As I thought about our theme of change, I found myself singing David Bowie’s “Changes” song. That led to a concept that I’ll share with you.
I’ve always liked David Bowie’s song, and I went to look up the lyrics to quote from it. Instead, I found a great article about how Bowie wrote and recorded the album Hunky Dory that the song first appeared in. Bill DeMain writes, ““In the early seventies it really started to all come together for me as to what it was that I liked doing,” Bowie told me in 2003. “After I came back from my first trip to America, I had a new perception of songwriting, and it was about a collision of musical styles. I found that I couldn’t easily adopt brand loyalty, or genre loyalty; I wasn’t an R&B artist, I wasn’t a folk artist, and I didn’t see the point any more in trying to be that purist about it.
"What my true style was is that I loved the idea of putting Little Richard with Jacques Brel and the Velvet Underground backing them. What would that sound like? Nobody was doing that. At least not in the same way."
How cool, that this song and the others in this album helped David Bowie find his voice and discover the performer that we came to know and love.
Bill DeMain writes, “Did Bowie know back in 1971 that he was making a career-defining single?
Putting it in context of the album that it kicked off, he told me: “Hunky Dory gave me a fabulous groundswell. First with the sense of: ‘Wow, you can do anything.’ You can borrow the luggage of the past, you can amalgamate it with things that you’ve conceived could be in the future, and you can set it in the now.
"Then the record provided me, for the first time in my life, with an actual audience – I mean people actually coming up to me and saying: ‘Good album, good songs.’ That hadn’t happened to me before.
"It was like: ‘Ah, I’m getting it. I’m finding my feet. I’m starting to communicate what I want to do. Now… what is it I want to do?’”
Maybe that’s how we deal with change, by finding our real selves and communicating that to others. Thanks, David Bowie.
I’m going to think about this as I write. My voice and my ideas are unique to me, and I should lean into that and not worry about writing like others do. That’s how I will make my own path through all the changes in this world.
How about you? Have you had any discoveries during this time of change?
Here’s the link from Louder: Classic Rock in case you’d like to read the whole article: https://www.loudersound.com/features/david-bowies-changes-the-story-behind-the-song.
Lynn Lovegreen has lived in Alaska for over fifty years. After twenty years in the classroom, she retired to make more time for writing. She enjoys her friends and family, reading, and volunteering at her local library. Her young adult historical fiction is set in Alaska, a great place for drama, romance, and independent characters. See her website at www.lynnlovegreen.com. You can also find her on Facebook and Instagram.
5 comments:
I find music often sets me to thinking about life or different situations. Thanks for the great blog post!
Interesting post, Lynn. While I'm not a great David Bowie fan, I do remember the song title albeit none of the words. However, I do believe in finding our voice, our path and following it even if it means we're a little of this and a little of that with a bit of something else thrown in.
Thanks, Diana and Judith. It's interesting how we can find inspiration in many places. I agree that finding our voice is important.
Great post, Lynn. I definitely remember that song. It came out the year I graduated from High School and that meant a lot of changes for me. I really liked this part from your article when he talks about finding his true style:
"I found that I couldn’t easily adopt brand loyalty, or genre loyalty; I wasn’t an R&B artist, I wasn’t a folk artist, and I didn’t see the point any more in trying to be that purist about it."
I think that is something for many authors to consider. When I started out, everyone told me I had to write to genre tropes. If I didn't write straight up the middle of the genre I couldn't get published. If I did luck into getting published I wouldn't make any. money. A lot of people still say that.
Of course, as much as I tried I could write straight up the genre. All the overused tropes seemed tired to me and didn't match my experiences in the world. Like many writers, my stories were cross-genre. To make matters worse, I write in more than one genre.
It's true it's harder to find an audience when you do that. But, for me, it's impossible to continue writing if I don't love the story I'm working on. And if I don't continue to write, there is nothing to sell.
Every writer is different, but I think for a longterm career you have to find your own path and embrace it. Writing stories is already hard, if you hate it most of the time, it's just not worth it. So, as some younger generation folks might say: "Let your freak flag fly" and write what speaks to you. It will be a better story with more loyal readers than writing to some perceived notion of genre perfection.
Loved the post, Lynn. I went back and listened to the song on You Tube and enjoyed it again.
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