Meaning of song

What exactly is the. Song In Reply about? It seems like a story, or a personal moment in your life. It is almost like a painting. I also am curious to know the same about Mother’s Song. Absolutely perfection. Thank you.

SK
24 Feb 2023 5:08pm

Ok, that’s a couple of good questions on a couple of levels, but let’s get the factual stuff straight first. Mother’s Song was written entirely by my son John. I’m under the impression it’s the only song he wants to write and all other future compositions will somehow be Mothers Song again. I don’t know about the ‘

Everything I write is personal by definition, and for whatever reason, there needs to be strong emotion involved for me to feel compelled to start and finish a tune.

Consistent with my definition of music as a succession of feeling states I suppose.

I’m not convinced “feeling it” from the artist perspective has anything to do with “meaning” from the listener’s perspective.
It’s been my experience there’s no 1:1 mapping between specific resonances and specific feeling states for myself, so pretty sure that precludes any possibility of specific emotional meaning between you and I.
Beyond a general recognition we go on some kind of trip in the process of listening.
Good question tho..

Anyway, yeah. It’s all personal, emotional, real life stuff, the experiences we draw from or recycle as art, and the beauty of “meaning” in this context is not in specificity it’s in the interpretation.

7 Mar 2023 2:56pm

 
 

Steve, I just wanted to hit the button “In Reply” on this thread. But also, to further this discussion, I have always wondered, how the heck do you name an instrumental? Cole’s Law, Thing One, Elmer’s Revenge, Ice Cream, etc are all great names, but how do you settle on a name?

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