For those who've ever wondered how a song comes about, the lyric or the music first, well, it can be either.
This particular song was inspired by the words 'Move like a Ninja,' that I saw painted on a building site hoarding whilst sat at traffic lights in my car, yup a song can be inspired by the simplest of things.
Fortunately, sitting on the passenger seat was a ukulele, I always keep one in the car for such eventualities, also, to sing-along with when stuck in London traffic jams (often). By time I'd reached home some thirty minutes later, I had most of the melody and chorus down.
Some compositions have come about merely from a sentence I've heard, or a melody I discovered whilst nonchalantly noodling on my guitar or piano, others I'll compose to order, as I used to when I was in the 'Jingle' business, which is a bit like painting by numbers.
It never ceases to amazes me, the ability to move people with music and song.
I've gate-crashed many a launch party or event in the past (occasionally still do), simply by walking up to the entrance with a guitar case, to then be ushered in with the words, 'Ah, you must be the band, we've been waiting for you.' If you can walk with authority and confidence, people will rarely call your bluff, a bit of charm and a good back-up story doesn't harm either.
Wednesday was a musical evening. I arrived in town at 9pm, popped into a Soho club, The Friendly Society, to join a friends birthday party, I didn't stay more than an hour due to the deafening noise levels. I don't much care for shouty conversations these days, nor having to communicate in semaphore.
J, art dealer and champion of YBA called, 'Frances, we're in The Groucho are you in town, come join us, oh and do you have your guitar with you?' Well, I did have my ukulele. Six of us sat out on the patio making merry, James, knowing my occasional vice, ordered up a cigar (Patagas D), the best I've smoked in awhile, it was so rich the taste lingered in my mouth for two days afterwards, yuk!
It was now 2am but we weren't ready to go home, so it was all back to James' house, which is as much a galley as it is a house. It was deemed that we needed a guitar, so two of us dispatched to the Office and picked one up, wisely, I left the car and we caught a cab back, this wasn't going to be an early night.
Fortunately for me, there were two other singer/guitarists amongst us that evening/morning.
At 10am...yawn, we waved goodbye to the last of the guests, J suggested I stay over however, aware of my impending doom, I thought it wiser to awaken in my own space, knowing exactly where the paracetamol, lucozade and eye-mask was located.
As foreseen, the remains of Thursday were spent in a hazy fug, stumbling from bed to sofa, to soothing hot bubble bath, back to sofa and bed again. I threw the towel in proper at 9:00pm and headed off to HQ.
Yes yes I know, it's not big and it's not clever, but thankfully it happens very very rarely these days. Sometimes, that guitar-case in hand gets me into real trouble.
What I'm reading in bed...
Wise Words & Country Ways Weather Lore: Ruth Binney.
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