One last hijacking type post. I run into a lot of people who don't understand the way I look at music. (And this probably doesn't even really belong here.)

While music CAN be a way to make a living, and many of my friends do that, it is more than that to me. Music is a way to speak to strangers in a language that everybody understands. It's a way to pull everybody into one state of mind. Well crafted songs tend to have a soporific effect on people. The band I was going to put together to play blues (I decided it was not right for me and pulled out of it) was going to feature a lot of music by Gary Moore. I was trying to explain to the singer that he needed to not just sing the lyrics, but actually listen to them and understand the story he was trying to tell. The opening lines of "Still Got The Blues" are "Used to be so easy to give my heart away. But I found out the hard way there's a price you have to pay."

It's important to FEEL those lyrics. Anybody who has ever experienced the pain of a lost love (and isn't that just about everybody?) can relate to being emotionally invested in someone and having it taken away from you. That "price" is a huge sense of deflation. And if you can't sing that song in a way that you make the crowd feel that pain we have all known, then don't bother.

Listen to Bonnie Raitt sing I Can't Make You Love Me sometime. "Turn out the light. Turn down the bed. Turn off these voices inside my head...." Is that powerful writing? And it was written by Mike Reid, a former NFL lineman!! It really CAN come from anywhere!!

Music is not supposed to be just aural. It is also supposed to be intellectual and visceral. Music should give you something to listen to, something to think about, and something to feel. When you can reach down into someone's heart and soul and pull those things out of them, that's when you are a success. If you are not going for THOSE emotions, that's fine. Go the other way and play all "feel good" music. Whatever path you choose, make sure you do what you do with such skill and such conviction that the crowd feels what you feel. THAT is what's at the heart of this whole thing called music. And when people DO choose to put out a substandard product (like the bands I alluded to that have one singer and no rhythm section to speak of and are thus reduced to playing very lame music) just so they can make a little money, I do not respect them at all musically. Personally, sure. Musically, no.

The 2 times I heard the best music ever were not even music in the conventional sense. One was in the early 80s when I was in Arizona. I road out into the desert on a dirt bike about 3am, well past where the city lights had any effect. I sat out there and all I could hear was the oil dripping as the engine cooled, the little bit of breeze blowing the sand, and the occasional lizard running around. That was music I never heard before being a city kid. The other time was when my buddy and I went out night fishing on his boat. We were about 7 miles off shore out into Lake Erie, and as we reclined in the deck chairs, after a while the rhythm of the waves slapping the side of the boat became absolutely hypnotic. Again, a music I had never really heard before.

THAT is what I try to reach in people when I write.

And now I won't hijack anymore.

Last edited by eddie1261; 09/03/15 01:37 PM.