Sing it. Do it.

Musical Musings with Paul Bourgeois

There’s a reason I don’t own a TV. I envision a nightmare world of doers and watchers. Life isn’t lived by watching it. But then again, maybe – just like I traveled about a lot in my twenties and now I want to stay at home - I’m like that kid who did nothing else and now I have had enough of it.

You know, I used to read half a novel in bed. Now I read two paragraphs and I’m asleep. Which is a good thing, I suppose. Is that modern culture shortening my attention span or am I just getting older? A little of both, I guess. I used to write poetry about sucking women’s toes, about a fire burning inside that I just couldn’t put out. Now I’m writing songs about coming to terms with things. That’s ok. Times change.

I tell myself and I tell you I don’t want to write Europop dance music. But even if I could, even if I had Justin Timberlake’s youth and looks… I only mention that because I understand that that is what sells. Well, to be completely honest… if I could… if that money truck pulled up to my door…well… I might sell out. Of course I would! It’s only pragmatics. I have to feed my family somehow. And I wouldn’t actually have to go to the club and have that strobe light monotony drilled into my head at two in the morning. So, in a way, I suppose I am lucky that money plays only a little part in my musical career. I end up doing exactly what I want.

And remember that life is not reality TV. A few years ago Gene Simmons (lead singer from KISS, not Marlon Brando’s co-star) had a show about a rock and roll school. He was arguing with a couple parents about a kid attending summer camp. He was telling them that to be a superstar the kid had to be committed to the music and so it was important for this kid to miss summer camp with his family. I didn’t bother watching the entire episode but it kind of sticks in my mind when I see Gene Simmons talking about musical commitment in a kid – and the kid is ten.

And to sing we don’t need to be really good. We don’t need digital tricks and we don’t need to be able to take a single note and warble it about three or four octaves before we finish with it like they do on American Idol. My God, I’m listening to Sarah Michelle Geller singing “Something to Sing About” right now. If you can’t turn at least one day of your life into a musical like on Buffy the Vampire Slayer what good is life? I mean, vampire musicals! If you can’t have fun… if only vampires can have fun… if the only way you get to participate in silly fun stuff is by watching it on TV… well, bugger what other people think, as Spike might say.

And what part does talent play in all this. If you want to do what you want and you are not getting paid for it then you don’t need no talent. I’m certainly not a super talented player. I just write and sing some interesting pieces and can entertain a small and sympathetic audience. Do we, as the audience, need to find perfect people, the very perfect musician or music, and load them up with gold chains and put them in fancy houses with cameras so we can feel real. I don’t. I just need to play.

If I hear music I want to be part of it. In the early jazz recordings they couldn’t set up the drummer for the recording, because the drum kit would just blow all the other instruments away. So what you sometimes hear is the drummer in the background beating away on an equipment case. He is like Animal on the Muppets. You just can’t keep him down. And me, too. I would be slamming away on beer tables in clubs, smashing the wood, breaking the bottles. It was a joy to bartenders and bouncers everywhere when I finally learned to play the harmonica.

There are some places in this world where if you sing in public and you are not performing you must be drunk, or insane. That’s really sad, not to be able to “whistle while you work” or just hum a happy tune while you walk down the street. Nope, you have to keep emotions pent up inside and if you aren’t getting paid for it, you have no reason to do it. Singing and playing for free? What could be more insane!?! Well, they can just bring the white truck for me now. You know how when you talk to children sometimes they don’t listen. Well, I heard a study was done once which said there was something about rhythm which grabbed people’s attention. So I started singing things like “Have you brushed your teeth?” or “It’s time to turn the computer off and go to bed!” Bugged the hell out of the people concerned, but the response was immediate.

But you know, the point is, you can’t just plant yourself in front of a screen, or sit quietly behind a table, just to watch or listen. You have to become involved in a real way. And that ain’t just rhetoric. I do mean YOU, whoever you are. This is my children and my children’s children and the whole future of the human race I am talking about.