I’ve been writing and recording songs for years. But it is only recently that I’ve started performing my own music live. It started by playing at welcoming open mic events at local bars and restaurants. I also accepted an invitation from a friend to play the break between sets when he played at Muse Café, a coffee and wine gathering place in my neighborhood. But I knew that one day I wanted to have people come to see me and hear my songs in my own performance.
So I set some goals for myself. And one of those goals was to play my own show at that same coffee house. So I kept playing open mic events, expanding my repertoire and confidence. Then the time came and I reached out to two local venues - Muse Café and an arcade around the corner where another friend of mine had played before.
The arcade, called Wondercade, was the first to respond. They’d be glad to have me! We set up a date and time for the first performance. I was so excited and nervous that new music welled up inside me and I realized I needed to channel the energy. I would write a song for the venue. I would call the song Wondercade! But that’s a story for a different time.
My first show at Wondercade was successful: I didn’t panic. I played 2 sets of 50 minutes of mostly my own music. It didn’t sound half bad. More confident than ever, I followed up with Muse. And immediately we set a date for my first performance at my dream venue!
Again, the rush of nerves and excitement, and again, knowing I had to write a venue song.
Where to start? Well, that seemed obvious. Musé Cafe takes its name from the muses of Greek mythology. The muses themselves feature prominently on their website.
Unlike most of my songs, I didn’t start right in with a lyric or a guitar progression. This one started with research. Who were the muses? I kind of knew about them in theory - they inspired songs and poetry and art. But why are there nine of them? What are the other six about?
I reviewed the old Edith Hamilton Mythology book on my bookshelves - I’m a former English teacher after all. And I supplemented that information with Wikipedia - I live in the modern age after all. The first and foremost thing I learned about the muses is that they “are all of one mind, their hearts are set upon song and their spirit is free from care. He is happy whom the muses love.” I can confirm this. Here’s a quick overview of their roles, in the order they appear in our song:
- Polyhymnia - muse of songs to the gods
- Euterpe - muse of lyric poetry
- Erato - muse of love poetry
- Terpsichore - muse of dance
- Clio - muse of history
- Calliope - muse of epic poetry
- Thalia - muse of comedy
- Melpomene - muse of tragedy
- Urania - muse of astronomy
So, seizing on other clarifications that suggested Euterpe was the goddess of lyric poetry and thus also song, I quickly determined that she was the heroine of our saga. I had already subconsciously determined that if I was writing about the muses of greek mythology, there had to be a saga!
So to set the scene, I imagined the life of the gods. Nothing to do. Immortal. Bored.
“Polyhymnia elbowed Euterpe / pointing down from their heavenly berth
They’d grown tired from the wine / grape stains on their togas
They were looking for distractions on earth”
It didn’t come out that way the first time. It was longer. But I combined two ideas into “pointing down from” to show the distance and their position of power. Economy of words is important in storytelling.
I pictured the muses, drunk and powerful, toying with us like the gods always do. But what would make it interesting for them? What if they were wagering something that mattered?
But what matters to the gods? Oh. Their own powers.
“I’ll give you dominion over the words inspired by purple flowers /
If you can get that man to sing out loud.”
Actually, the first line I wrote was “if you can get that man in front of a crowd.” Oh my. Just like that, this song was about me and my fear of performing my songs in front of other people. But I switched it around to make the wager more interesting. First, singing out loud, and then …
“I’ll throw in the petrarchan sonnet / if you can get him in front of a crowd.”
Okay, a wager. Personal stakes based on their special abilities. But conflict? Hmm.
Now we need conflict
I scanned the list of muses I had written in my journal. Which of these feels most familiar to me personally? Which muses could claim a stake in me? Well, my mind went where it usually goes - to love and relationships. What’s more powerful than … jealousy?
Enter Erato:
“Erato said ‘I’ve had that one. / He’s mine girls, but you can try. /
‘This might be fun.’ “
Here’s where I picked up my guitar. It was clear to me that this was a pivotal moment in the song - the introduction of conflict. It wasn’t merely a verse - it was a pre-chorus.
One of my favorite songwriters is Dan Bern. He can tell a story in a song in an engaging way, withholding and giving information at a perfect or surprising time. As I often do while songwriting, I stopped thinking like Jack Jose, and started imagining I was Dan Bern. How would HE tell it?
(I’m inspired by a comment from one of my former 9th grade students. I had shown the kids a series of pictures by an author whose work we had recently read, to prompt the students to write their own ending to a story. This student generally hated the act of writing, and often turned in one or two paragraph “stories.” But on this occasion two pages were filled, with character and dialogue and action. When I asked what was different when they wrote this story, they replied ‘I didn’t have to write it. I just imagined the story that the author would tell, and I wrote that down.”)
So now I needed to get some other characters involved, on their sunny greek-columned patio in the heavens …
Terpsichore plie’d in, she loves to make an entrance,
And she raised the stakes
“I wager the power to make people forget what to do with their hands
When they’re in uncomfortable social situations.”
Clio looked up from her maps and her lyre / She could tell when adventure was afoot.
Calliope traipsed over to see who had drawn/ her sister away from her books.
So, there are two moments hidden in this song that are especially pleasing to me. You see, we already had conflict, and that’s fine. But like in the song “Ironic” by Alanis Morissette, not everything listed is really irony. Some of them are just things that happened that were a bummer. Irony needs an extra little push. That extra something. A song needs that extra something.
A story needs MORE conflict
How could I level up the conflict? What if Erato, who had made her confident boast “this might be fun,” and who was so confident of the power of love to inspire faithfulness, got a bit of a comedown? What if she had already lost her wager?
What if one of the muses had already won that bet?
I scanned the list again. And here’s what I’m proud of …
Thalia turned toward Erato / “Wait, YOU know him too?” / And it was on.
After thinking about the remaining muses, I realized Thalia was the right choice for this boast. She is, after all, the muse of humor. It raises the question, has this man known laughter as well as love? Or, more to the point, was she telling the truth, or was she joking? I like to hold both of those possibilities as true. The song feels different depending on whether her line was a joke to prod her sister.
After two verses setting the scene and introducing characters, and two pre-choruses amplifying the conflict, it was time to release some tension. Time for the chorus:
God help all of us / when the gods decide we can’t help ourselves
[#1]And a man in a chair in some basement in a city / Is about to enter a different state
And when his dreams come true, like dreams can do
he’ll promise to remember his muse
As I’m reviewing the original version of the lyrics, I remember that I had a line about a second person being inspired by the muses.
And a girl who was raised to believe smart isn’t pretty / Is about to hear a truer take
Which I later revised to
And a girl who was raised to believe smart isn’t pretty /
Picks up her pen to tell a truer tale
And which I later dropped completely. As is often the case, I was writing about the muses but I was also writing about myself. This line was true, but it wasn’t the truth of this song.
So now I had a conflict and had set my characters in action. Now what?
Not all of the muses had been introduced and activated in the rush to win this one man’s heart. Well, my heart. So I re-introduced the conflict as we returned from the chorus. Then involved the final muses.
Erato and Thalia were having complicated feelings /
Breathing hard, staring each other down
They didn’t notice the other Muses had left / To lay their snares around
Melpomene tried the direct approach / Crying on her instagram feed
Urania checked the heavens to see / if it was in the stars, predictably
Calliope tried the radio but not one listens to the radio / Polyhymnia pitched Spotify
All of our protagonists were contemplating deicide
Can I also brag about ending the line about reading the stars with the word “predictably”? It’s a way that I can introduce my skepticism about astrology’s ability to inform us about the future. The only predictable thing is that astrologers will turn to the stars.
But a good ending requires revisiting the beginning.
Euterpe asked, would it be wrong / to kindly bend him to my will?
We’ll write a song
Later edits
After I write a song in draft form, I then play it over and over and over, for days, usually. Editing timing, tweaking the wording, and trying to uncover the secret story the song is telling.
In this case, I used that time to tighten up the storytelling with specific details. For example, I introduced the word “pitched” instead of “tried” Spotify, to closer match the Spotify experience of artists “pitching” to playlists. I changed the word “traps” to “snares” to make it feel more mythological. I added the words “breathing hard” before “staring each other down” to further heighten the tension. Each edit not to make it shorter, but instead more pithy - fitting more precise details into the available rhythm and space.
In the second chorus, I twisted the opening phrase about the gods, because I hadn’t been able to decide which was better:
God help all of us / when the gods decide to help themselves
And a man in a chair in some basement in a city / Is about to enter a different state
And when his dreams come true, like dreams can do
he’ll promise to remember his muse
In my first venue song, there’s a reference to the moment and the space. I added a final chorus here to accomplish the same thing, and maybe put too fine a point on the fact that I was the man in the song. I draw the setting from the clouds to the exact spot where musicians play when they’re at Muse …
And a man in the corner of some coffee shop in some city
Feels nine pairs of eyes look his way
Thank you muses for coming
Thank you for the gift of your attention
I’ve got some more magic in me, I hope you’ll stay
I’ve got some more magic in me, I hope you’ll stay
And as I mentioned earlier, there are two moments in the song which bring me particular joy because they’re the story beneath the story. First was Thalia saying she knew the man too, and the question about whether this was true, or if it was Thalia the prankster and joke teller making a light moment to provoke her sister Erato.
The second is that on first glance, the story seems to have no resolution. “Who won?” you might ask.
Well, the song itself answers that question. Or more specifically, the *existence* of the song answers the question. The goddess of lyric poetry and song laid her snare, “would it be wrong to kindly bend him to my will? We’ll write a song.” And now the song “Muse” exists. I don’t say it directly in the song, but we do indeed have a winner. Euterpe has conquered her sister, and now theoretically has dominion over the words inspired by purple flowers, and even the petrarchan sonnet. And even the power to make people forget what to do with their hands in uncomfortable social situations. So blame her.