A question often asked of songwriters is “What comes first, the words or the music?” A more compelling question, for me at least, might be, “What comes first, the song or the wisdom?”
Take “Midnight Ghost” for example.
“Midnight Ghost” is unusual as a composition in that it was originally an entirely different lyric, lifted lightly and gratefully from a Jack Kerouac novel. When the Kerouac estate said, “Yo, dudes, NOT cool” (after we asked) I scrambled to create lyrics of my own as we (Gathering Field) recorded Lost in America in beautiful Germantown, New York. The result is more of a poem than a song and not my usual approach to writing (I like to write the words and music simultaneously, generally speaking.) Here’s what I came up with back then:
Destitute, desolation (reference, to Kerouac’s Desolation Angels)
Angels eyes shine upon my curse
From this mountain I make my way
Along the railroad earth (another flagrant Kerouac reference)
Steam train blazing a lonely hill
Damaged cargo am I
But not so damaged as not to see
The magic in the sky
Oh Midnight, Midnight Ghost
Old zipper rolling down the line
Oh Midnight, Midnight Ghost
Rolling down the line
Without a memory, without a heartache
Ain’t no comfort in happiness
Tidings whispered and merciful
Are tidings I like best
Predawn twilight, skyline glowing
Mountain wind blowing through, blowing through
And I tug upon the jug of my redemption
Nothing much else to do
Oh Midnight, Midnight Ghost
Old zipper rolling down the line
Oh Midnight, Midnight Ghost
Rolling down the line
In a sense, my innocence
Been waiting here all along
Thought I traveled so far away
But I was never even gone
Pray for me my sweet Marie
I’m searching still for to see my sign
Rolling onto the new day
Down my midnight line
Oh Midnight, Midnight Ghost
Old zipper rolling down the line
Oh Midnight, Midnight Ghost
Rolling down the line
Really not bad, when you look at it. Though I never dwelled too much on the meaning of the words as I (like you) was always happily distracted by Dave’s incredible guitar work. Truthfully, the lyrics lived a bit closer to my surface than my heart.
Cut to a recent Saturday morning.
I had just finished a conference call with a group of fellow travelers on the Broad Highway and felt a swoosh of light shoot from my toes up though my whole body and out through my eyes which got just a little teary as the last verse of Midnight Ghost popped into my brain. “Thought I traveled so far away but I was never even gone.” Grabbed a guitar and recorded what you see here.
Song – written and recorded in 1995.
Wisdom – felt, finally, in 2020.
