Home

“she comes back to tell me she’s gone.
as if i didn’t know that,
as if i didn’t know my own bed.
as if i’d never noticed the way she brushed her
hair from her forehead…
she said, ‘losing love is like a window in your heart,
everybody sees you’re blown apart,
everybody sees the wind blow’”

there are rare moments when i feel confident in my job…
as a songwriter, as a singer, as a musician.
true, pure confidence.
and it is super empowering.
and it always leads to writing more songs.
there is this rad momentum that goes along with true
confidence that you can’t get any other place.
it doesn’t last, but if you stay out of it’s way long enough…
that’s where the songs come from.
that’s where you allow yourself to just ride creativity
…and really cool shit happens.

the flip side to this, unfortunately, is more common…
being insecure, being scared, and feeling entitled.
seeing success in others, ignoring all the good shit you have
and getting pissed because you feel like you deserve more.
that’s my default setting.
it takes a lot to see that this thinking is a dead end,
and even when i do, it doesn’t stop the thoughts from coming.
but this is all pretty human stuff.
everybody goes through this in one way or another.
what i am telling you is not a revelation.

paul simon’s, ‘graceland,’ is a perfect album.
i can’t believe that human beings conceptualized
and executed such a perfect album.
the lyrics, the melodies….
completely original. completely familiar. completely
transcendent, otherworldly shit!
music rooted in history, but beaming in from mars.

“a man walks down the street
it’s a street in a strange world
maybe it’s the third world
maybe it’s his first time around
he doesn’t speak the language
he holds no currency
he is a foreign man
he is surrounded by the sound, the sound
cattle in the marketplace
scatterlings and orphanages
he looks around, around
he sees angels in the architecture
spinning in infinity
he says “amen!” and “hallelujah!”

every time i feel entitled, every time i start thinking
i am not getting what i deserve in this business…
i am put in my place by the music.
there is always a record, or a song that blows my mind out of my head.
that reminds me i still have a very long way to go before i’m allowed
to feel entitled to anything.
i guess that’s what great art does though…
it puts things into perspective, and at the same time, it kicks out the walls.
it blows your mind, humbles you… and at the same time it lights you up
and makes you feel completely unstoppable.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 27th, 2008 at 5:10 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.