A Song

What is a song?
Well I guess its words and music together, wrapped around each other, that tap into some sort of human truth or beauty or emotion. I think of a song as its own organism. Its own being. A sort of life. They are birthed. Sometimes it takes 10 minutes. Sometimes months. I am speaking from my own experience. I have been messing with the song for quite sometime and still can not wrap my brain around any sort of scientific approach to my creative process. I literally just pick up an instrument whenever I get the chance and sometimes its there and sometimes it is not. Every time I try to write something about something it is shit. I have to NOT try and the song comes whenever it wants to. Usually late at night or when I am in a rush. I attribute this to my subconscious being active because my conscious brain is preoccupied with leaving or working or trying to sleep or whatever. leaving room for whatever truth may or may not be lurking in my soul. True songs are what I'm talking about. Songs that came from beyond outer space. Songs that don't know how they were written or why..They just were...
Allow me to ramble..
In my musical endeavors I have had the opportunity to play with some great musicians from all sorts of different backgrounds and nothing drives me more insane than when someone analyzes a song. You see, this is what drives them crazy. Them being the scientists. It looks so simple on paper. A few chords and some words and presto! A hit song. They study it in schools. They wrack their brains. They spend tens of thousands of dollars trying to learn how to write a song because on paper it looks so easy, but in reality its something a little different. A little mystical. Definitely mysterious and can not be bought.
I live in an school city. If you can chew gum someone will ask you if you went to school for it. If you have a nice belt they think perhaps you learned how to appreciate belt fashion at Harvard or something. I cant say how many times when out busking and being somewhat anonymous musically people have asked me if I went to Berklee. Berklee? I write songs. I am not or do not wish to be Slash or Santana. I never wear sunglasses at night and if I were to ever go to college I would spend the money on something more useful than rock and roll school.
For me the journey into and out of songwriting is inward. Its the breaking down of walls and wondering into places I don't necessarily want to go. Its living life. Good or bad. Having experiences. Soaking it up and squeezing it out like a sponge. Its not pouring over text books or listening to someone tell me what a good song is. I know what a good song is. Just like you do. A good song is something that makes you feel ok when your ready to just say fuck it and jump off a bridge. Its love on a sunny day with the windows down on the road. It rain. Its everything human. It makes you pump your fists in the air, jump around, fuck , and dream. Its even Brittany fucking spears. Someone somewhere wrote the damn song for her and underneath all the makeup there is a song there that someone wrote that someone felt to be true.
I got no time for songwriting books, classes, lessons, suggestions, lectures bla bla bla
One time someone told me. "I really like your music. I had to play it for my friend because I didn't know why I liked it. Because its so simple." Do you need to ask your friend why you find beauty in a rainbow or a shadow or a few bright strokes on a canvas. Why it feels so good to lay down after a long day?
What is a song?
I still don't know.
Its something I'm still chasing.
When it comes, it comes and sometimes it feels more like a curse than any sort of talent.
Like a lonesome lover waiting at the window. Only to be left again until the next encounter. Whenever that may be..