Song Writers Bliss & Torture

I was sitting around with my wife yesterday and complimenting her on her singing voice. I asked her, "How 'bout I write you a song to sing?"

Of course she liked the idea so off to the front porch I went with my guitar, manuscript paper and a mechanical pencil. A cactus wren, hummingbird, and some others desert critters came by from time to time to see how it was coming along. After following a couple sugar-coated dead-ends "IT" came to me! It was quite a catchy riff with some lyrics worth keeping around and working with. I really love when this happens!

It was at that point my wife wanted us to go take a "date" trip to the bookstore. Even though I was "into" giving birth to this new song, her idea sounded like fun. When we got there she looked at books and I pretended to look at books while wandering around and trying to work out the song in my head. For me, a song in it's early stages can be elusive if not written down or recorded straight-away. The more I walked around the more the song "came to me". The melody for the verse popped in to say "Hello". I was happy.

That was until they started piping in music over the store's p.a. system. The competing voices in my head was maddening. I went upstairs to the second floor of the bookstore and then to every corner but the music was just as loud. "Good sound system.", I thought. But what made it worse was that it sounded like Sting. If it would have actually been Sting then I don't think it would have been a problem. But it was someone who sounded like Sting...and not as good. So, you can see my predicament.

Eventually I went outside and sat on a rock and watched the mountains. (Actually, it was a parking lot, an office complex, a housing subdivision, more houses, hills and then the mountains. But as a tortured songwriter it sounds more dramatic just to say I was looking off to the mountains for solace and inspiration.) There was some peace out there. I solidified what I had done so far but nothing new. That Muzak had all the charm of saying "I want kids." on a first date. I felt like I was operating in two worlds at once...which I was.

Thankfully, we soon left and went home to have some dinner. Another odd thing happened on the way home. My wife played the new Dixie Chicks and it was quite enjoyable. She sang along nice, too!