Creating for a lifetime
A few articles ago, I wrote on what it takes to write. The general idea was that it takes a certain amount of courage and confidence to create something and publish it. True it is, but it goes much further than writing. Its for creating and showing in general, in a variety of media.
When you consider class assignments in various grades of school, add pictures taken and shown to people, and music conceived and played, then you’re talking a lifetime for me. It just seems to ooze out, and wants to speak up, no matter what form its in. Sometimes its an all original creation, sometimes its my take on someone else’s creation, kind of like cover songs.
A cover song is your performance of someone else’s song, sometimes authentic to the note, usually the artist’s twist, but somehow always original. Take Jose Feliciano’s cover of the Doors’ classic song “Light my Fire”. He slowed it down, played it on guitar, and gave it his “feel”. Totally different creation, but with close enough details to let you know what he was doing. Every honest artist hones his art playing covers, just to master the technique to do it.
Sometimes its whole song, sometimes it’s just a part of a song. Some creations command respect for the sheer ability to play like that. So, a cover is an homage to the original artist, for having what it takes to dream a piece up, develop the technique, and play it.
But, going beyond music to creating in general, you see it in later movie versions. Would LOVE to see the original “Casino Royale”, with Herb Alpert’s perky brass rendition of the original score. Herb was nailing trumpet classics with his “Taste of Honey” album in ’65, so it wasn’t a complete surprise when Albert “Cubby” Broccoli approached him for a James Bond score in the late 60’s. The original Casino Royale score was vintage Herb Alpert, classy sounding all the way. Creating begets creating.
Blood Sweat and Tears was the name of a band back in the late 60’s and on. The original singer was a guy named Al Cooper. Sometime in the past, he and the band parted ways. Al was a musician of no small skill. He could come up with a part just listening to a song, as it was played. He parked himself in the studio with Bob Dylan one day, saying he had a part, which was a lie, but the producer left him there. He knew Al was a great musician, as did Bob, which is why he was invited in the first place. Anyway, Bob starts off with what was to become one of his most famous songs “Like a Rolling Stone”. Al just sat there at the keyboard, and followed Bob, creating an organ part that so marked the song that it made the organ a more popular band instrument in a rock band. Never mind that Booker T & the MG’s were playing around what Booker was doing on a Hammond B3 at about the same time, in Memphis. Creativity just spews out, sometimes, even cold, not knowing WHAT you’re gonna play.
As for me, I wasn’t composing music, but I was writing radio scripts for the on-campus NPR station at my college for a practicum credit. I picked famous people of the time for the pieces, like Howard Hughes, Bill Paley, the founder of CBS and others I can’t remember now. But those were 5 original pieces I had, and look back at, wishing I’d started at least a side hustle writing for TV or radio stations. They were, after all, actual, scripts used in a radio show, published work!
Haven’t done a whole lot since but did lately get into publishing online at sites like Associated Content, which got bought up by Yahoo, then later shut down. Itches get scratched, though, and I’d write something up as a reaction to a statement I’d hear. That started the group of weekly messages I’d email out, called “Just Thinkin Out Loud”. It went out to an audience that grew, went international, and had a worldwide audience of 85, when I just got tired of a weekly grind to write. Later, all the pieces were self-published in a book called “Notes of Caring”, available on Amazon, print or e-book. Still write along spiritual lines, Biblically based stuff here and there. One of them was a guest blog of a retired Anglican priest a year or so back. He said I’m the only guest he’s ever published on his site. Quite the honor!
So, here I am writing stuff I hope somebody will like. If you’re old enough, it’ll remind you of music in your past. Maybe you’ll like being reminded. Hope so, anyway!
