trust me: i really don't want to sound like an arty douche, but i'm being real here.
i was thinking the other day that art is the craft of communicating the internal. to make tangible what is intangible. nothing is more frustrating for me than to not be able to articulate something that i am feeling. i'm sure it happens to everyone in some way or another. what is infinitely more frustrating for me is my inability, at times, to even articulate something to myself...to feel a mysterious pull or friction in myself and i can't put my finger on it at all. sometimes i think it's just the frustration of being integrated into a societal structure, being saddled with duties. i just want to run around like an antelope. i'm sure they have shit they have to deal with too. i like to listen to all kinds of music and i love lyrics mostly. i like to hear other people share about their perspective and to relate to it. it's nice to know that all humans are basically the same, and we can share many sentiments with each other.
my songs are usually a way that i blow off steam, and i've done it so long, that it's a permanent coping mechanism for my life. that is why i continue to do it long after it makes no practical sense to keep doing it. my songs tend to have a negative edge to them. I'm often really happy in life, but when i'm happy, i'm off riding my bike or at the beach, i only write when i have something eating at me. when i'm content, i don't want to play guitar.
here are some of my favorite lyrics from other people right now.
"embracing the situation, is our only chance to be free"- jeff tweedy
"when you tell a lie, do you look in the mirror and see it in your eye? who do you fool with the things that you hide? is it for your sake or mine? will you pick another town, pack up and leave when you burn your bridges down until the point where you're sleeping on the ground and the whole world is out of your reach?"- dr. dog
"my old man lived on the run, he's the moon, i'm the sun. we don't belong to love, we both belong to the sky"- dr.dog
"shoulder to shoulder, like two stones in a bag. did you rub one another till' there was nothing but dust?"- mojave 3
4 comments:
Good thoughts... I find myself so busy and distracted in my life right now I cannot even write lyrics. I play my guitar and write different progressions, then sit down to write lyrics and I am so unfamiliar with the process anymore due to the various pulls in life I'm unable to communicate anything lyrically... extremely frustrating. I can relate, in some form, to what you're talking about.
speaking of lyrics, what is "sawdust in my clothes" about? i was trying to piece it together, but haven't landed on anything yet.
really looking forward to the new record, and if you were come to play in a living room in southern california.
i'm sorry stuff eats at you sometimes, but i like the songs you make when that happens.
Hey, what's up!
I just wanted to say that this really rings true for me, and I think it rings true to most people who may attention to those things. Thanks for posting it.
one of the hardest things for me is to be able to separate myself from the present situation and write in another mindset.
i.e. being happy but writing a short story about murder, pedophilia, drugs and despair.
it is much easier to write these bleak depictions when i'm pissed and stuff, but in reality, i can't always rely on my emotions to write a page of a story.
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