Well, I’ve thrown a little stick of dynamite into the middle of my recent songwriting malaise. I’ve started the wee online songwriting retreat that I mentioned in a previous blog. And last night I met the lovely group, some familiar faces, some brand new, of my fellow travellers on this songwriting journey.
Yesterday, the mere fact of knowing what was ahead seemed to get the songwriting juices flowing, at least a little bit. Though the song I wrote (lyric below) wasn’t quite the kind of thing I had in mind. I’d planned to write an uplifting one! But the result has a far more melancholy feel than intended.
I know what it’s about though. Which isn’t always the case.
Personally I’m in a very good place these days. Lots of reasons for that, but it is true to say that the devastating depression of the past feels like a distant memory. What hasn’t gone away though, and I suspect never will, is an underlying sadness. I think it is almost impossible, as any kind of sensitive human bean in this information age we live in, to not feel an underlying sorrow, to a certain degree. Life is difficult, and it is clearer than ever that human beans aren’t necessarily good at navigating it all, either communally or alone. It’s hard to watch ourselves sometimes.
But the song, despite the melancholy feel, is for me about the art, the real possibility, of living with all of that sadness, but not being captured or enslaved by it. Something we observe in ourselves, but are not in any sense overcome by.
That’s it really. It’s not the best song I’ve written. But I’m back on it. Yeah!!!
These Savage Seas
See me soar over this ocean of sadness
A lone albatross on the wing
Far above, far above,
The waves and the madness
Through empty skies, these feathers sing
I go where I please
Go where I please
Free as a breeze
Free as a breeze
I fly across
These Savage Seas
Far below the white horses rage
They fight the wind and each other
Far below, far below
Lies the deep blue cage
That lures me like a lover
But I go where I please
Go where I please
Free as a breeze
Free as a breeze
I fly across
These Savage Seas