The Story Behing the Story of a Story
I’ve been listening to final mixes of my recording of the Middle School Band I created and mentor. I took groups of six or so at a time to the studio in Shelby where I record, and we did four or five hours sessions each time. I had previously done the guitar tracks before hand, and the kids covered those. Time and money was limited, but I think it turned out good.
My first reaction when listening and arranging songs in order was “joyfulness.” Of course, listening to a whole recording in the order the artists arranges is a lost art. The recording is joyful, funny, wonderful, heartbreaking, silly, profound, a hot mess in places, sublime in other places.
One of the things I think that makes this project so unique are the songs these middle school kids are singing, especially the lyrics. These are all my original songs that cover a lifetime of songwriting. I was beginning to try and write songs when I was their age. I’ve strived daily for 30 years or so to write, listen, study, and apply the craft of songwriting, and ironically, it seems, almost by accident to be captured here in this recording by middle schoolers. It seems like a good opportunity to present the lyrics to these songs to what they are: stories. I’ve always been a storyteller.
I’ve lived, worked, and played in this community my whole life. I’m 73. I have many friends and acquaintences, and many people know I’m a musician and songwriter, but almost no one knows ths songs. I’ve always loved playing with language–rhymes, puns, songs, and poems always interested me my whole life. But the places I’ve worked and performed, no one is interested in listening to a song for what it has to say, or how cleverly it is constructed, or what truth or paradox it might reveal.
Songs are like children. You create them, you nurture them, you have faith in them, you root for them when you send them out into the world, and console them when they fail, and they are always with you. Also, I’ve always worked with kids, and I love the middle school age. That age between childhood, and becoming an adult. That age of wondering, questioning, building friendships, trying to figure out who they are, and what the future might hold. Interestingly, this group of my songs address these things, so I wanted to put them in a book of poems. Yes, I think song lyrics can be poems.
So here they are. This is my defining work, my great American novel so to speak, a lifetime of songwriting. Most people won’t be interested. They will say songwriting is a silly, useless occupation. Perhaps, it is, but I know there are kids who need and live for music just as I did. It just depends on one’s perception. I think war is a silly, a useless occupation, so at least my uselessness doesn’t cause any harm.