Wow! What a hot couple of days we’ve had. Each late afternoon slightly threatens with a relief of rain… then the mugginess sets in. These storms are just skirting London with most of the action happening near and north of Toronto.
I went to the poem, song and prayer gathering at my friends house and it was a fun evening. My friend is a singer/songwriter and this January I went to Western University to watch her perform. Her family is bilingual in French and this evening she sang a song in that tongue. It was great!
Later, I played one of my songs and when it was finished one of the young girls told me that their pet canary liked my song because he was chirping along the whole time!!!
Everyone said “Yes!” when I asked if they could help me finish a song that I’m working on. I played the first part of the song and then I played it a little slower so everyone could hear the rhythm of the lyrics. Then we spent time working together, sharing ideas and singing a line or two to see how it sounded until we were done.
Here is the evening’s creation – from the top eh!
What the world needs now
is a new kind of breath,
not the sweet kiss of death
but a time to be best.
What the world needs now
is a dream without end.
There’s no thoughts of revenge
when everybody’s a friend.
We’ll have to rely on our instincts.
Our future doesn’t come with a well laid plan.
We’ll find strength when we apply our deeper instincts
and we’ll make our stand against the lie of the land.
----------------------------the newest lyrics (group effort)
I went to the poem, song and prayer gathering at my friends house and it was a fun evening. My friend is a singer/songwriter and this January I went to Western University to watch her perform. Her family is bilingual in French and this evening she sang a song in that tongue. It was great!
Later, I played one of my songs and when it was finished one of the young girls told me that their pet canary liked my song because he was chirping along the whole time!!!
Everyone said “Yes!” when I asked if they could help me finish a song that I’m working on. I played the first part of the song and then I played it a little slower so everyone could hear the rhythm of the lyrics. Then we spent time working together, sharing ideas and singing a line or two to see how it sounded until we were done.
Here is the evening’s creation – from the top eh!
What the world needs now
is a new kind of breath,
not the sweet kiss of death
but a time to be best.
What the world needs now
is a dream without end.
There’s no thoughts of revenge
when everybody’s a friend.
We’ll have to rely on our instincts.
Our future doesn’t come with a well laid plan.
We’ll find strength when we apply our deeper instincts
and we’ll make our stand against the lie of the land.
----------------------------the newest lyrics (group effort)
What the world needs now
is an army of peace.
A heart pounding the beat
that all war must cease.
Although we had a focus on creating lyrics with meaning we also had lots of fun creating lines that talked about smelly feat – cuz it rhymes with beat!
Several hours later I sat down with my lyric book and wrote the second half of my song… inspired by the creativity from this evening.
What the world needs now
is the will to believe
one heart’s pounding the beat
for our army of peace.
What our army needs now
is the grace to be strong
cuz there’s never a wrong
when your heart is a song.
We’ll have to rely on our instincts,
to break the chains,
the chains that hold us back.
We’ll find strength when we apply our deeper instincts.
Yeah! We’re never down
even when the odds are stacked.
I think part of my influence came from the rock ‘n roll spirit of tonight’s broadcast of the Who tribute on MuchMoreMusic.
I had to go to my neighbours house to check on their cat during their holiday travels and this was great cuz they have cable television. Joanne and I don’t watch a lot of t.v. so we’ve never had cable. Sometimes – like this evening – it would have been nice. The Foo-Fighters absolutely rocked the house with a truly spirited performance. The Flaming Lips act could have been disastrous. The lead singer came on stage inside a huge clear plastic bubble. I imagine that he spent a lot of time practicing cuz it looked like he could lose control quite easily. He almost did – with a few spills that landed him on his back before the audience pushed him back onto the stage.
These musicians and more were performing songs created by the genius of The Who. To top it all off Roger and Pete – well all I can say is that it was a great concert.
I can remember when I was in high school – out in the country – and The Who were coming to Toronto – this was in 1989. The day before the tickets went on sale I packed together a small knapsac of things I would need and hitched rides into the city. There was quite a party goin’ on. I met a friend there and the next afternoon his dad picked us up and took us home – we both slept the whole way. The concert was amazing – I feel closer to my spirit when a guitar takes me away and a drum holds me down… at the same time!
So… after watching the tribute concert I started thinking that the new lyrics we had created were very 60’s in the thoughts of ‘armies and peace’ and that there needed to be more symbolism of this nature surrounding this part of the song – thus the references to chains and stacked odds.
As most of my songs – I know that this one still has a bit more growing and changing before I can finally say that it is done.
++++++++++++++++++
In half an hour I have to be at Victoria Park for the 35th annual Home County Folk Festival. I’m volunteering with a group of people to help ‘green’ the festival. We are hoping to cut the amount of garbage that is always created at these festivals by 50% - and that’s huge!!!
The Green Evolution is starting to build momentum…
Until next week – peace!
Jim
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