Ideas from a Slightly Different Point of View

A month or so ago, I wrote about where ideas come from and it got me thinking about the topic. Think, obsess... it's a fine line. I have friends who are painters and poets and musicians and I suspect they've asked themselves that same question- where do ideas come from? 

For painters and poets, well, I have no clue. You might as well ask me to explain theoretical physics to you. But then I got to songwriters- those crazy magical geniuses! They write in a shorter, wildly different format than I do, but they still need inspiration. I can't sing, much less read music, but I understand a tiny bit of their work.

Some write about love and some write about hate- it's safe to say that relationships are pretty fertile ground for ideas. Dreams, news stories, people you meet, songwriters will tell you that their ideas come from the same places as fiction writers- get out and be part of the world. My post a month ago focused on leaving the couch and living life as a means of generating ideas and I will now stand by that statement until I die. 

Writers of any sort need to be open to ideas anytime, anywhere. You simply never know when they're going to present themselves!

Some of my favorite examples-

Exhibit A- Paul Simon- Mother and Child Reunion. A great, catchy little tune. One day he was out to eat at a Chinese restaurant in New York City and they had a chicken and egg dish called, "Mother and Child Reunion." He saw something there and then, with some help, created magic.  

This is a little more of him talking about how the song came to be recorded. I'm double-secret probation in awe of how it came out so wildly different than what he'd imagined. Freakin' genius! Paul Simon ' Mother and Child Reunion 'Re-Experienced, Remastered Original Track with Video - YouTube

Exhibit B- Mark Knopfler- Money for Nothing. His band, Dire Straits, was starting to do well and he was out shopping for a new TV in the days when one went to a special store for such a thing. He overheard the salesman grousing about how easy it was to be a rock star vs. a salesman. Something about "getting your money for nothing and your chicks for free" and "we've got to move those refrigerators, gotta move those colour TVs."

To see/hear the song- Dire Straits - Money For Nothing (Official Music Video) - YouTube

Exhibit C- Neil Young- Ohio. A haunting song about the 1970 Kent State (Ohio) University Shooting. He heard about it on the news and says it took him about five minutes to write the song. Five minutes. If you gave me five years I don't think I could write something like that. 

Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young "Ohio" - YouTube

I would be remiss if I failed to mention two great and prolific songwriters- Paul McCartney and Taylor Swift. Perhaps you've heard of them. Now, they get a bad rap for singing silly love songs, but they're more than that. Taylor won a Grammy for "Mean," a country song about a critic who bullied her as a young artist. "The Man," is about the challenges faced by women everywhere. Far from teen heartache, I think.

In 1973, Paul's friend Dustin Hoffman challenged him to write a song about a random story from the newspaper. He found one about the recent death of Pablo Picasso and the game was on. Paul had a guitar handy, so he struck a chord he had in his head and started the melody to what would become "Picasso's Last Words." His song "Hey Jude" is well known as a song to comfort Julian Lennon about his parents' divorce. Again, his depth is awe-inspiring.

As always, what's my point? I get some small amount of affirmation knowing that the wild world of songwriting has something in common with what I do. Ideas come when they come and from any/everywhere. An artist makes themselves open to ideas and trusts that they can make something out of it. Or not, but that's another day.

PS- if anyone can reach Paul or Taylor, may I humbly suggest a duet at the Grammys of "Silly Love Songs" would bring the internet crashing down.