No Idea What It Means to Be Creative

Be creative!?! I have no idea what that means, to be creative. It means nothing really. We just do something… write a song or a book or story or get up on stage and try to entertain. It’s all part of the same thing. Small differences. This little article is about how to do it. Just hang around looking for divine inspiration. Right?!?

I don’t know nothing, and I am told ignorance is where knowledge begins, so you have to come at this whole “let’s make something someone else may enjoy” thing from a point of total ignorance. Or maybe you have something to say, something digging at you, and nobody will want to hear it, and that’s perfectly ok, too.

The people who do it as a living say this whole myth of creativity is highly overrated. Just sit down and do it. If you are going in to work every day as a radio DJ and you feel like you’ve lost it, nevermind, just keep moving your mouth. Something will come out.

I am sitting here on Sunday afternoon writing my little piece for Barefoot MusicNews and I have brought up and am listening to Chantmania, an album put out by the Benzedrine Monks of Santo Domonico. The Benzedrine Monks are, of course, assembled from a group from the seventies called Big Daddy, that did music like the theme to Star Wars, Beach Boys style. Very nice. Very eclectic. It’s nice to hear “We are the Monkees” or “We will Rock You” or “Losing my Religion” or “Smells like Teen Spirit” or “Do You think I’m Sexy?” to nice mellow Gregorian harmonies. This goes beyond novelty. It’s beautiful. I was a bit disappointed when I found out The Benzedrine Monks weren’t real monks. But I suppose that’s just me.

It makes you look at the world with a whole new perspective. I have to open myself to lots and lots of weird and different stuff. And yes, keep a sense of humor. Novelty music is groundbreaking stuff. Keeps me creative. If I lose that I think life would be a lot more depressing.

On the subject of being creative, I had a dream the other night. I was at a blues jam without a harmonica, so somebody in the band lent me theirs. It was the most interesting thing you ever saw, being a dream harmonica and all. Well, the sound technician had a problem with me playing. He kept looking at me suspiciously and saying, “Can you play single notes?” And I kept looking back at him like he was a complete idiot. And when it came my turn to play I woke up. I have no idea what the dream meant, but I try to pay attention to my dreams because they shake things up a bit and present stuff in different ways.

So, Eric and I just wrote a song a short time ago. It had been a while and I was afraid I had lost it… the ability to make stuff, you know. When you are young and you know nothing there is all this stuff you can do because you don’t know anything and you’ve got no limitations. You are perfect. You are invincible. And I think I’m getting an idea for a new song as I write this, so there you go. Listening to weird stuff will keep me young. You will never lose creativity, no matter how old you get, as long as you keep yourself open to change. When my body transforms after I die, breaking down, feeding worms and bacteria and plants, that will certainly be my most creative act, so I may as well keep things in perspective now.

Anyway, I had an idea about people who run into bad relationships and why. I wrote the words and had a rough melody in my head. Eric figures out some cool rhythm guitar and I make the words fit. I can make pretty well any words fit any rhythm. Melody is so malleable. It’s scary sometimes. And then we whip up some sort of harmonica guitar thing. The song is called Broke.

I wrote a song once about someone I hate. I had only known the fellow for a short time and then I never saw him again. But I’d been hating the guy for years. I’d been waking up with sweats in the night years later thinking “I should have said this!” or “How could I let him get away with that?” That kind of thing. And now I have a cool song and I can sleep at night. I think I had been tormented for years just so I could write this one song. Was it worth it? Is that even a question worth asking?  The song is called Revenge.

So you start thinking inappropriate things, because you can’t get any closure. You know what I mean. You start thinking things like “Well what if I DID do this or that? What would really happen?” So be honest. Be honest till it hurts. People want to see you stripped naked because they are so afraid of putting themselves out.

And people like me, who wear their hearts on their sleeves, don’t have any choice in the matter. So I may as well put it out there and try to be clear.