#6: Bindless Captive – 10:30
Song and a Chat
English - April 28, 2020 00:00 - 34 minutes - 23.4 MBMusic Commentary Music Music Interviews Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
It’s 1982. I'm in my science class at school, being lectured on the names of cows stomachs. Predictably, as a young man, keen on the outdoors, the hunting and fishing, my mind started to drift.
Out the window, the hills in the distance beckoned me. In my mind I flew over the city, over the river, over the hills to the farms and beaches where I'd spent so many hours observing nature: In silence, I'd stood, listening to all the sounds, recognising all the bird calls, the sound of the rushing river and the wind in the pines.
Back in the class, as the teacher spoke, I drew a cartoon of a ' farmhand ‘- a possible future for myself (not that I was seriously considering it, but the idea of being in the country appealed), and I wrote the lyrics there and then. The lyrics are about a life yet to be lived. I'm 15. I want to do it, and I want to do it now! The outdoors awaited me - as did the future.
I wrote the music to this this song a few years later, in 1985. I find it’s a good idea to stow your writing, art and music (that you may not have a current use for) away for another day. In this case, I’m glad I kept that particular page of my school exercise book.
Lots of insights to songwriting here today, folks.
I'm not going to tell you how to write a song. But I am going to tell you how I write a song .
Enjoy!