Being unemployed this summer, I have to find some way to occupy my time. So, this is my new summer project: The Lyrics Project.
The other day in the car I was listening to the radio and I heard an awesomely bad 80s female rock ballad that I haven’t heard in years but to which I have always loved the lyrics. I have also been looking for a way to force myself to finish a damn song once I start it (I’m the worst kind of person). And thus this idea was born.
The concept is simple: take a song (old, new, great, bad, any genre under the sun) and use only the existing lyrics to create a completely different song. This song can change the meaning of the lyrics, look at them in a new light, etc, but the melody and chord structure of the new song has to be completely different.
I’m hoping this will force the creative juices to flow a little - I LOVE lyrics, but I can never write my own that live up to the ones I like by other people and I can’t seem to ever put a decent melody to any of them. Eventually this might be a collab project where people could submit their own rewrites.
So what does everyone think? If I do open up submissions, should I let people do whatever songs they want or post lyrics and everyone has to do the same song? Suggestions are more than welcome. =]
