My Journey into Songwriting

As if I don’t have enough to do already? This idea of songwriting has been creeping into my brain for some time now. What was I thinking? There are movie scripts to hustle, plays that need a venue to perform at and a dozen other projects that are begging for my time and attention.

That being said, I’m finding myself spending more time delving into the always challenging, chaotic and usually frustrating exercise of putting words (called lyrics) into some kind of melodic form sans the rich coat of many sounds to accompany it. Talk about a new experience all together.

Reflecting back on a lifetime of skirting the edges of this stress-induced exercise, I’ve often tried to add music to a lot of my writing projects. Back when I was a younger man, I produced two travel documentaries of my children’s study abroad programs. Brian went around the world on his program and Melanie spent time in Ireland. I added musical numbers to both films; Irish music for Melanie’s travelogue and the ‘Smashing Pumpkins’ music for Brian's.

The first three plays I had produced at the Steeple Center in Rosemount had music as an integral part of their storyline.

‘Hair’ was the climatic song in ‘Riot at Sage Corner.’ It solidified the collective rioting of gray grannies and hopping old men against senior management. The actors really got into the swing of things and the audience loved it too.

For Club Two Ten, I had an accomplished singer songwriter write two original songs for the play. The songs best illustrated the still simmering feelings between old classmates. The songs were a welcome reprise for the scene and added to its depth and emotional clarity.

‘With a Little Help from My Friends’ was the theme song for my last play in Rosemount, ‘The Last Sentinel.’ It perfectly encapsulated the comradery felt by the three old women nearing the end of their stay on earth. It was a song-along that the audience really got into themselves.

In California, my award-winning play ‘Widow’s Waltz’ ended with a performance of ‘The Tennessee Waltz.’ It proved the perfect musical wrapping for my two actors finally accepting their relationship. ‘By the Salton Sea,’ is another play I’m shopping around the Coachella Valley. It has the old classic ‘Wayfaring Stranger’ as its climatic piece. ‘Tangled Roots’ is a musical concert wrapped around a storyline (a play) that is heavy on Americana music. Another play written around the same time, ‘Wake; the Musical’ has a number of song (lyrics only) that still need music added.

When both families gather in Palm Springs, we started a tradition of hosting a staged reading. Papa writes a new play each year and the children perform it for family, friends and neighbors. Over the last half dozen years or so, we’ve added music to the plays. Maya and Samantha choose the song and everyone sings along. It’s a group effort and their harmony is really quite good.

When I decided to add original music to my play ‘PTV’ I knew I would need to find an accomplished musician to help create the melody to accompany my song lyrics. I had asked my editor for some recommendations for songwriters she might know. She is into the musical scene in town and knew a lot of the players. After describing a number of them, their area of interest, expertise, and talent, I added one more caveat. I told her: “They can’t be assholes.” She didn’t know a one I’d want to work with.

Fortunately, another friend had meet someone in college who seemed to fit the bill. He was very talented, smart and a pleasure to work with. I gave him a call and it turned out to be the best call I ever made for that purpose.

When we first meet, I felt it was important to lay down some of the ground rules. My caveats were simple enough. I can’t read music and I’m not going to learn. I don’t play a musical instrument and I’m not going to learn how to. I can’t speak music language but I believe I can communicate what I’m feeling/thinking how the music should go/feel/accompany/add to the scene.

I told my friend that I was willing to learn anything and everything there was to know about composing a song….as long as it meets my criteria and reaches the conclusion, I felt it needed to communicate with my audience about the core message within. This was especially important for my PTV audience because each song had to emulate/continue/enhance/augment/and reinforce the emotions felt by my characters in that particular scene.

Lastly, I said that while I absolutely respected the talent and dedication of the musicians I would be working with, I also expected (no, demanded) that same respect toward me as the lyricist of the songs. If we couldn’t work together in mutual respect, then we couldn’t work together… period.

The results, I am happy to report, are nine original songs written just for ‘PTV.’ My musical collaborator, AJ Scheiber, was able to absolutely capture the mood of each scene, cloaking each with the musical intricacies of that time period. I couldn’t have been happier with the results.

The real test came when AJ took my lyrics, rewrote some of them to fit his melody and then agreed to let me tinker with particular words he had changed. In the end, it was his melody and my words (mostly) that accomplished what each song was meant to do.

Music is now an essential part of any new writing project of mine. My latest movie script ‘Rock the Tree of Life’ is about a country western singer-songwriter down on his luck. Part of my job is to write the lyrics for some of his new songs and then watch as my heroine Ariella, plays the role of co-writer for his new material.

Working with a couple of talented artists as they go about writing new songs is going to be a real challenge for me. Yet if I’m going to step into this new role of songwriter, I can’t think of a nicer couple to do it with.

So says my imagination.

A Moment in Time

 I have a theory about creativity based on nothing more than casual observation, mild speculation, and curiosity. This whole idea of being able to create masterful works of art (in a myriad of different forms and genres) has always fascinated me since an early age. How did those artists, whom I admire so much, find that window of opportunity to create their art?

For each, there seemed to have been a ‘moment in time’ when they were at their most creative best. Granted, it’s a very personal observation but one that seems to repeat itself over and over again. Bob Dylan in the early 60s, the Beatles about the same time, CCR in the late 60’s and the list goes on and on.

Jazz begets Bo-Bop which led to ‘race music’ or early rock and roll. Do-Wop groups morphed into single pop artists or singing duos. Each seemed to have their small, brief time in the spotlight when their music shined brightly and captured the hearts and minds of millions like myself. But then as social norms and attitudes changed, the music moved on and became something else. Each seemed to have its own brief time in the sunlight (read spotlight) before something else took its place.

A closer examination in the book ‘The Song Machine’ revealed some of the time frames surrounding many top producing artists and/or organizations in my musical lexicon. Phil Spector with his famous wall of sound produced numerous hits until the end of 1966 when the failure of his masterpiece, Ike and Tina Turner’s ‘River Deep-Mountain High’ drove him to early retirement.

Motown, the ultimate hit factory out of Detroit, rolled out a string of hits until greed, envy and unbridled ambition ended its reign at roughly the same time Spector’s factory closed down. Closer to home, Sound Eighty recording studios in South Minneapolis burned brightly in the early eighties until digital technology and a clash of creative minds closed it down after only a dozen years.

So, the question is: do we each have our own time in the spotlight in whatever area of interest we nurture in our heart? On a more personal note, are I in the midst of my own creative period?

I’ve been tap-dancing around the arts since an early age. From rudimentary drawings of Hollywood inducted fantasies to an outline for a TV script for ‘Have Gun, Will Travel,’ I’ve dipped my mind into the other world of ‘what if?’ all of my life. Granted, it was always a side venture, never enough to sustain me financially or creatively until now.

Working in television and freelance gigs in cable augmented that interest in the arts with the occasional paying side hustle and other creative ventures. Two of my first westerns were written in our first home in Maryland in the evening hours after work. One year per book. Then nothing came of them until forty years later when they finally attained book form. After that, the flood gates seemed to open. I gave birth to more books then plays and finally movie scripts.

After that period, a comic strip was born alongside a skinny little hippo. Then song lyrics to accompany some of my plays began to drain out of my brain. Each became a new creative avenue to explore in another form of story-telling.

So the question begs to be answered. Is that it then? Is my creative window going to close anytime soon? In a strange turn of events, I seem to be getting more creative as I age. My interest in a myriad of things continues to grow and expand. Each is ripe material for story-telling. Song writing now holds the edge over other creative endeavors. It would seem that time and health are the two biggest factors affecting my hours logged on the computer or scratch pad.

Is this my time of the most creativity or is it just a blip in my life’s story? I really don’t know.

If it’s true that an active mind and body are two key elements to living longer, I would seem to be in good standing among the senior crowd. Or is it just a fleeting moment in time soon to be edged aside by older age, health issues or a visit by the grim reaper?

Hell, if I know. But until then, excuse me, I’ve got a story to tell.

True Collaboration

The definition of collaboration is simple enough. ‘Collaboration is the action of working with someone to produce or create something.’ Sounds simple enough and therein lies the gaping black hole of potential failure. What isn’t mentioned is the willingness of both parties to forgo personal ego and goals for a shared vision and outcome. Give and take must be part of that equation if any partnership or collaboration is going to work.

My experience up until now in the creation of music hasn’t been that successful. Over the years, I’ve enlisted the support of different musicians in creating a music for various writing ventures of mine. One of the first was a music video for one of my first novels and another for incorporating music into several of my plays.

Unfortunately, the outcome wasn’t very satisfying. I had envisioned working with the musician to write the music, melody and lyrics and then cooperate in the creation of different musical layers to fill in the bones of the song.

The artists I was dealing with saw our relationship first, as a solicitor of music (that would be me) and secondly, as a purveyor of music (that would be them.) And never the twain shall meet or at least it never did in my case.

Almost immediately, it became apparent that these musicians weren’t open to suggestions about the pace, mood, form or function of the emotion I was trying to capture for my work at the time. They saw themselves as creating the product and I paid them for it and they kept all rights to their work. No thanks to that.

Click here to buy AJ's album 'Town Boy'
Click here to stream 'Town Boy' on Apple Music

Fortunately, this pattern of one-sided venture-taking came to a halt with my introduction to a very talented singer/songwriter who ‘got it’ in terms of cooperation. The back story is simple enough.

My first job after college and a brief hiatus in Europe was with the Minnesota Department of Public Health as a staff writer. My first ‘real’ job came in the form of freelancing (for free) at the local public television station, KTCA-TV. I was working on the crew at least five nights a week.

In retrospect, I understand now that it signaled the ending of my ‘Lost Years’ and the beginning of a new life with a newfound partner in life and love. Working at the station, first on crew and then as a producer/director was fun, exciting and opened up a lifetime career in television and video production work. It also introduced me to a host of colorful characters who inhabited the studio chambers and work cubicles. Little did I know that it would become a veritable cornucopia of storylines just waiting to be told.

Eventually it became the basis for one of my plays entitled: ‘PTV.’ After completing my manuscript, I knew something was missing. The music. Music was a part of my life back then and still is. It also played a huge part on the lives of my associates at the station. I wanted to capture the mood of that period but with new songs instead of capturing the old ones we remembered. Thus began the quest to find a musician or two that I could work with to create these new/old songs of that period.

AJ Scheiber

True collaboration is really about finding someone who shares your vision for a project. Then working together to create that project to your mutual satisfaction.  In my case, it turned out to be with a very talented singer/songwriter by the name of AJ Scheiber. AJ does both solo work and plays in a band by the name of Wilkinson James. I would describe his work as akin to John Prine and Tom Paxton.

After a couple of meetings and AJ reading the script for PTV, it became apparent that he shared my vision for the play and the prominence of the songs therein. He introduced me to many different styles of music such as Texas Swing, Delta Blues, Chicago Blues, folk, Americana, Bluegrass, gospel, Appalachian, and a host of other similar styles of songwriting.

We followed a very simple route of writing the songs. I wrote the lyrics. AJ adapted, rewrote and tweaked the lyrics to fit into the rhythmic pattern (melody) that he had created for that particular song. I then reviewed his adaptation of my lyrics and if I felt they don’t fit the message I was trying to convey, we discussed those particular words and came to some kind of compromise. AJ got the words to fit his musical pattern and I was satisfied with the words chosen.

AJ wrote out lead sheets for each particular song. Lead sheets are tools used by songwriters to convey the basic structure of a song to musical directors and arrangers. The fun part (in my mind) begins in the studio when each song is layered with additional tracks of musical instruments. In my mind, the arrangement is everything.

Since I have a vested interest in the mood each song must convey to my audience, I see layering as critical to each song’s success in conveying that mood. In PTV, each song was written as another emotional cue to help the audience better understand my characters and their actions. It was imperative that each song emit that emotional reaction from the audience.

The marketing of PTV has begun. Once we’ve received inquiries, AJ can begin to upgrade our demonstrations of each song and share it with interested theatrical venues through a file-sharing system. My job is to keep fishing and hope to land a theatrical venue that can host the show.

I have no doubt that it will be a long and arduous process to find the right venue for this play and then to produce it in the right manner. If we can pull it off and the show resonates with the audience then the sweat, labor and tears it took to get there will have been all worthwhile.

Not for the faint of heart but then anything of value seldom comes easy.

My Secret Paramour

I had a secret girlfriend back in my foolish youthful days. She was a short black-haired beauty who didn’t speak a word of English. To say her background was storied and strange would be an understatement. Her life read more like some fictional character who wanders in and out of the dark mysterious pages of some foreign novel masterpiece.

I never met her in person. By the time we were first introduced, her life was coming to a sad and lonely end in her villa in the south of France. Her last words supposedly were “Every damn fool thing you do in this life, you pay for.” Her grave is in Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. Year in and year out, it is one of the most visited grave sites in all of France. 

To wit; she was born on December 19^th, 1915. Over her lifetime, she experienced lost love, true love, tremendous heartache, poverty and fame well beyond her wildest imagination. She was named Edith after the World War One British nurse Edith Cavell who was executed for helping French soldiers escape from German captivity. Her last name was Piaf which is slang for sparrow. It was a nickname she received in her early twenties and became her moniker for life. ‘The Little Sparrow.’

Edith Piaf became a French cabaret singer who was widely regarded as France’s national diva as well as being one of France’s greatest international stars. She is still considered by most of her countrymen as a national treasure even after her death in 1963.

She came back to mind when I was in Paris recently and couldn’t help but notice that her records were still being sold at record stores throughout the city and country. I have several of her CDs and playing them still brings back a plethora of pleasant memories.

Edith was introduced to me about the same time I met Susan and began my metamorphosis into a wanna-be hippie, television apprentice, struggling writer and seeker of all things a bit off course. Somehow this little French woman who sang beautiful lyrics I couldn’t understand was able to communicate with me on a deep emotional level that touched my soul…or some part of my body that responded in kind. 

In turn, she became an icon for all those artists, musicians, writers, actors and other creative types who have touched me with their wonderful works of art. It might be a simple song but one with melodies and lyrics that still resonate after all these years. It might be their movie story-telling that inspired me to begin writing screenplays. It might be their character-driven novels that encouraged me to give it a go myself.

It’s fair to say that my love of foreign films, travel, living abroad and most things foreign can probably be directly traced back to that little French waif and her lilting melodies.

The simple ability of one person to create something of such magnitude that it still affects people years later is quite remarkable. I thought about that as I toured Monet’s garden in Giverny, France and then the hospital where Vincent van Gogh committed himself for his depression. I thought about that as I skipped around YouTube late one night, listening to those ‘oldest but goodies’ from the Fifties. I’ve already waxed poetic in past blogs about the influence that the songs of Bob Dylan and the Beatles had on my youth. Edith would be right up there with the best of them.

The subject of creativity is one that has dogged my imagination and tested my patience since the beginning of time…my time that is. As always, there are numerous web sites that explore this subject of creativity. One of the best that I’ve found is called Brain Pickings Weekly.

I also tried to touch on it with another blog entitled: The Ultimate Elixir. Creativity is like some seductive mistress that one can’t get out of one’s head. It’s a temptress that promises emotional euphoria and deep satisfaction but delivers only a temporary respite from the deeper thirst for more. Yet it’s a thirst that can never be quenched and dries the soul outside of its infinite pursuit.

They say for some there is a quiet spot between the madness and greatness of the pursuit. I don’t want the greatness and I fear the madness. I just want that quiet spot; the satisfaction of knowing that I tried…and let the chips fall where they may. It’s a pursuit I can’t walk away from.

Thanks to that scruffy troubadour, the Liverpool lads and the ‘little sparrow’ for showing me the way.