Originals Bands

[xgsjx]

yeah, melody. You know how your voice goes when you try & talk after one too many drinks? Like that.

[tauzero]

The singer (who is also rhythm guitarist) writes the lyrics and a fair bit of the guitar part, the lead guitarist writes some guitar parts, I make some suggestions about where to go with chords. I'm feeling it a little frustrating as I've also got a fair number of songs what I have wrote and would like to get at least looked at by the band but it never seems to happen.

I've also just written a tune for the ceilidh band, my first attempt at diddly-diddly music. It's all Mrs Zero's fault, for the initial play-in tune she wrote "Up to you chaps" on the set list, so we decided to write a tune called "Up to you chaps"...

[Mog]

[quote name='xgsjx' post='989189' date='Oct 15 2010, 01:51 PM']yeah, melody. You know how your voice goes when you try & talk after one too many drinks? Like that.[/quote]

..................oh THAT melody.....

[TimR]

[quote name='Delberthot' post='988739' date='Oct 15 2010, 01:48 AM']Geezer Butler wrote most, if not all, of the lyrics for Black Sabbath[/quote]

Yes, I'm sure there are loads of examples. Neal Peart writes the lyrics for Rush. I would guess without googling that M*rk K*ing and Sting write a fair amount of their music too.

It's not uncommon, most bands are performing music written by someone else, even if that person has never sung or recorded the song before. I think all the Spice Girls stuff was written by someone else but they insisted that they were all credited as well. A smart move!

In one band I was in we had a friend who wasn't in the band who used to give us lyrics/poems that we would set to music.

I'm just interested because in the cover band thread I few people were saying that they would rather perform their own material than someone else's. As I understand it only the lyrics and melody are copyrightable. If you're only coming up with a bass line are you actually performing your own material?

Loz said his singer wrote the words which seemed like a cop out, but he's probably creating 90% of the song words and melody, even though someone else is coming up with riffs and chord structures.

I'm wondering how you have all agreed to split the royalties and songwriting credits if you ever became famous.

Bilbo, technically you're not in a band if you are writing stuff at home for yourself that never gets performed. Or do you have friends that come round and you just play to yourselves, which is still technically performing. Have you thought of giving the music to a band to perform.

[Doctor J]

In the current band I write all the music and I'm happy for the singer to do whatever he feels best over that. Unfortunately I'm playing guitar though. When I was putting the band together a few years ago, I just didn't want to be in a band with a real guitarist ever again.

Now we've a guitarist playing bass

I record a load of stuff at home where I write and play everything, even do the words and vocals, drums, everything.

In my last bass playing gig I wrote a lot and contributed a lot too, never saw the point in sitting back and waiting to accompany something, get stuck in!

[Doctor J]

[quote name='TimR' post='989242' date='Oct 15 2010, 02:32 PM']As I understand it only the lyrics and melody are copyrightable. If you're only coming up with a bass line are you actually performing your own material?[/quote]
No, didn't Queen sue the bejesus out of Vanilla Ice for the Under Pressure bassline? Chic also insisted on getting paid for Rappers Delight.

[Spike Vincent]

[quote name='Doctor J' post='989295' date='Oct 15 2010, 03:08 PM']No, didn't Queen sue the bejesus out of Vanilla Ice for the Under Pressure bassline? Chic also insisted on getting paid for Rappers Delight.[/quote]



In those cases the bassline was considered the melody,and if it's the original copyrighted recording that's sampled then that's another HUGE can of copyright worms.And totally off topic.

[Wil]

The guitarist/main vocalist, who is a good friend of mine, writes the song outlines, main vocal line and lyrics (very good at it he is too). I tend to contribute my bass part, maybe the odd middle 8 or suggestion for a chord change/key change, and vocal harmonies.

Suits me fine, as although I enjoy arranging my own compositions and recording them I find it a struggle to find inspiration a lot of the time.

[TimR]

[quote name='Spike Vincent' post='989552' date='Oct 15 2010, 06:56 PM']In those cases the bassline was considered the melody,and if it's the original copyrighted recording that's sampled then that's another HUGE can of copyright worms.And totally off topic.[/quote]

That's what I thought and it wasn't Queen who sued, it was Mercury, Taylor, Deacon, May, & Bowie who are all named as having the rights to the song. It was settled out of court and one of the early cases involving sampling.

Which is where I was going really. As bass players are you being included in the writing credits? Does your band have a formal agreement? Do you think it's necessary?

Edited October 15, 2010 by TimR