Onwards And Sideways
I’m feeling a bit out of energy in regards to writing about Homesongs, and how they are a very good thing, and everybody should have one, try one, etc, etc.
This blog shouldn’t really be a confessional though. That wasn’t the intention. Nor a diary. Also, not the intention.
But here I am talking about my life, songwriting, the world, and of course the fact that music in the community is something that can happen, not just in a community, but in a house. In your home.
I wanted to get other people on board with that idea, but I don’t think I’m succeeding at the moment.
Does that mean I should throw in the towel. Damn no!
It’s just an honest appraisal of where we’re at.
Onwards and sideways.
Fancy A Go?
Back in England. On the way home to Scotland on the morrow.
Apparently our trip back over the North Sea caused minor seismic disturbances leading to fragmentation in the Chaos Continuum all resulting in the resignation of another British prime minister.
Anyway, I was struck on the boat, reading the tele-script thingy on the news channel, by the comment of a political commentator about the upcoming vote for Somebody Else to lead the country.
Apparently “those MPs who fancy a go” will be putting their names in the hat very soon.
So I’m sure we can Trusst the powers that be to get it right this time round. Who are the powers that be? I’m a bit cloudy on that one.
But it’s nice to know that, when all the dust settles, The United Kingdom will still be the founding Mother and Father of Democracy.
Very proud.
Vote for me!
NO!
One Finger!
I know a blog shouldn’t be about how you write the blog.
But here I am again writing about how I wrote the blog. This one is being done with the One Finger Typing Technique on a phone keyboard.
You know how some folk (Young Folk) can do this at approximately 5000 words a minute.
I can’t do that.
This one took a while.
Hope you don’t feel like you’ve wasted your time discovering that information.
ps. We are putting ourselves into the hands of The Stena Sealink Captain for the return journey from The Netherlands today. Wish us luck!
Yours Sincerely
(Not) a new discovery.
It is easier to communicate with a blank page using a pen or a keyboard than it is using a voice dictation tool.
Having said that, the voice dictation tool is very good at picking up whispered swear words.But not so good at deleting them.
yes, I am trying to do it THAT Way again.
there is a reason why we TALK to people and WRITE scrip upon a blank page. There is also a reason why halfway through this blog I have given up editing.
So Siri, if you are reading this, Please feel free to take these words very personally.
A Human Been
Screaming At The Internet
I scream at the internet sometimes.
But truth be told, it’s amazing. Marvelettes!
I mean, imagine if I had to put addresses and stamps on envelopes, individually, by hand, in order to send this blog out to folk who wanted to receive it.
Everyday.
No. The Internet has got a lot of faults, but so many more possibilities. So, mainly, we work with the possibilities, and accept the new problems that arise as a necessary downside.
But sometimes I still find myself screaming at the internet.
The Hardest Of Work.
…en daarom moet ik zeg, dat het niet altijd makkelijk is om iedereen te begrijpen.
I am speaking Dutch everyday at the moment, as we happen to find ourselves in The Netherlands. (Yes, that Stena Sealink captain came to his senses in the end!)
I find it mind blowing to realise that, most of the time, even for English speakers like myself, the words being spoken around the world are incomprehensible to most other people.
English is the nearest thing there is to a “common world language”. But mostly people speak their mother tongue. And mostly that is a language which a fairly small minority of the worldwide population understand.
But even when we speak the lingo there is no guarantee that mutual comprehension will occur. Even among friends, and even among people who share a relatively similar world view. Considering how little of the time we manage to communicate well, it is remarkable how much we have managed to achieve together.
And what makes the difference, when we speak, comes to down to how well we engage the listener. That is creative work. And the difference when we listen comes down to whether or not we are really listening. Which is the work of empathy and patience.
Real communication is the hardest of work.
And the most rewarding when we manage to do it well.
Today I Threw My Brain Away
Today, I threw my brain away
Took it to the tip
Nothing else to say
Coz I threw my brain away
Lots of other people there
Doing the same thing
The brain thing
All together
It seems to be a trend
Perhaps you’ve done the same my friend
Probably the safest thing to do
In the end
Coz who needs to think
Now we’re beyond the brink
When we can gaily sink
All together
All together now
All together now
All together now…
Today, I threw my brain away
Took it to the tip
Nothing else to say
Coz I threw my brain away
(My apologies for the dark nature of this little ditty. It’s just, y’know, a way of getting stuff of ye old chest, and perhaps a little commentary on The Current State Of Affairs…but that is really only when we watch The News. Which I try not to do. But I do read a lot of what People are saying about The News. And sometimes what people says makes me wonder whether there is some Collective Lemming Like Instinct occurring.
Meanwhile, out there in the real world, are lots of reason to hope. And it’s not that we shouldn’t listen to The Voices. But there are definitely Voices that we shouldn’t be listening to).
Careful With Those Chemicals
Chemicals.
So many ways that they can interact.
So many forms of life that they can create.
The chemicals in our head are volatile and the infrastructure that contains them needs, unless we are very lucky, various degrees of maintenance. When things are going well it is easy to become blasé.
To drift.
And before you know it some dangerous combinations start hanging out together, like long lost chemical brothers, leading sometimes to heightened creativity, but on other occasions to some very undesired reactions in Ye Olde Thinking Patterns.
Careful With Those Chemicals. They are a precious resource, but you don’t want to make enemies with them.
Just Enough Spice
Variety is the spice of life they say. But apparently people can have too much spice.
It will always be difficult, creatively, to walk that fine line between predictably comfortable and digestively explosive.
Singing a cover song as closely as possible to the original is predictable and comfortable and…..well…possibly a little bit dull? But there are of course many people who HATE spicy. And just coz I don’t get it, is no reason to say that kind of thing shouldn’t exist.
And even we allegedly creative folk sometimes need a slice of bland, but comfortable.
But try making something that is both artistically creative and still…well, strangely comforting. That is a toughie. And it is also why artists like Stevie Wonder, Lady Gaga, David Bowie, The Beatles, Prince, Kate Bush, and others who you could name, all of whom manage to do just that, are both popular and critically praised.
Most of the time anyway.
And no doubt it took even such lauded examples a little while to find their feet.
Lost At Sea
SOS!
Unfortunately we did overshoot.
We are currently sailing the Barents Sea having been “kidnapped” (?!?) along with 300 other passengers, by a bitter Stena Sealink captain who was just SO tired of crossing the same stretch of the North Sea for the last 35 years.
He decided, perhaps understandably … I really don’t know enough about his life to say for sure … to stretch his wings (his fins???). We passed, incredulously, by Hoek Van Holland and could even see people walking their dogs along the endless beaches of that stretch of coastline.
And now it seems that we really are taking the slow boat to China. Presently we are sailing AROUND Russia on our way to god knows where.
I’m all for people taking control and changing their lives for the better, but this has taken the biscuit. I am hoping that somebody reads this blog and contacts the appropriate authorities.
Before we get to The Other Side Of Blue. Thank you!
(Just my luck if today is the day when my thousands of readers all decide to have a break at the same time!)
A Slow Boat
I’d like to get
In fact I’m gonna get
On a boat to the Netherlands today. It takes a while to get there.
Hopefully we don’t overshoot…
Colours Of The Rainbow
That long stretch of the M74 from Glasgow to Gretna always feels like an eternity. I was driving it yesterday, and the weather was pretty poor to say the least.
But….
Oh my God! What a Rainbow! The best ever! Worthy of a super nova of superlatives and some hyper-exclamatory exclamation marks to top them off!!!!!!!!
Honestly, for about forty minutes we were driving towards it, spread across the whole of the landscape in front of us. Never dimming, or shrinking. Just a wall of colour against a dark slate background.
And all the while Little Miss Sunshine smiling at us bashfully from behind my shoulder, as though to say “Yeah, shucks, I did that … with a bit of help from my mates The Raindrops, of course.”
Absolutely wonderful.
And if you were to ask me “Can you tell me the colours of the rainbow?”….well, yes, I can as it happens. Better than I could before.
With a bit of help from my mates, The Grandweans, of course.
Everything’s Just Fine
Below is the lyric to a song I wrote a while ago for anyone who has contemplated checking out of life for good. I certainly have in the past, and it’s obviously not a great place to be. The most frightening part is that there no longer seem to be any tears to cry.
Tears are important, and anything that brings us back to that place - the place in which tears are possible again -can be the salvation.
It might just be a glimmer of recognition:
-In the eyes of a friend
- Or a stranger
- In the words or music of a song
- Or in any form of artistic creation
…which tells us that someone else has been where we are and has come out the other side.
There is an “other side” and it doesn’t have to involve taking your own life. The title of this song might sound a little facetious, but it’s simply a recognition that our present perspective is not necessarily the truth.
Everything’s Just Fine
Happy Ever After, Never ending laughter
The stories we tell
To stay alive
It’s a funny ending, but it’s still an ending
The one in which they all survive
And it’s alright including the fears
Everything I mean
Yeah everything’s just fine
Oh what a sight this vale of tears
We live it on the edge
And everything’s just fine
Happy Ever After, Never ending laughter
It’s a perfect fairytale
But it’s not life
This rule is not for bending
There will always be an ending
So don’t let today
Pass you by
And it’s alright including the fears
Everything I mean
Yeah everything’s just fine
Oh what a sight this vale of tears
We live it on the edge
And everything’s just fine
You don’t need to find an escape
When the darkness overcomes you
And when we bleed, it’s not all over
Yes we have the power
We have the power
To change our minds
And everything, everything’s just fine
The Right Moment
I’ve been drip, dripping the concept of small intimate gigs in homes for a while now. It’s a habit that’s ingrained in me.
That means I’m not judging its success based on any measurable results. I believe in the idea, in spreading it, and in giving the universe as we know it, complete freedom:
- to ignore
- be inspired by, or
- to act upon it.
Obviously, I’m hoping that it’s the latter.
So it was nice to hear, via my wife and a work contact, about a complete stranger who lives on a Scottish island, but wanted me to know that he plans to try hosting a Homesong in his house, once his house is sorted.
That’s a result as far as I’m concerned.
And of course an encouragement.
Who knows who else might be out there, having the same thoughts, and just waiting for The Right Moment.
It Goes Something Like This…
It’s that time of year in the West of Scotland, just before the long winter, with the wind windding, and the rain reigning, when it’s possible to think that it might be nice to live somewhere else.
The thought never crosses my mind though. Apart from just now obviously.
But really, and though it be the cliche-est cliche of all, the truth is that the grass really ain’t greener on the other side.
Everywhere and everything has got its down sides to counteract any upsides. To make the green look duller or brighter depending on the angle you might happen to be looking from.
But upside down, or any way round, I’m very happy to live where I live. And I wouldn’t change it for the world.
Oh, go on then. That marmite song from Mr McCartney. Forget the name right now, but it goes something like this…
The Road To Fun
I mentioned The Grateful Dead a couple of blogs ago. One of the things that struck me was that, despite the fact that they took there music very seriously, the stated intention was not to “build a legacy” or “change the world” or “write the best music ever” or anything grandiose like that.
The aim was simply to have some fun.
And that’s not the worst objective in the world. Nor is it necessarily incompatible with any more serious challenges or targets. It’s really just about saying that, whatever we do, let’s make sure, at the very least, we enjoy doing it.
This is a theme that I’m warming to more as I get older, especially speaking as somebody who took both themselves and life far too seriously in the past. In fact what has always saved me, I suspect, from disappearing up my own backside, is an ability to laugh at myself taking myself too seriously.
But, it seems to be the case that…when all is said and done….we’re on The Road To Fun. Anyway, that’s the road I’m on right now. Feel free to come and join me. :-)
- As chance would have it The Road To Fun is the title of this month’s release in my Fee Come’s Fourth series. Not a bad segue (that’s how “segway” is supposed to be spelt apparently), though I say so myself.
Live Matters More
My favourite blogger today asks the question “What’s On Tonight?” and answers it by saying…well…in fact EVERYTHING is on. Tonight, via the power of the internet, it is access all areas, and that question we might have asked 30 years ago is largely irrelevant.
I agree with him. But I disagree with one remark later on in the same blog. He says that as result of these changes to society that “live matters less”.
It may well be that Seth is referring specifically to “live programming”, in which the time at which we actually watch The Program, has ceased to matter. Watch any damn time you like!
But I think that the Unrecorded Live Experience, has come to matter even more. And I’ve made this particular point many times before:
Something like a Homesong gig in which a few people are gathered for an evening of music that ONLY THEY will experience has, in this digitally ubiquitous age, become something very precious.
And my conclusion therefore, is that Live Matters More.
We need, even more than previously, those moments when the only thing to be said is - You Had To Be There.
Look, No Drugs!
I’ve started watching a documentary series about The Grateful Dead. Didn’t know much about their music or their history. But I had heard that they were a prime example of a band who focussed on simply making music and connecting with the fans. And having fun.
And they didn’t give two hoots about the music industry, but still managed to keep going for an awfully long time.
All of that seems to be born out by the series that I’ve been watching so far. But the question that has occurred to myself as a songwriter is not concerned with any of that.
Mainly, I’ve just been asking myself how the hell I managed to write a song without the assistance of some LSD.
Honestly quite proud of myself. Peace man!
First Tuesday
My friend Chris Annetts set up a wonderful little creative community outlet in Campbeltown. It’s called First Tuesday, and it happens appropriately on the first Tuesday in the month at lunchtime in the local library. Bringing together one local songster, and a local writer or writers, they take it in turns to present five songs and five written poems or wee stories.
It’s proving popular and is a great opportunity for local creative artists to show folk what they’re up to. A donation is taken, that goes towards supporting the library….which, if you weren’t aware, need all the support they can get at the moment. Like many very useful things libraries are precisely the kind of useful things which are under threat from the never ending cuts we seem to be experiencing.
But don’t worry. Apparently the tax cuts to everybody earning over £150,000 per annum is going to sort all of that out.
In the real world, of course, grass roots ANYTHING will disappear unless we ourselves look after the grass. Or unless we grow some new grass! That’s the reality of the current climate in the UK at least.
So I’m delighted to be playing myself at Campbeltown Library this First Tuesday coming, and have prepared a set list, with a topical literary theme.
Including…The Book.
Would be daft not to include that one.
Applauding Otters
There was a long period of time when playing a gig, any gig, was a big ordeal for me. It wasn’t fun. But it felt like something I had to do. And after doing it, there was usually a sense of relief.
That was as good as it got.
At one point I told myself that I had to find a way to enjoy myself. Or else stop altogether. And thankfully, over a period of years I have managed to start looking forward to playing gigs the vast majority of the time.
All of this came to mind two days ago when I kind of made myself go out with my tent for a night, as I mentioned in yesterday’s blog. I’ve done that before, and been so focussed on coping with the practicalities and dealing with the crazy little fears of being alone in the dark somewhere, that it has been comparable in many ways to my previous gigging experience. More of a relief to have done it and come out the other end intact.
When I was camping the other night I suddenly got a new sense of confidence that I would be, that I was, learning to enjoy the whole experience. And that my experience in learning to enjoy performing at music gigs was the proof that things could and would change even more for the better.
And then like a round of hearty ovation at the end of a gig, I had yesterday’s Applauding Otters to round things off perfectly.
#TheOtterSong
So the lesson I’m learning is this: stepping outside of our comfort zone is not about the suffering! It’s about the process of changing our minds and learning to enjoy something new, that subsequently rewards us with a whole heap of benefits which we would miss out on otherwise.