Stress-Busting Techniques

In contrast to yesterday... calm blue ocean... calm blue ocean...

And if you can't look at the calm, blue ocean, have a look at the sky... it's almost always worth it

Spending this afternoon with my erstwhile bass-player-now kind of session player/engineer on some of MY music!! Even if it turns out to be a not very productive day, that's enough to lighten my skies...

Shut Up & Play Yer Guitar Some More

I can't begin to describe how it feels to be working with somebody on music that I've carried around with me from band to band, from project to session for nearly 30 years... In fact, the piece we worked on today, first saw light as a pop song in 1991. I was never particularly happy with the lyrics & subject matter grafted onto the piece by the 2 singers, but was grateful enough that they'd even looked at one of my pieces, instead of theirs. This band I was in at the time, made me realise what George Harrison meant when someone asked him why more of his songs didn't appear on Beatles albums "Well, what can I do? I'm in a band with Lennon & McCartney!"... or something like that anyway. The 2 singers were also quite prolific songwriters, able to churn out completed songs in a fraction of the time it took & still sometimes takes, me to come up with a good musical idea. And my lyrics are awful!! Which is somewhat galling - for someone who prides himself on facility with the English language, I can't write song lyrics to save my life... Not that theirs were fantastic, but they were certainly better than mine!

So anyway, working with this erstwhile bandmate of mine - different band, not the one described above - today, was a singular joy. I drove out to his home on the north-western outskirts of Sydney, said hello to the 2 horses he & his wife keep, then unburdened Laura of 2 guitars, amplifier, suitcase of effects & cables & my cajon for drum ideas. We pretty much just worked on one piece, with detours into other songs occasionally... like how easily you can go from 'Under The Milky Way' by the Church, into 'Wish You Were Here' by Pink Floyd & how easy it is to sing the lyrics of one, to the chords of the other... both ways. So yes, we digressed occasionally, but always managed to get ourselves back to the task at hand. I've left him with a guitar demo & instructions on where I want 12 string acoustic guitar, fuzz bass, electric lead guitar & a rough idea of drums... I'm sure it will all come together in the end. Then there's just the other dozen or so pieces I have in various states of readiness for the same process, not to mention the couple of new ideas that came up while we were jamming things together today. Hope we can remember those too

Sore fingers by the end of the day, but oh so worth it. I am very grateful