So … I’m trying to write something – a song.
I had a few instrumental ideas on the guitar that I took to the monthly song writing circle I attend. It was three tunes really, that could have worked together, with a slow section, followed by a fast section, then back to a different slow bit.
They liked it, and suggested a pastoral feel for the lyrics – think summer, sitting by a river, meadows and wild flowers.
It’s still around, unfinished. I tried some lyrics on it earlier this week.
I’d had an idea that was sparked off by listening to Ched Myers talk about the way that where he live – in Northern California, the river is dry because of water being taken off further upstream for communities or industry.
The same happens in the Palestinian Territories in the Jordan Valley, with the culprit being Israel’s industry.
It’s an idea with a more general meaning … that where there is disadvantage, or poverty, it’s probably because someone else has got to all the resources, leaving little for others.
Disadvantage = downstream.
So, the idea was to pick up on the suggestions made by my friends at the songwriting circle, but give it a twist. So use the image of the river, but think about stuff that’s done upstream that makes life hard for the people who live ‘downstream’
Moonlight on the water
Blue lights in the town (On the road / street ?)
Sun’s coming up in an hour or so (or two ?)
…???
It’s about something dark that’s happened that has called about the blue lights of the emergency services.
Anyway … today, I’ve moved on. Forget about trying fit lyrics to the tune that I have for now. Just keep thinking about the upstream / downstream idea, and get some lyrics.
The other thing to add into the mix is something I heard on an interview with the Musician/Producer T Bone Burnett. He made the observation that the word that occurs most in popular music is ‘you.’
’She loves you,’ ‘I wanna hold your hand,’ etc.
The singer is addressing the listener, drawing them in to the song.
Peter Case does this with his song ‘Have you ever been in trouble,’ and adds to it by making it a question.
So, that’s another thing I’d like to get into this song – address the listener, and maybe with a question.
Hopefully I’ll be back later … bye for now.
Tag: Peter Case
Peter Case And A Piano
I was listening to a recent album – Doctor Moan – by one of my musical heroes, Peter Case. It’s great, as always, but unusual in that a lot of the songs are piano based, rather than guitar.
It led me to sit down at the piano, and just mess around with some chord changes, and pretty soon I had a song.
I wrote the song back in January and started this blog post then, but didn’t get it finished. So I’m using some time I have now to finish off some of the things I was working on.
The first line – ‘There are so many stories that should never be told’ – came from something I heard, or read somewhere. I must get into the habit of making a note of where these initial ideas come from …
But that first line got me thinking about the horror of the situation in Gaza, and most of the rest of the words just came in a stream as I was out walking one day in January.
I also had remembered (and noted!) some words from the film ‘The Magnificent Seven.’ The quote that I took from the film comes right at the end of the film, after the seven have helped to rid the village of Calvera and his men.
‘Only the farmers have won. They remain forever. They are like the land itself. You helped rid them of Calvera the way a strong wind helps rid them of locusts. You are like the wind, blowing across the land and… passing on. Vaya con Dios.”
The Reaper (Working title)
There are so many stories that should never be told
Of lives that were broken, that never got old.
Their choices were cut down
They’re buried or they’re burned
Swarming all over the land
Stripping the fields of grain
And everything you see that grows,
All that grows
For now the Reaper has won
The earth receives her own
Watered by the tears that flow,
The tears that flow
And only the strongest wind
Helps them be rid of the curse
They are like the wind that blows,
The wind that blows
And the graveyards are filled with the people so bold
The women and men and the children now cold (repeat x4)
And I do believe in the milk of human kindness,
But sometimes it seems to run dry
I do believe that there must be hope somewhere
And I will keep looking for the signs
Is it true that one small light
Is all the light we need
To banish all the dark away, the dark away ?
© Jonathan Evans. January 2024
Five Short Words 