December 2007

 

 

“I Can’t Get You Out Of My Head”

 

      Jimmy  O looks down at his toes as he walks down Market Street towards the bridge that connects Kingston to Wilkes Barre.   “I am really pigeon-toed” he thought to himself.   “Who cares?”   “I can’t get this stupid song out of my head”  For three days Jimmy was hearing nothing but MY BABY TAKES THE MORNING TRAIN.HE WORKS FROM NINE TO FIVE AND THEN.HE TAKES ANOTHER HOME AGAIN.TO FIND ME WAITING FOR HIM in his head, over and over and over again. He couldn’t take it anymore. Jimmy walks out on the bridge to near mid way, climbs up on the railing and dives.

    On the way down, the song escaped his mind and he once again had the will to live. He crashes into the water, struggles to the surface and swims back to the Kingston side and walks on home scared, wet, but stupid-song free for now.   This is probably the twentieth time Jimmy has taken the plunge to get a bad song out of his mind. Alright, maybe Jimmy is crazy, but that song didn’t help him.  

     There are many Jimmy O’s in this world, bothered my mindless blather trapped in their skulls. Oh no, I may have just realized something.   How come we never get great songs “stuck” in our head?   Is this some sort of conspiracy or .. Ah, forget it.my mind just went blank.

     Moving on ...How sick do you have to be to want to hear about Barbara Walters liking sex a lot?  That doesn’t even give me any song ideas. I was watching Morning Joe this morning on MSNBC and they actually had a clip from The View (a show I’ve never watched, but heard about because of some fake drama between Rosie O’Donnell and Donald Trump). The View is a few women sitting around a table talking about really interesting (insert heavy sarcasm with raising eyebrows here) things apparently. This particular clip had one of the women teasing Barbara Walters about how much Barbara likes sex. This is not something any of us should have to think about or envision.  Hold on, maybe this is giving me a song idea. I remember Gilda Radner making fun of “Babba Wawwa” back in the 70’s on Saturday Night Live. Making fun of Rosie and The Donald, FREE    Making fun of Babba Wawwa, PRICELESS.   What does this have to do with songwriting?   I guess maybe this is “and other madness” stuff.    

    Ok, I got it, how about this. Sometimes you just have to write any kind of stuff that comes into your mind to get it cleared out for finding that great song lyric you’re looking for. Hmmm. That was pretty good if I say so myself.  And here I thought I was just rambling on like some idiot.

    In last month’s article I asked you singer/songwriters to drop me a line and tell me a song-writing story or give me the rundown on how you write. I thought it would be interesting to share stories with readers of this article.  I also thought it would make my article easy to write by just including these stories. I only got one response, but it was a good one, from my friend Chris Whitmer. Chris has been a regular at my Meiserville Inn jams and has continued writing and sharing his songs there over the years. He has also spread out considerably since we met and has quite a cult name in the Pennsylvania songwriter scene.  I try to keep my articles funny, interesting and without the songwriting lessons that seem to come with these type articles.   More zen-like if you know what I mean.Well, Chris wrote me with a great one of these zen and the art of songwriting lessons, and I’m going to include his email to me in its entirety below.

 

Hi Dave,

   This is almost like nine-fifteen on a Meiserville night - getting late, but hopefully still time to play. You know, if it weren’t for all the clocks in the world, I’d always be on time.

   But anyway, when you asked for something from a songwriter in last months article, I had no idea what to write about, and still don’t know if I do, but thought I’d throw this out there:

   There’s been many things that have helped me as a songwriter, too many to mention here, but probably the one that drives me most is just a simple belief in the song.

    It took me a long time to realize, but if you have a song, that’s true and it’s real, and it rocks (whatever your definition of rock might be), you’re gonna know it, you’re gonna feel it, and that truth will come out in the song, whether you’re playing to your dining room table or to an appreciative crowd - say, the Meiserville Inn. I slowly figured out that as a songwriter, it’s the song that counts - not how cool my shirt looks, and it’s up to me to try and do the songs justice and play every song the best that I can - which is not to say I always do that - ‘ever’ do that is probably more appropriate.  I forget words, chords - hell - entire verses to songs I’ve played ten thousand times, but it’s the belief in those songs that keeps me playing them.  And if you believe in the songs, the tapping foot or the nodding smile from across the room will tell you somebody else believes in them, and few things feel so cool. . .

   That’s about it - like Buffalo Springfield said - for what it’s worth. Hope you’re doing well man - see you in Meiserville.

Happy Thanksgiving!   Chris

 

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome    About Us    Articles     Classified Notes     Contact Us  Rates               Cover Story    PA Musician Reviews     Hot Shots Shot Hot!    Special Events

Bands    Venues    Music Stores    Music Industry      

© 2007 by L.N. Publishing Co. All Rights Reserved