Today is my Birthday! It is also Tom's Birthday.
We discovered that we shared a birthday 2 years ago when we posted our first co-write - on March 4th!
So a birthday collaboration is now a tradition. So on to this year's offering...

This past Christmas, I bought Toontrack EZkeys (on sale!) as a songwriting tool.
It contains libraries of short phrases in varying styles.
I figured I could use it occasionally to spark new ideas.
As a test, I loaded some phrases with the chords it uses (you can change those, of course) until I built a complete "song" (intro, verse, chorus, bridge, outro, etc....)
(It's just a piano track). I listened to that until a lyric idea hit me - and I wrote a song.
So the program had served it's intended purpose.
I exported the midi file, took that into BIAB and added the rest of the BAND.

I could not find a BIAB guitar soloist that fit what I envisioned, so, I asked Tom if he would add lead guitar.
And the 2016 birthday song was born.
Besides the perfect leads, Tom's guitar work is also "under" chorus 2 and 3 - the perfect addition....
I brought in the janettes (featuring Janice Merritt) to provide background vocals.

(By pure coincidence, Toontrack asked users of it's product to submit original songs for a declared "Country Month". Since this song used EZKeys for the piano track, I sent it - late, since it required a Soundcloud link and I hesitated, not sure I wanted to do that... but I did... and it was selected to be on one of their lists)

So that's the long story of...



TOO DANGEROUS

she ordered straight tequila
so I should have known right from the start
she was more than I could handle
a little too much for my heart
that first kiss should have been a warning
there was nothing I could do

   i don't mind a little ragged
   or the roller coaster ride
   i've seen my share of trouble
   but she's a wilder side
   a whole new box of crazy
   likes of which i've never seen
   she's too rough around the edges
   she's too dangerous for me

drives a tricked-out f150
with a little too much chrome
she don't mind her reputation
hell, she'll start some rumors of her own
her daddy's 45 on the floorboard
should have been another clue

   i don't mind a little ragged
   or the roller coaster ride
   i've seen my share of trouble
   but she's a wilder side
   a whole new box of crazy
   likes of which i've never seen
   she's too rough around the edges
   she's too dangerous for me

the devil wears a sundress
and hand tooled boots
I just keep on falling
no caution, no chute

   i don't mind a little ragged
   or the roller coaster ride
   i've seen my share of trouble
   but she's a wilder side
   a whole new box of crazy
   likes of which i've never seen
   she's too rough around the edges
   she's too dangerous for me




..and the rest of the BAND..

RealTracks in song: ~518:Bass, Electric, Pop HalfNotes Ev 085
RealTracks in song: 1538:Guitar, Electric, Rhythm PopBelieveHeld Ev16 065
RealTracks in song: 1762:Guitar, Electric, Rhythm Pop16thsArp Ev16 085
RealDrums in Song: PraiseWorshipShine^01-a:Snare, HiHat , b:Snare, Ride

Piano track built in EZKeys - exported MIDI - played through 4Front TruePiano

Lead guitar - Tom Adams
harmonies - Janice Merritt (and me)

Janice & Bud - thanks for being great friends and partners!

Tom - thanks for the great guitar work! Happy Birthday, buddy!

floyd

Outstanding song.

Loved the lyric work in this.


I've known some ladies like that.... and that's all I'll say on that.



Loved the song.

Hi Floyd,

happy birthday!
It's unfamiliar to see you without the white letters on black background. But the song is old Floyd tradition.
Wonderful lyrics. I love these stories which enfold my
imagination. It's like watching a movie.
Great arrangement, guitar (happy birthday, Tommy) and harmonies.
How did you do the aahs? They are so clear that it sounds like an instrument rather than real vocals. They add a lot to the song.
Like always I can't stop listening.

Guenter

This is TOOOOOOOOOOOOO GOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!!! No reason to copy and paste some lyric-no reasonable place to stop! Great music, great lyrics (amazing images), great vocal, great arrangement, great mix, and add Tom's guitar and Janice's vocal to all that. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!! Just an amazing job guys!!! Take care. Greg

Oh Yeah, and in my excitement, I forgot to say HAAAAAPY BIRRRRRRTHDAY to you two!!!

Fabulous.

Happy birthday Tom & Floyd.

ROG.

Floyd, Tom, Janice
Beautifully done. You must be very pleased with how that came out!
Great mix - wonderful guitar - gorgeous backing vocal (nice piano) and a really powerful lead vocal.
Superb.

Thanks, Herb - appreciate that.

Happy birthday to both of you Floyd and Tom

Great way to celebrate it with this super song.

Hey Floyd, I'm not on the site since a long time, but...How many songs have you
composed? You're very creative and the songs are very nice for the most part.

Sergio

Guenter - thanks for all of that... the aahs - I should have mentioned that..they are done using MIDI SuperTracks - 2058:Strings, Rhythm CelticAir Ev 085 and applying a synth choir aah from Studio One - I wanted an angelic choir behind the "devil lyric"... did a little editing of the midi notes, but mostly it was what came from the strings SuperMidi track... As always, thanks so much for your support (we are getting thinner all the time, eh?)

More genius from Floyd, Janice, & Tom.

Another absolutely sensational delivery, not a weak link anywhere.
First class lyrics, guitar playing, vocals.

Greg - always appreciate what you have to say about songs... this is especially nice...



...and this, too...

Happy Birthday Floyd and Tom. Another beautiful piece of music. Excellent collaboration. Guitar and vocals were excellent.

This is great work guys!
The intro of the song, and the song in general has sort of a Garth Brooks feel to it.
(Of which I'm a big fan!)

Rob

Floyd, Tom, Janice,
Great colab. Floyd, thanks for the back-story and I hope you had a happy birthday.
SD

Thanks, ROG!

hi guys great colab love the vocal and piano work great write love your work thanks for sharing eric

Hi Floyd and Tom
First of all - Happy Birthday guys.
Another brilliant collab from you, and with Janice providing the Janettes, it is a complete Beauty!!
cheers
ian

Hi, Floyd & Tom !:))

Happy Birthday guys!!!!
May your birthday be
as sweet as this tune
you´ve put together !:))

I think I got miself
a new floyd fav !!!:))

Cheers
Dani

Happy birthday Tom and Floyd. I think I will keep this one as a birthday present to myself! Wonderful wonderful stuff.

Great tune. Happy birthday as well. Everyone has already said all my thoughts about the song. So, I'm left with agreeing with them.

I am impressed with the choir though.... and the explanation of their creation.

Thanks, Peter. I really like what Tom did for the song - his guitar work really help lift the chorus and the leads were just what I was hoping for. And adding Janice to the choruses is a no-brainer - it is becoming a "signature sound"... Thanks for listening...

Happy Birthday floyd and tom! Great Song!

Floyd / Janice / Tom,

Your absolute best... Loved it.

Bob

Thanks, Sergio... I have no idea how many total songs I've ever written. I've got them all over the place. I've posted 80+ here on the forum. I've got a whole lot more than that. I've thrown away probably twice that many through time... lost a bunch along the way, too. Dozens that I do not own the publishing to... it's a lifetime pursuit....

Trev - always appreciate you stopping by... and we appreciate the nice comments...

We appreciate that, Scott.... thanks...

Thanks, Rob. Certainly don't mind a Garth feel comparison...

Happy belated birthday to you both!

Thanks for giving us all such a nice a birthday present.

Lovely ! This kind of tunes, when my wife also says; "Yes, that one sweetheart, that's nice"...

Hi folks, I was very happy to be invited to sing on the birthday song! I love performing with Janettes and I appreciate y'all mentioning the vocals.

Janice

Thanks, SD...





Appreciate that, Eric. Thanks for stopping by....

Ian - always appreciate having you drop in...




Thanks, Dani!

A belated happy birthday to both of you. Super song. We loved the arrangement ... very nice use of the tracks. Great lyric and and delivery. Kudos to all concern ... we totally loved it!

Alan & Di

One of your best lyric writes with a great chorus.

The choir "ahs" I found a bit loud and distracting, I get what you're doing - just not my personal thang for a country song...creative choice...no big deal.

Other than that I love everything about this - one of your best songs IMO and you sound great on it.

Kudos to Janice and Tom too.

Great job.

Thanks, Joanne...





Thanks, Charlie. Generally, "choir aahs" like this are intended to serve the same purpose that "lush strings" would - so it makes sense to use the Strings MIDI Supertracks as the template for that... I did a little editing to make the choir finish where I wanted it to (on a high note) and then extend that note out some. The strings midi saves a lot of work - and goes where it is supposed to...

Wow!!! Great song Floyd!! Happy Belated Birthday to you and Tom as well. Been away from the forum trying to earn a living but glad to back. This is some great stuff man!!!

Thanks, Kenny.... where is your next one????

Appreciate that, Bob....





Thanks, David....

Thanks, Leo...

Thanks, Alan ....hope you are feeling better....

Thanks, Josie. Appreciate all of that... I listened to the ahhs with what you said in mind... I would not change the level for them if I were to re-do this....




Thanks, David - appreciate that...

well, I thought I commented on this when you first posted it, but I don't see the evidence, so here goes again...

Happy birthday a couple of weeks late to two really amazing people who also happen to be amazing song writers. One advantage of membership in a forum like this is the ability of commoners like me to form friendships with heavy hitters like everybody who was involved in this project!

On one level, the song was a bit hard to listen to because the woman in the song sounds like my son's ex wife who still manages to influence his life unfavorably long after their separation. What is it that makes us long for the people and things that are most likely to hurt us?

Anyway.. I especially liked the line about "box of crazy" because it fits the story within the story, if you catch my drift.

Lots of great cooperation in this project, with Janice doing what she does so well, Tommy playing a guitar line that perfectly fits the song, and Floyd weaving a story garment that seems to fit everybody. As usual.

One thing I like about this groups collaborations is that they are always so clean and functional, with nobody trying to outdo anybody else... team players cranking out good stuff consistently.

Hats off to Floyd, Tom and Janice! As always, I am impressed!

Pat - I do hope you are well and happy. Always enjoy reading your thoughts on a song.... Unfortunate that this one had to hit so close to home. Appreciate you droppin' by for a bit...

Its all been said buddy. You are a master song writer.
Well done.
Rob

First a belated happy birthday to you and Tom.

Second all three of you should be exceptionally proud of this one. Floyd is one hell of a story teller and singer, Tom is one hell of a guitarist and Janice is one hell of a singer. You three are dynamite alone but kick butt together.

This is a keeper.

Ahhh cool... I get to be the 1,000th view Such a nice, round number.

Hi floyd,

Before I say anything else, I want to congratulate you and Tom on your birthdays. Sorry I'm so late to the party.



I hope you don't mind, but as I sit here typing, my mind seems to be zigzagging through a number of thoughts. Since I need some sustained touch-typing practice, I thought I'd share those thoughts

• Music related thoughts...

I love this piano intro. Those suspensions and dissonances in the chords are sensational and the EZ Keys TruePiano is brilliant. If you hadn't said anything, I would never have known that this was midi.

In addition, the ad lib and solo instrument nature of the intro set a perfect musical tone (hmmm... that could have been a pun, it was unintentional though) for what is to follow. For me, the intro set the scene for a song that is going to be reflective. As a listener, it felt very satisfying when the hint of rhythm kicked in at 0:41 Soundcloud-time. Then when the drums entered and rhythm fully stabilised at 0:51, the feeling of satisfaction was immense. At this point in time, I couldn't have turned away from the song even if I wanted. I was in the bus and it was driving! This is very, very skilled arranging in my book.

• Lyric related thoughts...

Because I can't decide what to talk about from a lyric perspective, I've entered a vertical list of possible topics in Excel. In the column next to that list, I have enlisted (ooooh, another potential-but-missed pun) Excel's help to create some random numbers...

=RANDBETWEEN(1,1000) <ENTER>

… hmmmm... it seems that the winning topic is “How, as the song progresses, verses and bridge add emotional intensity to the chorus by targeting different aspects of the chorus”. Thank you Excel. Great choice!

One of the things I once picked up from the seminars Steve Seskin conducted when he came to Melbourne was the concept of targeting different aspects of the chorus. For myself, I've found Seskin's theory to be most productive when I couple it with Pat Pattison's theory of “Three Boxes”.



Applying the above to “Too Dangerous”....

First off, the chorus is a list chorus. That is, it contains a list of images and/or ideas. For a list to work effectively, it's necessary that each subsequent element in the list increases its importance from a developmental perspective. English teachers call this 'climactic order'. It's easy to tell whether or not list items are in climactic order by simply changing the order of the items and reading through the new order. I find that non-climactic order feels 'not quite right' when read aloud.

Reading through the chorus of “Too Dangerous”, the list order is definitely climatic for me. When I switch the order of items around, the effectiveness of the chorus diminishes. There is no doubting that the chorus is most effective when it culminates in the ultimate assessment of “She's too dangerous for me”. Powerful!

Using Pattison's concept of three boxes, and condensing the 'verse/bridge + chorus' into each over-arching concept, I see that the song sections work in the following way.



Overall, the way in which “Too Dangerous” lyrically develops and targets increasingly more important chorus ideas is a perfect example of lyric writing at its most effective.

List choruses are definitely one of my lyric-writing weak points. Thanks for a great lesson, floyd! Talking my way through this has been very valuable. Now all I need to do is to reverse-engineer your approach.

All the best,
Noel

P.S. I know I've covered some of the above thoughts on theory in earlier posts. Since this is a different song, though, I found it useful for my thinking to refresh those thoughts here.

P.P.S. I think my touch-typing has improved a bit.

Noel...

Thanks for writing up your thoughts on "Too Dangerous". (above this post)

I would not normally respond to this post (though I do appreciate it greatly) - and just let it slide on down the page...

But since you returned to your earlier short post to fill in with your write up, it is likely that a lot of people will not "look again"...

I thought that would be a shame since I think there are many who would benefit from your analysis and lyric explanation - it might be things they hadn't considered before... and you do such a fine job of explaining...

(Again - thanks for such a nice write-up... and Rob and Mario - thanks, guys - those were kinda late reviews, too, so I did not respond before - was not ignoring y'all....)

floyd,

There's no need whatsover to respond to this reply.

I just wanted to let you know that the reason I analyse your lyrics in writing is because it's the writing that generates understanding for me and posting them in the forum provides me with motivation. By working my way through your words and applying some lyric-writing tools that I've collected from reading and seminars, aspects of lyrics jell in my mind. Your lyrics are always so very good and I've learnt a great deal from them over the years.

By contrast, if I simply look and read through a lyric and think my way through the analysis, very little stays in my head.

In all honesty, I wouldn't be where I am today without your songs and the understanding you and they have given me. Thank you for being tolerant of me in my quest to become a better lyricist. I sincerely appreciate it.

All the best,
Noel