I want to talk about feelings. Yes, I must be sick. Guys don't talk about feeling and yes, guy's do have them. Not very many and not to often. I want to talk about bad feelings. That feeling you get when you know something is wrong. Here is an example that I thought would fit this situation.
I used to work in Customer service at Dillon's grocery store. Dillon's is part of the Kroger company. My job at the store was to help customers at the customer service counter. Back in the day we didn't have and open counter like they do now. Dillons wanted it to feel safer so we had an enclosed area. It was a counter top with metal netting and glass. I don't know if it was there to protect us from the customers or to protect the customers from us. It reminded me of a chicken coop with thicker wire and fluorescent lighting. We called our work area , The Gage.
My job was to count tills, cash paychecks, deal with customer complaints, and to perform refunds. Did you know that people pass stolen checks? I remember the first time that I knew I took a bad check. My supervisor showed me a payroll check that I had taken. It was a handwritten check and it looked terrible. You couldn't read the signature, the company name was not a company that anyone had heard of, and I should have been fired. I looked at the check and I remembered it. I cashed it but I had my doubts. My inner voice was going, "It's bad. Don't cash it. Something wrong.", but I wasn't listening.
I hear that same voice when I write songs. I will write down a lyric and say to myself, I like that. I try hard to convince myself that I truly like it. Sometimes I'm successful and other times I give in to the inner voice. Other times I need to hear it from somebody else. I might hear it from a song evaluator at Nashville Songwriter Association . They might say," This line could be stronger." That is the nice way of saying, "This line is terrible."
I want to share a lyric that I fixed today. I think it is better but I could be wrong. Sometimes you have to live with a lyric a few days to see if it really is better. Today I am still in the honeymoon stage with my new lyric.
Here is the original lyric-
I fell in love with Marcia on the Brady Bunch
Wanna drive the General Lee when I grow up.
Commercials told me how to find happiness
I believed the lies they told me on my color TV set.
You might notice that the new lines are longer. The reason I had to change the length of these lines is so that they would match the first verse. Publishers are picky that way. Also, this makes the song easier to sing. Nursery rhymes are great at matching the words and melody up perfectly.
I fell in love my first time with Marcia from the Brady Bunch
Wanna drive the General Lee, real fast, when I grow up
Didn't know what I wanted until I saw those TV ads.
I was buying what they sold on our color TV set.
I like the new lines but remember it could all change tomorrow. Today is the honeymoon stage and I am in love. I hope this marriage lasts.