My songwriting is comprised from figurative brushstrokes, so to speak. I learned once, that it's the music in this day that hold's people's attention, not \"message.\"
So, to me, the music, in songwriting, is similar to a meal. And lyrics become as salt, pepper, & spice we add to a meal to make it just right.
The chords I utilized when I began songwriting were a bit complicated for me to actually perform in my early years. So my writing ability was ahead of my performing ability. I could hear all the music in my head though, or had it transcribed onto the page, and I knew how it would sound.
Through much effort I formed a band in my early twenties & some of the rehearsals were recorded on portable cassette device.
Electric guitar and symbol crashes were very forgiving when I'd miss chords on my guitar or fail to rehearse as often as I'd have liked. \"Keep your day job.\" - Penny wise, dollar foolish advisement of the generation then.
A few years after that, & being unable to keep these musician's together, I went back to the city, & clubs that I had used to frequent in the late seventies. They were being replaced by open mic nights, mainly then at sandwich/coffee shops or bars here & there?
I adapted my electric guitar songs to my Ovation acoustic guitar, & it was a bit frustrating for some there to listen to. As before though, I had it all in my head or on the page. I also knew, what, the rehearsal's, I had just came from with my band sounded like. My band then did not return though, so I stayed performing in various coffee shop venues around Los Angeles on my acoustic guitar in late eighties. I had started writing songs for one guitar & vocal, instead of the multiple instruments I had written for previous. Turns out that act's like Tracey Chapman & Jewel, would emerge from such venues.
Some thought I was just learning on acoustic guitar, & that band tapes of The Missing Link that later emerged were recorded after I supposedly learned to perform at coffee shops? None such.
So the recording's leftover, not being invested in then or funded via record companies are a bit distant, technically speaking, but very appealing.
