I’ve entertained the
thought a couple of times. I used to
play the violin, and my mom taught me how to play the piano (and by “taught” I
mean “gave me a lesson and I never bothered to ask for another one”), so I know
a little bit about music. And as a
writer, I’d say I’d fare a bit better than if I were the one singing. What is a song but a poem set to music -- an
assembly of lyrics with meaning, rhythm, and a catchy chorus that’ll likely be
the only part of a song somebody remembers?
In theory, it seems entirely possible.
In practice? Who’s to say, really? Lyrics and music are a package deal, I’d
wager. Give me a tune, and I can
probably put lyrics to it (I’ve done it before, back in the days of Cross-Up’s
infancy), but a full-on song? Well…maybe
I could swing a couple of tunes, but they’d likely be pretty cheesy. And while I have some MIDI software, it has
gone untouched on the grounds that it’s “really hard” and/or “too much
work.” And if you asked me to make a
song out of the blue with zero preparation beforehand, I guarantee you a song
so clumsy and atonal that it’d make Urkel sound like an angelic chorus.
Which brings me to the
latest addition to The Manly Song Repository.
Because you see, I’ve learned something today:
A real man can make his
own song, no matter what it takes.