An Experiment in Writing About Music

Never having written anything other than the briefest of reviews concerning music, other than a paper written for Introduction to Listening the year before I started college, I am embarking on an experiment in which I hope to learn how to write about music. This is how Diana Gabaldon learned to write, as she explains in her book, The Outlandish Companion. One day she decided she wanted to learn how to write a scene involving a large number of people at a banquet, and so she wrote one. That was the way she began writing the Outlander series, if I remember correctly. It's been years since I last read the Companion.

The experiment: listen to music and write about it, beginning with a song I know well. “Letters in My Head” by Fleming and John. If you've never heard the song before you can find it online.

I thought I'd start this little experiment by listening to the song one time through without interruption. But then a word popped into my head that I wanted to write down: sinuous, to describe the quality of the first few bars of music. And then my cell phone rang. Trying again now, from the beginning.

I notice a couple of things: First of all, it is very difficult to just listen to a song. I find that in this respect I fail utterly. I cannot listen without hitting on some key words, thinking about possibilities for the write- up, going over my history with the song, remembering some of my past associations with the handling of music. Second, I realize that listening to this song using only itunes and the speakers on my laptop was a mistake. This is not a terrific way to listen closely to music. I must get out my ear-buds before I proceed, grateful that a friend of our family's provided these for me, even if they don't work very well with my ipod. The speakers on the earbuds are great. The fact that my ipod requires in-line volume and song selection control is not.

My history in music... Not to go into all of it right now, I may as well share that I used to put together my own little playlist each week, and play music on college radio from six to nine every Sunday morning. I first heard of Fleming and John the afternoon they came to our studio to give an interview, and what I mostly remember from that day was a law student named Lee commenting on how good Fleming's hair smelled. If you've ever seen a photograph or video of Fleming McWilliams, you'll know that she has this terrific, big and curly red hair.

So now I'll give it a second shot, ear buds now in place, after mentioning a couple of things that popped out at me in the music. Drums: the drum-beat caught me up and kept me where it wanted me to be. Guitar: Electric or Bass? I'm not experienced enough to know, an aspect of listening I will really have to work on. What I do know is that John Mark Painter is a gifted musician, and that what I'm hearing is virtuosic and complex, if only I were aware enough to appreciate it. It may be that this practice of listening, and writing about it, will help me become more appreciative of what Painter is doing.

Once when we were listening to the album, Delusions of Grandeur, in the car, I noticed my husband grimacing and doing odd things with his hands. He told me he was imagining that he was the guitarist. For those of you who may not know, my husband is a professionally trained jazz musician with plenty of talent of his own. If he says a player is good, he's good.

Can I clear my mind and actually listen this time? I won't know until I try. In the meantime I have discovered a couple of exciting things. Fleming and John are working on a new recording project, and they have a website at http://web.me.com/johnflem/fj/home.html, with links to IHOF Studio (International House of Fleming) and Dweeb Records.

I have to turn the volume way down now that I'm plugged in, because these earbuds function clear(ly) and loud(ly).

I notice this time what I think are two guitars, both an electric and a bass, if those aren't the same that is, and I take more notice of the background vocals, which I know consist of John Painter, and another female voice, possibly Fleming's. I also noticed that what the drums were doing was more complex that I had first realized. I have to say, I enjoy a good drum performance, a drum solo being one of my favorite instrumental things. I want to find my copy of the CD so I can read the liner notes while I take a break from listening and writing.

I am embarrassed that I don't know more about the instruments, admitting to you that I have historically been much more interested in vocalists and lyrics. The liner notes don't tell me much, other than the usual obligatory information, plus lyrics, and the fact that Fleming McWilliams and John Mark Painter provided all of the vocals.

A third listen: I had forgotten to mention the distortion on the electric guitar, or the distance between the listener and Fleming's voice. I have forgotten to talk about Fleming's voice at all. My itunes account tells me that the genre of the song is “Alternative,” but if you've listened to a lot of popular music you'll realize that “Alternative” is not a very descriptive term.

Fleming McWilliams was operatically trained, and you can hear it in her voice. She has a gorgeous range, and can emote as needed, but also has a sort of passionate grittiness that serves the music she and her husband create very well.

Why do I like this song? It has a wildness that attracts me and the music is loud and complicated. You can hear the slightest hint of their punk influences, though punk is not a genre I am particularly familiar with. I love this particular song because the self that Fleming describes sounds so much like me. That's one of the reasons I'm so prone to sing it while getting dressed in the morning.

I'd like the reprint the lyrics here in full, but don't know whether or not it is legal for me to do so. I am therefore limiting the quotation to the following excerpt:

Dear John, okay I'll admit I was wrong when I said that you always get your way

well you know I can be mean and sometimes I like to scream

about all of the things that I know I'll never change

may be a dreamer and a little lazy but you gotta know I'm just crazy

I'm writing letters in my head...

Those of you who know me may not know this, but the person that Fleming describes is me all over: always thinking, not always prepared to speak, obsessing over the things I've done and things I've left undone, flaring up in anger or frustration, but regretting it almost immediately, feeling a little crazy. If you check out the rest of the lyrics, or listen to the song, you'll see. How many times have I said in my writing, even since mid-June when I started writing again, that I wish you could know what I have to say without my having to say it? How many times have I complained of the great ideas that are lost in the shuffle, and in the necessities of daily life. At times I have felt as though this song were me.

At any rate, I recommend both of the albums Fleming and John have produced, Delusions of Grandeur and The Way We Are. I also warn you that the songs that have gotten the most radio play certainly are not their best songs.

If any of you have publication experience, I would be glad to know whether or not including the entire lyrics of this song in a blog post would have been a mistake.