Kidnapped By The Sun In A Time Of Production
18 February 2010
It’s a beautiful sunny day today in Berlin. I have been writing and writing and writing. It’s been good. The strike rate has always been 20 flat songs and 1 that stands up by itself. These songs come from a different place in the brain than the others. I’m not familiar with right left brain responsibilities but I think the reason it is hard to write a good song maybe relates to it coming from an unconscious area of the brain so there is no way of repeating it because it’s unmapped, unknown. Like being blindfolded and taken in a car somewhere and then blindfolded on your return, you would never know how to get there again. A song from here is a postcard which ignites upon consumption this area of the brain.
When I hear something which comes from this unmapped place, I get a little jolt and for a moment I am transported there. This feeling is addictive. It is escape.
Anyways I got one of these the other night. It is nice to know if I empty my head enough, I am still light enough to float off to that cool secret place.
On another note, I was driving the other day and I heard a familiar voice singing on the radio. It took a while to figure out who it was because the lyrics and his voice were beautifully juxtaposed and later it all made sense when the announcer said it was a cover. The song is by Magnatic Fields and the singer is Peter Gabriel. Still one of the best voices Britain has produced. The song is called The Book Of Love. I’ll take it down if it’s naughty to have it here.
It comes from his new album of cover versions buy it
here
and buy the Magnetic Fields original
here
Silent and love:)
Beautiful song. The US TV show Scrubs used the Peter Gabriel version in its final scene montage. Such a great song…
For some reason I imagine this stream of energy and/or information that is speeding by just above our heads. Every now and then a little nugget – sometimes a song in its entirety – just drops out. But it is so nebulous, and for me, if I don’t somehow capture it outside my brain right away, it’s gone forever and just leaves kind of an aftertaste of brilliance. I hate when that happens!!
I absolutely love that song. I heard it for the first time in an indie movie…
Fran, not sure if you’ve seen this cover of the same song, but it’s lovely:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhDGdT33K0k
Awesome song, thanks for sharing!
Keep writing, be bold!
I get songs popping into my head when I’m in bed mostly, or at times of powerful emotional experiences (like recently driving to see a friend who was dying unexpectedly). The driving situation was unfortunate, for there was this song blossoming in my head – fantastic development of verses and chorus – but the priority of getting to the hospital 25 miles away effectively erased all but a foggy memory of it. I could probably work on retrieving it… When it happens in bed, normally half awake, I get the guitar out and manuscript, pencil and eraser and keep at it, playing and writing it down (as quietly as possible for the neighbour’s sake). No idea where those songs come from. I don’t believe in God, but I do believe in developing a vocabulary – as in language and Art, practice and familiarity sets the brain free to pull all that you know, all that fluency into new and exciting shapes.
If only somehow my left and right sides of my brain worked in such a way to write something so lovely.