Casey Black

More than ever, singer songwriters are not 'from' somewhere, but 'hail' from somewhere. Additionally, an increasing number of songwriters claim that once they hail from somewhere they "never look back." This is alarming since looking back is required for many important day to day activities such as driving, finding out what that noise was, and running away from Satan. I propose that perhaps there is a connection between hailing and never looking back, and that songwriters could regain their flexibility if they would start 'being' from somewhere instead. What's also fascinating about singer songwriters is that many of them claim that they started singing in the womb, or that they always knew that they would be an artist. Maybe I'm just jealous, but when I was in my mom's womb I didn't understand that I was even a person, and when I was little I wanted to be a cheetah named Ricky. I didn't start thinking about music until I was in 6th grade. I was singing a Wilson Phillips song one day after baseball practice and I thought, "Gee. When I sing, I no longer experience the painful disconnection from the Universe imposed upon me by my human consciousness. It's almost as if art is a way of reconnecting, of obliterating consciousness for just long enough to suspend the feeling that I am not just some putrid onlooker, but a piece of the story. Art is therefore made possible by the very thing it seeks to destroy. That's ironic." That's what I would think about while taking my cup off and watching Full House. Indeed, the more I learn about songwriters the more I believe that I am not a songwriter, even though I do in fact write songs. Like, sometimes I will say something and a songwriter will say, "Hey. Now that would make a great song." And I think to myself, "Was is not good enough the way I said it? Do I really need to add music to it?" Or someone will say, "It's okay that your girlfriend dumped you, because you can write about it. That's what songwriters do." And I say, "I guess, but I really don't think that's why she dumped me." Maybe I am not a songwriter. I mean, these are my songs, and I hope you like them. But maybe I am something else. A cheetah perhaps? Yes, maybe I am a cheetah. And maybe it's not the cruel separation from the Universe that plagues me, but the pain of being a cheetah. Because a cheetah never wins?