SONG CONTEST BLOG

2009 marked the beginning of a 360-degree lyric writing contest from We Are Listening, opening our doors to writers who don’t necessarily have the experience or resources to set their words to music and produce a viable demo.  With that in mind, we committed the Lyric Writer Awards to become the only independent lyric writing initiative to produce a professional demo by the end of its cycle, with the promise to provide equal opportunity to every single one of our contest participants, regardless of their musical maturity and songwriting chops.

For the first time in the history of the Lyric Writer Awards, a young fledgling writer with no musical background whatsoever was selected by the judges as a winner.  Allyson Weiland, an English Major at the University of Texas and member of its varsity rowing team, submitted the lyric “Tag, You’re It” and won the 2009 Lyric Writer Awards (Round 1).  This is what the lyric looked like at the time of her submission:

VERSE
See that woman pushing that stroller there?
Yeah that’s the one with the wild brown hair
You may think housewife when you see her now
But in her crazier days, we all tried to chase her down
She used to yell

CHORUS
Just Try and catch me Romeo,
I’m flyin fast and you’re movin too slow
Time’s racing by and this moment’s gonna pass
Tag, you’re it, now step on the gas

VERSE
At 16 her parents gave her her dream
The keys to a beautiful racing machine
Friday night, she pulled up next to me
Revved up her engine, and flew off with a wink
And she screamed

[REPEAT CHORUS]

BRIDGE
She had two hands on the wheel and one foot to the floor
Laughing sayin’ come on baby show me what that engine’s for

VERSE
The last time we saw her my senior year
A black mustang passed her on the road out of here
She took it as a challenge caught up to him quick
Brown eyes sparkling, that cloud of dust was thick
She must’ve told him

[REPEAT CHORUS]

VERSE
She came back few years ago all settled down
Riding shotgun in that mustang without her racing crown
That guy she married managed to win that race
Man, that must’ve been one hell of a chase
With her yellin’

[REPEAT CHORUS]

After several edits by Allyson, our staff sent the lyric to our songwriting team, Pat & Pete Luboff, who ironed out some of the creases and set the words to melody and composed a suitable chord progression.  Pete sent We Are Listening a rough demo (and I mean rough!) of the composition for our review.  Listen to it here and notice the changes in the Lyric:

Tag, You’re It
by Allyson Weiland, Peter Luboff, Pat Luboff

VERSE 1
See the woman pushin that stroller there?
Yeah, that’s the one with the wild brown hair
She may look like a housewife when you see her now
But in her crazier days we all tried to chase her down
She used to yell

CHORUS
Just try and catch me Romeo
I’m flyin fast and you’re moving way too slow
Time’s racin by and this moment’s gonna pass
so step on the gas  if you want another kiss,
Tag, you’re it

VERSE 2
At 16 she was given her wildest dream
The keys to a beautiful racing machine
Next couple years she held on to first place
Til’ a boy in a mustang made it a race
She told him

[REPEAT CHORUS]

BRIDGE
They tore outta here like the wild things they were
Didn’t think they’d be back for a while
But two years later when they traded rings
We all watched her running down the aisle
And Laughing

[REPEAT CHORUS]

© Allyson Wieland & Pea Pod Music

We approved Pat & Pete’s work and sent the recording and lyric to StudioPros.com to be professionally produced.  This is what StudioPros came up with:

Now, with a strong demo in hand, We Are Listening is shopping Allyson Weiland and Pat & Pete Luboff’s co-write for publishing opportunities.

Learn more about the Lyric Writer Awards.

Related Posts
Hello Operator
Streetlab
Andrew Allen