Saturday, January 19, 2008

Songs in the Raw "My Favorite Bridge" and "Box of Pictures"

If you're just in the mood to listen...go here;
Jon Roniger – Songs in the Raw – MySpace Page

It's been a couple of weeks since I've written in this blog. But, I've posted songs this week and last week. Funny thing is that when I wrote my last entry, I was in the middle of kind of a writer's block. I was writing all the time, but nothing was making sense. Nothing was coming together in the form of a song.
I was very happy to hear from several people who are lyricists offering their services. I am still considering working with other writers and have in the past. It's always been a rewarding experience. I've found that it's a great way to gain new perspective on the craft of song writing. But for now, I am sticking to my own writing. I've been really busy the last couple of weeks with various ideas and working on letting them grow.
Now.....I'm not Paul McCartney.....I just write songs. No one is going to remember these songs in 50 years. But, I write them cause I feel strongly about things and need to write about them. Sometimes I just write because it's "what I do". I'm too far along in this thing to go another way. Sometimes I wish I could.
Anyway, enough of my yackin', let's boogie.
Last week's song is called "Box of Pictures". I was lying in bed watching, but not listening to a show on the band Death Cab for Cutie. The show was of them on tour. They were stopping in all the towns that I have been stopping in during the last couple years of touring. I felt like I was watching my own tours over again. The song "Box of Pictures" came out of me while i was watching this show.
Obviously, it's about looking through a box full of pictures. When I do this, it always freaks me out. How young I was, the hair styles, the cars we drove, all that crap. Sometimes it's not so good to relive the past. It sort of depends on how you lived it the first time. Maybe that's reason enough to live a good wholesome life. So, when you look at the pictures of it, you don't get sick to your stomach thinking about what an ass you were.
So, there it is....."Box of Pictures".

This week's song is called "My Favorite Bridge". It all started with a phrase that I couldn't get out of my head, "Never been the one to....". I kept coming back to things that I am not inclined to to like throw in the towel, be careful, run scared, all that type of stuff. I'm always going to follow my dream. I'm always going to double down or split a pair of Aces. It's just the way that I am built.
When I was at summer camp one year. We were out on a trip to canoe a river that was extremely cold. I guess the water ran cold all year long, since it was July and the water was 42 degrees...or something like that. I actually don't have the stats on me at this time.
Each person was asked to come to this bridge a little ways upstream from where we were going to put in. The councilor would take your paddle and toss it off of the bridge then tell you to jump in after it. Some of the kids froze on the bridge. It wasn't very high. But the water was really cold. Plus it was moving very quickly. If you waited a couple of seconds, your paddle would be way down river and you'd be swimming for quite a while before you got to it. The point of all of this was to desensitize you to the coldness of the water. When your canoe tipped during the trip, you wouldn't be freaking out about the temperature of the water, you'd be focussed on the task of saving yourself and the boat.
The point of telling you this story is that I was thinking about this story as I wrote this song. When the councilor took my paddle and tossed it in the water, I was in mid air before he could tell me to go. I like jumping from bridges.
I use this memory as "My Favorite Bridge". No fear! You're not going to achieve anything if you don't take any chances. What's your bridge....go ahead and jump!

OK....I've talked long enough.
Here's the usual stuff.....video, SNOCAP, links

Jon Roniger - Only Human

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Jon Roniger Website

Jon Roniger’ other MySpace Page

Jon Roniger – Songs in the Raw – MySpace Page

As always, I love to hear from you.
Peace,
Jon