The Wagtunes Corner (Featuring My Best Yet)

[jancivil]

Ok, found the lyrics. It appears to be written from the POV of a character as in a movie.
Hard to picture wags as that character. It seems a bit jejune to look at art this way. Every writer who came up with a criminal for their story was writing autobiography?

[biomechanoid]

it was a joke

Yeah, I know.

[wagtunes]

Ok, found the lyrics. It appears to be written from the POV of a character as in a movie.
Hard to picture wags as that character. It seems a bit jejune to look at art this way. Every writer who came up with a criminal for their story was writing autobiography?

FWIW, these lyrics, as all my lyrics, were never meant to be taken seriously. I kind of look at my lyrics as a way to take the piss at the world. They're all in good fun and a total goof. I can understand people being offended by them. Wait til they get a load of the ones I'm working on now. The song is titled "Castrated"

People take things way too seriously in this world when it comes to art.

[Jace-BeOS]

3rd track from my upcoming CD "Hammers And Nails"

This one a little more melodic than the first two. This is my NiN love song. Well, kind of anyway.

Is This Sexy Enough For You

Slip off your dress
Drop it to the floor
Grab you by the throat
Treat you like the whore that you are

Is this sexy enough for you
Is this sexy enough for you
Does it get you all wet too
Is this sexy enough for you

Fill you up with wine
Intoxicate your brain
Slit your wrists for fun
Make you go insane yes you are

Repeat Chorus

Instrumental Break

Repeat Chorus

Throw you into bed
Have my way with you
Throw you out the door
f**k you til we're through yes we are

Repeat Chorus

Outro

https://soundcloud.com/steven-wagenheim ... gh-for-you

Interesting choices for sounds here. Sexy saxophone, ha ha

While I love that you titled it as a response to the request for the songs to be more sexy , I’m not personally into the lyrics here. It’s just that I can’t personally identify with them (it’s not prudishness on my part; it’s an aversion to abusive relationships, of which it reminds me). And that’s ok.

This continues to be interesting Keep at it

Regarding writing songs about how much the world sucks, or how much one hates the world (your original text isn’t on my screen as I type this), I can understand why it might be tiresome to do this style. Digging into negativity isn’t generally healthy.

However, I think there’s often a simplistic interpretation of NIN lyrics (though maybe not of Stabbing Westward’s, ha ha). I think there’s a middle ground between interpretable poetic expression ... and direct/pure hate/anger/rage. I feel most of NIN’s lyrics to be in the middle ground (some is definitely not!). It’s generally very personal expression and not always perfectly clear as to what it means (which is a stated goal, per Trent).

What bugs me is when criticism of passionate music creates a no-win situation. IE: calling it “hates everything” when it’s angry, calling it “emo whining” when it’s emotional, or calling it “vapid” or “hollow” when it’s somehwere in-between. I often wonder why some people don’t see the subtlety when it’s there. Maybe that requires more time spent than they want to spend on a genre they might not care for overall.

Vulnerability is sexy, too. We seem to have a culture that acts like vulnerability is a social faux pas. We must always be ready to attack and must always be untouchable. People are so ready to attack... and it’s not “kicking someone while they’re down”; it’s actually “kicking someone BECAUSE they’re down”.

I’m trying to find a middle ground of expression myself; the subtlety mixed with more clear expression. I’m not sure I’m getting there. I write so few songs with vocals, mostly because I’m self-censoring what I feel would be clumsy wording or too direct/literal ranting, were I to try to put words to things.

I’m a fairly bitter, angry, defeated person due to life experiences, and most people don’t want to hear about it; everyone else has their own injuries. Some people actually get angry hearing someone else’s, as if it’s a contest. Note that I try not to ACT bitter and defeated at all times. I even try to act like there’s hope in the world sometimes (sometimes I’m even the optimist for others). So, I know there’s more to expressing how I feel than “I’m pissed” or “I hate this”. Exploring the cause and reason, and the hints of how things could be...

But I also really really DO want to make a few songs where I’m just spewing rage, like NIN songs “Head Like a Hole”, “Last”, “March of the pigs”, “Ruiner”, and “Somewhat Damaged”

[wagtunes]

3rd track from my upcoming CD "Hammers And Nails"

This one a little more melodic than the first two. This is my NiN love song. Well, kind of anyway.

Is This Sexy Enough For You

Slip off your dress
Drop it to the floor
Grab you by the throat
Treat you like the whore that you are

Is this sexy enough for you
Is this sexy enough for you
Does it get you all wet too
Is this sexy enough for you

Fill you up with wine
Intoxicate your brain
Slit your wrists for fun
Make you go insane yes you are

Repeat Chorus

Instrumental Break

Repeat Chorus

Throw you into bed
Have my way with you
Throw you out the door
f**k you til we're through yes we are

Repeat Chorus

Outro

https://soundcloud.com/steven-wagenheim ... gh-for-you

Interesting choices for sounds here. Sexy saxophone, ha ha

While I love that you titled it as a response to the request for the songs to be more sexy , I’m not personally into the lyrics here. It’s just that I can’t personally identify with them (it’s not prudishness on my part; it’s an aversion to abusive relationships, of which it reminds me). And that’s ok.

This continues to be interesting Keep at it

Regarding writing songs about how much the world sucks, or how much one hates the world (your original text isn’t on my screen as I type this), I can understand why it might be tiresome to do this style. Digging into negativity isn’t generally healthy.

However, I think there’s often a simplistic interpretation of NIN lyrics (though maybe not of Stabbing Westward’s, ha ha). I think there’s a middle ground between interpretable poetic expression ... and direct/pure hate/anger/rage. I feel most of NIN’s lyrics to be in the middle ground (some is definitely not!). It’s generally very personal expression and not always perfectly clear as to what it means (which is a stated goal, per Trent).

What bugs me is when criticism of passionate music creates a no-win situation. IE: calling it “hates everything” when it’s angry, calling it “emo whining” when it’s emotional, or calling it “vapid” or “hollow” when it’s somehwere in-between. I often wonder why some people don’t see the subtlety when it’s there. Maybe that requires more time spent than they want to spend on a genre they might not care for overall.

Vulnerability is sexy, too. We seem to have a culture that acts like vulnerability is a social faux pas. We must always be ready to attack and must always be untouchable. People are so ready to attack... and it’s not “kicking someone while they’re down”; it’s actually “kicking someone BECAUSE they’re down”.

I’m trying to find a middle ground of expression myself; the subtlety mixed with more clear expression. I’m not sure I’m getting there. I write so few songs with vocals, mostly because I’m self-censoring what I feel would be clumsy wording or too direct/literal ranting, were I to try to put words to things.

I’m a fairly bitter, angry, defeated person due to life experiences, and most people don’t want to hear about it; everyone else has their own injuries. Some people actually get angry hearing someone else’s, as if it’s a contest. Note that I try not to ACT bitter and defeated at all times. I even try to act like there’s hope in the world sometimes (sometimes I’m even the optimist for others). So, I know there’s more to expressing how I feel than “I’m pissed” or “I hate this”. Exploring the cause and reason, and the hints of how things could be...

But I also really really DO want to make a few songs where I’m just spewing rage, like NIN songs “Head Like a Hole”, “Last”, “March of the pigs”, “Ruiner”, and “Somewhat Damaged”

Thanks for the in depth response. As I said in an earlier reply, lyrics for me are just that, lyrics. I don't take them seriously. They are in no way me or an expression of who I am. I can totally separate what I'm writing about from who I am. In fact, I do very few autobiographical songs because my life, believe it or not, is a total joy. I have everything I want and need. My lyrics are a vehicle to get some kind of feeling across, whatever that feeling might be. That's why i can write warm and fuzzy one minute and destroy the world the next. It's all the same to me as a writer.

TLDR - Don't take anything I write seriously.

[Jace-BeOS]

If Country had examples which aren’t commercial pablum, I maybe could vote. I don’t personally want to hear most things lol. Maybe the NIN, albeit not a huge fan.

One of my better bands was a country band. But we ranged from as-authentic-as-we-could-manage Hank Williams to very sophisticated arrangements of, eg., Wichita Lineman. All covers.

So I peaked as a guitarist some 33 yrs ago.

My peak as a guitarist was before I ever picked one up.

That was my first mistake.

This is funny... I keep telling myself “if I practiced even 30 minutes every day, I might actually be able to play a little”. And then, when I do play my guitar for a bit, I remember that I don’t want to callous my fingers.

I use it for sound, but I will never be competent on it as a player. I’m mostly at peace with this. Mostly

[Jace-BeOS]

4th track from my upcoming CD "Hammers And Nails"

[...]
I Got Nuthin For You
[...]

I haven’t listened yet (girlfriend is trying to read about 6’ away, and she struggles with distraction in her own head)... But I can definitely relate with the lyrics. I think I’ve even done something similar at some point in my various lyric notes.

[Jace-BeOS]

Sturgeon’s Law: 90% of anything is crap.

This is similar to what keeps me thinking I should actually try to write a science fiction novel. The majority of what is published isn’t all that better than what I could probably write. It’s the DOING IT part that I really struggle with, so anyone who is willing to put the time into DOING THE WORK will always be ahead of me, even if I don’t like the work they’ve done.

[Jace-BeOS]

Sturgeon deemed Sturgeon's law to mean "nothing is always absolutely so" in the story "The Claustrophile" in a 1956 issue of Galaxy.[8] The second adage**, variously rendered as "ninety percent of everything is crud" or "ninety percent of everything is crap", was known as "Sturgeon's Revelation", formulated as such in his book review column for Venture[2*]in 1957
*: Sturgeon, Theodore (1957). "On Hand ... Offhand: Books". Venture Science Fiction. Vol. 1 no. 5. p. 49
**: the definition listed in the Oxford English Dictionary.

Even a quote from wikipedia (?) gets you a down-vote. WTF? Here, have an up-vote.

[Jace-BeOS]

Someone thinks it’s fun to downvote EVERY post in this thread...

[wagtunes]

Someone thinks it’s fun to downvote EVERY post in this thread...

I attract all the trolls and people who don't have a life and anything better to do, unfortunately.

Welcome to Wagtunes Corner

[Jace-BeOS]

Apparently whoever does it has a sock puppet, too...

[jancivil]

Someone thinks it’s fun to downvote EVERY post in this thread...

Someone has made it their life’s mission to find every post I make (starting several days ago) to downvote it. Check my post history if this seems improbable.

At times it was three within like a minute...

[wagtunes]

Someone thinks it’s fun to downvote EVERY post in this thread...

Someone has made it their life’s mission to find every post I make (starting several days ago) to downvote it. Check my post history if this seems improbable.

At times it was three within like a minute...

I'm flattered that some people care enough to hate me so much.

I must make an impression.

[Michael L]

If you don't take ANYTHING seriously in this thread, it all makes perfect sense!!