Wednesday, January 19, 2011

One melody, slightly used

The scene: I'm doing dishes, listening to music on my iPod.

[long piano and guitar intro begins]

That's odd. I don't recognize this song at all.

[Leon Russell starts singing]

Oh, "Prince of Peace." Cool. I haven't heard this in forever.

[fourth measure into the verse]

Crap. That part of the melody is very similar to something I just started writing. Crap.

* * *

It's salvageable. The vibe of "Prince of Peace" is very different from New Song, and I should be able to change up my melody enough that I don't get into trouble. Doing so means one more thing to think about, though, and I'm having enough trouble getting New Song off the ground.

I realize this happens to songwriters all the time. Still annoying.

2 comments:

DeppityBob said...

Remember when I told you how I'd started writing the intro to an adventure novel that I thought was terrific...until I saw the beginning to "True Lies," which I hadn't seen in years, again? And I'd ripped it off almost entirely without even remembering?

cinderkeys said...

I remember. Too bad you didn't think of it first. The story would have been a whole lot better if you had written it.