The song "Ride wit Me" is originally a song by the rapper Nelly. The cover version I found is by I Call Shotgun and is different in many ways. The most noticeable difference would be the timbre of the song as well as the speed. First of all, the cover is done by an acoustic band with acoustic instruments and bongos. This dramatically changes the timbre of the song from a rap/hip hop song to more of a reggae feel. The color of the song in the cover version is of a more warmer tone and rhythmic feel than the hiphop original. In the very beginning of the cover you immediately notice the difference in speed compared to the original. Instead of starting with a fast pase back beat the cover begins with acoustic picking and a soulful rendition of the chorus before pickng the speed up towards a guitar driven verse. The speed in the original generally stays the same (fairly fast), whereas the speed in the cover varies in the beginning, during the bridge, and at the end (beginning: slow to medium, bridge: medium to slow back to medium, end: medium to slow and fade). The lyrics differ in the songs as well. Because the original is a rap song and has some decently inappropriate lyrics that do not fit the personality of the way the cover is played, the cover must compensate by changing some lyrics. ICSG (I Call Shotgun) does this in the second part of the chorus by changing, " If you wanna go and get high wit me Smoke a L in the back of the Benz-y. Oh why must I feel this way? Hey, must be the money," TO -> "if you wanna roll... well if you wanna whoa whoaa.. (repeated)." Also, because the song is rapped and fits many words that the cover cannot because of the singing structure the cover band has to compensate that as well by feeling out the words and how those words can correctly fit into the song without feeling forced and without losing meaning.
The arrangement also differs between the two versions. For most of the cover song the arrangement stays the same untill we get to the end of the song where the cover version throws in a cover of the chorus from another song, Cupid's Chokehold by Gym Class Heroes. This adds creativity to their cover and in my opinion fits in quite well with the pitch and speed of the song. The arrangement of ICSG's cover is a bit more chaotic than Nelly's version when you consider the lyrical changes and the surprise extra bridge where they add the cover of the chorus by GCH's. The instrumentation of the cover vs. the original also has an effect of the arrangement of the song. For instance back beat in the original vs. acoustic guitar in the cover. The different instruments in each version drive the song. The Rhythm of the cover vs. the original also differs mainly because of the difference in the genre the song is being played (acoustic soulful reggae vs. rap/hiphop. )
Overall, I think both versions are great but personally I would have to say I favor the cover by I Call Shotgun. The creativity the band used in creating this cover is very unique. It is rare that an acoustic band covers a rap song so successfully and makes the song sound very legitimate even considering the context of the song. Their use of vocal melody also added so much to this cover and really gave an awesome groove to the song. I really enjoy this cover alot and hope you will too!
In order to generate brilliant ideas we must first allow ourselves to be inspired. Mitch Ditkoff"s 14 Ways to Get Breakthrough Ideas is a collection of valid suggestions in order to help the creative thinker/innovator take what inspires them and turn it into an idea and eventually a reality. The first point discusses fascination. He explains that when one feels fascinated by an idea it is a clue that there is something there worth our engagement. We must let these fascinations and inspirations "grow inside us," he says. I feel this suggestion is extremely important and a really great suggestion to help ones creativity. When digging deeper to fully understand what Ditkoff is trying to say in tip 1, I looked up the dictionary definition for inspiration. The definition that would make most sense with Ditkoff's idea he is mentioning here is that inspiration is, "a stimulation or arousal of the mind, feelings, etc. to special or unusual activity or creativity." While I believe this definition is true, I unexpectedly found one of the definitions extremely intriguing. An alternate definition for inspiration is the, " the act or process of inhaling; breathing in." This definition opened my eyes to the importance of being inspired and letting your self dwell on inspiration. Although, they are referring to the actual process of breathing it is also a metaphor that without inspiration your ideas cannot breathe and will eventually die. Ditkoff is making this point here and telling us to not only allow our selves to be fascinated but immerse ourselves in fascination and inspiration in order to let our ideas grow.
A suggestion of Ditkoff's that struck me harder than most the others was suggestion # 3: Tolerate Ambiguity. One's ability to stay in a "grey zone," he calls it, and not know. This suggestion is a great suggestion that I really felt I needed to take notice of and act on. It is definitely something I struggle with. I get impatient when I can't find the answer I'm looking for and it hinders my creativity greatly. This is definitely something I need to work on. I found a quote he uses in this section very meaningful. He quotes Thomas Edison after he was asked how it felt to fail 800 times before coming up with tungsten as the filament for the light bulb. “Fail?” Edison said. “I didn’t fail once. I learned 800 times what didn’t work.” This quote really sums up for me the point Ditkoff is trying to make. That we have to allow ourselves some breathing room and realize that not knowing is not always a bad thing and just because you may not be finding an answer when you want to doesn't mean the answer is not there. One can only fail when they decide to stop trying.
TAKE A BREAK! Tip # 8. I am so glad Ditkoff mentioned this. This is a tip I already do and it truly has helped my creativity and ideas flourish. Sometimes you just need to clear you head to make room for the next cycle of ideas and questions to fill your brain and allow you to move forward. He goes on to explain Seymour Cray's strategy for breaks and work time during his designing of high speed computers. Cray would divide his time between designing and digging an underground tunnel below his home. He explains that Cray would return to the lab with new ideas and when he was out there digging "elves" solved the problems he had in his lab so when he returned he was ready to continue. Although, he was clearly joking about elves it made a lot of sense to explain it that way. Whenever I am struggling with writing a new song or struggling with an issue in my life and I cannot find the answer I'm looking for I go for a drive. A long drive with no particular destination is my underground tunnel. Whenever I need to clear my head I get in my car, pop in a good CD and just drive. Eventually, I have reached the other side of town and cleared my head of whatever issue I had been having before. I find once I pull back into my driveway I suddenly get inspiration and am ready to continue working.
At the end of the article, in his description of Tip 14, he quotes Einstein in saying, "not everything that can be counted counts; and not everything that counts can be counted." This quote resonated with me and really stuck with me to take the advice and not look at everything so concrete all of the time. Like tip 14 says, suspend judgment and logic. Enter a state of open mindedness and give your creativity and inspirations room to grow. The prompt asks: What can you do this week to suspend practicality, logic and rationality in service to birthing your big idea? This week I want to focus on feeling my inspirations and instead of picking them apart and dissecting what I think is useful, simply stop thinking just let myself feel the inspiration take hold of my idea. Use mediums such as film and music to broaden my ideas and take myself out of my head and into an open space of free thinking. I feel if I suspend my self in a state of open mindedness and immerse myself in a pool of feeling and inspiration rather than thought and fact, my ideas will begin to flourish.
I have always been inspired by sound and the effect that hearing a song at a given moment has had on my life. In my teenage years, high school especially, I went through some really rough times. Mostly, concerning the demise of my parents marriage and my moms ongoing battle with alcoholism. I found in these dark moments are when I was most inspired and really connected with my creativity. The negative things going on around me inspired me to find and create music with an honest message. By honest I mean the tone of the song embodying my emotional state and the lyrics expressing what I am going through. I found writing lyrics helped me express poetically what I couldn't say to my parents, friends, or my first love. I believe the emotional power a song holds is drastically underrated. I truly believe music and the meanings and emotion some special songs brought me had an enormous effect on my life. In a lot of ways, music helps me heal a lot of "emotional wounds," if you will.
I get a lot of my creativity and inspiration from listening to songs with a deeper meaning. I really enjoy decoding lyrics and trying to understand how the artist/s must have been feeling or what they were inspired by when writing the song. The emotional tone of the message also has a large impact. Some artists that I am particularly inspired by that I believe embody all that I have mentioned include Manchester Orchestra, As Tall As Lions, Brand New and Death Cab for Cutie. Manchester Orchestra has especially influenced my work, especially when it comes to my use of text and subtext in songs I write. They use incredible metaphors and manipulate words into poetry. With first listen, some of their lyrics may feel confusing and seem to not make much sense but once you take a deeper look the meanings they hold are extremely powerful. Andy Hull ( lead vocalist/guitar/writer) and the meanings behind all of his lyrics are an extreme inspiration to me and my work. My favorite example of their use of text & subtext is in the song I Can Barely Breathe.
A few lyrics that represent their use of text & subtext in this song are " But then I saw your face. Your turning skin into a dirty secret." The text it's self seems a bit confusing but in my opinion the meaning behind these words (subtext) is an extremely powerful message. " You're turning skin into a dirty secret," in my opinion is him referring to a girl and her wearing a lot of make up for example and this representing societies fear with being yourself and the media's obsession with improving your self and keeping the natural you a secret. Another lyric in this song that I feel holds an important message is the lyric " everybody has their reasons that's the reason we're all gonna die." The use of text here is saying everyone has their reasons but the subtext is that everyone has an excuse for putting themselves above everyone else and at the end of the day, " that's the reason we're all gonna die," only looking out for ourselves and not the people around you will eventually be your demise. The last lyric I wanted to mention in this song is the one that I feel is the most powerful. Not only do the words hold a strong meaning but the tone and dynamics of this part in the song shake you to your bones and really add a strong emotion to the end of the song. The lyric is " When I fly solo, I fly so high." I believe this lyrics sums up the message of the song and also has a bit of irony to the words. The subtext of this lyric is when you are alone you can focus on your self and therefore have more room to succeed. But I feel there is a bit of irony to this line because you may be alone and successful but at the end of the day you are alone. You may fly high when you are alone but flying high alone is not happiness its avoiding the effects others have on your life.
Brand New is another band that really inspires me and fuels my creativity. Although I feel Brand New has some incredible lyrics and complex meaning to their songs what I really feel they do best is their use of tension & release. They use tension & release to increase the dramatics of their songs and they do it beautifully. The song in particular that I want to mention is Jesus Christ. Towards the end of the song they hit you with a set of extremely powerful words accompanied by an intense dark melody. Then suddenly the music cuts and its silence. The silence continues for an unusual amount of time. Its not a long time but enough for you to feel uncomfortable wondering if the song is really over or not. Then it releases the tension when it hits you with the main riff a few more times as the song comes to a close.
emo but loveable nerd who brought the comedic relief to the show. Death Cab and their music helped solidify his character and keep the affinity or similarity between the character or Seth and the image of Death Cab. Their song Title & Registration has been a big inspiration to my music. It was actually the inspiration for a recent song I wrote about how things from the past, be it pictures, gifts, notes, etc. always seem to find a way of creeping up on you in the present. The song Title & Registration is about accidentally finding things from the past that you have stashed away in your glove box and reflecting on then and now and how things have changed and where you stand with that emotionally. I feel this song deals with the conscious and subconscious in an interesting way. The song describes that consciously you are just looking for something in the glove box, not consciously looking for things from your past. But when you find that small reminder subconsciously the glove box doesn't become just a place for important papers but for memories you thought you have forgotten or stashed away that have always subconsciously been there but have been hiding from you. Take a listen.
These are just three examples of hundreds of songs that inspire me in one way or another. They say a picture is worth a thousand words but a song is worth a million pictures and I've found that to be nothing but truth.
