YouTube: Pay it Down the Line - Cut-Up Method Song Sketch
SoundCloud: Pay it Down the Line - Cut-up Method Song Sketch



November 6 2020 - Pay it Down the Line - July 2020 Cut-Up Method song sketch

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TITLE: Pay it Down the Line

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TRACK & SONG INFO

Bass: 2741:Bass, Synth, AltHipHopA-B Ev16 085
Piano: 1997:Piano, Acoustic, Rhythm SmoothJazzCool Sw 16 100
Loop: Loop:Loops PAK2\HipHop\Drums, Hybrid HipHopGlitchA-B Sw
Guitar1: 28:19:Guitar, Electric, Rhythm RnBSouldSw16BrentSw16 085

sw16 4/4 F#m 85 bpm

I imported the tracks into Studio One v4, augmented the bass with Toontracks EZbass, added additional piano parts, used TR5 plugins to alter sound of loop. Used Lurssen Mastering Console for mastering.

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I wrote this song in July for a Facebook Cut-Up Method group I was in. I had started several other songs that month, and with 2 days to go before I submitted my project, I read a political article that bothered me, and I ended up writing this song sketch. It's still very rough, but it's a good place holder, I think. And it was fun and cathartic to write.

UPDATE 2020 Nov 7:
I forgot to mention that in the video, I have the Inkspots playing at the end. This was for my Cut-Up Method group. I wanted to assure them that I wasn't advocating violence, rather love. This Inkspots clip is not on the Soundcloud version and obviously wouldn't be on an album.

Hi Todd.
I'm a fan . Your songcraft is excellent.

Excellent vocal on this groovy feel, Todd! Loved the lyrics; wonderfully written song. Good production. Man, you got the voice for anything. If you can write something this good because of a political comment, you came to the right world. Now about that ending...

Thanks so much, Gary. I really appreciate your kind words and support.

I like the message, some thought provoking lyrics.
Band songs good, vocals bring it home.
Video production was interesting.

This sounds like a winner to me! Great melody and lyrics that hold my attention through the song. Great vocal too!

Beautiful ...

Thanks so much, Marty, for watching and commenting. I really appreciate your kind words. That's a beautiful thing you've written: "you came to the right world". That means a lot to me. Thank you!

Todd,

OUTSTANDING!

If you are calling this "very rough" I can't WAIT to hear your "smooth"!!

Truly intriguing lyrics. Remarkable melodies. Incredible vocals - excellent tone , excellent pace, terrific processing - they sit in the mix perfectly.

Man! you've got talent. Bucket loads...

Can you expanded on the "Cut-Up Method"? And where do you come up with such terms and "groups"???....

Great stuff.

fj

Hello TexasFrets,

Beautiful melody, beautiful voice and very professional arrangement. I appreciated.

Kindly regard

Dero13
alias JaniJackFlash

Thanks so much. I appreciate it. The video was a last-minute thing before I submitted my song to my songwriting group on Facebook. It was during the protests and fires in the US, so I used news footage and then overlaid a bunch of photos related to current political issues.

Thanks again.

Cheers,
Todd

Thanks so much. I'm glad you liked it. I appreciate your kind comments.

Cheers,
Todd

Thanks so much!

Cheers,
Todd

Hi, FJ.

Thanks again for your kind words and the specificity of what you like about the song and for your questions. Makes me feel better about my songwriting. Thank you for that.

You asked about the Cut-Up method. This technique started with the Dadaists in the 1920s when Tristan Tzara offered to create a poem on the spot by pulling words at random from a hat. The technique become popular in the 50s and 60s with William Burroughs. Bob Dylan used it a bit, as did David Bowie and Thom Yorke of Radiohead. When I do a cut-up, I like to get at least 2 texts. I often get a really bad science fiction book and a really bad romance novel. Then I flip through them and cut out words and phrases that I like. I arrange them until I find something interesting and then I glue them onto a piece of colored paper. Sometimes I'll recut them and paste them down again. From this poem-like object, I write a rough draft of a lyric. Then I continue to explore the images, sounds, and personas as I write subsequent drafts. Eventually I come up with some music and inevitably, as I'm trying to get the lines to fit the music, I make more rewrites. I usually get somewhere between 8 to 10 drafts, sometimes more.

Most of the Facebook writing groups I'm in started from relationships formed at a songwriting retreat called Crooked Crow. A close friend of mine, Johann Wagner, started the retreat, and I've been both a participant and a teacher there. Lots of great artists have come through the retreat: Adrieanne Lenker and Buck Meek of Big Thief, Gregory Alan Isakov, Pete & Crystal Damore of Ordinary Elephant. Johann Wagner and I were friends at college. I was a graduate student in poetry and he was an undergrad studying jazz guitar. Along with several other songwriters, we started a writing group called The Kitchen Sink Poets. We explored a lot of experimental and fun ways to "discover" a text. When I was a teacher at the university, I also taught these methods to my students: cut-up technique, translitic, ekphrasis, etc. Through the years, Johann and I (and others) have continued to use these methods to find fresh and new material.

Thanks again for your kind words, and if you'd like to know more about any of these techniques and how to apply them to songwriting, I'd be happy to share what I know.

Cheers,
Todd

Really enjoyed your singing. The alliteration works really well.

Everything about this is super-musical: the phrasing, the melody, the arrangement.

As floyd jane said, you've clearly got talent.

We rarely quote from other posts but man did fj ever nail it with,

"Truly intriguing lyrics. Remarkable melodies. Incredible vocals - excellent tone , excellent pace, terrific processing - they sit in the mix perfectly."

Reading through your response to him regarding the technique was absolutely fascinating. And how it can come to such wonderful fruition is amazing.

A gem on the showcase indeed. We'll only add to fj's comment by mentioning how cool the arrangement is.

Most enjoyable!

J&B

Thanks so much. I'm glad you like it. I appreciate your kind words.

Cheers,
Todd

Bowie spent some time in Cut Up land--- made it pretty popular in the early 70s - for a while.
This is cool with a contemporary edge that matches the contemporary events.
Needed a little Stevie Ray at some stage though.
The ink's a nice touch.

Thanks so much, David. I'm happy you enjoyed it. I'm glad the alliteration works. I tend to be heavy on alliteration and other devices in my lyric writing. (I read a lot of Dylan Thomas.) I appreciate your kind words. Cheers, Todd

Hi, J&B. I like that quote. FJ is always so kind and generous with his feedback. I'm happy you read what I wrote FJ about the technique I used to write the lyrics. It helps to steer the lyrics away from the usual places I go (or at least gives me some fresh words & images to sing about those places I usually go in my songs). Really happy you liked the arrangement. Thanks so much. Cheers, Todd

Thanks, Ray, for listening and for your comments. Yeah definitely Bowie spent some time in cut-up land. When I teach the cut up technique, I definitely mention him. Glad you like the song and the Ink Spots at the end. I'll see about adding a little Stevie Ray guitar somewhere in the song. Thanks again! Best, Todd

Yes!! I agree......you nailed it in every aspect!! Take care. Greg

Thanks so much, Greg. I really appreciate your kind words. Thanks for listening.

Cheers,
Todd