Darlin', Is That You?

     So often songs are written which don't really have a true "subject", meaning a specific and exact person or direct purpose from which the song takes inspiration.  But, rather the mind gleans bits and pieces of emotions and puts them together in the same way a mosaic takes bits of different pieces and reconstructs them into a full picture.  But, the individual parts might not make sense when taken by themselves.
     That is the situation for my song "Darlin', Is That You?"
     My family and I had just moved from our home for the past few years in Eugene, Oregon to the small city of Coos Bay, Oregon.  The move was especially difficult for my daughter Jennifer.  She had been very attached to her friends and wonderful atmosphere there and now was removed to a place quite different.  The town was a depressing place with lots of rain with few if any friends.

The school where Jennifer attended....two doors down from our house

     For me, I found work at Southwest Oregon Community College as accompanist for their choir.  Aside from this I thought that I would devote myself to writing more songs and do things which might develop into income (which didn't occur).
     I had left behind my musical friends and especially my good friend, Jeff Patterson, who was also now left without a musical group, both of us formerly of "ME".  I believe our intention was to now let our demonstration tapes be submitted to record companies with hopes that the group might reform if and when a producer or A & R director bite for our group's sound.
     I had purchased a piano which I had at my disposal to write on.  I put in a certain amount of time each day playing my old tunes along with fiddling with new melodies and lyrics.   But, again, I was all alone for the first time with no group to perform with. 
     With this feeling of distance from what had been a very fruitful musical undertaking I was the one on the edge of civilization.  I remember talking about Coos Bay being the end of the earth, or at least the US before the ocean.
     I began getting images in my mind of this lonely guy who would mistake a perfect stranger for a lover far away.  That is something that I have felt in the past with people of similar body type who "fool you" by looking like the spliting image of a past love.
     Musically I wanted to incorporate a bit of a Barry Manalow sound in the downward riffs in the chorus.  Strangely I also had a bit of a country riff going in the piano part that was just a natural our growth of the lyrical content.  Overall I did envision an orchestra playing in conjunction with backup singers.  Close your eyes with my comments in your mind and you will understand.
     I especially like the middle eight of this song. I truly enjoy the way it naturally grew out of the rest of the song.  Sometimes the middle eight is forever to write.  In this case it was easy.

Enjoy "Darlin' Is That You?"

Darlin' Is That You on Amazon.com

Dave Janssen Songs "Why Do I Write Songs"

     Why do I write songs?
     I've been absorbed by songwriting since I was around thirteen years old.  When the Beatles hit the stage on the Ed Sullivan show and my older brother told me that their band members wrote their own songs, for some reason, that hit me in a way that I'd never been able to shake.
     The idea that someone would take a simple melody and a lyrical thought, a story, an emotion and put it down for all to hear inspired me and stays with me to this day.  If people would say, "what did you do?"  "Yes, I worked in a library, I worked in a store, I had a booking agency, I was a teacher, but I wrote songs is what I do and will leave behind someday."
     I suppose we all want to be immortal in some way.  People have children to continue their genetic code into the future. People create huge monuments, buy property,
     A song or literary work is like a child, I think.  We create that bit of sound and lyric combination and let people hear it for so many reasons.  But, it is a piece of us or where we were at that moment in time.  Some songs are an amalgamation of many things imaginary and real.  Some are straight and to the point, raw.  Sadly some songs are just drivel with no purpose. Each song has its own purpose, whether whimsical or serious, perhaps even spiritual.

     For a period of time I will be sharing some of my songs on this blog with explanation as to "why" I wrote them.  Whether "hits" or "misses" these songs had their beginnings in my mind.  Whoever reads my writings might get a better picture of who I am from the body of work that I've created.  In some cases, I might devote to the recording of the songs, who played, curious stories of what went on at the time to make the song or the recording.  This will be a peeling of the onion to see what is underneath.

     Dave Janssen Songs