So, I was fooling around with a few chords (like you do) and was playing a C Am and G. It eventually found a natural rhythm and it was starting to feel like it wanted to go in a certain direction. My advice (if I am one to offer advice at all) to songwriters- let it! You can always change it afterwards. The direction it was aiming was a sort of folky Cat Stevens (no relation) thing. So, I let it go and, as it began sounding more and more like a Cat Stevens thing,
I love Cat Stevens so this is fine with me. Favorite film "Harold and Maud".
I began adding a bit of his style of voice with the first lyrics.
"I've got silver and I've got gold."
I sort of knew where Cat Stevens would have gone with this, namely that none of that matters, and so I followed the thread. Of course, the thread led to that very conclusion. So, the first lyrics ran with the idea of all the things we have- money, looks, talent, dreams and desires, plans for big things etc.
The song then concludes (rather inevitably) with (as is the case with the majority of us) the realisation that these things are useless, or at least only useful to an extent but also a distraction from the greater gift of being, of being a piece of life and a conscious piece of matter, a little piece of the universe that has started to contemplate. You could even say, a part of the always conscious universal whole.
The song was finished in a short space of time. It took maybe an hour or so to pen.
I then began the recording. This took a couple of days.
And again, during the recording process things will crop up and take hold. Ideas start to write themselves. It came to the ending, for example, and I began layering the voices at the end. I could hear a gospel choir in my head. And so the end was an attempt to capture some of that gospel feel wit the repetition of the "hook" Ain't no gold in the kingdom of heaven.
There are no electric guitars as I wanted that folk sound with lots of acoustic guitars.
So, I just stuck to acoustics and a piano. The drums are meant to be pretty non-intrusive. Most of the focus was to be on the voice ore rather the lyrics as these were the most important part for me. This was like going back to the days, before I could even play guitar, when I would write poems. I only started playing guitar because I wanted to make my poems into songs and, seeing as I had no means to put music to them, I had to learn an instrument.
My big brother was kind enough to teach me some chords and .... the rest is history.
Thanks Gal.
Often times it is the lyrics or the need to convey a message or feeling that drives a song, not the music itself, or at least that is the case for me.
The music is almost secondary, being merely a vehicle for the message or feeling.
Ain't no gold in the kingdom of heaven then, is a song about finding the treasure within. It is best to realise that there is even a treasure within early in life. All of the other things will come at some point, but without the realisation that there is a treasure within, you can never begin the journey to it. Without beginning that journey, you will never realise that it was and is always there and you never had to go on a journey in the first place, as there is nowhere to be and nothing to do (another song by me that will probably be out at some point).
The point is that if you discover this at an early age, the rest of life is a great deal easier and more relaxed. You no longer need to chase and race through life looking for greater things that will ultimately be taken from you. The only thing that cannot be taken from you is YOU, but you have to find out what YOU is first.
Most of us only find this out after many years on the planet, and by the time you find this out many years, which could have been spent in greater peace, have gone.
A warning then to all the younger people out there- None of that stuff you are chasing after is going to be worth a weasel's willy if you don know WHO has it!!
But why listen to an old fogy like me? Go and do your thing- but don't say I didn't tell you.
I know this piece has been a lot less funny that my usual posts, but this is how I am.
I am a complicated person and not always funny.
I do actually have serious thinking processes and philosophies.
I am also intrigued by language and the expression of thoughts through the medium of language. This in combination with the emotional drive of music is what (in music) can transport us to other places and change our very being. Think of all the songs that have changed you, you ideas, the way you think and the way you feel. It a kind of magic.
Harold and Maud was a massive pivotal point in my life. I saw it an listened to that music and it was like an atomic bomb went off in my brain. Life was different from then on and, if nothing else pushed me towards music, then this film did.
Cat Stevens is, and always has been, a great inspiration.
I therefore dedicate this song to him in thanks and to those who have grown up and loved his music.
As usual- LIKE, SHARE the music and videos around if you think you know someone will like them. COMMENT or share ideas with me if you like, and SUBSCRIBE for more of this drivel.
The usual links are below in the descriptions on Bitchute and Youtube.
If you can't do English, just paste this into Google translate and it will give you a fair, if not wholly accurate, translation. Click on the picture below to open Google translate and copy/paste the text into it.
The lyrics to the track are also below.
Have a great rest of the week. Be content and more importantly BE!!
Lots of love Rob
Ain't no gold in the kingdom of heaven.
I've got silver and I've got gold.
I've got such amazing talent, or so I'm told.
I've got looks and I've got brains,
but a brolly's only useful when it rains.
I've got blood and I've got bone.
I've got a whole world within me I call my own.
I've got dreams and I've got plans.
I've got a whole load of nothing in my hands.
I've got riches beyond compare.
I've got a good, healthy body and a full head of hair.
Going to get me a car.
Going to get me a wife.
Yeah, I'm really going to make it in this life.
Going to get me a million and a million more.
Going to get the keys to this city and open every door.
Going to lift my head high.
Going to stand so proud.
Yeah, I'm really going to spin this world around.
Built myself and empire.
Built myself a stage.
Made myself writer and director,
emperor and sage.
Going to build a tower right up to the sky.
Going to build myself some wings and learn how to fly.
Yeah, I'm going to live forever, ain't never going to die.
Had myself a body.
Had myself a mind.
I had the gist of a life and 80 years of time.
Didn't use that time to lean how to be.
So, I never really knew what I was meant to do.
And I never got to see what part of me was me. To busy running races to pay attention to my life.
Too blinded by the glare, to see I was always there.
Never needing any silver, never needing any gold.
All I needed was always mine, but never mine to hold.
Ain't no gold in the kingdom of heaven.
Repeat
<Go to Google translate
Comments