Favourite Songwriters

I Wish I Wrote That #2 – “Wave” By David Sylvian

Seeing that it’s Valentines Day today I wanted to share with you a song that I think should be the benchmark of all love songs. The song is called “Wave” and the songwriter is David Sylvian, ex frontman for the early 80’s new-wave-avant-guard-pop band “Japan” and a collaborator of artists such as Robert Fripp (King Crimson) and Holger Czukay (Can).

I wish I wrote this because the song goes way deeper into the emotions of love than I could ever begin to imagine. It’s truly a beautiful piece of music matched with a highly emotive and deeply spiritual document of one persons love for another.

For me, this song is one of those rare gems that never fails to move me emotionally and every time I hear it, a shiver races up my spine.

David Sylvian released this song in 1986 on his second solo album “Gone To Earth” and it’s nine minutes and eleven seconds of sublime aural perfection. The video below is taken from a performance in Tokyo in 1993.

Enjoy…

Wave – David Sylvian

It seems that I remember
I dreamed a thousand dreams
We’d face the days together
No matter what they’d bring
A strength inside like I’d never known
Opened the door to life and let it go

This sun may shine forever
Upon the back of love
A kingdom raised from ashes
And held within your arms
And should the rain break through the trees
We’ll find a shelter there and never leave

I’ll run to you, nothing stands between us now
Nothing I can lose
This light inside can never die
Another world just made for two
I’ll swim the seas inside with you
And like the waves, without a sound
I’ll never let you down

Upon a wave of summer
A hilltop paved with gold
We shut our eyes and make
The promises we hold
A will to guide and see us through
I’d do it all again because of you

I’d tear my very soul to make you mine

*************************************************

Until next time, happy writing,

Corey Stewart
Singer/Songwriter/Musician

Keywords: david sylvian, robert fripp, songwriting, songwriter, songwriting tip, songwriting blog, songwriting zen, songwriting idea, corey stewart

Tags: Corey Stewart, david sylvian, robert fripp, Songwriter, Songwriting, songwriting blog

Saturday, February 14th, 2009 Favourite Songs, Favourite Songwriters No Comments

Favourite Songwriters – John Lennon

“Reality leaves a lot to the imagination” – John Lennon

There are not too many songwriters that wrote about their reality with a wonderful mix of poignency and child-like imagination like John Lennon did.

As songwriters one thing that we need to do is to listen to other writers and learn from them. Whether they be famous or local, we all have something to learn from others.

For me, John Lennon was always with me when I was growing up.

My Mum was a huge Beatles fan and John was her favourite, so therefore his music, either as a Beatle or as a solo artist was always being played in the background.

I really love the way that he didn’t use flowery language to enable his song message to come across to people.

A John Lennon lyric is very, very conversational in its tone so that the listener can easily understand the song and also relate to it immediately.

John Lennon found at an early age that he had a unique way of looking at the world and was not afraid to show others his view.

He was also not afraid to wear his heart on his sleeve and bear his soul through his songs, a very brave thing to do especially when the eyes of the world were on him 24 hours a day.

There are many songs that Lennon wrote that inspire me, mainly because of the brutal honesty in his lyrics.

Songs like “Working Class Hero” (the oppression of the working class), “Jealous Guy” (his encounters with the green eyed monster), “Beautiful Boy” (his song about his son, Sean) and “Woman” (his undying love for Yoko Ono) all illustrate this point.

However, the song which is the top of my ’songs I wish I had written’ list is “Imagine” without a doubt.

“Imagine” has all of the hallmarks of a great song:

Simplicity of form
Heartfelt, universal lyrics
A beautiful but simple arrangement
Instantly recognisable melody

If you really look at the lyrics you’ll notice the mix of poignancy and child-like imagination that I mentioned in the introduction.

Here John Lennon simply states that if we allow ourselves to imagine what peace would be like perhaps our actions can follow it.

The beauty of this song is the simplicity of its message. No religion, no boundries and no greed.

It may seem too simplistic in this world of information overload but the song asks us to simply ‘imagine’ it. The listener (through the song) is then left to contemplate the answer.

I’ll be introducing you to other songwriters that have inspired me in later posts so keep on reading. If you have a songwriter that inspires you, why not let me know?

We can both learn about them together.

Until next time, happy writing,

Corey Stewart
Singer/Songwriter/Musician

Keywords: john lennon, imagine john lennon, john lennon lyric, songwriter, songwriting, songwriting idea, songwriting tip, songwriting help, songwriting blog, corey stewart

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