Guild Tidings
The official publication of
The International Songwriters Guild
Volume 30, No. 04
April 2025
Live meetings are Cancelled due to CoronaVirus.
However, we will be having on-line Zoom meetings.
The next zoom feedback session will be
Sunday April 6th at 5pm.
We will send details closer to the date, under a separate e-mail, and an
announcement on the Facebook group page.
please e-mail us at isgorlando@gmail.com if you have any questions
Hopefully we will soon be meeting in person again.
Please stay tuned for more info.
We are asking members to renew their dues for 2025. It costs only $5 per year,
and it helps us to defray costs for the zoom meetings.
We have 2 methods of payment. Either paypal to our treasurer Asli Goncer's
paypal account. The paypal access is at aslivision@gmail.com
or you can mail a $5 check to:
Asli Goncer
2849 Babylon Court
Oviedo, FL 32765
Either way, we appreciate your continued support.
Any Details not in this newsletter are at:
If you wish to join our Facebook group, please check us out at:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/831814850193553/
Two Craftsmen
By Jackie Mason
This month I returned to three songs that I started to learn eight years ago. All of the songs were written by Paul McCartney and Elvis Costello. They are “The Lovers That Never Were,” “So Like Candy” and “You Want Her Too.” My interest in this collaboration stretches back to Elvis Costello’s “Spike” album released in 1989. There were two McCartney/Costello compositions on that album,”Pads, Paws and Claws” and “Veronica.” The latter song “Veronica” was released as a single and became Costello’s biggest US hit. The “Spike” album is considered, by many, to be Costello’s finest album. It certainly was held in high regard by the musicians in my orbit at that time. I have learned “Veronica” and I have great affection for that song. It is about Costello’s grandmother and her struggles with dementia.
The reason I returned to these songs is because they are great compositions and I always come up with fresh guitar motifs and ideas while playing them. They are extremely challenging to sing, not least because of McCartney’s vocal range. The chord progressions are also complex and challenging.
Their collaboration began in 1987 when McCartney invited Costello to write songs. I found an excellent music blog by Scott Bunn “The Lovers That Never Were:The Paul McCartney and Elvis Costello Demos.” The blog is called “Recliner Notes.” It has other great blogs written by Bunn.
These songs seemed to have slipped under the cultural radar. McCartney eventually released the demos on his 2017 remastered album “Flowers In The Dirt.” There have been bootlegs kicking around for years. It’s sad they didn’t release the demos as an album because it’s on a par with the best of The Everly Brothers or even Lennon/McCartney. This from Scott Bunn, “the vocal compatibility of McCartney-Costello is at the level of the great duos of pop music, including The Everly Brothers and, well, Lennon-McCartney.”
Those songs that did make it to solo albums are good, well produced versions but they lose the immediate vibrancy of the demo recordings. This is from Scott, “The demos were performed by the duo in the instant after writing each song while the flash of inspiration was at its peak.” This is how Elvis describes the sessions. “We worked in a room above Paul’s studio in East Sussex, sitting on two couches across a low table with a pen, a notepad, and a guitar apiece.” I love these descriptions of their process. “Both of us seemed to like working fast, firing the ideas back and forth until a song took shape out of just one line of melody, a couple of unusual changes, or some lyrical cue….Whenever Paul and I completed a number, we’d go downstairs to the recording studio on the ground floor and cut a demo with just two guitars or the piano.”
The draw for me are their harmonies. A lot of thought went into this endeavor. The blending of their voices is beautiful.
“I can’t sing above him so I would naturally harmonize below. Which is often the relationship of Lennon and McCartney’s harmonization. That would draw some comparison. Hey, I sing through my nose some of the time. What can I do? I learned how to sing two-part harmonies from singing along with Beatles records. So of course, the minute I put my voice next to his, with the somewhat harder edges in my voice, it naturally created some sort of regional echo. I call it the Mersey cadence. I wasn’t even born in Liverpool. My family’s from Liverpool. But I’ve got a lot of those sounds in my voice” Elvis Costello.
All quotes from Elvis Costello are in his book “Unfaithful Music Disappearing Ink".
You can hear most of the songs on Scott Bunn’s blog if you hit the link. I will be returning to this subject next month. So long from the lonesome Song Motel.
WebChatter
by CyberToad
Here is a Youtube video I watched recently which really speaks to me.
Being "Of a Certain Age", this gives me hope.
Kris Bradley, Produce Like a Boss
Is it too late to start a career in music?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ad5epyqNwUs
This is her website:
https://www.youtube.com/@ProduceLikeaBoss
ISG Bulletin Board
Meeting space graciously provided by Central Florida Musicians Association,
Local 389. You are invited to join the largest union in the world, representing the
interests of the professional musician. Visit their website at afm389.org for more
information. You may reach them by phone at: 407-894-8666.
Why isn't your gig or live stream announced here?
Members in good standing call SusieCool with your appearance schedule!
407-760-2153 or e-mail her the details at isgorlando@gmail.com
If you are interested in open mics in the Central Florida area, SusieCool has compiled a list.
Steve Hodak hosts several newly listed open mics on the Florida East coast. Please call
ahead before making any long trips. This has recently been updated, but please let me know
if any of these are inaccurate.
https://sites.google.com/site/susiecoolsongs/open-mic-directory-central-florida
SusieCool is the admin for a Facebook group called "Orlando Creative Music Network"
where we give out info on songwriter meetings, playing circles, open mics, workshops and
concerts. We have a Facebook page for this group if you want to join.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/274152179716552/
New members and guests are always welcome!
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