Jack Kerouac Festival
Mandatory Excursion
Attending
the Jack Kerouac Festival was probably my favorite excursion so far. I attended the Rick Moody and Tanya Donelly
session on October 10, 2012. The
majority of the event consisted of these two incredibly talented musicians, and
author in Rick Moody’s case, discussing their personal achievements, ideals,
thoughts, and opinions on certain topics.
I have
recently been taking more of an interest in how music is created, what goes
into it, different methods of playing it, and playing instruments such as bass
and electric guitar. After having said
that, I found this event enticing. One
woman in the audience asked which came first, the lyrics or the music. To my astonishment, the mutual agreement
between Rick and Tanya was neither.
Tanya said that the words and the music need to come together at the
same time, otherwise the process is extremely “laborsome.” I had never heard this before, the answers I
had heard before were either the words come first, or the music need to come
first. I had never thought that the
process would call for both to be imagined at the same time. I say imagined because Moody’s response was
to not even pick up an instrument when writing a song or one will be forced
into using common chords or melodies.
Also
something that was previously a mystery to me was where professional song
writers write their music. Moody said he
writes on anything available, like napkins, paper, the notepad app for the
iphone, or anything else. Tanya had a
more definitive answer of a notebook.
She said she always writes her songs down with a pencil in a
notebook. I suppose it is all based on
personal preference, but I found the opinions and strategies interesting.
They
were asked how their music has been inspired by books. Tanya, struggling to find words for an
answer, came up with the book “Tinkers” that inspired a song she had somewhat
recently written. Often time I have
heard of bands related songs to books, whether it be for inspirational purposes
or for humor. Moody on the other hand
stated that to him music and books were the same genre. They are a common piece of work. “Literature is musical,” he said. “To say one inspired the other would be to
say that they are different, and I have trouble believing that they are.” That stuck with me throughout the
session. Can music and literature be the
same? Are they the same? It is a
very clever thought that makes sense.
What is music, but literature with a tune?
After being asked if music has
“plots,” Tanya stated that they absolutely do.
They tell stories and have characters and scenes. Moody, however, had an answer that shocked
me. It made so much sense yet took an
incredible amount of thought. He said
that books have a beginning, middle, and end.
He said that when writing a song, “music can’t have a beginning, middle,
and end or you become a slave to the system.”
He said that songwriters can’t be editorial or have strict thoughts
about a song prior to writing it.
Otherwise, he explained, song writing is nearly impossible; You are just
going back and forth trying to find words that fit in a melody, or a melody
fitting in with words. This concept sort
of goes back to the idea that lyrics and music should flow at the same time,
rather than forcing one upon the other.
Surprisingly
enough, Jack Kerouac was almost never mentioned throughout the entire
event. I heard his name a few times
vaguely referenced, but otherwise nothing.
I was a little disappointed about that because this was supposed to be
the topic of the excursion. However, I
still found this to be my favorite trip yet.
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