It's important to stop every once in a while and take stock of what you've achieved.
I recently played a gig with a very young band and while they were amazing musically, I found the lyrics to their songs were predictable, a tad cheesy and didn't compliment the melody.
When I got up to preform myself, I introduced myself as a songwriter who has been playing in bands since the late nineties. It suddenly struck me that I have over 20 years experience in songwriting and I was reminded that I was once new to this and that my early songs weren't particularly poetic either.
The first song I ever wrote, came about in much the same way as they still do today, that is - noodling around on the guitar until I find a riff or chord progression I like, then singing jibberish over the top until a few inspiring words or a theme of some sort emerge and then refine or build out with extra parts and lyrics.
I'd like to think I've gotten far better at that over the years and in fact, the more I think about it, I don't feel I did much analysis or refining of lyrics in the early days and songs were often considered finished once I had enough lines strung together to fill the gaps, regardless of whether they formed a cohesive story.
The first song I wrote was titled "The World of Truth". Here's the lyrics :
There is a world just waiting to be found
There is a world and it's high above the clouds
And it's waiting for you and me
If only we could see
The world of truth the world of love
The world of truth high above us all
The world of truth the world of love
The world of truth high above the universe
You've got to wait for the future that only you can find
You've got to wait for the world that will be yours in time
You've got to find the world, you've got to find it
You've got to find the world
The world of truth the world of love
The world of truth high above us all
The world of truth the world of love
The world of truth high above the universe
I'm not sure I ever had any real idea about what I was writing about and if I did, I've long forgotten. I'm not particularly religious but I've always been quite spiritual. So the sentiments of a world above the clouds are a bit out of line with my beliefs.
There is one take away from the song for me though, and that is you need to find what you're looking for - it won't magically come to you without you making the effort.
That's something I truly believe and I've learned the lesson time and time again. If there's a door that won't open for you, the best place to look for the key is within yourself.
Thanks for using eSteem!
Your post has been voted as a part of eSteem encouragement program. Keep up the good work! Install Android, iOS Mobile app or Windows, Mac, Linux Surfer app, if you haven't already!
Learn more: https://esteem.app
Join our discord: https://discord.gg/8eHupPq