and repeated lines for effect.

:) [also just advice, i'm no expert, i just love music the same as the next man and folk/early rock n roll in particular]

[bricolage]

I think your direction is good, but try and cut it down to size. I'm also interested in folk-writing, though with a greater rock 'n' roll/Americana sort of feel, a la Springsteen, Mellencamp etc.
It shows :)

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

It shows :)

I think I penned that after listening to 'Land of Hope and Dreams' the night before.

Since listening to him, i've increasingly been drawn to writing imagined stories about working class guys called Johnny. :lol:

[Geiseric]

Johnny in american history is also a name given to confederate soldiers during the civil war, kinda like "Charlie," in vietnam.

[o well this is ok I guess]

(guitar solo) You've got something nice going, bruh.
Don't ruin it with a solo.

[Geiseric]

I meant a short, one measure solo to give the crowd an audio break from the talking blues rhythm haha.

[Ostrinski]

One thing I'd say is to make it catchy. Folk music (traditionally) isn't something that you listen to admire the intricacy of the music, such is the nature of many contemporary genres.

But traditionally with folk music you want to be able to connect with the audience, get them singing your songs, etc. Individual songs are more important and hold more weight as they can be used to relate to contemporary events and other things (not that other genres don't have songs that can do this, but they're often auxiliary to the greater record, whereas each individual folk song has some special meaning).

[No_Leaders]

Good stuff comrade, i'm really looking forward to see how this goes. I'd love to hear the work once it's done. :)