Crossroads
Episode #180: Crossroads\xa0 (Song starts at 4:04)\nI wrote crossroads, Song #119, in 1989. When I saw the title of the song in my old green songbook, I remembered it was based on an old memory.\nReading through the first verse, a vivid scene sort of played out in my mind, like recalling a dream:\nI was I about 3 or 4. My mother and I had gone to visit an old lady. We sat in her lounge, and cups of tea were served (not for me).\nMy eyes wandered along the old mantelpiece, past the old ticking clock which occasionally chimed. My gaze fixed on a toy car sitting there.\ngot to play with these cars as the adults talked. The old lady kindly gave me the car to take home.\nAll the details are clear as if it were yesterday. That\u2019s the power of art. It can convey so much.\nThe first verse was about the old lady and her room. So for the 2nd verse, I moved on to an (imagined) old man carrying his bags home.\nThat\u2019s when the word crossroads came through my pen, and I thought Aha - that\u2019s what this song is about.\nThe 3rd verse was like an imagined scene from the distant future: the bright sun sinking behind the darkened sign posts, the road disappearing into the fast approaching night.\nYep, the cross roads.\nThis was a \u2018words first , music second\u2019 song.\xa0 It\u2019s often a surprise to me, when I analyse the chords and melodies of these older songs. They quite often appear to break all the rules of theory, the harmonic changes, the way the melody dips to unexpected slightly unsettling notes and then back to more expected ones.\nShooting from the hip like this with the words and music\xa0 (which both come through very quickly) is fun and natural for me. I think the result is something almost disarmingly real at times.\nIt\u2019s based on something real, then it becomes something more, ultimately returning to the image of the dark unknown of the crossroads. Which road is right?\nAnd creatively speaking, which road is right? You just go with instinct. I let the fingers fall on the keys and the I float your voice up to wherever the feeling takes me.\nIt\u2019s like being in a woken dream, writing a song. It was fun to rediscover this one, as I \u2018winged\u2019 the version on this episode. I improvised a piano instrumental section on the fly.\nIt was definitely the feeling from that afternoon that came to me all those years later.\nJoin me now and we\u2019ll find out where crossroads came from . Perhaps you\u2019ve got a cup of tea handy? A mantlepiece? \u2026.\nHere\u2019s my blog. www.petepascoe.wordpress.com\xa0You can read the lyrics there + there\u2019s lots more music and art to be found here.\nEnjoy.