JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Songwriter Message Forum Your positive and negative songs.

Nope. I didn't try yet, said I'd not just try but go through all the examples you gave and say if they were positive or negative. I'll even throw in a definition of positive and negative songs to boot. Now, whether folks accept that or not...well that's their problem, but I will do it.

OK, Here goes.

Your Cheatin' Heart is a revenge song. The turn in the song is, "...the way I do..." saying Hank's hurting just as much. A revenge lyric is just barely positive. It gets back at the girl for hurting him. The music swings, it cries in it's beer, but makes you want to dance. It's as negative as a positive song can get. I've sung this song a whole bunch. Rating: POSITIVE


Settin' The Woods on Fire. Ray, someone has to tell you that a party song is positive? Hank's out to raise a ruckus. He'll take his old hotrod with tires so bald that "the air is showing through" one of my favorite lines in any song...up there with "let's not be L-7." They're out to party. I sing this a lot at the dances also. Rating: POSITIVE

I'll Go Alone. I love me some Marty Robbins, but this was not his best. Of course he wrote it. It's one of these "take me as I am, or I'll just go alone" songs. Basically positive, but nothing to compare with his negative song, This Time You Gave Me a Mountain, or the negative murder ballad EL Paso, great songs. Not his best but...Rating: POSITIVE

Leann Rimes' Blue is a wonderful negative song. I got to play with her for one of her first showcases at the Sweetwater Lounge. She was a teenager and knocked everyone out. Blue was supposed to sound like Patsy Cline, sort of like her "You Belong to Me," only negative. Rating: NEGATIVE

Never Again, Again. Leann Womack sings the frog droppings out of this song. I always thought it would be good for Reba. If it was a swing tune, like "Pour Me," I might be tempted to call it a positive song, but with the exquisite heartache in it I would say...Rating: NEGATIVE

Don't Tell Me What to Do. I wish I had a nickle for every time I played bass on this backing up a female singer. As Marc said, this is a woman on top...er...I mean taking control of her life. Plus the music is very up. Rating: POSITIVE

A positive song is one that is happy, or expresses hope, or it is a song where the singer "wins" in the situation. Attitude has a lot to do with it. A negative song is one that is sad, or expresses no hope, or where the singer "loses" in the situation. If a song on the fence, almost negative, is sung slow in a minor key, then it falls on the N side. If the same song gets a train beat and a chicken pick guitar, it might take a P...I mean get rated a P.

I love a lot of negative songs. One of my favorites is "Misery and Gin" by Haggard. I sing that one a lot also. It's like an old suitcoat. Way out of style, but I like to wear it. I wouldn't wear one like it to a job interview though. That would be a mistake, like pitching old sounding, negative songs to a publisher I don't know.

Anyway, that's the way I rate those. Got any more you want me to rate?