Work Song – Song and a Chat

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Episode #153: Work Song (Song starts at 2:24)

We are heading back in time on this episode, way back to 1986 when I wrote ‘Work Song’. This was song #11.

At the time. I was working in a music shop – a short stint, as it turned out. I really wasn’t cut out to do the 9 to 5 thing. ‘Work Song’ is a statement to that effect.

I recorded a version live for this episode. It was nice to sing and play this one, after all these years. It brought back so many memories.

I was young then. Determined to take my music somewhere, already committed to living a creative life.

In the lyrics there’s a line: ‘If you choose to live by the clock, it gives you no time for love’ . It pretty much summed up the idea that we’ll miss all the special moments & life will just pass us by if we get lost in some pastime (a job) that we are not passionate about.

This thought came to me loud and clear back then. I thought ‘Hey, I think I’ll write a song about this idea, and so the the lyrics took shape.

A few Weeks later, I was trying out a brand new keyboard (one of the perks of the job). It was a Korg DW8000. It was a beautiful sounding keyboard, with lots of inspiring sounds.

As I pushed the buttons, selecting the preset sounds, I improvised little pieces . One of these riffs struck me as quite strong, so when I got home that night, I sat at my piano, recalled the riff and wrote it down.

Then I remembered the lyrics I had written recently. They were sitting on the piano, waiting.

As usual, it all came together quickly. Before I knew it another song was born.

So I duly wrote into my exercise book. Little did I know one day I’d be recording a podcast episode about it, having now written 800+ songs.

The songwriting is driven by passion. Well, it is for me. Songwriting is not something I wonder whether or not I’ll carry on with. It’s part of each week. It sneaks up on me after a few days and a melody comes through my fingers from somewhere.

I spent a lot of my life being a piano man at night, and a songwriter in the day time. I don’t regret a minute of it.

I wrote my memoirs of my piano man days and I have a work in progress version up on a blog, which I stumbled across today (I mention this on the episode, so, as promised, here’s the link.The Hazy Line – Memoirs of a Piano Man

I also mention the songs ‘Old Hat in The Sun’ and ‘Don’t Live Your Life In One Day’ (a song completely improvised/composed live a previous episode): Old Hat In The Sun

Here’s my weekly blog with the lyrics and the painting of the week too. www.petepascoe.wordpress.com

It’s a creative life. It’s a rich life. I really enjoy sitting at my piano, with the mic, talking about the creative process.

I love entertaining, it’s what I do. So this podcast is an entertaining weekly look at how it feels, how I go about writing a song – and you get to hear a new song each week. …. like ‘Work Song’.

Hope you enjoy the episode. Here we go…