David Cook’s official website posted an exclusive, lyrics to his upcoming single “Light On”. David promises more details about that this week. He told a group of fans at the Ford Day Luncheon on Friday that the single would be released “midweek” on “radio digitally,” so the speculation is that there will be some sort of radio premiere–maybe similar to the David Archuleta “Crush” premiere on Z100–sometime this week.
In the meantime, we have the official lyrics HERE.
Snip:
Never really said too much
Afraid it wouldn’t be enough
Just try to keep my spirits up
When there’s no point in grieving
Doesn’t matter anyway
Words could never make me stay
Words will never take my place
When you know I’m leaving
It appears to be an angsty power ballad–exactly the sort of fare that drove enthralled Idol viewers to their phones to vote for Cook last season, propelling him into the number one spot. The first single has to be killer. It’s smart to stick with what’s worked so far
There’s no official word yet on songwriter credits, but some crafty Cook fans searched the internet and found posts from last May in a Chris Cornell forum about a “mystery song” called “Light On” from producer/writer Brian Howes who has also written for Chris Daughtry. There were rumors back then that Cornell would be working with Howe. Hm. And this from Rollingstone’s Fall Preview:
To make what he describes as a set of “substance-based rock,” Cook recruited American Idiot producer Rob Cavallo and added an unreleased Chris Cornell song to the set.
Interesting, no?
IIRC, the two songs that Brian Howes collaborated with Daughtry on were both uptempo songs - “What I Want” and “Over You”, which were both singles. WIW was only released to rock radio (and did well there), and OY was only released to Pop/HAC.
But, if I’m thinking of the right person, this guy also was the producer for Hinder, and their monster single, “Lips of an Angel” (which he cowrote) was a power ballad. So it could go either way, I guess.
Definitely a lot of anticipation on my part. Come on RCA - let us hear it already!!
For now I’m just gonna believe Cook and assume it will be out (for at least a preview if nothing else) tomorrow (wednesday at the latest).
Mostly because I don’t think I could stand thinking it was longer away.
I just hope it hurries.
I think David is great at the striptease. First it’s just a button (single is coming out this fall), then a shoe (it’s called ‘Light On’), then a sock (lyrics), then a…
By the time we actually get our hands on the music… Well, let’s just say.. he’s good at it. Builds up the heat, the anticipation.
Oh god, “Lips of an Angel” is just a heinously bad song. At least we know, lyrically, this one won’t be that awful. Wasn’t there an article a while ago where Hinder said they wanted to work with David?
karaokequeen I agree with everything you said about the lyrics. The ones you identified are the ones that strike me as the most similar to David’s previous work. I think the lyrics to the song are decent, a lot really depends on how the line is delivered. Some lyrics can sound really awkward when removed from the context of a song. These don’t but they are fairly straightforward. More-so than David’s previous songwriting. I’m a little torn about that to be honest. I do think that David’s lyrics can be a little impenetrable for a casual listener (or even for a fan), but he’s also quite a poetic lyricist, which I’m missing a little in this song. Which is what makes me think it is probably a co-write or written entirely by someone else.
Oh well, as long as we get plenty of David’s writing on the album and the single does well.
All I know is I really hope someone is taping Ryan’s radio show tomorrow, I think it will pay off if they do.
I’m fine with the lyrics being a bit simpler and easier to comprehend than some of his previous songwriting—the lyrics are still good and have emotional heft. The fact that the song is not dense will help to make it more likely to have a good hook for the audience. It all depends on the music ultimately—the lyrics are good enough that the song could do well, if the music works well. (We know that the voice should work well.)
I want that bloody single…NOW!
DC did say that he was going to let the producers pick his first single, and the he was more focused on just making a record. So..maybe they chose the most generic song to release for wide appeal. I like the lyrics, they are something everyone can identify with. Very common emotions. I agree that some of the lines seem to be “David-like” and others seem much more generic than I would expect of him.
I hope it’s rocking. After TOML he needs an uptempo song. But…like I said, he may not have had complete say over which song would be released first.
I want that bloody single…YESTERDAY!
RCA, enough with the stalling PLEASE!
The website of the radio station I listen to has a place where you can send in suggestions for songs for them to add to their playlist, so I sent in a request for Light On.
They never played Magic Rainbows as far as I’m aware, but they do play Daughtry, and they’ve been playing a few of the songs Dave covered on the show (TWIK, DYTM) or on tour (My Hero), so if his single/album sounds as I think most of us are expecting it to sound, he should fit nicely into their playlist.
I think this is probably one of the most effective things we can do to help Dave right now, get as much info as possible about the new single and get online or on the phone to the station you listen to and tell them you’re expecting to hear it on air as soon as it becomes available. And, of course, buy/download it as soon as it’s released for purchase!
Wow! That’s awesome. Lord knows I love me some Chris Cornell! I’m thinking I should petition the internets for some kind of alarm or Batsignal when these 2 names are mentioned in conjunction so I’m not the last one to find these things out. =P
listen to David’s new song “Light On”…its hot!!
http://www.iheartmusic.com/cc-common/ondemand/music.html?apid=4827
Ummm , come here often MissDavid?