Words and Music; Music and Words

It's the chicken and egg thing, except it's music and lyrics and what comes first and why the other part seems to take so long!
This is a personal mental defect that I will explain momentarily.
People are curious, other songwriters are curious, and it's a question often asked:
"What come first, the music or the lyrics?"
For me, the music has always come first in the generally organic way I write songs. I can only think of one occasion where I put music to words and that was in high school.
I'm far more fascinated by the sounds, the chords, and the emotion they elicit. From there, the structure of the music, and by that I mean does it follow a relatable musical pattern amiable to lyrics or is it free form or here and there, which lends itself more to being an instrumental, will be the push to put words to the music.
Seems pretty simple.
I've got music for 3 verses, a chorus, and a bridge; now it just needs some words to go along with it.
At one time, and that time was back in the go-go 80's, I would methodically works through songs: Come up with the music, record the music leaving an open track for the vocals, and then figure out something to say. Sometimes the words would come straight away, sometime it too a few days or maybe even a month if I decided to go outside, to work, or spend time with my girlfriend/wife, which I liked to do.

I don't do that now.

Some of that is because I have other things to do related to writing and music, like getting all these unreleased songs and records released. But mostly, it's because I don't do what I did back in the go-go 80's. I tend now to come up with blocks of music, anywhere from 8 to 16 musical ideas and from there I think about what kind of album they might become. This takes months; it just does.
I'm in the middle of that now. I have a bunch of songs for an album to be called either Primitive Desires or simply, Primitives. The main theme is community, the idea that humans have always progressed and succeeded when they work together, that they find more satisfaction with their lives when they're part of something greater than themselves.
Which isn't always so easy in our self-centric society these days.
And, you would think, the lyrics would be pouring out...
But I'm also recording final tracks for the Winter album, and there were a few tracks from Desperate Mothers, another legacy album I'll be releasing early next year that needed to be redone...
Someday.
Like right after I get the other legacy album released, Broken Hearts and the Fabulous Perch, which comes out 11/30/18.

Speaking of which...
This Weeks Song, from the above album, is called Broken Hearts and Confusion, it's a straight up rock song with heavy guitars, drums, and an anguished lyric about trying and failing to let a past love go. It's possible it's autobiographical, but I won't cop to that. Broken Hearts was the last group album I did with Brian Waters on bass-Brian also engineered an produced the original recording, Mark McCoin on drums, Mr. Jones on lead guitar, and Howard Cano on keyboards. I'm the singer and I did the other guitar tracks.
You can hear it here at mrprimitivemusic.com.

Next time we'll have fun talking about getting out an album of which the only reference material is a cassette tape.
From the go-go 80's.

©2018 David William Pearce