Wieland's Demo Dreams

["John D. Walker" <jdwalker@post.cis.smu.edu>]

Last episode, Wieland posed an interesting point:

Are these songs just foating around in the air?  Are there Kate songs 
even Kate doesn't know?

<Meta-physical mode on>
I think so.  I write myself, although not on Kate's level.  The best 
songs come to me fully completed as if on a recording.  All I do is 
reproduce the song I heard in my head.  My reproductions are not always 
true to my initial vision (which I would guess is a frustration all 
songwriters experience).  Sometimes I hear instruments that I don't know 
how to play, or sounds that I don't know how to make.  If I try to jump 
start the process by forcing myself to write, the results are always 
unsatisfying.  Anybody else have a similar experience?

I believe, personally, that music is all around us, and that some people can 
tap into it and reproduce it for those others who can't.  The visionary 
songwriters (like Kate) blaze the trails and open other people up to new 
possibilities.  Others just copy.  Where it comes from, I couldn't say, 
but it is a wonderful thing, is it not?

Eric Johnson, who is a guitarist of amazing ability and emotion, mentions 
a similar experience to Wieland's in May's Guitar Player magazine:

"I even hear songs in my sleep.  Like, in a dream somebody'll go, 'Have 
you heard this song?  It's a Beatles track that was never released.'  
I'll put it on, and it'll be great.  It's a real statement on how 
profound the 90% of our consiousness that we're not aware of is.  I'll 
wake up and go 'Wow!  What a song!  That's the best song I ever thought 
about,' but then I can't remember it."

So yes, there are Kate songs in the air waiting to be discovered.  Why,
Tori's probably out in the desert somewhere RIGHT NOW trying to tap into the
right channel..... ;-)

<Meta-physical mode off>

We now return you to your regularly scheduled Love Hounds mailing list.

John