Bindless Captive – Song and a Chat

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Episode #6: Bindless Captive – (Song at 10:30)

It’s 1982. I’m in my science class at school, being lectured on the names of cows stomachs. Predictably, as a young man, keen on the outdoors, the hunting and fishing, my mind started to drift.

Out the window, the hills in the distance beckoned me. In my mind I flew over the city, over the river, over the hills to the farms and beaches where I’d spent so many hours observing nature: In silence, I’d stood, listening to all the sounds, recognising all the bird calls, the sound of the rushing river and the wind in the pines.

Back in the class, as the teacher spoke, I drew a cartoon of a ‘ farmhand ‘- a possible future for myself (not that I was seriously considering it, but the idea of being in the country appealed), and I wrote the lyrics there and then. The lyrics are about a life yet to be lived. I’m 15. I want to do it, and I want to do it now! The outdoors awaited me – as did the future.

I wrote the music to this this song a few years later, in 1985. I find it’s a good idea to stow your writing, art and music (that you may not have a current use for) away for another day. In this case, I’m glad I kept that particular page of my school exercise book.

Lots of insights to songwriting here today, folks.

I’m not going to tell you how to write a song. But I am going to tell you how I write a song .

Enjoy!