If a song is worth anything, it will stick in your craw without any help or reinforcement. A good song shouldn’t need to be written down. As I am aging, I trust my memory less and less. I require some basic notes to preserve the idea. Most of my songs grow from a tiny initial idea. This seed might be a guitar hook, a melody, or a single line of text. If I have an idea that isn’t yet a song but has the potential, I get as much down as soon as possible. Most often, I use the voice memo app on my phone. I love a good title. It is very common for my best songs to grow from a great title. The title can tell me everything I need to know about where the song is going and its overall concept. This new song started in the voice memo app. It began life as the chord progression that would become the chorus. There was no overall concept. It did not have a title. In the app, it was listed as “Idea 9” meaning that it was my ninth untitled entry. I worked through the progression and it eventually became a full song. When all was said and done, Idea 9 felt like a fitting title. Sometimes a good title can remind you of the hard work that was required. This song was born as Idea 9 and it will always be Idea 9.
If you would like to hear the original voice memo recording, let me know. I would be happy to share it, if you want to hear it.