Years ago, my good friend Jamie McWhirter (from my time of “I’m going to live in Boston experiment”), showed me an alcohol induced party game that has morphed into the greatest resource for songwriting lyric ideas.
We had an old Victorian 3-story house on the top of a hill with a commanding view of our picturesque New England hamlet, just north of Boston. It was a winter weekend and we had a few friends over to drink a little wine, but while we were chatting away beside the fireplace, we were getting another layer of fresh snow outside. The road conditions had turned treacherous and so we invited our friends to stay for an impromptu sleep-over.
It Was A Cold and Stormy New England Night
This was when Jamie showed us how to create a journal which he labeled, “Things That Hang Independently of Themselves.” The idea is pretty simple (it had to be for our wobbly-wino group). Get a clean notebook and use it to write down ideas, quotes, sayings, etc. that seem to have a life of their own. It doesn’t have to be profound, just an interesting turn of phrase is enough. Jamie started us off by going over our recent conversations of the night and giving us some things that he remembered.
I think the best one came from my wife Lisa in a conversation about good restaurants and the associated high prices, “Unfortunately, we have the mixed blessing of gourmet taste.” Another friend, in talking about trying to find a place to hide when his wife has PMS said, “I’m in the amen corner… and I don’t say another word for two days.” I just used the line, “I’m in the amen corner” into a new song many years after this conversation because it is such a cool phrase (and yes I used it in the same context). Killing all the wine in the house and moving on to coffee and Kalua, we filled a good four pages that night.
Here’s another example, I read an interview with David Bowie and he said, “My enthusiasm in all things is contagious and infectous.” OK, that one actually seems profound. Hasn’t made a lyric yet, but I’ve used it as part of my email signature. I had a little boy in New Orleans try and sell me sweet potato pies and his closing line was, “Now whatcha gonna do?” It made the book, and the line reactivated the sweet potato pie story for another new song (although I didn’t use the actual line that I wrote down). I’ve even cut out cartoons and taped them into my journal. All I can say is, start building your own journal right away.
Jamie McWhirter Where Are You?
Now the sad part of this story is that after many years and a few moves in between I have lost my journal of “Things That Hang Independently of Themselves”. So if you have a phrase or cool thought that makes you smile (or makes you turn your head like a Cocker Spaniel), basically “Things That Hang Independently of Themselves”, please give me a shout and help me rebuild my book of thoughts and phrases. It’s all good.
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