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June 02, 2009
Not Too Late?
Sometimes I get a little wistful when I watch shows like “Legends and Lyrics.”
The feeling comes over me as I listen to the amazing and often moving creations of these master songwriters.
When I was in my late teens and early twenties, I really wanted to be a songwriter. Elton John and Billy Joel were my main inspirations, since they were classically trained piano players, and so was I!
I started writing songs in earnest around that time, and of course, most of them were not any good. I still have some of my lyric books from that time, and I will not show them to anyone. I can barely look at them myself. But I keep them for some reason.
Back in 1978 I had two of my early songs cut by a Contemporary Christian Band called “Tradewind.” One of my songs was even the title cut on their album (we called them albums back then in the pre-CD days).
I was getting two types of feedback on my songwriting efforts at the time.
Type one was from my fellow musicians and some of my college professors. They encouraged me to keep at it. I had some ability that I could develop; there was a chance that I could do something with this.
Type two was coming from my family, and well-meaning relatives. “Cut it out,” was the word, either directly or implied. “You cannot make a living this way. You need to get a real job. Maybe you could be a piano teacher. Wait, you can’t even make a living doing that. Just forget this music thing.”
I chose to listen exclusively to the type two feedback, in an effort to be a “good kid” and keep peace in the family.
Oh, I managed to carve out a career in music. I started out as a church music minister, and served in that capacity in various places until 1990.
Today, I am most fortunate to be able to devote myself to recording and producing music, writing about music, composing instrumental music, and performing music. I continued to write songs well into the 80’s, primarily worship songs for use in the church, but by the early 90’s, after I left the ministry, I had all but given up on songwriting.
I just turned 51. It’s hard not to think of all the great songs I might have written had I kept at it steadily from the time I was 18.
Sheryl, sensing my songwriting melancholy, told me about a songwriter she met in Nashville who retired from his job in his early sixties, and moved to Nashville to pursue his songwriting. As few years into his “second career” he has had a few songs cut. He’s out there, doing what he loves, and having the time of his life.
Let’s see, I had an idea for a lyric the other night, and there’s this melody I came up with…
Posted by leonolguin at June 2, 2009 08:32 AM