Hit The Sun – Song and a Chat

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Episode #182: Hit The Sun (Song starts at 6:00)

Where did ‘Hit The Sun’ come from? Well, as soon as I read through the lyrics, like a poem, it took me right back to the day I composed it.

It was a beautiful Spring day. I went outside to hang out some washing ( my cat followed me, waiting for his customary ride in the washing basket, back inside).

Then I sat on the front porch and started writing about what was around me. Lines like: ‘Ice blue sky, pastel neon sphere, riding high ….Black birds fly, concrete lies grey and old and pitted’.

Then I went back inside, sat at the piano and composed the music.

It’s very satisfying thing to write a song. I make the time to write when those ‘moments’ come along.I’ve learned to sense them. It’s a feeling that comes over me, a gentle nudge, to pick up the pen and paper or to sit at the piano and let my hands fall on the keys.

When I write the words, I work one sentence at a time, this leads naturally on to the next as the story unfolds. When I pause, I’ll read back through the last couple of lines. Sometimes, while thinking of a word to rhyme the last word of a sentence, a new series of images and thoughts come to mind – and away I go again.

With the music, it’s largely the same process. When I pause, I go back and play a few lines to get back in the flow, so whatever I write next fits with what’s just been written. Sometimes it comes with a rush. Other times it’s a bit more stop/start, as I experiment with different chords and melody ideas for a line. When it just feels right, away I go again.

In terms of images and feelings, One song can be like a photo album to me. You don’t get many words in a song lyric, so you’ve got to pack a lot in – layers are the key. Otherwise you can get wordy pretty quickly.

So I find myself in 2023 with 800 songs, which Is like 800 photo albums. It’s nice to be sharing them here on this podcast, offering insight into what the lyrics are about, what I was thinking.

But often it doesn’t matter too much what the lyricist had in mind. The words can bring different ideas to the listener. The song might come to mean something completely different to what the composer originally had in mind – and that’s all good.

So a song has legs, that’s the beauty of art. It carries on of its own accord, it has momentum.

After all these years, I ‘winged’ a new bridge for this song as I recorded this episode. A song is wide open until it’s recorded (and you can always reinterpret it again later on).

I hope you enjoy this gentle song, it’s an old demo, recorded in 1991, in the piano bar, after hours.

I’m glad I picked up a pen on that beautiful spring day all those years ago. It was fun to take a look at it on this episode.

On reflection, ‘Hit The Sun’ is a strange sort of name, really. I was thinking about hitting the beach I suppose. Can you hit the sun? Written in 1987, this is song #57.

Spring sure is here. I include a recording of me, down at the beach. So you can join me beside the waves on this episode. I get out into nature to fill the well. It’s an essential part of the creative process. Taking time out and forgetting all about it from time to time.

You can find the lyrics (and the skiing frog I mention on this episode ) on my blog www.petepascoe.wordpress.com

This has links to www.petepascoe.bandcamp.com where I have 12 albums solo and recorded with others. Plus there’s my YouTube channel Pete Pascoe Art and Music. Enjoy.