Good Article

I know I've lost a woman or two to music...

I've lived a little lean due to music...

It's always going to be the "other" woman.  

Yes.

Twice. 

Lesson learned - I married a musician. ;)

Before I met her, I had actually pretty much accepted that I'd end up alone. If you've ever heard the song Every Day is Exactly the Same by Nine Inch Nails, you've heard the story of my life back then.

I pushed her away for 2 years before I didn't feel like I had anything to offer to anyone. And I really didn't have anything to offer to anyone "normal". But she kept at it...

Now I'm writing music for her and acting as her recording engineer when she has stuff to record for collaborations w/ people. For a living I mean. We're traveling the world and seeing places I had never dreamed I'd see (I had never been on a plane before I met her).  I've met more interesting people and made more contacts in a single month w/ her than I had in my entire life.  But all of that has got nothing to do w/ life. Of course it's cool to do those things together, but my best memories, the moments I keep the best memories of and which make me go forward are those insignificant things, like going to the grocery together on a certain wednesday night, or opening up a bottle of wine and lighting a cigarette for her on a Sunday afternoon...

You know, way back in the days, I remember an interview w/ Jason Newstead just after he left Metallica. And he was saying that those guys in the band had families and so many things going on in their life, while all he had was music. And I felt like I could identify w/ him, somehow.

Then sometime later he broke his shoulder and couldn't play music. What did he have left? And I remember hearing the story while I was in one of those darker moments, when my ex had just left me, and my life just seemed so unreal. 

And I looked back and realized that what I didn't share w/ anyone is lost, man. Writing music is like an unquenchable thirst. Every day is exactly the same. You get back to it and fight, but it's never enough, every little success only last minutes. 

And when you look back, there's nothing worth remembering. Life's just so unreal. I realized that I needed someone who'd make me go out of my routine. It's easy to be me and to just write, it comes naturally but what's worth remembering, what makes life worth living is all the stuff you do for someone else - even if it makes you cringe. 

My best memories have nothing to do w/ the time I spend in the studio - as pleasant and rewarding as they are on the spot. They're all about that time when I interrupted myself and followed a friend to a Sushi restaurant or to watch a stupid movie. Life's in those little holes, in between. Life is going to the grocery w/ your significant other, or cleaning up after the cats. Writing music comes by default. 

Well written, Rain, well indeed!!

Rain, I wish I had your "problem" with songwriting.  I've written/co-written maybe 3 good songs in my entire life and two of those were borderline bollox.

3????

Wish I could say the same

Karyn


Rain, I wish I had your "problem" with songwriting.  I've written/co-written maybe 3 good songs in my entire life and two of those were borderline bollox.

Bollox sells...

Karyn


Rain, I wish I had your "problem" with songwriting.  I've written/co-written maybe 3 good songs in my entire life and two of those were borderline bollox.

Bristol_Jonesey


3????

Wish I could say the same

That's 300% more than me....

You people are way ahead of me then I suppose.

Hi,
 
Heck .. I've even lost a job because of that ... but I stood up for the song and the feeling ... LOVE OVER GOLD!
 
I have never married, and I can easily say that the only marriage I have is to all the music I have and all the arts I love so much. I have not met, in person, a whole lot of people that "believe" and the artistic spirit as much as I do, and I always live in the hope of meeting a friend that I can share that lunacy with ... but it has never happened.
 
I have given up, a long time ago (I'm 61) the thought of a relationship (not of the gay persuasion at all!) and have concentrated all this time and effort in writing and having fun, even in places like the Coffee House, one of the nicer/nicest places (you too Bapu!) I have ever been with, despite many folks not understanding my depth of feeling and dedication to the human spirit and the art that comes out of there! It's not about the drugs, the woman, or (specially!) ideas ... it's about the doing it!
 
Experience is experience ... and in the end, you might think/believe that it was the woman that was your muse, and it was for me for a few years, and some great poems ... that no one reads or gives a damn about! ... but then, many people here don't look at art, literature as another type of music of the spirit and the heart, either, like I do ... so telling people to create another piece of music that comes off like Guernica did to your imagination when you first saw it, is not the same thing as telling you to make the CHB come off like the onion painting on your wall. But it does tell you that there are different things that can be done, strange, real, unreal, weird, or some of the choices that people make at times ... that are more idealistic than the "reality" ... of the moment.
 
Art for me, is about that moment, not ideas about the moment!
 
Yes, I would love to have a wonderful lady to share it all with ... but it's not something that has happened, and the one lady that I loved dearly left ... and that was that! Just like the ending of "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie" ... you just walk ... whenever, wherever .. it doesn't matter in the end!
 
I only know one thing ... that is important and I have never failed to say it and mean it ... I Love You! And like Mahler, I might even have a Symphony written for you, and she still left having no idea! But I do not feel empty, because I not only said it ... I wrote it ... and I'm not sure there is a whole lot more that can be done with it.
 
And sometimes, the only thing that needs to be said ... is ... nothing ... because the look, the feel, and care ... does it for you! Let the music talk. Let the words fly. Let the paint shine ... just do it!