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The “How to Write A Hit Song” Jingo Jango

As I mentioned in a post last week, tomorrow is the release day of the new Phredd album, Phreddtastic. To help celebrate that fact, I thought I’d offer up a little insight as to how one of the songs, “Jingo Jango” came about. Instead of telling you how Phredd and I wrote the lyrics, I thought I’d show you by copying the emails we sent back and forth that birthed the song. And yes kids, this is how ALL professional songwriters write their songs.

EDDIE to FRED:

Fred,
Are you up for writing a jingle for WJTL’s listen live feature, a la those annoying freecreditreport.com commercials? Kinda like the poor sap lost his radio or something and didn’t have a way to listen but now he does. I am actually going to lip synch the song since, just like in the commercials, the guy “singing” the songs isn’t the actual singer. Did you know that? He’s a French actor. True story, dude.
No rush on this at all. At all.
Eddie

FRED to EDDIE:

I love it.  Let’s do this…
Come up with a title and then let’s write (email) lines back and forth to write the song.
So you send me the title, and then…
Let the fun begin.
Fred

EDDIE to FRED:

“The No-Radio-Needed Jingo Jango”

FRED to EDDIE:

Jingo Jango Who need ‘da radio?

EDDIE to FRED:

I thought I did til my boombox broke

FRED to EDDIE:

Cruel old joke, when my boombox broke

EDDIE to FRED:

(Now) My boombox won’t tune in any mo’

FRED to EDDIE:

OK, I went a little crazy.  Start the second verse. :>)

Hey Radio Man now there’s a void
Yeah you succeeded
My life’s destroyed
No Radio Needed
Chorus
No Radio Needed (Jingo Jango)
Yeah, you succedded (Jingo Jango)
Casey Kasem pleaded
Rick Dees conceded
All your fears are now exceeded
Jingo Jango No Radio Needed

EDDIE to FRED:

Dude you are SOO much better at this, lol. I’m still trying to get my last contribution to fit in the structure…
Jingo jango, don’ need da radio

FRED to EDDIE:

Now I don’t have a life soundtrack

EDDIE to FRED:

I need music back, no tunes is pretty wack

FRED to EDDIE:

Wackitta wacka whacky no sound

EDDIE to FRED:

But Internet Man do what you can
Your technology
Can musically span
This dilemma probably

FRED to EDDIE:

Bridge/Middle eight
So I’m singing Papa papa papa papa
momma momma momma momma
Papa papa papa papa
Hm, Daddy Momma turn the radio on!
(OK Eddie – Big 3rd verse.  this is where we hit the point of the song.  The big finish so to speak.  You start)

EDDIE to FRED:

Jingo Jango what’s dis by da radio?

FRED to EDDIE:

Why, its my portal to the internets

EDDIE to FRED:

Now I gets no worries or frets

FRED to EDDIE:

Cause I can tune in 24/7  (or – Cause I can tune in all the time)  if you like that better

EDDIE to FRED:

Listen online man if you’re out of range

FRED to EDDIE:

Hey, we be streamin’

EDDIE to FRED:

You ain’t dreamin’

FRED to EDDIE:

Hey, You ain’t dreamin’
We be streamin’

NO RADIO NEEDED
Eddie, I think its done. The only other addition might be to talk over the ending, like listen online at wjtl.com or “get better speakers” or “nice profile pic dude.”

EDDIE to FRED:

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha sweet!! You are sooo much better at this than me. I gladly stand in your shadow!

FRED to EDDIE:

already got the tune in my head

A few days later, Fred sent me an actual song based on what we’d written. As someone with no songwriting talent, I was crazy impressed that Fred was able to take our random lines and work them into a musical structure. He tweaked some words here and there, cut and moved and re-worded and the rest…well, I’ll say it. The rest is musical history.

Here’s the music video, set to Fred’s original rough mix:

Phreddtastic is available online at the WJTL music store and will also be available on iTunes in the near future. A free download of the first single, “Text the Cell” will be available online at the WJTL website from Tuesday Dec 8-Monday Dec 15.

Spamming Back

OK, so I don’t really discuss politics in this blog…except maybe for the blog about Sarah’s comment about McCain but seriously, I couldn’t not write about that one. I shy away from politics not because I find it boring and, as a result, I find myself fairly uninformed (both of which are true) but honestly people who talk politics annoy me almost to the point of rage. When someone decides they want to try to convince me their political point of view is the One True View, I have to admit the more they talk and the more passionate they are, the more I find myself siding with the other party.

That being said, I found myself particularly annoyed when I heard about an email my friend Ashlea received. I asked her to send it to me so I could check it out for myself. Here it is in its original form…actually, there are a couple omissions, but I’ll tell you about them when you get there:

Hi. I got your e-mail address from a listing of public media contact names. I’m writing to ask you for two things.

First:

Please personally spread this e-mail around to everyone you know, especially friends who are undecided or recently switched to the GOP because of Sarah Palin. 

Here she is laughing while a political opponent of hers, who is a cancer survivor, is called a bitch and a cancer:

There was a link provided here, but since I’m not really up for helping out, it’s not here any more.

And here’s some commentary about it:

Same with the commentary. If you wanna do more reading, why not start at my blogs from the very beginning.

Also, while Mayor of Wasilla, Sarah Palin had the city charge rape victims for the rape kits used in their cases! Wasilla was the only city in Alaska that did this, and eventually, the state legislature had to pass a bill to stop it.

Yea, I know, bla bla bla, more links that I didn’t bother clicking on used to reside here.

We can’t let this horrible person come within a 71 year old heartbeat of the Presidency!!!

Second, please encourage your media outlet to cover these stories if it hasn’t already. Many people are being drawn to the McCain/Palin ticket because of an image of Sarah Palin that is a pure PR creation, and the American media needs to correct it. Also, consider that if either of the Democratic candidates had anything like this in their past records, FOX News would be broadcasting it every hour on the hour as the lead story every day from now until November!

Thank you for your time.

Don’t get me wrong. This email didn’t annoy me because I’m a particularly fervent McCain/Palin supporter. It annoyed me because I hate spam. And for some reason (probably because I knew I’d end up writing about it here) I decided to send them a letter in response. I know, I know, the return email address is probably a dummy address that doesn’t go anywhere, but I still had fun putting my reply together.

 

Hi. I got your e-mail address from a friend of mine you spammed. I’m writing to ask you for two things.

First: 

Please personally do your own work and stop being lazy and trying to get others to do it for you. Are you willing to go to the jobs of the people you write and do their work for them? Or is this just a one way street? If you expect us to do your campaigning for you, then are you willing to come to my house and wash my car? Give and take, dude/ma’am/nameless writer. Do you always approach complete strangers and ask them for favors? Do you walk down the street and randomly ask people to pick up your laundry or whip up some food for dinner? 

Here’s a video link you never asked to see. It’s a parrot eating a grilled cheese sandwich:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SylJpiWNfCM

Second: 

Please consider the fact that the more you spam people about your politics, the angrier they become at the agenda you’re trying to push. You’re like a viral Jehovah’s Witness, except without the nice clothing or grasp of social graces.

Thank you for your time.

“Read This If You’re A True Friend!”

How to annoy Ed:

Post a bulletin that encourages me to re-post it, otherwise I am threatened with horrible relationships/removal from your MySpace site/bad luck/not standing up for Jesus.

I don’t mind if you post a bulletin with a witty joke, humorous anecdote, or a fun survey. I often read them. But the mood is always destroyed when I reach the bottom and find out I’m not allowed to just enjoy it; I also have a homework assignment. “Pass it on!” “You would if you were a true friend!” “Jesus died for your sins, the least you could do is re-post this.” (Just to serve as a head’s up: If you post these things with the gentle threats included, each time I read them I hate you a little more inside.)

I’ve suddenly found myself in conditional relationships. This only happens online, mind you. Never has anyone had the gall to do this to me in person. “Hey Ed, I have a funny joke for you. But I’m not going to tell it to you unless you promise to pass it on to three friends in less than 2 hours, or else you won’t find true happiness for the next ten years.”

I’ll take my chances, ya dumb geek.

Things That Make Me Go “Hmmm”

I was updating my email address book today and decided to do a bit of purging. Which basically means I have deleted all of the names of people who refuse to ever respond to my emails. I mean if they aren’t going to write back, then they don’t deserve to know what’s new with Edwardo.

I was a bit saddened to see how many of those people are “friends” I met through the Christian Music Industry. People who I thought were good folks and cared about what was going on in my corner of the world. People who stopped any and all communication with me as soon as I was no longer in “the business” and had nothing to offer them (apparently). People who used to return my calls and emails in less than 10 minutes now don’t respond to a simple “Hey how are you” note.

I hope I’m not coming off as angry or bitter, because I’m not. I just thought it was a little odd. Oh well. Onward and upward!