Notes about the notes about the songs

Most of the songs I have written have a story, or even multiple stories about them.

Some of these stories might even be interesting to other people.

Right now, as of early 2018, most of the "Notes about the song" pages contain not much more than some loose descriptions of how to play them. I am in the process of writing the actual stories that belong on these pages in order to make them actually serve the purpose they are intended for.

One general note regarding the older songs is that often a long time elapsed between their initial draft and them getting anywhere close to becoming songs. I only started learning how to play guitar in 1990, and was struggling to figure out how to meld words and music in the mid-90s. I also had to figure out a way to express myself effectively in the vocal area. I had no experience with this at all, except for singing along, badly, with songs that were almost never in a good key for my voice, and, perhaps, occasionally speaking (probably to a lover) in tones that were meant to be more than just speech.

So, those early drafts took a long time to become anything like what you hear on this site. Lyrics underwent lots of rewriting, and the music and my "style" of "singing" had to develop. So a song like "Hunger", for instance, probably incubated for eight year, whereas a later one like "Stupid Global Village" likely went from concept to finish in a month or three.

Keep in mind that I am also an amateur, with work to do, and too many other hobbies, so I rarely work on these projects for more than an hour or two each day (if that).

And so now, in 2018, I move forward with my new-found desire to record a second album.

The reason I think these "notes" make sense relative to actual songs is that they are so complex - so much goes into creating them. Writing the words, and coming up with the music, and blending those two aspects, then seeing how they change each other, through the various steps along the way, is very different than "just" writing words. There is so much more below the surface.

I have also always been fascinated by the stories behind the songs, the music, that I myself like. So, I thought, why not tell those stories about my own songs, just in case somebody out there likes one or two of them, and wants to know more about how they came to be?

© Huw Powell
printed 8 December 2024

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file location: www.humanthoughts.org/z-notes.htm