Content and Delivery

                                    A Note About Content and Delivery

                                                         by Wilbur Witt

     This may be the dullest article I've ever written, but it needs to be said if for no other reason than the subject keeps popping into my head and I know the only way to remedy that is to write about it. The subject is content, or moreover, what to say when you have nothing to say. Bloggers, YouTube video producers, songwriters, you name it, are all driven by one thing and that one thing is the desire to produce their particular form of communication every day. As a beginning songwriter I had this fear that if I didn't write at least a song a day the muse would depart and I would lose the ability to ever write another song. I've talked to a lot of other writers and that worry seems to be universal. This is why in a typical songwriter's catalog you will find a very few very good songs embedded in a score of what we used to call "mill" songs. A mill song has good rhyme, meter, fair melody, everything that a song needs, but it just doesn't "pop." 

     Sadly, this is the bulk of material that most aspiring musicians head to Nashville with. It impressed family and friends back home, mainly because few people can even play a guitar and fewer still can string words  and music together and make something respectful come out the other end. When they get to the big leagues they become disappointed because most of their collection is mill songs. What they fail to see is all songwriters have that. The difference is the successful songwriter recognizes this and continues to produce material in the confident knowledge that about one out of fifty songs will be the one the producers will say, "Play that one again for me, will you?"

     Time was when you bought an album one, possibly two songs were the ones you wanted and the other eight or ten were straight up mill songs. They were filler, placed on the vinyl because you made more money selling an album than selling a single. Steve Jobs put an end to this with the introduction of iTunes. If you will note, although entire CDs are there for purchase, you are not chained to just that one option and may cherry pick any song you wish. An "A" grade songwriter can grind out any number of mill songs on request and the studios depended on that to fill albums for all of their one hit wonders that were being pushed at the time. Even the Beatles had their share of mill material, and if you don't believe that just force yourself through "The Long and Winding Road" a couple of times and you'll see exactly what I'm talking about. 

     Blogging has its mill songs, too. Ninety percent of the blogs I read are just paper filler, but I'm not inferring the blogger should wait until the best of the best flows from their fingertips. If they did that they would rarely write and they would never sharpen their skills. Just realize it for what it is. Don't think you are endowed with some power that makes every grocery list you scribble down a masterpiece destined to change the direction of the Western World. 

     But how does one arrive at good content?  What are the factors that, when properly blended, make people want to read what you have written?  Well, first of all you must identify your audience. When I was doing my shows at Pennington Lounge in Nashville my group of followers were mainly middle aged men who had come with their families to see the Nashville scene while on vacation. These men had been walking all over OpryLand, all day, with their wives, children, and grandchildren, and while that was uplifting, I'm sure, long about ten o'clock, while the women folk were putting the kiddos to bed in the room, old Weird Wilbur was taking the stage singing about naked women and beer!  http://youtu.be/A-21WPoqTfA  And that was just about as close to Nashville's wild side as these guys wanted to get. These gentlemen had never broken an egg in their lives, worked hard, been responsible, but they could order a pretty respectful martini, sit back and get a few laughs. I would come on stage and my opening statement was always the same; Hey guys, I'm Weird Wilbur from Austin, Texas. I've been married five times, stand up Christian and I write about it. Fact is, I've been run off so many times I though PMS meant "Pack My Shit!". My first song was always "Every Time I See A Pig I Think Of You," written by my friend, Dave Talley back in Kansas.         http://youtu.be/uNbp4dyvoj0

     If I had done a straight up country show they would have had a drink and retired. They'd seen that show all day, and frankly, they were sick of it. The same rule applies to blogging. Realize that there are people who will seek out your subject matter and frankly there are those who won't. The rest of my show would leave the group in stitches, but their wives, if they drifted down to the lounge, by and large would not like my show  My act was the most politically incorrect, chauvinistic repertoire you could imagine. From the very clean Pig Song I digressed all the way down to a one line tune about date rape given to me free of charge by Tommy Overstreet. 

     The one factor that will get your readership to rise is professionalism and style. In blogging I get a lot of amazement from the fact that, after listening to my songs, people are frankly amazed that I can use three and four syllable words. Even a mill blog cannot be sloppy. The public does not forgive that. Some ideas are just not that hot, but if your supporters have to endure an occasional dull topic, i.e. the blogger who writes about cooking will occasionally have to turn out a piece on how to properly boil an egg, they will be disappointed if your form, spelling, and use of language is sub-standard. I had a song, a parody, that I'd written, and I had such little respect for this song that I never recorded it. Still haven't to this day. I took an old standard by Jim Reeves, "He'll Have To Go," and rewritten it into a tune called "You've got Mail," where I strung a bunch of gags about cyber-sex into the melody. It was a straight up mill song, but my manager, Michael Lee, told me to make the guitar flawless, and I have the ability to change my voice. I used this ability to help other writers record demos they wished to parlay to successful singers. If the demo sounded like the targeted artist they were more likely to give it a listen. I sounded just like Jim Reeves when I sang this song, and on a personal appearance this made the song pop. Replacing the flowing lines of Gentleman Jim with lines like, "And I'll be here for you, my dear, and I'll 'f' up your head. . ." were the perfect paradox, and that's what makes comedy work. Surprise and misdirection. 

     You should do this with that blog you write where you understand it's not all that great, but your delivery assures your readers that it's still YOU. This is why Elvis could stomp his fat ass around the stage in his later career, actually READING the words to a song he was singing from a sheet of paper in his hand and people were spellbound. He was still Elvis, and he understood delivery!  When you get this then even your mundane blogs will become special in that they are your style, and frankly, sometimes even you don't understand the greatness of what you write. I've seen then many times when someone would request that I sing some song I'd written that I hated, but it had meant something to THEM!  

     Happy blogging, get back with me, and remember, write, write, write.