Embrace the Stupid

One of my new songwriting principles is, "Embrace the stupid."

Many of the songs that I've written that give me the most satisfaction are ones that began life as throwaway ideas. "This is going to be stupid," I say to myself, "but I'll just spit this out, and maybe it'll prime the pump."

One of these songs was Cleanup Man. If you've attended the song circle regularly, you heard this song after I'd put about 15 minutes into it before one of our meetings. I just didn't want to show up empty handed again. The song got under my skin, and I ended up putting in a lot more time into the arrangement (and a little more time into the lyrics).

This is how it turned out:

The point here is not to pimp my own song. It turned out better than I expected, but I don't expect you to agree.

Actually, this is an overly-long introduction to this recent article by Derek Sivers, the founder of CD Baby:

Obvious to you. Amazing to others.

2010-11-21

Any creator of anything knows this feeling:

You experience someone else's innovative work. It's beautiful, brilliant, breath-taking. You're stunned.

Their ideas are unexpected and surprising, but perfect.

You think, “I never would have thought of that. How do they even come up with that? It's genius!”

Afterwards, you think, “My ideas are so obvious. I'll never be as inventive as that.”

I get this feeling often. Amazing books, music, movies, or even amazing conversations. I'm in awe at how the creator thinks like that. I'm humbled.


But I continue to do my work. I tell my little tales. I share my point of view. Nothing spectacular. Just my ordinary thoughts.

One day someone emailed me and said, “I never would have thought of that. How did you even come up with that? It's genius!”

Of course I disagreed, and explained why it was nothing special.

But afterwards, I realized something surprisingly profound:

Everybody's ideas seem obvious to them.


I'll bet even John Coltrane or Richard Feynman felt that everything they were playing or saying was pretty obvious.

So maybe what's obvious to me is amazing to someone else?

Hit songwriters, in interviews, often admit that their most successful hit song was one they thought was just stupid, even not worth recording.


We're clearly a bad judge of our own creations. We should just put it out and let the world decide.

Are you holding back something that seems too obvious to share?

Thanksgiving Songs

When I think of Thanksgiving songs, two come to mind with contrasting views of what it's like to spend a holiday surrounded by family.

Hazel's House by Richard Shindell
I couldn't find Shindell's version, but this guy does a good job:


I especially love the verse:

And no one seems to know that this is heaven
They say we only know it by and by
That someday all will be revealed
Well, here it is.

I think of a long string of Thanksgivings spent with my Aunt Bev, at her suburban home in Mesa, Arizona--a far cry from the rural New Jersey scene painted in Shindell's lyrics, but that's hardly the point. Looking back, it seemed to me that "the order of the universe" involved getting together with all of those people every year.

Covert War by David Wilcox
This is the actual David Wilcox song accompanied by a bizarre slide show. It's best if you just don't watch, at least the first time through.


Ouch:

Holy days they bring us all together
After so much left unsaid
You taught us well not to kick under the table
Kick under your breath instead

I'm glad Wilcox didn't leave that one on the therapist's the couch. It's got everything: love, pain, anger. Happy Holidays!

What songs come to your mind when you think of Thanksgiving?