Very odd
circumstances can sometimes culminate in the creation of new songs.
I had one of those experiences a while back. It was late morning,
following breakfast, with the lingering of a kitchen mess drawing my
attention toward clean-up, that I now note as the beginning of this
unfolding. The house was still, in the quiet after going through the
morning’s ‘catching up’ on the supposed news. Outside the
wildfire smoke was intense enough that the windows were all closed up
for my intension to keep the concentration of particulate out,
increasing the silence within. I thought to change the ambiance by
adding some music to sooth my mind as I began the task ahead.
Turning on my computer’s music reproduction software, I
contemplated the play-list displayed, a remnant of yesterday’s
listening to old Neil Young albums. In that moment with the last two
tunes of his Zuma album (from 1975) cued up and waiting while my
desire wanted something different, yet these two songs could play
without disrupting my mood. Still the task in the kitchen required
greater duration of time than these two songs could cover, but what
to set forth? I wanted something different, something other than
playing through the set order of recorded albums. My usual method
for selecting a play list is, calling up artists, looking through
album names, then choosing among the albums in the data base.
Instead of following this procedure, I chose to enter words into the
search box. Happenstance guided what followed, in the search box, I
typed the words, “hard times.” The database parsed out 11 artist
names, in the ordered list containing those two words. I added the
titles to the play list, clicked the play button, then back to the
kitchen to begin washing the dishes.
With this musical
set list now filling the space, I began the dish washing process. At
least three days of dishes had accumulated since the last washing,
yet the quantity was minimal. I waited for the sink to fill, adding
the liquid soap, placing the neatly arranged bowls into the steamy
water, while noting the music that set the mood, pleasant in its
familiarity. That washing, rinsing, and placing of clean tableware
into the drainer began in its normal manner as the second song, the
last track of Zuma began. I’d not listened to this in years, it
sounded like CSN&Y (I later looked into this to find that all of
those guys participated in the recording). My thoughts flipped
about, influenced by the music and the activity. As the name themed
song titles progressed, my thoughts swayed to the influence, the
singing of songs about hard times. By the time the list had tracked
through and to Woody Guthrie’s song, "Hard Times," I
began considering that all these songs are derived out of the
historically hard times that these authors had lived through, or at
least knew something of. With the influences of these various hard
time themes reflecting in my thoughts, combined with my own ever
present quest of creating new songs, I began considering a tale based
in songs about hard times. The Guthrie song, being one from the
Library of Congress Recording sessions, includes a conversational
narrative portion of some duration. It was during this narrative
that my mind skipped past the spoken, allowing a phrase of my own to
build about songs of hard times. Looking back now, it seems as tho,
Woody’s statement about the many songs he knew about hard times,
must have influenced my trajectory of thought. So many songs about
hard times. I’d just listened to many other songs with the theme,
hard times. Everybody’s singing songs about hard times. All these
people sang songs of hard times, so why not write a song about a few
people who wrote songs about hard times, inclusive of something
specific to their author. With the dish washing completed, I moved
back to the computer to write out the idea.
Since I had
concluded this topic viable for a song, I set upon writing the theme.
I immediately wrote what is a sort of chorus, having six lines
specific to the general theme, singing songs about hard times, then
I went back to the music program to revisit the individual songs
that sparked the idea. I began with Woody Guthrie, to derive the
respective theme expressed in the song. There in I wrote a verse
having to do with Mr. Guthrie. I went down the play-list revisiting
all the tunes and researching to discover the author whom wrote these
songs, rather than the recording artist listened to, for clarity in
addressing who actually created the themes I'd been experiencing.
From that point on, the process was quite simple, mechanical really,
although it was inspired of my own passion.
Now, in reflection,
I realize that this song came about through my deliberate attempt to
write a song. This is a different methodology from the usual method
I employ. More often than not, my own experience in creating songs
has shown up through what I consider as the song finding me, or the
universe gave it out, allowing me to catch it due to being receptive,
which is not what happened during this song's creation. It worked
out rather quickly, the writing and then establishing a musical theme
that could support the lyrics. In truth, I believe I have found
better songs through listening to that which is offered by the
universe, than what this song amounts to. Even so, this was another
song writing experience.
