August 3rds

8/3/2011

Received new lap steel. This is gorgeous! 

 A blues/country/work song idea using a lap steel in open G minor.

Footage is from John Ford's 3 Bad Men.  

The "language" motif:

AI-generated based on the prompt: Slow minor blues with a southern gospel feel. (Ridiculously wrong)

Language Of The Wood (8-3-2024) by meta4s

8/3/2019

Dream: Rush was playing at a small sports bar. They were playing at a very low volume to where one could have a conversation over the music. I was standing close to the stage and could see Geddy clearly. He was wearing a white, what appeared to be a cheerleader outfit, and he was quite short. Alex was at the back of the stage playing a very small instrument, a cross between a mandolin and a violin and played with a bow. I was surprised because I didn’t know he played violin.

8/3/2022

Finished quartet for “1966”. 

1966 Quartet by meta4s 

It’s only later in your life when you have access to both the side streets and the highways in your life. If you were born in the 1960s and an adolescent in the 70s, those are the side streets of your life. Then there’s the highway of the 1960s.

I didn’t access the highway of the 1960s until the late 1970s, at which time I was “on the road” with the other generations that have been on those roads for a long time, including the highway of the 1950s and 1940s. It wasn’t until the mid-1980s that I actually started to be influenced by the 1960s when I started to write music. That’s when the Beatles influence started to be a factor. It was all the accumulated experiences of being on the side streets and on the highways that put me permanently on the highway of the 1960s because I’m still influenced by that decade in art and music-making. I was never on the side street of the 1980s because I wasn’t a child then. If you were born in the 1990s you’re on the side street of the 1990s; You weren’t on the highway of the 1990s. Millennials who were born in the early 1990s are now starting to get on the highway of the 1990s. If they’re now musicians they’re being influenced by that decade. To a large extent they’re influenced by the 1980s, 1970s, and 1960s, and maybe even before, as we now have access to all that content on the internet. But you have to be both on a side street and a highway. As you get older you can go back to the side streets and that’s what I’ve done frequently to revisit how songs were written and produced.

All the “interstates” have on-ramps and off-ramps. I have an off-ramp from the 1980s or 1990s to get back on the side streets and then go on the on-ramp of the 2020s just to check it out and see what the highway is like. But usually what happens with other older people is that new music is not very interesting (or useful) so you get on the highway for just a mile and you get back on other decade highways. Younger or middle-aged people are mostly on the highway of the 1990s or the 2000s. But you can go back on your side street and other highways. I particularly like the side street of the 1970s which is convenient to the highway of the 1980s or the highway of the 1990s.

Being a creative person is a navigation of on-ramps and off-ramps.

***

It’s only later in your life when you have access to both the side streets and the highways in your life. If you were born in the 1960s and an adolescent in the 70s, those are the side streets of your life. Then there’s the highway of the 1960s.     

 

8/3/2025

Idea from a chord: 

Crossings (8/3/2025) by meta4s