A 14 DAY SONG - ENOUGH

This week's prompt.  Listen to something you wouldn't normally listen to and get inspired.  I'm a rock n roller.  Raised on pop-rock radio from the 70s and beyond.  I love the Beatles, Wilco, Counting Crows, Dawes, Bob Schneider, Mike Viola anything with melody, big hooks, instrumentation and lyrics you can sink your teeth into. 

My 14 year old son, will indulge his old man with some of my listening selections but has recently started flexing his independence and listens to a lot of rap & hip hop.  I've turned him on to Digable Planets, Tribe Called Quest, Lupe Fiasco and some of the stuff that I appreciate in the genre that still has melody and structure and arrangement and some modicum of intelligence in the lyric.  (Man, I sound like an old guy).

A lot of times though all I hear is the drum machine high hat and some affected mumbling vocals.  Lots of 'yeahs' lots of language he couldn't say around his grandparents.  He's tried to convince me to listen to Mac Miller on several occasions...and I've reluctantly sampled.  But admittedly very little.  I must have just heard the songs where he says "Yeah" for a solid :30 seconds before anything interesting happens and I tune out and turn off.

So, my challenge to myself this week was to dig deeper into the Mac Miller catalogue and really give his music a chance and look for inspiration there.  I was pleasantly surprised.  There's way more musicality there than I heard on the surface.

Ultimately, my notes were; "Sparse instrumentaion" "Big Mood" "Beat" and "tight melody, not a lot of motion". So here's this week's submission for the 14 Days Song, with those few sign posts to lead me. A Wils Bach song very loosely inspired by Mac Miller (Fair warning it actually sounds nothing like Mac Miller)

Gimme just a little a bit
Gimme just a little a bit
Gimme just a little a bit
I’ll let you know when I’ve had enough

Young man is leaving
he just gotta break away
find out who he is

Everybodies got a plan 
for who he oughtta be
they want him living like an echo

But you know what hits
and you know what moves you
never did need directions
never did need directions

All need some space
All need some time
All need some time 
away

Gimme just a little a bit
Gimme just a little a bit
Gimme just a little a bit
I’ll let you know when I’ve had enough

Father is people too
he’s got demon’s 
he still believes in
wasn’t so long ago
he did the break away
Is the cycle repeating?

Be not an engineer
Be a sheperd
stop and listen
keep the wolves away 
keep the wolves away

Cause you know what hits
and you know what moves you
It’s about connection
It’s about connection

231105 Enough

Wils Bach is a Los Angeles based singer-songwriter.  Originally from the Chicago area he spent the 2000s living in Indianapolis and criss crossing the midwest with his band playing in every club, pub honky-tonk and bar that would have him and releasing three records along the way. 

Two records with his alt-country band Paging Raymond (Please. Quiet. Recording in 2000; Bridges Left to Burn in 2004), then one with pop rock band Peal (Beautiful Baby Elephant in 2007).  After a decade away from music to focus on a behind the scenes television career he recently released his first solo record Indianapolangeles.

www.wilsbachmusic.com