The Mezannine Runneth Over

For the first time ever, men folk were outnumbered at the song circle.

Some might say it was a confluence of several factors: A low turnout of men, our two reliable women, recruitment by Kate, or a scheduling snafu.* But I know it was the raw magnetism of Neil Diamond. I'm a believer.

Sara, Michelle, Sophia, Sherrill, and Kate
(Not pictured: Jim and myself)

Everyone brought new, wonderful, original songs.

We had an audience of one. Tom from Tempe was in the right place at the right time, minding his own business in the Mezannine when I arrived and told him that some songwriters were about to intrude on his solitude. He enjoyed it so much that he stayed until the end, and asked to be put on our mailing list.

I look forward to seeing these newcomers again.

*About that snafu: It turns out that the 24th wasn't the last Monday of the month after all. As Edith Piaf would say, "Je ne regrette rien."

Neil Diamond's Birthday

This month's song circle falls on Neil Diamond's birthday: January 24th.

I won't attach any cosmic weight to that coincidence. In fact, I don't even like Neil Diamond very much. But for more than 20 years, I've looked at my indifference as a personal failing.

The album with which I'm most familiar is the soundtrack to Jonathan Livingston Seagull. I received it for Christmas or a birthday when I was about 11 years old. I could probably still hum a few tunes from memory.

When I was about 20, I was pretty smug about my musical tastes. (Like I said, I was about 20.) I was working at a strip mall pizza restaurant in Glendale, AZ. It was called Best Bite. One slow night this high school kid came in bent my ear for at least an hour telling me about how awesome Neil Diamond is.

He was so earnest. He wore me down. I have not been able to be as dismissive of Neil Diamond since that night--almost 30 years ago. And for almost 30 years, I've had the very low-priority intention to investigate what the fuss is all about.

I don't think I'll get to it by Monday.

But I've dug up some quotes attributed to Neil Diamond on songwriting for inspiration:

All the sparkly shirts and the stage trappings - that's just the performer, the public me, ... Songwriting is the hardest and most personal thing I do. When I'm writing, I'll go into the studio at six in the morning and stay until after dark, including weekends.

After four years of Freudian analysis I realized I had written Solitary Man about myself.

When I first started, I worked with three chords in every bar, but I found that tied me down - I'm not a chord-change writer, I'm a songwriter.

There's a mystery to writing, and you don't really know where most of it comes from.

The main objective in any song, the songs that I write, has always been that it reflect the way I feel, that it touch me when I'm finished with it, that it moves me, that it can take me along with it and involve me in what its saying.

Songwriting is the only real discipline I've had in my whole life-thats why I hate it so much; I don't like imposing that kind of discipline on myself, but it has to be.

Performing is the easiest part of what I do, and songwriting is the hardest.

I was always interested in science, and pre-med was a respectable thing to do while I pursued my songwriting.