I am not a big fan of leftovers. I remember when the kids were younger that we would order pizza. We would always order extra and I would have leftover pizza the next day. This is okay if you only eat pizza once a week. I would eat pizza twice. The night it was ordered and the next day for lunch. The problem was that my wife would order pizza twice a week. This doubled my pizza intake not to mention my calorie intake. Instead of eating pizza two days a week, now I am up to four days a week. I got burned out on pizza real quick. Now I only eat pizza when it is fresh. No more leftover pizza.
There are a few foods that make good leftovers. Chili is great on the first day and I love chili dogs on the second day. If I have leftover sausage gravy from biscuits and gravy, I will eat it every morning until it is gone. Yummy for my tummy! I can only think of one food that is better as a leftover. Lasagna. Do you agree? The second time it has more flavor. It is great.
Leftovers are going back to an original meal and eating it again. This reminds me of songwriting. I go back to every song and see if there is anything I need to do to make it better. Usually there are a multitude of problems that need to be spotted and fixed. Great songs are not written. They are rewritten. If you don't like eating leftovers or going back over your work looking for problems, you might not like songwriting.
I will use a song that I have written in Chapter thirteen. It is called Daddies Little Girl. I wrote it the first time and it had an Americana feel. The story line was about how people look down on people. The main character in the song was a prostitute. I played this song at my NSAI meeting and received some feedback. It was suggested that maybe it might work better as a rock song. I guess there are more prostitutes in rock songs than Americana songs. Makes sense to me.
I got out my guitar, changed chords, the lyrics in the verses, and came up with a bass line part. I worked on it but it never felt quite right. I did like the instrumentation on the rock song.
A few days ago I decided to rewrite the song for the third time. I didn't say the final time. Usually I will write a song and get it down on paper. Typed it up and check to see if their are any major flaws that stick out like a sore thumb. Then I will tweak and make sure the prosody is correct. Prosody is the flow of the song. You can sometimes feel the prosody as you read lyrics. Maybe I am trying to place a three syllable word where a two syllable word would work better.
My new version of the song is more of a country version. The prostitute is now a struggling girl who is trying to get by. She has her problems and the world looks down on her. Here is the rough draft of that song.
She's barely scraping by working down at Wal-Mart
She worked over time to by the groceries in her cart.
sorting through her coupons to try to stretch a buck
Life's got her down but she keeps getting up.
Chorus- She's my little girl, I read her nursery rhymes
Played peek a boo, laughed every time.
I rocked her to sleep and she rocked my world
The man in the moon shines down on Daddies little girl.
Some folks call he white trash, they say, "God bless her heart."
She's got jumper cables for when her car won't start.
She don't need a silver spoon cause stainless steel works fine
I tried to raise her right and I'm proud to say, "She's mine."
Chorus
She serves breakfast at the mission on Friday's at nine
She knows all the names of everybody in her line.
Pours gravy on the biscuits with her ladle of love
She helps others when their down cause that what she does.
She's my little girl, I read her nursery rhymes
Played peek a boo, laughed every time
I rocked her to sleep and she rocked my world.
The man in the moon shines down on Daddies little girl.
I wrote this song on how we judge people and we shouldn't . That girl or boy that is struggling has a Mom and Dad just like me and you. Let's not be critical of others. Being critical is the easy thing to do. Loving them is the right thing to do.