Yellow Teeth And A Pure Soul

My friend Gary Carey often jokes that I (“wisely”) don’t listen to any of his suggestions regarding changes needing made to the songs I’ve written.

In the beginning of my songwriting life I would always write a song and leave as was. Then I came across the strange concept of “Editing”. It was a bit of a shock to the system. It felt like messing with the art. I thought a song should emerge fully formed from the ether, and drop into my lap like a new born baby.

Of course life - and songwriting is a part of life - is never that simple. And so I took on board the need to change things in the songs I wrote. For a while I did it far too much, changing things that didn’t need to change. Years ago I completely rewrote a song that several people I knew really loved. The rewrite turned out to be crap. And I ended up forgetting the original.

Hey ho. These days I’ve learnt, if not mastered, the craft. And I usually get in the ballpark for how the song should be, fairly quickly. But I’m comfortable with the need to make changes that improve things. And I’m quite OK with hearing, and either accepting, or often rejecting, suggestions for change from others.

And I do listen Gary! In fact todays title song Yellow Teeth And A Pure Soul is a case in point. He might not remember, but a few years ago he suggested that one line in particular from this song - “polishing the sky” - stuck in his craw. I pondered upon his remark, as I usually do, even if not immediately. And although the recording above remains the same, I have changed the line to “reaching for the sky” instead. The critique and the change made sense to me.

Perfection doesn’t exist. But appropriate editing is a useful tool.

And so is brushing your teeth. I should probably do more of that too.