Song Lyrics Part 2
I spend a lot of time driving around southern Minnesota for work. It's beautiful in its own way, but the scenery is not always the most engaging. Meanwhile, I can't really drive and multitask. I can't do things like talk on a speakerphone or listen to podcasts- my brain isn't that fancy. I'd end up in a ditch somewhere.
So I like to listen to the local radio stations. I get to hear songs I haven't heard in ages and local stories that can help me in my work. And as a geek, I just like random stuff. Listening to random songs brings me back to songwriters and their inspiration. I'm still dumbfounded by their work, but some more examples were made to be shared.
Buddy Holly and his band were killing time, went to the movies one day, and saw John Wayne's "The Searchers." One of the key lines from that film is the Duke saying, "That'll be the day." Buddy was so enthralled by that line, he went home and wrote a hit song with it.
*Buddy Holly And The Crickets - That'll Be The Day
At a Grammy after-party in 1983, Donna Summer went to the ladies room and found the attendant fast asleep. Instead of chastising her, Summer figured the woman was exhausted from working so hard. They chatted and Donna confirmed her belief. She went home and wrote down the phrase, "She works hard for the money," and a hit was born.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=
I'm well known for loving Mark Knopfler. You may only know him for his Dire Straits days, but he made his pile of money and kept recording songs he wanted to write and record. He heard about a pair of land surveyors & astronomers, Jeremiah Dixon (from his neck of the woods) and Charles Mason and was enthralled. He wrote a song called "Sailing to Philadelphia" about them and their relationship as they went about a herculean task.
Who were they? You may know them better from their most famous work: the Mason-Dixon Line. I love history and now know at least something about this piece of it.
Mark Knopfler - Sailing To Philadelphia (An Evening With Mark Knopfler, 2009)
And one I just learned about- "For What It's Worth" by Buffalo Springfield. I never understood the title since the words aren't actually in the song lyrics. What gives?
Music legend Stephen Stills witnessed a protest on the Sunset Strip where LAPD members jumped out of their vans and started in on the protesters. Stills remembers saying, "Jesus, America is in great danger," and he headed home...where he wrote a song about what he was feeling in fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes!
Shortly thereafter, he brought the demo to the great Ahmet Ertegun from Atlantic Records, not really sure what he had. He was a kid, not a celebrity just yet, so when he turned it over, he said with a little shrug, "For what it's worth." Ahmet understood it immediately, rushed the production, and it was on the radio a week later. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=
Like I've always said, inspiration can come from anywhere and when inspiration hits, you gotta go with it.
Comments
Post a Comment