Drift Away
Episode #154: Drift Away\xa0 (Song starts at 3:03)\nI took a drive this evening. I live on the outskirts of Melbourne, on the Mornington Peninsula, out in the country. I wasn\u2019t sure where I was going... just following my nose. As it turns out, it lead to a nice quiet beach where gentle waves were lapping. I took a walk and when I got back to my car, I was thinking about a song\u2026 'Drift Away'.\nWell, I was remembering the melody, not the words. I thought 'Drift Away' (which I later found in my song book - song #157, written in 1991)) was going to be the melody I was hearing in my head at the beach.\nBut no! It was another song, completely. So I thought what the heck. Let\u2019s do this one\u2026\nWhen you\u2019re on a trip like that, not sure of where you\u2019re going, that\u2019s how it feels when you\u2019re composing a song: there\u2019s a sense of adventure & quite often a peaceful feeling - at least there is for me.\nYou\u2019re on the breath, you\u2019ve got some momentum. In fact, that\u2019s all you really need to start: a feeling, a mood\u2026and away you go.\nAs I had a quick try at singing the song before I recorded this episode, as usual, I could 'hear' other musical elements (besides the piano & voice). So I couldn\u2019t resist it, I recorded a quick arrangement.\nThat\u2019s been one of the pleasures, recording these episodes: discovering songs I\u2019d forgotten about, or just reworking a line or two on a song that I thought perhaps wasn\u2019t really up to scratch. Fixing one or 2 words can make all the difference.\n'Drift Away' was inspired by a morning I can clearly remember.\nI woke just as dawn was breaking. The light drifted across the slate grey sky. It was a quiet moody morning. I\u2019d pulled the curtains back to watch the sunrise.\nIt was so nice to be awake. I had no place to be that day, so there wasn\u2019t that feeling of \u201cOh no, what am I doing awake? I've gotta get back to sleep\u201d. No, this was the opposite of that of that feeling.\nThere\u2019s one line \u2018 take the time to send your fears away\u2019 that catches the ear. I underlined it with a slight harmonic change in the music.\nHow do you send fears away? By doing the opposite: visualising positive scenarios & outcomes. So I was setting myself up for the day..\nCatching that sort of feeling was easy enough in the lyrics. The words came quickly. When it came to the music, the first couple of chords set the mood and away I went.\nI haven\u2019t looked at 'Drift Away' for years. It was a pleasure to rediscover this song. As I say, it\u2019s a peaceful one.\nIn fact, the feeling of the song rolled over into the entire episode & I found myself I reciting the words as a bit of spoken poetry on the spur of the moment.\nLater on the episode, I recount the drive in the country I had this evening, as I improvise some piano music.\nIt all leads me to a mistake on the keys of my piano. So using this unexpected note, I demonstrate how I then might compose another song..one song can lead so easily to the next.\nThe first couple of chords were like that, notes that I hadn\u2019t played like that before quickly lead me into the song,\nDrift Away came together quite quickly, then. this is the way it seems to work for me, particularly when I\u2019m writing music to lyrics which have been rewritten,\nI do mention a song which did take me a couple of hours to finish: 'Molly Brown'. This one came to me as a fully formed melody and chords - a piano piece - except I called it someone ( blank) 'Brown', definitely a female energy. And I also knew it would be a song about a historical event.\nThen it came to me to write about theTitanic. I resisted the idea because it's certainly already been done. \nBut the next day, on the internet a story came up unexpectedly about Molly Brown, who survived the sinking of the titanic. Amazing. Ok. I wasn\u2019t going to fight that. So I found a dry account of her quite remarkable life, found there was a story to tell or retell\u2026 I created lyrics, imagining scenes based on the online account of her life. Here\u2019s the link\u2026Molly Brown podcast episode #76\n...