Collaboration – George Blamey-Steeden

DCIM100MEDIA ‘The Way It Is’ by Zoolon

Bored senseless, we roll the dice to see who gets to write the next line. Nothing better to do on the third day in a row of dark skies, Atlantic storms chasing each other through The Channel. Wet and windy. Windy and wet. Here’s what the dice gave us;

SACRED HOLLYWOOD

Blind eyes reading epitaphs

Or just graffiti on a wall?

Or maybe lovers and philosophers

All heading for a fall?

Somewhere in Oblivion

Sisters of Silence breaking bread

A fire raging in the forests of paradise

Hungry orphans left for dead

Dirty bombs and missiles

Every redcoat is fair game

Black or white or in-between

The privileged and the lame

Take my hand, I’ll lead you

To the Queen of Heart’s masked ball

Forget the sleepers sleeping rough tonight

We’ll stay out ‘till curtain call

No stilettos on the cobblestones

Just a refugee chasing fame

Hitching a ride to God knows where

Looking to change her passport and her name

I lost you to a circus clown

While the juggler was at prayer

And as the acrobats on tightropes laughed

At the two left-footed dancing bear

The jailbirds and the wise men

Playing poker in the dark

While in Camelot a jester sings

To a stray dog’s lonesome bark

Pegasus, the slaver’s ship

Amazing Grace, knew it well

Somewhere west of West Africa

In stormy waters, a living hell

Some believe in Arthur

Others in Batman or Robin Hood

The lost souls fed on fake news

Chasing dreams of a sacred Hollywood

Net result? I might have a new song. Weird and odd. I think I’m liking it. Needs playing around with. Needs a chorus. I always write my own stuff. Crap weather changed the rules this one time. A joint effort. Me and Mike Steeden (the old man; my dad) got together and let the dice decide who got to write the next line. He’s good at writing surreal. I gave it my best shot. He tells me when he’s finished what he’s finishing he’ll be back blogging.

Time for some music. Here’s my ‘One Man Band’ song. I have a lyric tailormade for it. The killer is I don’t sing ‘metal’ that well, or not at all. I’ll see how it all evolves. Hope you enjoy;

Below my albums for sale on Bandcamp;

TURNING A POEM INTO A SONG

I recently had the privilege to be commissioned by the gifted poet, lovely lady and WordPress blogger, Vivian Zems, to turn one of her poems she’d written called ‘Older and Wiser’ into a song. Vivian decided on the genre for the composition and that was all I required. I got to work on this collaboration project and not long after I sent Vivian her completed song. I was well and truly chuffed to bits when she told me just how much she loved the final product. Since then Vivian has produced a brilliant music video to accompany her song (see/hear above vid). Vivian’s blog can be found at https://smellthecoffeeweb.blog/ and I strongly recommend a visit. Thank you for the commission, Vivian.

It was back in August 2017 I posted ‘When a Poem Becomes a Song’. The object of the post was to introduce my new, seriously affordable product. I’d thought for some time that there are some great poets and writers out there on WP who may not be musicians, who would like to see their creations produced as songs. Better still, the songs would become the royalty free property of the writer. I explained in that earlier post (https://zoolonhub.com/2017/08/16/when-a-poem-becomes-a-song/) how the whole process works.

The reason I can produce my material at a cost massively less than others in the market is simply because I handle the whole process myself. I keep my overheads low. There’s no individual fees for a composer, musicians or vocalist hire, studio hire, production, mixing and mastering or other third-party charges involved as I do all the work myself. It is because of this my charges are a tiny fraction of what otherwise would be the case. To back up my credentials I can advise that I have a 1^st Class Degree in Creative Music Technology plus a number of albums (including one of sound art) to my name, plus I play a number of different instruments and work from my own studio – low overheads! The writer gets to approve the final product before parting with any money.

If anyone out there is interested and wants more information, then simply email me at zoolonaudio@gmail.com and I’ll get back to you.

As another example of how words written by another can become a song, one that ended up on my Dream Rescuer album called ‘Sunlight and the Dust’;

If any of you are tempted to see your work become a song you know where I am.

Happy New Year, Vivian; Happy New Year to everyone.

Zoolon aka George

Tag: Collaboration

SACRED HOLLYWOOD

OLDER AND WISER