More Songwriting Introspection
SFContario finished yesterday. Since it was a local convention, we drove back and forth each day instead of having a room at the hotel. That meant only taking as much stuff as could be reasonably carried or safely abandoned in the car. So, unusual for me, no camera, no pictures.
Not completely unrelated to that, I received a very nice compliment on one of my songs. The person noted that I had avoided getting preachy or moralistic on a subject where doing so would have been easy. I've been thinking about that and recognize a lot of factors in play, but one of them is certainly the same aesthetic that led me to photography as a means of expression.
If I show you a photograph, I'm telling you what I saw, I'm telling you that I thought it noteworthy, and I'm revealing my perspective...both metaphorically and literally. Whatever I may say about creating the image, the photograph itself does not tell you how you should react. In my opinion, that's your contribution to the artistic process.
Along with whatever other things I may attempt while writing a song, I try to keep a similar goal at the fore: put a story or situation out there for the listener to consider and let it stand on its own. If my feelings about what's being presented are obvious, I can live with that; "implicit" is OK.
If you ever feel that I've tried to be too manipulative in the words of some song, you have permission to call me on it. I may or may not agree but I'd like the opportunity to decide whether I've broken one of my own major rules.
Crazy Indivisible Girls
- Phil Mills
She turned her Easy-Bake Oven into a science lab
While wearing all the rhinestone jewelry she’d ever had
You can't separate the glitter from the math
And anything she tries, she doesn’t stop at half.
Overlords, circuit boards, costume colours gone mad
Like atoms forming complicated molecules
Making up the structure, making up the rules.
Little by little, making up the world,
Crazy, indivisible girls.
Playing in the stream by the woods, she found a frog down there
Her magic said kiss him but her logic said that wasn’t fair
He looked content and happy as he was
She wished him flies, that his bank be abuzz
Goddesses, promises, wildflowers twined in her hair.
Like atoms forming complicated molecules
Making up the structure, making up the rules.
Little by little, making up the world,
Crazy, indivisible girls.
I’ve heard her singing; the tune was an old-fashioned lullaby
The words, the death of thousands and her voice a battle cry
She’ll dance to disco from decades gone
Then treat your ears to tomorrow’s song
Heart-breaking, peace-making, anthems that reach for the sky.
Like atoms forming complicated molecules
Making up the structure, making up the rules.
Little by little, making up the world,
Crazy, indivisible girls.
Sticks of dynamite covered in pearls
Crazy, indivisible girls.
http://fiftyninety.fawmers.org/song/4274
Not completely unrelated to that, I received a very nice compliment on one of my songs. The person noted that I had avoided getting preachy or moralistic on a subject where doing so would have been easy. I've been thinking about that and recognize a lot of factors in play, but one of them is certainly the same aesthetic that led me to photography as a means of expression.
If I show you a photograph, I'm telling you what I saw, I'm telling you that I thought it noteworthy, and I'm revealing my perspective...both metaphorically and literally. Whatever I may say about creating the image, the photograph itself does not tell you how you should react. In my opinion, that's your contribution to the artistic process.
Along with whatever other things I may attempt while writing a song, I try to keep a similar goal at the fore: put a story or situation out there for the listener to consider and let it stand on its own. If my feelings about what's being presented are obvious, I can live with that; "implicit" is OK.
If you ever feel that I've tried to be too manipulative in the words of some song, you have permission to call me on it. I may or may not agree but I'd like the opportunity to decide whether I've broken one of my own major rules.
Crazy Indivisible Girls
- Phil Mills
She turned her Easy-Bake Oven into a science lab
While wearing all the rhinestone jewelry she’d ever had
You can't separate the glitter from the math
And anything she tries, she doesn’t stop at half.
Overlords, circuit boards, costume colours gone mad
Like atoms forming complicated molecules
Making up the structure, making up the rules.
Little by little, making up the world,
Crazy, indivisible girls.
Playing in the stream by the woods, she found a frog down there
Her magic said kiss him but her logic said that wasn’t fair
He looked content and happy as he was
She wished him flies, that his bank be abuzz
Goddesses, promises, wildflowers twined in her hair.
Like atoms forming complicated molecules
Making up the structure, making up the rules.
Little by little, making up the world,
Crazy, indivisible girls.
I’ve heard her singing; the tune was an old-fashioned lullaby
The words, the death of thousands and her voice a battle cry
She’ll dance to disco from decades gone
Then treat your ears to tomorrow’s song
Heart-breaking, peace-making, anthems that reach for the sky.
Like atoms forming complicated molecules
Making up the structure, making up the rules.
Little by little, making up the world,
Crazy, indivisible girls.
Sticks of dynamite covered in pearls
Crazy, indivisible girls.
http://fiftyninety.fawmers.org/song/4274