Work Backwards From The Work
Liam Gallagher threw a plum at his brother Noel’s head before a show in Paris 15 years ago. Then he left the dressing room, came back with Noel’s vintage Gibson ES-335, and smashed it into pieces. Oasis hasn’t played a show since.
The problem, according to Noel, was that “Oasis, in its first incarnation, never recovered from fame… A lot of people around us lost their minds.”
Despite the chaos, Noel didn’t lose his mind. He couldn’t, he had to write all of the songs. And while he was busy writing the next album, Liam and the rest of the band were left “standing around with their hands in their pockets.”
“I always luckily, and thank fucking god, had the work, [which] was an anchor in a sea of madness. Still to this day, I have carried the golden rule: I work backwards from the work. As long as I’m doing the work, I can justify anything to myself.”
The work tethers you to reality. It forces you to step outside of yourself. And it’s hard. Because sometimes you sit there and nothing happens. You just wait.
Noel says, “I liken to fishing – the guy that sets up his equipment and sits there all day and he might catch nothing. It’s almost like a meditative process of waiting, and waiting, and waiting.”
Oasis announced their reunion yesterday and sold out 17 shows in 10 hours.
You’ve Got To Use Some Bait
Bob Dylan uses the same fishing metaphor, but instead of “sitting around expecting songs to come to you,” Dylan says, “you’ve got to use some bait.”
“Throwing yourself into a situation that would demand a response is like using bait.” Immersing yourself in it. Studying your responses.
You want to be with someone. This comes to you as you sit down to write. Ok. Why? What about this person attracts you? What draws you to them? What is the color of their hair? Why does that matter? Did you tell them you want to be with them? Where was it? What time of day was it? Was it hot or cold? How did they respond?
You keep asking. Keep digging. Keep bringing it back to reality. Try to get it all out. As Dylan said you’ve got to:
“Put yourself in an environment where you can completely accept all the unconscious stuff that comes to you from the inner workings of your mind. And block yourself off to where you can control it all, take it down… You have to be able to get the thoughts out of your mind.”
The Walls Of Jericho
Getting the thoughts out of your mind is the whole thing. Focusing that energy within you, channeling it into the work. Sometimes you can sense it but can’t fully understand it. It’s not made itself fully clear yet. Author and Jungian Psychologist Robert Johnson compares this to the biblical story of Jericho.
“It is like a walled city within the unconscious, a blank spot where the conscious mind can’t penetrate, something one can’t even understand, much less deal with. The problem is within us, but we can’t understand it, can’t get a handle on it, can’t find any direct way to approach it.”
Sometimes a song is like the city of Jericho. You’ve surrounded it, you know how you want to get in, but it’s completely walled off. Johnson says that you’ve got to “look at it from every angle, pouring psychological energy into it, circling it like the Jericho of the story until finally the walls tumble down.”
Talk to you next week,
Dawson
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