Categories: uncategorized
Date: 30 June 2006 11:49:46
I was made to think about writing songs.
I haven't tried writing any songs for a very long time (well, that depends on where you draw the line - if I said I was building a house then you'd expect to see some bricks, wouldn't you, but if I was only working on the foundations then there wouldn't be much evidence, but I'd still be correct to describe it as building, but how's about if I was just drafting the plans, would that count as building? and if I was just dreaming about what the house would look like, without committing anything to paper - would that count as building? if so, then I probably have been doing some songwriting lately). But recently a friend mentioned that he wrote songs which was a bit of a surprise as I didn't realize he was musical at all. When I spoke to him I was on excellent form at putting my foot in it and saying the wrong thing. And when he mentioned songwriting I blurted out my honest opinion at the time which was that I couldn't see the point in it. To be more precise I meant that there needed to be an opportunity to perform the songs, or to get people to listen to them, in order that it be worth writing them. But, to be honest, even then, what's the point? You could try and kid yourself that you're contributing something to human kind and, given that some songs have given me some comfort over the years, there has to be something in that, but only for the select few. Most songs are never realistically going to do anything for anyone other than their composer. Which brings up the next most-cited reason - that it is helpful to write songs in order to sort out feelings and deal with situations etc. That may be true, although personally I'm starting to find that a blog is a much easier (and more effective?) way of achieving the same end. In fact blog entries seem to me a lot like songs but with less enforced structure - you don't have to have a chorus in a blog and you don't have to repeat lines over and over again. No you don't have to repeat lines ov... sorry. But my bigger objection is that I can't be bothered, I can't bring myself to write songs just to clear my own head, if there's no further purpose than that. (Whereas I can bring myself to write a blog for that purpose - it's that much easier I suppose).
So I can't see a reason to write songs, or at least not a reason that's good enough. But that's not why I don't write songs of course, there are plenty of things that I do without any reason. But the fact that I'm telling you I see no reason to write songs is actually my way of saying simply that I don't want to do it. Just like if you ask me why I don't like Kylie I'll say because her music is too commercial or some stupid argument like that which makes no sense at all. All I'm saying is that I don't like her, and I can't articulate it any more than that. And if I could understand why I don't like Kylie, I might understand why I don't write songs, because at the moment, frankly, I really don't understand either.