Where do songs come from, mommy?
written by Matt Dorman on December, 27, 2008, 04:25 PM. Comments: 1
Hi all,
Hope you're enjoying the Holidays, wherever you might live on this big blue marble. I hope you're healthy, happy, prosperous, and hungry for a cut!
I have a list on my computer of which songs I wrote, and the year they were written. I'm not sure what it's for, except to get me to write more songs, or something. It never works, because I get as many songs as I'm given, and no more.
I find it hard to make songs appear when they're not there. When a song appears, it'll hit me full force, or mildly, depending on how deep the inspiration is. I hate it when I'm in an elevator, or somewhere where it's awkward to write your thought down, then it gets lost, or mingled in with all of the other lines coming in.
Sounds spooky, huh? Lines 'hitting' me. Songs "coming in". OOOOO!
Ask any hit songwriter and they'll confess: songs find them. Even when they're in a setting where they're co-writing, if the song isn't "there" in the room, it won't be a good one. You can grasp for phrases all day, and nothing will work. You can work on the song day and night, and still nothing. It's frustrating!
Then, one day, you'll get some great lines for your song, out of NOWHERE! Well, they come from somewhere, if you ask me.
I call it "Song Heaven". Little song angels come down and bless us with songs. The words to these songs float all around us, waiting for us to "accept them" and write them down on paper, or type them into our computer, or sing them into a work tape, or hand held recorder, or write on our hand with a pen, or a napkin, or a...
Well, you get my point. We all are guilty of scrambling to get some words down as fast as possible, before they "disappear"
So what does this all have to do with a list on my computer? I still look at it. I call it my blessing list. I count my blessings. I wish for more. I keep track of my blessings, and sing them to the world. I put them on cd, and mp3 file, sharing them with whomever will listen.
But, even if I had only one song. One song I believed in with all of my heart, that would be my "blessing". My light at the end of the tunnel. My hope that some day I might hear my song on the radio, and retire wealthy.
Or, it might be a song that I sing to myself when I'm feeling down. One that picks me up. Maybe one that reminds me of how blessed I am.
Song angels from song heaven?
You betcha.
Very intresting trip around a song writers mind you have given, I too have moments of sheer magic and then angry blocks , I will not listen to any other artists music a hour before I write new songs, but i do have peices of paper and beermates crumbled up in my pocket s and paper laying around my studio floor with ideas i have written down, throughout a normal day. I listen and scrible stories and lyrics down all the time, just love being a crazy singer songwriter. I sometimes get the strangers looking at me thinking im from another plannet cheers Dave