Ghosts and Lamp Posts – Song and a Chat

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Episode #59: Ghosts and Lamp Posts (Song at 5.45)

Welcome to another episode packed with information, humour and mystery!

I actually said something like that as I introduced this week’s podcast episode and as I said those words, the lamp I picked up from the side of the road ( someone was throwing it out) recently went out. It’s one of those ones you tap 3 times to get different levels of light. Anyhow, given the subject matter of ghosts, that was quite a moment, here in the middle of the night in Melbourne in my studio all by myself. Not spooked at all! I tapped it and away it went again. It’s never happened before…

Here I am, talking all around the subject, this week’s song. Sometimes by doing that you come up with a more ‘real’, fuller picture with depth. More of the story.

That’s the way I roll: I see art as life and life as art. A painting I did today (of Olivers Hill in Melbourne), sitting beside the water, caught my eye as I recorded this episode. Painting outside sets my mind free.

And that is a necessary part of the equation when it comes to songwriting.

Today’s song, song # 312, Ghosts and Lamp Posts, was written on the 3 /12 in 1991

The moment that inspired this song is etched in my memory. I was driving home from a gig at a resort in the middle of a rainy night when a large milk truck ( and trailer ) came around the corner, just on the wrong side of the road. It was one of those moments. He corrected his course. I veered to the left, just hanging on the road and in an instant the moment was gone & I carried on home.

It was an inspired patch for me in my twenties. Nearly everything inspired me. I was writing about 5 or 6 songs a week. My diary entries each night always finished with a lyric writing effort – and I finished the lyric. It wasn’t just a line or two. I wrote the whole lyric quickly, there and then.

So what does it really take to be a songwriter? I would say it takes dedication. You’ve gotta stick with it. Just start writing. Write around the subject and if you’re not sure what the song’s about, sometimes that’s all the better.

Ghosts and Lamp Posts sure took me somewhere again as I listened midway through recording this podcast episode. It’s got ‘a feeling’ about it.

I hope it takes you somewhere and I hope you enjoy the chat about it – and around it. Plus there’s some intermittent piano playing as I talk.

Thanks for dropping by. Enjoy!

Here’s the blog post I mention in todays episode ( you can read the lyrics to this song and view the painting I painted earlier today -a seascape. It’s a great creative life). www.petepascoe.wordpress.com

Pete