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Tom O'Brien
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7/27/2009 5:48:37 PM
What's your reason for songwriting?
I know there are going to be those who say things like "money, fame, and babes" and that's fine if it's honest.
But I've been asking myself this question lately since I've been in one of the most creative times of my life lately. I'm 46, so I'm not expecting fame anymore, and I'm realistic, so I'm not expecting riches either. I'd take them if they came my way, though.
I think I write songs so that I can connect with something deep inside of people that goes otherwise unspoken. It's not that the songs themselves are always the message. The songs are a way to engage a person in a kind of dialogue - to put feelings and ideas in their heads that they can mull around and react to. My hope is that songwriting also allows me to talk to people that I otherwise wouldn't get to talk to (like at the Pipeline) and in that way, share a little of the happiness that I feel in life. Songwriting is initially for entertainment, but all the arts ultimately are about connecting with people.
What are your motivations?
BTW, I've got a new song up:
http://www.iacmusic.com/songs.aspx?SongID=77158&ArtistID=128691
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HunkaFunk
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7/27/2009 6:36:42 PM
The reason I love to write songs is that I love to be creative. When I was a child, I loved to draw. It was an escape for me, and I got really good. It was good for me because I was a "hyper" kid, and it was a calming thing that kept me still. As I grew older, my skills increased, and my influences diversified. The first time I saw a "Zap" comic by R. Crumb, I knew that cartooning was my future. I would sell my own underground comics at school, and created a comic strip for the school paper.
When I was 17 I got into a fight, and fell into a fish aquarium, and cut my right hand very severely. After microsurgery on my hand, and 64 stitches later, I regained the use of my hand, but could not draw anymore. That is when I took up music, and started playing the bass. I had to play with a pick for many years, because it really hurt to try to play with my fingers. Not being content with just copying others music, I started writing my own. I found that writing music really fulfilled a strong creative urge that was (in the past) satisfied by my drawing.
I have written over 50+ songs in the last 12 years or so, and the ideas keep haunting me until I record (or sketch, as I call it) them. I think that for me, song writing is more of an obsession, or compulsion. I get an idea circulating through my mind, and ringing in my ears, until I complete it, and record it. I can't really read, or write the "dots", so the only way to remember an idea is to create a "phono record".
To me, songwriting, recording, and performing, is the only thing that makes me feel complete, and productive, in this mystery we call life.
TF
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weAponX
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7/27/2009 6:37:13 PM
Well, I pretty much said a lot about that in my other Blog post. It is supposed to be FUN! And it is fun, provided the whole process does not magically turn into a PseudoLegal Rookus!
I started writing when I was 11 years old and I had my first cheep, crappy electric guitar my dad got me with blue chip stamps. He buys my brother a $25,000 Johnson Violin, and he buys me a $16.00 Japanese piece of PooDoo. That was back when "Made in Japan" meant poorly manufactured merchandise, compared to today when it means superior craftsmanship.
I wrote a song that went, "Monday Morning, I think I'll kill myself for a while, Rotten Morning, I think I'll kill myself for a while. Don't got a pot to piss in, gotta kill myself for awhile" and it was actually a ripoff of some Cream song.
This was around 1970. I used to lay in my bed reading Hit Parader, Creem, and Crawdaddy magazines, and I would look at the picture of Mountain with Leslie West layered in that huge fur coat he wore with all his spangles playin "Mississippi Queen, ya know what I Mean" Duh Du DE Duh, Duh Duh DE Duh Ooohh Mississsippi Queen Duhh Duhh DEE Duh! Ya know what I mean! OoooOoooh, Mississippi Queen! And there was Felix Pappalardi playing that Bass that had the body of a Cello - The same exact bass that Jack Bruce uses in Cream in their current reunions. - And I would dream, I WANTED to be in that picture, there was one picture, Leslie West was strangling his LP Junior, Felix was playing that Cello-bass, and Lang? The Drummer Lang was beating to crap out of his drums - And there was a huge banner above the stage that said "1971" - It was the coolest picture of any band I have ever seen and I remember it to this day, and I SO wanted to be in that pic.
I started writing songs cos I HATED the radio, except for Creedence, but by that time they had broken up, and before I discovered Black Sabbath and later Genesis and Yes, I had to do something, so I wrote some songs and I started a band with my friends Steve Morgan and Alan Brown called "Orthel, Fogg, and The Good Doctor" and we played my originals, and a bunch of Kinks songs, and some show tunes maybe, it was great. I have a couple of the songs I wrote with those guys written down in my notebook I saved from back then- And If I got that and fiddled I can probably remember the music.
I had this song called "Echoing Lights" - The chorus went:
"In my mind, flying saucers filled the skies,
They want to touch the Earth again,
(Something, something) Echoing lights"
And it actually was quite a hit at the parties we played at.
A few years later, I started a band with the same guys called Colour TV and one song remains from that era - The song called "Cable TV" which is on my page and I have that song entered in the contest-
The first time we played that song, at a backyard party, the entire guest entourage exploded into a fit of crazy dancing, girls dancing madly backward, jumping, contorting and swirling in the air-
And when I saw that, I remembered a friend of mine said "The highest praise you can get for any song you write is when a whole bunch of people get up and dance to it"
And I've always remembered that, and tried to write stuff that was different, yet danceble, I've not succeeded very well, but I mostly like what I've written.
As a matter of fact right now I am going through my Portasudio Tapes and I am dumping all of my archived songs into Pro Tools.
What is my motivation for writing? Well, if there is a subject I feel about, but mostly, it is to try to write things that will at some level make people feel good, and maybe give some comfort.
On the whole other end of the spectrum, I have a lot of songs that came from a lot of contemplation and prayer, and those are spiritual in nature.
I try to put myself in the middle, planted between Heaven and Earth, cos I live on the Earth, but a lot of time, my Hopes and Dreams are in the Sky.
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Tony Vani and Debbie Hoskin
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7/27/2009 7:04:41 PM
An outlet; a form of expression. When I write I'm not thinking in terms of "a hit song." I'm not thinking of who might listen to it later. I just feel driven to express myself, usually when I'm very sad. But I have written happy/ish songs. My song, "What would I do" is happy, but it evolved out of great sadness, feeling grateful for my friends who uplifted me in a time of debilitating grief.
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Product Recall
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7/27/2009 8:30:41 PM
To let voices inside speak out.
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Hop On Pop
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7/27/2009 8:33:54 PM
It's not fun, that's for sure.
It's a lot of work.
But when it's flowing, it's just not in my control. I just go with it.
And I feel a lot better when it's all over.
So, why?
I guess it's a kind of therapy.
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weAponX
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7/27/2009 9:11:04 PM
Oh ya gotta have SOME fun, Hop-a-Pop!
It aint all misery ahaha!
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Tom O'Brien
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7/27/2009 9:33:21 PM
Hey Hop on Pop, You reminded me of a great quote, which sadly, I can't remember who said it - "I don't like writing. I like having written."
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Hop On Pop
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7/27/2009 9:58:21 PM
That's a great quote; and EXACTLY the way I feel about it.
Not having looked it up, I would guess that it would be somebody like Capote or Vonnegut that would have said something like that.
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tjwaysongs + The Soul Touchers
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7/28/2009 9:47:42 AM
RE: What's your reason for songwriting?
Songwriting is my passion and my first love...A gift from God...!
Respectfully;TJWay of the soul touchers
The Soul Touchers Mission Statement: to touch hearts and make a difference!
The Soul Touchers are- TJWAY & Erin Simms
Working An Ocean Apart – Adopting The World, One Heart at a Time' Join US!
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Jeff Allen Myers
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7/28/2009 10:20:29 AM
I have read your responses....
I feel a little like Forest Gump... when asked why he kept running from coast to coast... his deep philosophical reply? "I just felt like Running"
So it is with Songwriting with me... I enjoy it, and I can do it...so I just keep Running...
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PIP and MERRY
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7/28/2009 11:39:08 AM
i will write until all wars stop, till our earth is safe, till we are all fed, that no one is thirsty, until that day.how can i stop from singing... pip
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Sly Witt
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7/28/2009 2:39:28 PM
When I don't write or compose, my soul hurts. I have to do it.
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Bob Elliott
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7/28/2009 4:24:54 PM
Reasons don't really explain, just something tacked on later...
I do know I have been fascinated with little recorders since as far back in childhood as I can reach in my memory, and there hasn't really been any nonrecording periods in my life...
Nonmusical days are pretty rare, too...
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Andy Broad
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7/28/2009 4:32:49 PM
I write songs so I can sing them. (or in the case of the couple that I co written with Sally Strawberry so that I can play them with her singing... ) I don't think I would be happy just writing songs for other to perform, although I would be happy for othrs to perform my songs.
Of course I can other peoples songs as well but when it's your own song you really know what your singing about.
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weAponX
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7/28/2009 6:32:41 PM
Tom, that phrase "I don't like writing, etc." is attributed to Dorothy Parker
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Parker
By the Wellesley College writing department:
http://www.wellesley.edu/Writing/Program/johnson.html
But I could not find the quote on http://wikiquote.org - or on Wikipedia.org either- If someone knows for sure they ought to make a page for that quote at Wikiquote, that's how the place works, if you think you know something, you can create an account and post it, and if someone else comes that knows more about it, they can add to it. I made a Wikipedia page for the band "Forever More" which became "The Average White Band" - All I know about them is that they put out two albums, so that is all I put up was the name of the albums, the covers, and the lost of songs on them.
Anyway, I don't know if I agree with that quote:
"I Don't Like Writing- I Like Having Written"
Because I LOVE writing, half of my daily activities are writing. I'm always posting, and I just don't type up a bunch of crap, I think about what I;m saying, and I try not to offend anyone, or if I am making a point I think about it carefully and I try to get all vestiges of personality out of what I'm saying.
But I do so love calling people Jackasses, Scrodsuckers, Skags, and Jagoffs: Most people here know I use those words as terms of endearment, just ask FT. Haha! So If I ever use any of those terms with any of you people, please remember that and try not to get bent, heh?
Sometimes I sweat when I am trying to come up with lyrics, but when I finally sit down at the Pro Tools workstation and the tracks start creating themselves and I start editing, my Ghod my mind blanks out until I am done! And sometimes I'll start a project at 9:00am and the next thing I know is that it is Midnight!
Because, I get such a rush of endorphins, it is equivalent to any high I've gotten artificially, and I wish I'd remembered THAT before I ever used any dope!
Nothing beats the act of Creation, and I think just as The Universe and The Earth and Men were "made" - written by God, is the way I see it... When we create whatever it is we are good at creating, we get a small taste of what it might have felt like to be God when He made those things.
I give that definition as both a literal idea and as a figurative idea, because even if one does not believe in God they can surmise, well, if there were a Supreme Being (Not Milla Jovanovich, but that would be great if the Supreme Being DID look like Milla Jovanovich) the Supreme Being must certainly enjoy doing His-Hers-It's Work.
And so under certain circumstances, yes, I not only had fun, and much more than just simply FUN, I Highly enjoyed myself.
There is a level above simple FUN where you feel you have accomplished something, something important, it is almost Spiritual - And as far as I'm concerned, it IS spiritual.
If you look at the creation process more in terms of being similar to giving birth, well, that certainly would have its Pain elements and would be less than fun, but on the other hand, I would imagine a woman who is giving birth- If she really wanted the child, would experience the same type of Spiritual JOY - THAT is the word I have been looking for, JOY.
Writing Music and Giving Birth are two forms of Creation: And I think in both cases, is something that needs not only the Human effort, but also the Divine Seed.
I can always tell when something I authored was the result of a divine spark, regardless of if you want to call it that or not- The source is always something external to you and you can feel it is right- I loosely use the word Feel, because it is beyond simply feeling, it is a Knowing.
And this is with direct proportion to writing a lyric, or a piece of music, because you were PAID to do it... But even in those cases, that same divinity is sometimes present. The way you can tell it is there is because you did not have to force your work to come out---
Most of the time, in my case, A whole song, words, music, even arrangement and dynamics, forms in my mind and it is a race to get somewhere where I can jot it down or record it. I've had it happen to me when my hands were wet with Black Printers Ink - With the printing press rolling I snatched a sheet out of the delivery end of the press, and wrote the words down immediately-
But I really did not have to write it down, because by the time I left work, and got down to the Studio I was renting on Bay and Francisco streets in North Beach - My co-band members showed up and it was as if those guys KNEW how I wanted the song to go.
I'm trying to explain this, but it is difficult - Basically, the song came into my head as a full work, and I remembered every detail about it, all day long.
These days, that does not happen to me so much especially since I had laid down my Sword/Pen since 2005. I am not as plugged in Spiritually as I was back when when I lived in San Francisco - When I was living up there, I used to have a song come to me whole at least once a week, if not more.
I'm actually going through my catalogue of old Tascam Portastudio Tapes right now, and I'm amazed that the recordings are still as fresh as when I recorded them- And last night I came across a lot of examples of what I am talking about- Some of them will find their way onto my page.
Sorry for the Tome!
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