Lyrical invention and the Inevitable Need to Move On

The inevitable high of finishing a project, of actually getting everything done and getting it out there is at some point followed by the thud on the head that it is most likely to go no further. There will be no worldwide promotion or tour. No ads during sporting events or on buses to support what desperately needs to sell or we're all out on the street. And much as it sounds like a great time, no mega-ego to sooth and massage. Nor will I be the subject of speculation on where the new songs fit into the constellation of my most recent romantic adventures.

No, unlike Taylor, the only path, save for a performance here and there, is to move on to the next project.
On the plus side, there's much to do on that end and to those of us not destined for international fame and fortune, it is the rites of creation that are the thing, the muse, the reason to exist!

So it's on to the Primitive Desires and Winter projects.

However, since Whispers (From a Forgotten Memory) is still a fresh and vital work, I thought it would be interesting to expound on what the hell I was thinking when I wrote a particular lyric, which in this case is from The World Won't Let Me Go, a song of memory and time and the foundational song in the song cycle that is Whispers. You can hear the song at mrprimitivemusic, it's this week's song.

The premise of the lyric revolves around the image of an old man in the place of his birth, of the place where his most formative memories were created. It begins:

Free me from this troubled longing
That drives the hunger in my soul
Take the light that shine all above me
Save me from the darkness down below

The lyric starts with the idea of loss, from outliving those you knew and loved; of not wanting to remember yet not wanting to let those memories die; of tiring of life, but fearing the destruction of memory by letting go.

All the houses now are empty
All those lives have come and gone
Ghosts, they stop and share their stories
Of a time when they belonged

The second verse is the echoed past, the sights and sounds that you hear in your head when you revisit those places that inhabited your past. I think it's inevitable that when you find yourself back on familiar ground there is the call of all the memories you have from having been there before. You see it both as what it was and what it has become as well as what you were and what you have become.

The flowers won't spare the grieving
The only thing I care to know
Please don't tell me you love me
When the world won't let me go

The chorus speaks of two things, the power of grief and the need to grieve for what is lost and of being left with only memory. Tokens such as flowers do not relieve the grief anymore than pronouncements of love.

Buried down inside these canyons
Rolling up along the hills
All these memories long forgotten
Yearn that they might be remembered still

The third verse is about those forgotten moments that capture you when you least expect it. I grew up in the burbs of Denver and for a very long time I rarely returned, so that when I did I found myself grappling with images and memories that I had forgotten and I was surprised by the power of some of them.

Children stare at me in wonder
They put their hands upon my clothes
They won't follow as I leave them
To a place they'll never know

The final verse is in some ways about the malleability of memory. The children are the original moments forever locked in their time. The idea of the verse is that you will change and that in that change they cannot go with you, that your younger self will be fascinated by the self you've become, whether for better or worse. That and the older self must reconcile himself to what he once was, hence the grieving.

Perhaps the more interesting aspect of my lyrical approach is that I don't analyze them till much later; in other words I didn't actually think these thoughts as I was writing the lyrics down. The lyric was writing fairly quickly then left to simmer on low. Usually the most immediate concern is do they work with the chords and melody I hear in my head. rarely do I write lyrics with a guitar in hand. I do consider the premise and the symmetry as I construct the lyric but not so much the meaning which is implicit to me because I already know the general theme.

Fun huh!

The Creative Process, Two Examples

With a new album coming out, I thought it would be fun to use 2 songs as examples of how I come up with this stuff. the 2 songs are The Day and The Eyes That I See, both from Whispers (From a Forgotten Memory). 

The songs can be heard here, mrprimitivemusic.com, just click on the This Week's Song ( yeah, I know, there's nothing like a little self-promotion).

The first song, The Day, came about while I was goofing on a descending A-minor chord. I've always liked finger picked songs even if I didn't do many if at all in the past, but when I picked up the guitar again back in 2010 I decided to mix it up a bit. I don't have an actual explanation or reason for any particular chord progression I hit upon other than I think it works, or to my ear, sounds good. Chord-wise, it's pretty simple, Am, E7, F#, G, D, and A. The lyrics came one day as the song was playing in my head and I thought it would be fun to have to verses that could be cross-sung at the end. Throw in a couple of bridges and there you have it. I know how that sounds but after all this time doing this that's really what happens.
The lyrics are meant to evoke a sense of endings and renewals; of the cycles that govern life and death; you know, upbeat stuff.
The production is also fairly simple. Two guitars, left and right, one through a chorus pedal, the other through a delay. On the workstation, which is a fancy term for a keyboard that does lots of different sounds and rhythms, I added a cello and vibes. For the intro and outro, a bright steel stringed acoustic guitar. On the vocals, I sing on the right and Nancy on the left; during the bridges, I used both of Nancy's recorded tracks to give us stereo Nancy.
The overall production was meant, as does the whole album, to be an homage to the sounds I loved from the 60's and 70's; think sensitive singer-songwriters.


The Eyes That I See, was a product of an impulse buy, a Seagull dulcimer.

I thought wouldn't it be fun to have one of those!

I didn't have an actual need for it and had no idea how to play it.
The dulcimer is tuned to D (DAD high to low with the high D double stringed). Playing it reminded me of Celtic music and after a while the melody that would become the song presented itself to me. I was intrigue by the idea of doing a song with a spritely melody and anguished lyrics. At this point, I knew that the album's theme was memory and how it interweaves itself into our daily lives. In this instance, and because I had the idea that Celtic music could be about a love promised that ends too soon. What I ended up with is a song of regret and longing for a lost love.
The production, like The Day, is fairly simple; the dulcimer, a Dobro left and right (also tuned to D), synth bass, and a Cajon, tambourine, and floor tom for the percussion. Vocals are a single voice as lead vocal and a building chorus as the song progresses with a new voice added following each of the verses and adding to the bridges. It starts with the beat, the Cajon, that represents the beating heart, then the Dulcimer, then a single voice, then the Dobros, the tambourine; always insistent. The chorus represents a building sense of loss and finality till at the end they are just an echo of lost promises and lost lives. It builds till there is nothing left but remorse.

I really liked how the songs turned out.


Whispers (From a Forgotten Memory) will be released on Nov. 10th, 2017.

Because Tom Petty is Dead!

The question that aligns with the answer above is:

Why am I doing this?

Two days before he died, Tom Petty gave his last interview to the LA Times. In it he detailed the many projects and activities he was looking forward to. Instead, his heart gave out and whatever those plans entailed went with him. On the plus side there is his catalog of music with the Heartbreakers, Traveling Wilburys and his solo work; not to mention production and other projects. The downside is we'll never get to hear what was in his head. That's where it all starts and until you get it out no one hears it but you.

That's why I'm doing this; to get it out.

I may not be in Petty's league, but I am a recording artist with a catalog I'm proud of. And I want that catalog to be there for people to hear. That won't happen if I sit on my hands or let it rot in a box in a crawlspace. Because you never know what'll happen tomorrow or the day after that. Tom Petty was only 8 years older than I am so I'm feeling just a little more mortal these days. I know we think the people we've listened to and admired for so long will live forever, but like us their time will come and that time seems much closer than it did before with Petty's death, not long after Walter Becker's, and let's not go too deep with the loss of Prince, etc!

In some sense all an artist leaves behind that matters is the art. I suppose I could put out a bunch of outlines listing the ideas I have, but seriously....

So there's an urgency that I didn't have all those years ago when I was going to live forever; don't waste time, don't let days go by without doing something, don't believe there will always be more time, because you don't know.

The new album, Whispers (From a Forgotten Memory) will be released on November 10th. We'll be having a release party for the album on the 11th here at the house.

The Creative Process

Inevitably, the question comes up, how do you come up with this stuff, and not just the tunes but the production which is the song as completed for your listening pleasure.

Good Question,

And I don't actually know.

Well, in any premeditative kind of way.

I do know how I begin, which has been my M.O. from day one when I was 15; start playing whatever and at some point something will happen. And that's the truth. It is also a tad glib. The process is, much as it has been these many years, for me, to start with a chord, either on the guitar, synth, or piano, and see where that goes, or I might create a drum rhythm on any number of devices or apps. From there I go over it again and again to both set the parameters and structure of the song as well as decide if I like the riff at all. I then put it away for a day or so to see if I still like it or not; I don't try to make anything 'meh' better, it doesn't happen.

But if it does, I then move on to what else the song needs, verse, chorus, bridge; is it a 'traditional' style pop song, or does it lend itself more to a Jazz feel or a groove that doesn't need say a consistent pop structure. It's also at this point where I figure out if the song needs lyrics, not all do. I like instrumentals and often include them on albums as bridges between songs or to set the mood of the album.

In the early days, the lyrics came not long after the basic song was finished, but as I got more and more into recording, the lyrics were the last things to be finished to the point where I was writing the lyrics to the nearly completed recording. The recording process starts in my head. As I write the song, I begin to hear it orchestrally in my head and I think of how, or in what style I might try, meaning does it lend itself more towards rock, country, jazz, pop, or none of the above.

That's where the fun is; finding what turns out from that sound in my head. Often, while trying one sound, I find another I like better, or I'll know I want a keyboard sound and goof through whatever I have until something goes pop. That doesn't mean everything falls in place right away, as I record I listen and listen, over and over, and if I have doubts it means I need to find something I like better. That's also why I have my own studio, apart from not being independently wealthy which is what you'd have to be to do recording this way in a standard professional studio.

This week's song, Traces of You, from the new album, Whispers (From a Forgotten Memory) is emblematic of this approach. It started with the groove. From there I built the main guitar part then added the bass and the electric piano. Next was the lyrics and the background vocals. Last were the lead guitar and piano. Mix and master and listen and redo till you consider it done.

You can hear it here: www.mrprimitivemusic.com

Yeah, You Gotta Do That Too!

Alright, the album, the record, the song cycle, the grouping of songs thrown together; however you wish to define them, are finished!
Complete.
Done.
And if that's all you want, congratulations. But, if you want more, say for people to hear them or buy them or stream them, then, as the song says; you've only just begun.
There's the artwork, creating the album cover, the disc cover, setup any distribution you might have in mind, get the word out through social media, the Mr Primitive website and blog, friends, associations. Issue a press release, initiate a row with some other important figure in the business; have your people get the ball rolling.
Unfortunately, I'm my people so it's all up to me.
And there's the not so insignificant fact that as a very well known unknown, I must juggle the expense against the no so insignificant return on that expense; I'm not so well off to be throwing money away.
So, the album covers are done, thanks in large part to the wonderful art created by Yuji Pearce, and they've been sent in to Disc Makers to be produced  and to CD Baby for distribution to Spotify and Apple Music and the like. I've registered the album with the gubmint for copyright protection and set a release date of November 10th.

Please mark your calendars.

And, just because it sounds like fun, I'm going to have a release party at the house because that's what big stars like me do.

Will it push me over the top? Will I be an even bigger sensation that Taylor Swift who decided to release her new album on the very same day?

Only time will tell.

I'll confess that I don't find all of this particularly exciting, I'd rather be jumping right into making a decent recording of Winter, an album I made a demo of many years ago and never finished. But that's not how the game works and if no one knows about the new album, Whispers (From a Forgotten Memory), then there's a good chance they'll never hear it, and that's a shame because it turned out to be quite wonderful, if I may say so myself.

You do what you gotta do.

Check out this week's song from the new album, Stills, at http://www.mrprimitivemusic.com/home

Thoughts on Steely Dan and Walter Becker

The three biggest influences on me and the music I make are Peter Gabriel, Lindsay Buckingham, and Steely Dan. The irony is I didn't see (or hear) that while making most of the music I had, but as time has given me the distance I need to understand that, their influences are clear to me.

All are iconoclastic in their approaches and all are instantly recognizable in their work. And I think they were deeply aware of this even if the press, and it's very interesting to go back and read the articles from music mags and the like to see the incomprehensibility of their music to a certain type of writer regardless of whether the publication was hip or not.

The big difference with Steely Dan, something they shared with the post '66 Beatles no less, was that unlike Gabriel and Buckingham, they stopped touring and through their most productive period from '74 to '77 were essentially recording artists and that was what they wanted to be. Beginning with Katy Lied through to Gaucho, their interest was in creating, as perfect as they could make them, records.

These weren't made to get butts in the seats when they toured, or to keep them in the public eye; they were notorious for making life difficult for the press, they were made to be listened to and appreciated as works, essentially, of musical art; something, I believe, they shared with Gabriel and Buckingham. They put an incredible amount of time, money and energy into their songs and it shows. The musicianship is outstanding as is the recording; even Katy Lied, whose masters were damaged by the Dolby unit they were using at the time (makes you wonder what the original must have sounded like).

Their genius, in my view, was that their records worked on many levels; song diversity, the initial dichotomy of a smooth seemingly straight forward pop tune, that was in fact exquisitely layered throughout and a listener rewarded each time the song played. They used any number of styles and genres; pop, rock, jazz, R&B to great effect. Their albums, whether planned or not; they would slyly say they created the songs independent of theme, but I'm not so sure; Aja and Gaucho are seeped in late '70's California.

Then there are the lyrics. Perhaps the most common thread in commentary about Steely Dan involved their lyrics; the problem being the supposed inscrutability within them, but that's a sham; all great artists have written lyrics that make no sense or are written such that the meaning, assuming there is one, is not clear to the listener. The difference with Steely Dan was simply that there was no sure connection with the artists themselves, Walter Becker, who died recently, and Donald Fagan. Whether the Beatles, Stones, Zeppelin, Gabriel, just to name a few, and no matter how diffuse the lyric, the common belief was that the lyrics reflected on the band and their lives. That could not be said of Becker and Fagan, and they knew this and reveled in it.

Not every writer feels the need to put themselves out there whatever the form. They may be in the minority, but they are not unknown. Steely Dan created a legacy of recorded material about their time, but not necessarily about them.

I think that's genius in a business that is so deeply naval-gazing.

More on Taylor and Mr Primitive and the need to create buzz

With the enormous glut of music sloshing around the world at any given moment, even the big stars need to get the word out. It is in this context that my present fascination with Taylor Swift continues. As most people with any music interest know, Ms Swift and her PR machine, team, group; apply any term you feel is appropriate, are getting us all exciting about the new album coming out in November.

Now if the hype is to be believed, the date has symbolic value and well as a means for a personal dig by Ms. Swift. That may or may not be true but it gets our attention. And it has paid off in the number of eyes and ears that have checked out her new song and its accompanying video-apparently they still make those-upon which a few dollars were spent.

So, what does this have to do with Mr Primitive, you ask? Well, not much beyond my personal fascination. Perhaps it's too bad I don't, or perhaps more importantly, Ms. Swift does not have a personal beef with me. I could use the attention more than she, but there no guarantee that I would garner anything from it other than spam from her pissed off legion of fans.

And who wants that?
Other than someone desperate for attention...you may assume as you like on that...

Still, it remarks on our times that such blandishments are required given Ms. Swift's stature; she is not as desperate for some worldwide PR as yours truly, and this may be the rose colored glasses talking, but the news that a new Beatles album didn't necessitate the need to bring up any manufactured feud with the Stones! Just the fact that new music was coming was enough, but such is life or how I choose to remember it.

The other intersection of the famous, or infamous for those of you who have a poor opinion of Ms. Swift, and the not so famous, that would be me, is that my new album, Whispers (From a Forgotten Memory), and hers are both due out in early November. Will I be riding her coattails, or will she be riding mine? Only time will tell.

Of course, for perfectly understandable reasons, I did not spend a small fortune on my album, or any videos, or in preparation for a long worldwide tour, so I don't have nearly the same level of investment riding on the outcome of the album's success as Ms. Swift and her team does. Nor do I need the same level of promotion, however acquired, to ensure that the money rolls in.

But I still want my album to be successful, by whatever metric I find supporting, and it is interesting that even the mega-famous must work the machine and feed the beast.