Saturday, December 6, 2008

The creative process & Shakey


On Neil Young's new release, Sugar Mountain, he explains that most songs take him from 90 minutes to two hours to write. But Sugar Mountain came to him all at once, in five minutes. In another live concert, Neil explained that he was at first embarassed by the lyrics of SM but eventually it came to be one of his favorite self penned songs.

Here are some of the lyrics, so you can judge for yourself:

Oh, to live on Sugar Mountain
With the barkers and the colored balloons...

It's so noisy at the fair
But all your friends are there
And the candy floss you had
And your mother and your dad...

There's a girl just down the aisle
Oh, to turn and see her smile
You can hear the words she wrote
As you read the hidden note...

Now you're underneath the stairs
And you're givin' back some glares
To the people who you met
And it's your first cigarette

Oh, to live on Sugar Mountain
With the barkers and the colored balloons
You can't be twenty on Sugar Mountain
Though you're thinking that you're leaving there too soon
You're leaving there too soon

To me, the song has a very Brian Wilson-ish quality, childlike but not childish.

No comments:

Post a Comment