Monday, March 25, 2013

Getting personal with love (punctuate as you please)

I am more inclined to be personal, and wordy, in my blog. More so than I am on FB where there is so much to take in that long updates have to be really interesting to get my attention. Perhaps if you have found your way to my blog you actually have a few minutes to spare. Takes them all :)
I have recently commenced a musical project that I am calling, 20 Love Songs. In short, I want to see how many songs I have written fall into the different categories of (romantic) love that I have known or witnessed. Twenty is just a guess for now. I still don't know whether the project will just be made up of "romantic" love songs or whether I will venture into other types of love.
I am not rushing. I am starting out by not being too wordy in my descriptions though I know when I have been thinking about all this there have been times when I thought there was lots and lots that could be written. 
In the beginning I was also very attracted to having another person add their feelings/words about my categories and songs - to save me from having to over analyse my own work and to add a close but entirely separate perspective. I still like the thought of this.
THE START. About three years ago when Experiment first began to put SOAR tunes onto CDs he asked me and Charles for some liner notes to go with the songs that we had written. I love liner notes! But by the time I got started on my third and fourth songs I came to the conclusion that they were all about the same thing - "she up and left me and I wasn't coping very well". This may have been easy for others to see in my early songwriting. Not me :). And in my defence I do, mostly, just write the songs that come out of my heart, mouth, head and I don't try to write about particular things/themes. So at times I do have a bunch of  songs being written that (over) represent similar things.
The truth is that when I was younger I had a very limited appreciation of love, in particular of romantic love. It was deep and passionate for sure but at times all consuming and irrational as well.
THE ROAD TO DAMASCUS. Fact is that over the years, with reflection, with some growing up, with some wasted years, with some life changing experiences, with the help of some remarkable people, I could see love in so many more things and people, and in experiences and situations than I had before. I feel so much better for it is all I can say. And many of these found their way into songs.
WHY THE PROJECT THOUGH. Love is simple and love is complex. Love is for a day or forever. Love is close and distant. Love is obvious and love is hidden. Love is everything and love is boundless. People do fall in love with their first girlfriend/boyfriend and get married and have families and live happily after. Some people may know romantic love every single day of their adult lives while the journey of others is littered with highs and lows. Some people spend more time alone than they do together. But in the stories of our lives, love is love however it has chosen to visit us. This is why the project is about the kinds of love I have known, or observed because one persons experience could never embrace all manner of love.
The project is going to live on my website - easier to do incrementally, and to edit. Easy to find, here.
http://www.brightoh.com/Bright/TWENTY.html

PROGRESS. At the time of doing this blog entry I have the first five categories listed (no logical order to the list yet).
1. Loving the one person forever though you will never see them again.
2. Growing apart without even knowing it.
3. Long distance love.
4. Seeing someone you love being hurt by someone they love.
5. Even when a proposal is rejected - it is still love.
Thanks for reading :)
Hugs
Bright