Follow The Sun

I’m wondering about the significance of a song that insists on being written. After I put the final touches on my sixth album, “Somewhere In The Night”, it was my intention to put the whole music thing away for a while. I was behind deadline on finishing the screenplay for the movie version of my first novel “The Last Sunset,” and I hadn’t made much progress at all on my second book while being totally immersed in the recording of my last two albums.

But when the Muse takes control of your life, plans go out the window.

Ever have one of those nights where you just can’t clear your mind enough to sleep? That is just the way “Follow The Sun” insisted on being written. Four lines of the song came into my mind and played over and over as if afraid of being forgotten. Normally, I would just acknowledge them with “yeah, that would make a good song,” and turn over and go to sleep. But the Muse wasn’t having any of that. Relentless as the waves breaking on the shore, the lines kept replaying in my head until finally, I surrendered, turned on the bedside light, got out of bed, and went over to the dresser and wrote them down.

No sooner had my head hit the pillow than two more lines came with the same persistence, and finally the same result. This dance repeated itself several more times until 3:45 am found me standing beside the dresser again, pen in hand, yelling out to the universe, “OK! OK! Anything more? Or am I done?”

The next night when I laid down, the pieces of the arrangement started to flood into my bed. I did not bother to resist. I went downstairs to my studio, threw all the switches on and picked up my guitar. Trying to stay in bed would have been futile. So I spent the night recording this song that I guess you could say had a mind and a will of it’s own.

So here it is, “Follow The Sun”, I am done with it. Maybe now I can get some sleep…