We had one of those great creative break-throughs yesterday. We had been working on a song, my chord progression, my partner’s lyrics, we had worked through it together over the last month or so, we let it marinate, we’d get together, we’d play it, and for some unknown reason, it just didn’t seem to work. There was some undefinable, unsatisfying-ness that sort of hung over the song. We let it sit for a couple of weeks. Maybe we just needed to live with a it bit, and then it would jell?
Yesterday, late afternoon, sitting in a friend’s living room, the rays of the sun washing over us from the front window, we played some songs from our catalog of songs. Between songs I just aimlessly started strumming, on automatic pilot. Not a thought or intention in my head. My fingers traveled up and down the fretboard in a new pattern. Something clicked. My partner started tentatively singing the lyrics over this new pattern. It all just fell in place. In short order, we had a completely new song. New feel, new mood, suddenly chords and lyrics seemed to fit exquisitely.
It almost sounded ancient, from another century, Medieval, and from another land. Funny. An unexpected gift. A moment of magic. Halloween 2020. Blue Moon Saturday. Ghosts and goblins wandering the neighborhood. Ghosts in the room. That is how it felt, this song came from somewhere, and from someone else. Luckily, we had a digital recording device. We recorded the song. Good thing. It’s still just barely in our grasp, like a butterfly, a bolt of lightening. Neither of us can claim the song, it just sort of came out of the air. We think it's a good one.
