Brooooce

Encouraged by the positive response to "We Come From the Same Place" (my Neil Young tribute song), I started to write the second song in the series. To make life easier for myself, I picked a subject I knew well: Bruce Cockburn.

Ever since I started writing songs, Bruce Cockburn has been an important songwriting influence and something of a symbolic figure for me. He's appeared in dreams from time to time and has coincidentally turned up at important points in my musical life. (When I received my first major review, a larger one for him was on the same page; when I played my first folk festival, he was the headliner.)

While I wanted to genuinely pay tribute to him in a song, I also hoped that perhaps he might someday hear it, so I started in on the writing process with high expectations, ego-driven ambition, and the constant feeling that he was looking over my shoulder editing my work.

This made this writing process rather difficult.

For instance, as soon as I noticed angel/critic Broooce whispering in my ear, I had to be sure that I didn't take his suggestions too much to heart. I didn't want this song to become an "imitation Bruce Cockburn" song. Nor did I want it to be a song written FOR him by me.

It appeared that this song would be up against some challenges from the start (not unlike other second-borns, I suppose). Not to worry, I told myself. I can do this. As if to prove it to myself, I quickly found a guitar figure that was suitably Brucey (yet simple enough for me to actually play) and composed a pretty melody to go with it.

Right away I started hearing him singing the melody, and suddenly I found myself fending off lyrics from his existing songs which neatly fit into my new one. I was suddenly aware of how familiar I am with Bruce Cockburn's catalogue and realized this is both a blessing and a curse when it comes to this project. I worried about unconscious plagiarism.

And then I wrote pages and pages and pages of very bad lyrics.

At least they were original.

(to be continued...)

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Meanwhile, last week, I saw Kurt Swinghammer perform a song he had written in tribute to Burt Bacharach and Hal David.