The brain is a weird thing isn’t it?  I’ve learned to respect mine.  Oh sure I’ve battered it about with massive quantities of social and recreational stimulants.  It can handle a fair amount of abuse and still recover, but for long synapse life, careful treatment is recommended. Quite a few Sixties celebrants are now suffering early onset of the dreaded mist.

What’s weird for me is the transition from sleep.  Frequently I wake up with an idea.  That is to say while I am still “asleep” I have an idea and then I wake up and write it down or start writing.   Very often it’s a line.   A thought.  Occasionally it’s a joke.  Very infrequently it’s a song.  Today it was  a song.

I was dreaming that Mick Jagger was downstairs in a dream version of our French home.  It was not at all like it but  I recognized it as our French house.  (He has never been there by the way.)   We had had dinner and I went upstairs to fetch a couple of guitars.  It wasn’t easy as a large autobus was just leaving my bedroom, trying to get through the narrow exit.   I ran around collecting the things you need, two guitars, capos, picks, tuners, and a notepad and pencil.  My wife was there.   She was making going to bed noises.  I said honey I am going to play.  If I write a song with Mick you’ll certainly be happy I did.  She concurred.   I might have been tuning the guitar but a very simple riff came into my head.   It was very catchy.  I woke up.   I should write that down I thought.   I fetched my little digital recorder, picked up a Taylor guitar and figured out the riff.  Oddly it was in B flat.  That was the key in my dream.  (I never write in B flat.)    It started with F, went to E flat and ended in the dominant key B flat.   I got that down.  Then I realized that was the hook, the chorus, and my brain supplied the obvious opening starting verse in E flat to B flat.   Four of those and then bring in the hook.  I recorded that.  So I played that for a while and recorded a verse chorus verse chorus chorus.  Then I wondered about words.  Playing it back I jotted down a few things.  It’s very African.

Still and all    One and all.    For You.

But I wasn’t happy with the “For You” bit because it didn’t fit the insistent rhythm of the pattern that was inside my head.  Just then another part of my brain warned me to write down what I was intending to do this morning before I forgot,  since I was now side-tracked into writing a song.  So I wrote a little post-it note for myself:  “try importing facsimile into your blog.”  Then my brain went Ding! “facsimile” that’s the perfect rhythm of the word pattern that the riff ends with.  The perfect verbal match for the sound pattern.

Still and all.   Reasonable.  Facsimile.

Also it fits as an African chant underneath the verse – facsimile, facsimile, facsimile, facsimile.

So there we are.  I have a dummy lyric.  The words fit the rhythm.  I have the hook recorded.  I have no idea what the song is about.  I can leave this for now.  The inspirational part of the brain now awaits the Protestant work ethic part of the brain to come along and fit words to the pattern.   That might be a day’s work.  Composers always take just a few minutes while the poor lyricist slogs away all day.  That’s the nature of the beast.   There are far more words than notes.   So far more possibilities to consider.  I’m thinking that the left side of the brain supplied the dream part and the right side will now come along and tidy it up.  Or perhaps it’s vice versa.  I’m not sure.  But I’ll keep you posted if it becomes anything.

March 4, 2013 6.30

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