I used to believe that creativity and inspiration is something that is supposed to “happen” to you. Therefore, whenever creation didn’t come effortlessly, I told myself it was most likely due to a lack of talent.
Then I started to read more by creators I deeply admire, people like Nick Cave or Patti Smith, that explained that creativity is also like labour. You have to do the work, sit and be available...again and again. Listening to these words, gave me just that little bit of extra space to trust the process sometimes.
And yet- there is also simply MAGIC out there....songs or poems about which the writer has shared that they felt like the piece was ‘given’ to them- all they needed to do was write it down.
I would like to share a few of those rare pearls that are important to me personally and this is the first, “If you needed me” by Townes van Zandt.
Townes was staying with Guy and Susanna Clark when they all got the flu. As Townes describes in this recording from “Austin Pickers”, the song then came to him in a fever dream about being a folksinger that actually played this song.
He woke up, wrote down the verses in the middle of the night and went right back to sleep.
The next morning he woke up, picked up a guitar and played it through.
It has never changed.
In a later interview Townes shared:
“The subconscious must be writing songs all the time. I’ve heard a lot of songwriters express the same feeling, that the song came from elsewhere.
It came through me.
The song was there.
I’ve had that feeling with certain other songs, Guy Clark songs or Bob Dylan songs. John Prine songs.
I feel, “Man, why didn’t I write that? That song was out there and I didn’t get it.”
You get that feeling the first time you hear it: “Man, that song was in me, too!””
Thank you Townes van Zandt, for writing the most beautiful songs to guide, comfort and move me.
xez