Kill Your Darlings
We hunkered down today and decided to experiment with a non-structured song. We resisted our pop sensibilities and incorporated many different unrepeated sections — a quantum leap out of our comfort zone. We might have to write three versions of the same song before we feel like we hit the mark. There’ll be elements in the versions we scrap that are wonderful and will never see the light of day. It’s been said that writers must “kill their darlings” — get rid of the most precious and especially self-indulgent passages for the greater good of the literary work. Like that. Not easy but necessary. And painful! 💔
Get Back
The Beatles pulled us into a place we didn’t know existed — a world of uncontrived, un-calculated delicious madness...of minor to major to minor again, of dropped measures and bizarre segues. Yet, the absence of logic never made so much sense. Anything was possible. They cooked with spices we never tasted. It was like we were all virgins and we shall never get that flower back. I miss them. I miss something having that much power over me. ❤️🧡💛💚💙
Separating the Artist From The Art
Once a creation is released into the universe it exists as separate energy. And entity. The writer may own the copyright but the people own the feeling. It’s out there. You can’t put the genie back in the bottle.
Are You a John or a Paul?
You may ask ‘why do we have to choose?’ We don’t. But why not? It’s fun. Do we ultimately prefer John’s heady, trippy world or Paul’s tales of imaginary (and not so imaginary) friends, lovers, mothers, dogs —Maxwell, Rita, Mary, Penny, Martha, Lady M…It’s a long and winding road.
Does This Song Sound Familiar? 🎸
When it comes to infringement issues I tend to side with the writer who thinks another song sounds like hers, but IS it always worth going down the rabbit hole to prove it?
George & John
Thankfully Paul & Ringo are still with us. But it’s the magical combination of Paul, John, George & Ringo together that’s left an indelible imprint on my DNA and a gash in my heart where they once existed as a whole. In honor of these feelings I returned to London to revisit and fine-tune an original demo with Phil Thornalley. I can’t thank him enough for sharing the desire to turn this loss into art.