O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree
Long ago and far away, even before the days of Watchfire Music, I was a child growing up on a little street in a little Mid-western town, born in the USA. Like many of you, life was sweet and simple, filled with promise and, especially at this time of year, touched with the expectancies of Christmas.
Each year the build-up to that day of days was filled with many different elements: the buying of presents, the making of a list for Santa of childish dreams, the preparation of our house for the Holiday season, and, of course, the buying and decoration of the Christmas tree.
Well, It happened again. It was bound to. It’s the way my life works. Last night I got into another discussion about God. This time my wife started it. It’s all her fault.
She’s fascinated with historical novels taking place on and around the time of Jesus’ life and was telling me how many divergent concepts about the meaning of the word “God” that she’s running into. We were laughing at some of the silliness of thought that some people bring to it, so many are stuck in this anthropomorphic concept of what I like to call God in man’s image as opposed to man in God’s image.
After a good laugh or two, we plunged right in. There I was, yet again, grasping at straws, trying to build a house to contain the unattainable. I went to bed with the unanswered on my mind and had to really concentrate on ‘things other than’ in order to get to sleep.
So I just woke up with the unanswered begging for attention.
On one hand I go much more these days towards the concept of God as ‘being’ – not “a being”, but rather just ‘being’. Perhaps intelligence… being. Or to get even more specific, perhaps God is the pure truth of the way it is. I like to think of God as Law, the law of spiritual life, not necessarily this mortal existence.
I try to un-humanize God as much as possible. I like the quantum physics approach where there is a connection running through all things (whatever ‘things’ are) – perhaps this connection, this allness is God. I try to un-see God as any kind of anthropomorphic being.
Michelangelo painted a beautiful picture on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel of God and man, but I like to think of that as a pretty old-fashioned and, in fact, ancient human misunderstanding – the result of some pretty limited thinking and perhaps the result of some pretty egotistical thinking – God in man’s image.
Recently I received a very interesting letter from a listener, one David Ring, regarding the new release of Jenny Burton’s CD entitled Released on Watchfire Music. It was from a fan of the music and asked a number of good questions. I sat down and wrote him back immediately. Later, after responding and reading back my answers, I thought it might be of interest to all of you.
In it, he took issue with some of the sounds on the CD and asked a number of pertinent questions that I found enjoyable to answer.
Here it is, Letter from David Ring, reprinted excerpts with my responses.
On Jul 31, 2009, at 12:35 AM, David Ring wrote:
Dear Peter,
There is some wonderful music here. I will definitely be buying the CD. In the meantime I’d like to give you some feedback on my web experience of this music. I jack the sound through my stereo boom box rather than use headphones. He also later admitted that, “I didn’t mention that (my) boom box is practically an antique with two cassette tape decks.”
A 2 Part Series – Part 2 (If you missed it, you can go to Part 1 of this series.)
So we continue now with this idea of the evolution of the definition of Inspirational Music. In expanding our umbrella, we here at Watchfire Music have looked hard at just what inspires people.
One of the things I always listen for when I’m listening to new artist submissions is, “Can I hear the lyrics?” In this day of groove music where the beat is foremost, many artists bury their vocals in the tracks so that the lead singer is not the foremost thing that you hear. Perhaps sometimes that’s good.
Recording engineers like to say that there’s only so much room in the spectrum – that something has to be the first thing you hear in a mix. You can’t hear it all equally at the same time – the voice, the drums, the bass, the guitars, the background singers, etc. When mixing all these elements together, you must have a point of view. Classically, that’s with the lead singer first because the lead singer presents the melody and the words, the concept of the song.
I’ve worked on a thousand musical projects in my lifetime. Some didn’t turn out so well – the result of myriad reasons. Most, gratefully, went well and we achieved what we set out to do. I’m always grateful for the high quality of professionals that I’ve had the opportunity to work with. They always make success possible.
Occasionally the outcome actually surpasses the dream. Yesterday I had such an experience.
Several months ago I was asked to produce a fascinating event for the annual meeting of a major international church. The concept, developed by executive producer, Norm Bleichman and me, was to go around the world and record various churches singing the beautiful South African hymn, “Siyahamba”.
Each location would sing a different verse or chorus and each would be sung to a track recorded in the style of music related to the culture. The music would then be assembled with video and performed at the church’s annual meeting with the “whole world” singing together in one grand finale.
Siyahamb’ ekukhanyen kwenkhos
Translated from the original Zulu, it means, “We are marching in the light of God.”
Can comedy be Inspirational? You bet. I’m Tired from Mel Brook’s Blazing Saddles sung by the inimitable Lili von Shtupp (Madeline Kahn) and Springtime For Hitler from The Producers both written by Mr. Brooks are two cases in point. They make you laugh. They make you feel instantly better. That’s Inspirational. Here are my Top 3.
La Mancha
COMEDY
1. Cocktails For Two — Spike Jones / Sam Coslow and Arthur Johnston
Coslow was the first Broadway songwriter to be hired by Paramount. During his decade with Paramount, he wrote songs for many of their films, including most of the early Bing Crosby pictures. “Cocktails For Two” (1934, with Arthur Johnston, for Murder at the Vanities) was one of them.
But it was the Spike Jones approach to the song that really killed me and still does today. His “send up” arrangements of popular songs of the day were simply hysterical. Weird Al learned a lot from Spike.
Probably may favorite comedy writer of all time, this clever, funny man always made me laugh. His albums are just full of great satirical songs. If you don’t know Tom Lehrer’s music and need a good laugh (and who doesn’t?) rush right out and buy a couple of his albums. Stephen Sondheim said that one of the hardest things to do in a song was to make people laugh out loud. For Tom Lehrer, it was a breeze.
Continuing on through the annals of the music of a lifetime, keep in mind that these songs are just one man’s opinion, not necessarily favorites, but rather songs that made an Inspirational impact on my life in music.
Duke Ellington
Clearly, many of these songs are oldies but goodies. Perhaps I too am an oldie but goodie. Today’s music is still as impactful on my life as it ever has been, but the songs listed here are ones that inspired me in one way or another over the years. Perhaps I needed more inspiration all those years ago, but in 40 odd years of music making, these are the ones that really made a difference to the way I listened to and perceived music.
Still today whenever I hear this song played anywhere I go, I just stop whatever I’m doing and just have to listen. With its Caribbean flavor, infectious groove and totally terrific performance by Mr. Ritchie himself, this song set the standard for me as both song and great record. They just don’t make ‘em any better.
Many years ago, in another life with another wife, I decided to take a break from the growing tensions of marriage and give it a week’s rest. So I gathered up a quick overnight bag and a couple of changes of clothes and went off to spend some time with a musician friend and his girlfriend at their house ostensibly to do some writing together, but really, just to get away.
Without knowing what I was getting into, I moved from the frying pan to the fire. My piano playing friend and his girlfriend were on the verge of their own breakup and fought like cats and dogs day and night so much so that I started to go a little nuts. Finally begging off, I left them and moved into another friend’s apartment for the rest of the week back in the city. He lived in a 5th floor walkup in a railroad flat on 46th street just off the Broadway Theater District and adjacent to Hell’s Kitchen. He was to be gone for the weekend and kindly left me the keys to his crash pad.
It was a hot August in New York City. No air-conditioning, noisy and lonely. I was miserable, feeling sorry for myself, upended, forced out of my own home and pretty low. Saturday night came and I had nothing to do, nowhere to go. I sat around this lonely apartment trying to figure out my life until I just couldn’t take it anymore.
So about midnight I headed out to Times Square, man on the loose, to where the action is on a hot August Saturday night in New York City. I got what I asked for. With a whore on every corner and the drunks in between, the pushers and the wide-eyes, the narcos and the queens, it was the wild and wacky 70s of Times Square. The heat only increased the feeling of desperation in the city and the air was heavy with the funk of the street.
Peter Link, Creative Director of Watchfire Music, is the author of this blog. We'll be looking at all things inspirational, especially music. Read on and find out more about Inspiration on Planet Earth and beyond. And... you can also find out more about Peter at his personal Web site and also on the "About Peter Link" page below.
***Listening Room House Concert w/Julia Wade***
WFM artist, Julia Wade, will do 3 Thursday nights in the next 3 months celebrating and developing her new CD at the Jenkins House Concert space just off of Central Park West in New York City. Starts August 19, 2010. For more info click here.
Each year the build-up to that day of days was filled with many different elements: the buying of presents, the making of a list for Santa of childish dreams, the preparation of our house for the Holiday season, and, of course, the buying and decoration of the Christmas tree.
So we continue now with this idea of the evolution of the definition of 
I’ve worked on a thousand musical projects in my lifetime. Some didn’t turn out so well – the result of myriad reasons. Most, gratefully, went well and we achieved what we set out to do. I’m always grateful for the high quality of professionals that I’ve had the opportunity to work with. They always make success possible.
