Alright, enough screwing around. After 13 years of playing the guitar, thousands of dollars invested in equipment, and *several* thousand hours plunking around on La Nina, La Pinta, and the Santa Maria (shown here at the right)...what do I have to show for it? Not a freaking thing, is the answer. Not one single tune of my own.Every time I pick up one of the Three Amigos, I end up playing the same blues riff, the same reggae rhythm, or the same cheesey power ballad. But not anymore folks. The time has come to harness my inner Grammy-machine and put my cunning and creativity to work. I'll never be a Mayer, a Marley, or a Prince, but dammit I know there is at least one decent song floating around in my head somewhere. I just need a little help coaxing it out.
Maybe my inability to write a song comes from my lack of inspiration. A wise craftsman of tunes was asked about this very subject: "Where do songs come from? Inspirado. I mean, I could 23-skidoo you a song, I could zippity-doo-dah YOU, a song. But that would be false, it would be wrong. I mean, you can’t 'manufacture' inspirado. It rises from a stillness of quietude. When your heart mingles with your soul and… oh man they do the dance…"
Fair enough, but of the 5,000+ songs on my ipod, most of them are about love, oppression, politics, racism, or money/fame. So why don't I just write one about any of the aforementioned topics? Let's see:
- Love- seeing as how that has never worked out for me, there aint much to say
- Oppression- two words: caucasian, Salt Lake City
- Politics- don't know enough to care, don't care enough to know
- Racism- most of Utah monotone. besides, I don't have any racist issues
- Money/Fame- don't have much of the former, and none of the latter.
So unless anybody else has any bright ideas, I am at a stalemate. Any suggestions are welcome. Until then, I am gonna rock nonstop til something materializes. You never know, maybe I will end up recording my epiphany onto the next EFY album. I can only aspire to such an accomplishment. Inspirado.
8 comments:
Dude:
Go with Christian rock. I'll be the first one to say "I know that dude" when your album goes certified myrrh.
No, please do not start writing Christian rock songs! Unless you can write a really awesome WWJD song. Scratch that, I have a better idea. When I was in Vegas there was this guy wearing a Biggie Smalls shirt and he kept winning lots of money. I then changed my gambling strategy to doing whatever "Biggie Smalls" did. Therefore, instead of writing a WWJD song, I am requesting that you write a WWBD. There are just so many directions you could go with that one. Think about it.
I think the best songs I've ever written were about the following subjects(in order of frequency):
1)Being lame with the ladies
2)Being sad about being lame with the ladies
3)Death
4)Fake Country ballads (just talk about dusty roads and heartbreak and apple pie..they pretty much write themselves)
5)Random words and images that seem poetic at first listen, but on further inspection mean nothing
Dude, in the end it doesn't really matter. I can hardly play and I love writing songs. I'm sure you'll crank out something memorable.
Oh yeah, I'm going to link to your blog if that's OK. Feel free to do the same.
I think you forgot drugs. There are a lot of songs about drugs/alcohol. I know they don't apply but I'm just telling you that you forgot. You suck. Oh wait, all of your blogs are interesting to read and you're obviously passionate about stuff (motorcycles, prince, etc) so why the F are you thinking so hard and why the F don't you just rock hard and loud and sing about whatever the F you feel like because that's the way it's done?!? I once jammed with Bryan and Steve about Idaho and potatoes and how girls from Idaho are psycho and it was fun. There's my two worthless pennies.
In summation - don't think so hard, you just got to let it flow (not that I know)
Here's a solution: Move to hotlanta. There you will be oppressed for being a minority (white and mormon), you will have more money than most, with all the hot mamas around you are sure to find love...um what were the rest? You get the idea.
If you ever want to mess around (and I'm referring to music!) I've been in a band for a little while and we come up with some pretty awesome stuff!!! We are always looking for new people to play with!
Write a song about your friends man. That would be dope.
Or you could just write a song about how much of a rat bastard you are.
Hey, change the color of your text man. That blue is really hard to read. Maybe I should just get glasses though.
Yeah I think I'll just get glasses. Nevermind.
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