BV's Blog - October 8, 2020: Songwriting Inspiration

I belong to a group here in Calgary called the Cornerstone Songwriters' Cooperative.  I've been part of this group for a number of years and I cannot say enough about it.

During the last session one of my fellow songwriters was telling us how he would get a good ideas for choruses but felt that none of his verse ideas was up to snuff.  I told him that it really didn't matter if the verses seemed like Sesame Street songs (his words), write them anyway!  Write them anyway!  Some of the most successful songs have been "throwaways".  You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet by BTO being a classic example.

I've been able to take inspiration from recent events in my life and turn them into songs.  Back in March when COVID lockdown was happening, I wrote "Hunker in Your Bunker".  In April when I was first diagnosed with life-threatening clogged arteries I wrote "The How Not to Die Rag" (based on a cookbook title).  When I first arrived home from the hospital after open heart surgery I experienced some pretty bizarre dreams.  It was from here that the "Jimmy Fallon Song" came.  A throwaway song if there ever was one, but it got over 200 views on Facebook.  As well, from the momentarily excruciating pain I've experienced, I've been writing a song called "Psycho Violins".  It's not finished yet, but I'm almost there.  So, you never know!  Write, write, write!

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