The Forgotten Ones

[Nekujak]

I’m a bit of a personal archivist. By that I mean, I’ve always been pretty diligent about documenting or keeping records related to my life. For example, I’m one of those guys who has scanned and digitized all my family’s photos and home movies, dating back beyond when I was alive, carefully documenting who, when, and where.

So not surprisingly, I've maintained a comprehensive record of every song I’ve ever written, dating back to my high school years. I'm talking about my personal songs only. The “commercial” songs I write on spec these days, have little or no personal meaning to me, and once they're released into the world, I tend to put them out of my mind.

But for my own personal songs, I maintain a large Word doc with all lyrics, chord charts, and other relevant details, all consistently formatted and organized. But lyrics and chords are easy. What’s trickier is finding recordings of everything, especially songs written before I used a DAW or had an iPad or smartphone to record ideas. For many of those songs, I might only have a rough in-progress writing sketch on cassette, or no surviving recording at all - just lyrics and chords, and no memory of the melody or how it was meant to be played.

I don't necessarily lament this. I realize if I wanted to, I could “reboot” these songs with a new melody and a fresh approach, but that doesn't interest me - I’d rather expend the energy to write something new. For me, those older songs represent a snapshot of my life and my writing abilities at a particular point in time. Not fully remembering how they go, is all part of the snapshot. Sort of like an old photo that’s badly damaged or has a corner torn off.

So how about the rest of you... do you keep a record of everything you’ve written? Do you have audio recordings of all your songs? How do you feel about old songs you’ve now forgotten?

 

[Louie]

Thanks for posting this @Nekujak, it is something that has been bugging me for a long time actually.

I have so much music (saved all of it, whatever the media), and frankly don’t know what to do with it. I probably should simply let go of it but I can’t bring myself to. Somehow that would feel like treason to myself (I swear I’m not a hoarder! More a borderline minimalist if anything). But it has been sitting a long time.

I go back occasionally and listen to the stuff I’m already aware of—the stuff in episodic memory for lack of a better term. But have mixed feelings both about going back, and about the process of documenting (there is a ton of material on various media—including many cassettes). The jazz musician in me says "F..k it, focus on the now, the future". But the composer/songwriter in me says "go back, listen, process, and accept what you did, learn and grow from it, and honor thyself by properly documenting and archiving it".

 

[Tim Nash]

A while back I did a "purge" of all my old recordings that were lying around. I kept what I considered the best music and let the other stuff go. I had A LOT of stuff!!!!! I guess I have a greatest hits collection now. It's all music I still like and listen to.
It probably depends on how much music you're talking about. I have 4 hours of music I kept out of about 20. Most of the learning I did with the stuff I purged is all applied now and I don't really need a reminder of what not to do. It served its purpose.

 

[Louie]

A while back I did a "purge" of all my old recordings that were lying around. I kept what I considered the best music and let the other stuff go. I had A LOT of stuff!!!!! I guess I have a greatest hits collection now. It's all music I still like and listen to.
It probably depends on how much music you're talking about. I have 4 hours of music I kept out of about 20. Most of the learning I did with the stuff I purged is all applied now and I don't really need a reminder of what not to do. It served its purpose.

That seems sensible to me. I was going to set aside some time each day and just start going through it. If I consider it to be part of my ongoing music listening diet, it makes it seem less overwhelming.

 

[Nekujak]

@Louie and @Tim Nash , interestingly enough, the situations you describe are kind of the opposite of what I was posting about... and quite frankly, I'm envious

My problem is, I don't have many surviving recordings of my earlier work - all I'm left with is lyric sheets and chord charts but no memory of how the songs were meant to go. Most of this is actually due to an innocent decision I made in my teens.

My dad had a Sony reel-to-reel tape recorder that he hardly ever used, so when I was in high school, my friends and I appropriated it and spent hours recording all kinds of crazy stuff, including all my early songwriting efforts. This went on for several years, resulting in about 150 hours of recorded songs, jams, skits, and general goofing around, all recorded in fairly high fidelity.

Now here's the unfortante part - being a cash-strapped teenager, I would always buy the absolute cheapest reel-to-reel tape I could find ($1.99 Ampex in a light blue box... it's forever burned into my brain ), so you can guess how this story ends. Later in life, when I decided to unearth the tapes and extract my songs, all I was left with was dozens of reels of disintegrated tape and heaps of oxide powder. Even baking couldn't save the carnage.

At first, it was a pretty painful gutpunch, but I got over it. Actually, what I miss more than my songs, are all the funny skits and audio experimenting I did with my friends. It would've been fun to hear that just for old-time's sake.

I can't help but compare that to today's younger generation, who've grown up with smartphones, cloud storage, and social media, and are able to document every moment of their lives in glorious HD. By the time they get older, they will have access to a fairly comprehensive chronicle of their young lives, and not just from their own point of view, but from all the combined recordings made by everyone around them. I wonder what the psycho-social effect of that will be?

 

[Tim Nash]

@Louie and @Tim Nash , interestingly enough, the situations you describe are kind of the opposite of what I was posting about... and quite frankly, I'm envious

My problem is, I don't have many surviving recordings of my earlier work - all I'm left with is lyric sheets and chord charts but no memory of how the songs were meant to go. Most of this is actually due to an innocent decision I made in my teens.

My dad had a Sony reel-to-reel tape recorder that he hardly ever used, so when I was in high school, my friends and I appropriated it and spent hours recording all kinds of crazy stuff, including all my early songwriting efforts. This went on for several years, resulting in about 150 hours of recorded songs, jams, skits, and general goofing around, all recorded in fairly high fidelity.

Now here's the unfortante part - being a cash-strapped teenager, I would always buy the absolute cheapest reel-to-reel tape I could find ($1.99 Ampex in a light blue box... it's forever burned into my brain ), so you can guess how this story ends. Later in life, when I decided to unearth the tapes and extract my songs, all I was left with was dozens of reels of disintegrated tape and heaps of oxide powder. Even baking couldn't save the carnage.

At first, it was a pretty painful gutpunch, but I got over it. Actually, what I miss more than my songs, are all the funny skits and audio experimenting I did with my friends. It would've been fun to hear that just for old-time's sake.

I can't help but compare that to today's younger generation, who've grown up with smartphones, cloud storage, and social media, and are able to document every moment of their lives in glorious HD. By the time they get older, they will have access to a fairly comprehensive chronicle of their young lives, and not just from their own point of view, but from all the combined recordings made by everyone around them. I wonder what the psycho-social effect of that will be?

What a shame about the tape. Sadly, thats a story I've heard many times. I luckily transferred many of my earlier recording to DAT when I got my player about 1990. And then to CD a few years later. I only kept the masters. I'm not sure how the younger generation feels about all the media they create each day. There's so much of it I wonder if it's just disposable to them. Sending a quick text or a pic is the same thing to them.

 

[Louie]

@Louie and @Tim Nash , interestingly enough, the situations you describe are kind of the opposite of what I was posting about... and quite frankly, I'm envious

My problem is, I don't have many surviving recordings of my earlier work - all I'm left with is lyric sheets and chord charts but no memory of how the songs were meant to go. Most of this is actually due to an innocent decision I made in my teens.

My dad had a Sony reel-to-reel tape recorder that he hardly ever used, so when I was in high school, my friends and I appropriated it and spent hours recording all kinds of crazy stuff, including all my early songwriting efforts. This went on for several years, resulting in about 150 hours of recorded songs, jams, skits, and general goofing around, all recorded in fairly high fidelity.

Now here's the unfortante part - being a cash-strapped teenager, I would always buy the absolute cheapest reel-to-reel tape I could find ($1.99 Ampex in a light blue box... it's forever burned into my brain ), so you can guess how this story ends. Later in life, when I decided to unearth the tapes and extract my songs, all I was left with was dozens of reels of disintegrated tape and heaps of oxide powder. Even baking couldn't save the carnage.

At first, it was a pretty painful gutpunch, but I got over it. Actually, what I miss more than my songs, are all the funny skits and audio experimenting I did with my friends. It would've been fun to hear that just for old-time's sake.

I can't help but compare that to today's younger generation, who've grown up with smartphones, cloud storage, and social media, and are able to document every moment of their lives in glorious HD. By the time they get older, they will have access to a fairly comprehensive chronicle of their young lives, and not just from their own point of view, but from all the combined recordings made by everyone around them. I wonder what the psycho-social effect of that will be?

Good material for a song!

That made me picture a music video with someone surfing social media, going down a rabbit hole of their nephew or nieces endless postings. Then standing up, walking over, dragging an old dusty box out of the closet, rummaging through, pulling out notebooks, and then discovering the faded light blue tape boxes at the bottom with delight--then overwhelming disappointment when opening and seeing the crumbling remains. But then their eye catches a phrase on an open notebook (camera zooms in), a pause, then they pick up their guitar from the corner, and the music starts...

 

[Dzilizzi]

I have most of my older songs. I had a hard drive crash and lost a number of them. I really didn't start writing until 2006. Before that, it was more like stuff I sang to beats or music that were not really songs. Just kind of a melody and lyric. Or they were kind of like how Wayne Brady used to sing songs about a subject on Whose Line is it Anyways? Stream of conscious singing? Those may have had potential, but I never recorded any while I was singing them.

But I do have a number of lyric sheets all over the place. Some with chords, some not.

 

[CrimsonWarlock]

I realize if I wanted to, I could “reboot” these songs with a new melody and a fresh approach, but that doesn't interest me - I’d rather expend the energy to write something new.

I'm on the opposite end of that spectrum. I have many songs written in the eighties and nineties that I'm now reworking. Back then, I could only record them as (pretty good sounding) demos, while now we have access to virtual high-end studio gear, so I can do those tracks a lot more justice, production-wise.

 

[Nekujak]

Good material for a song!

That made me picture a music video with someone surfing social media, going down a rabbit hole of their nephew or nieces endless postings. Then standing up, walking over, dragging an old dusty box out of the closet, rummaging through, pulling out notebooks, and then discovering the faded light blue tape boxes at the bottom with delight--then overwhelming disappointment when opening and seeing the crumbling remains. But then their eye catches a phrase on an open notebook (camera zooms in), a pause, then they pick up their guitar from the corner, and the music starts...

Wow - besides being a musician, you have a promising future as a film director! Great vision

 

[HCMarkus]

Even baking couldn't save the carnage.

I tried that, in a manner of speaking... my studio burned down in a wildfire in 2003.

Oh. That's not what you meant. I see.

Like you, I'm left with lots of lyrics, but the old recordings are all gone.