Creativity – George Blamey-Steeden

THE ART OF FROST – ON CARS

Most days this winter are either freezing cold and rainy, or just plain horribly cold with frost everywhere. Generally the frost is just a white cloak, nothing special. However, yesterday when I thought I’d give the cars – not being used hardly at all because of the lockdown – a run before the batteries die I saw this ‘frost art’ on the bonnets. Surreal or what.

Note the seagulls couldn’t help themselves on the bonnet

Some music to fit my mood. The song, ‘Hooked’. It’s from my ‘Rainbow’s End’ album available for download on BANDCAMP When I wrote this back in 2017 I was having a battle with creativity, hence I wrote about my relationship with it. Scroll on, 3 years later and I’m back where I started, having another battle – same enemy. I hope you enjoy;

If you’re interested in my inexpensive PROMO VIDEOS FOR AUTHORS hit the link here or aim at the one at the top of this blog.

As ever, if any poets out there are interested in having their poems turned into songs then click here to check it out: POETRY TO SONG

If you are looking for all my other music then you’ll find it to download on BANDCAMP or you can stream and/or make a playlist of it on SPOTIFY

If you’re thinking about new t-shirts and similar for yourself, here’s my collection you might be interested in ZOOLON’S MERCHANDISE

CHASING ONE MORE DREAM

‘The squirrel knows everything’

I was just guessing at numbers and figures
Pulling the puzzles apart
Questions of science, science and progress
Do not speak as loud as my heart’

From ‘The Scientist’ by Coldplay

In trying to write a basic verse as the basis for an American country style lyric, it didn’t go to plan, hence I nearly gave up. It’s a storytelling genre I don’t think I’ll ever master. But what the hell, it’s winter; it’s lockdown; I’m English; it’s Christmas.

CHASING ONE MORE DREAM

“Your songs are full of sadness
You know we’ll never get along
The time has come to end this
There’s no place together where we belong”

She sent me a ‘Happy Christmas’ card
Got it in the post yesterday
Inside she’d written ‘see you whenever’
A poor excuse, a poor cliché

Looking out of my bedroom window
The sky, all shades of festive grey
That was when the card she sent
I ripped in two, then threw away

Are there really songs of happiness
That don’t sound like over-sugared cream?
I’d rather bandage sorrow
Than go chasing one more dream

Here’s a number from my ‘The Forgotten Daughter Of Zeus’ album. It’s called ‘Hidden Beneath’. I hope you enjoy.

‘The tunnel’s seen it all’

If you’re interested in my inexpensive PROMO VIDEOS FOR AUTHORS hit the link here or aim at the one at the top of this blog.

As ever, if any poets out there are interested in having their poems turned into songs then click here to check it out: POETRY TO SONG

If you are looking for all my other music then you’ll find it to download on BANDCAMP or you can stream and/or make a playlist of it on SPOTIFY

If you’re thinking about new t-shirts and similar for yourself, or as Christmas presents, you might be interested in ZOOLON’S MERCHANDISE

A HAT FULL OF SONGS

‘Charleville-Mézières Poster Display’

I guess like any art form sometimes you have to look back to places where creativity came easy – back to when words and melody were best mates – to when a hat full of songs pretty much created themselves. Looking back at photos of personal memories and things that made you think generally works.

‘Musée La Coupole – Holocaust Exhibit’

‘Boulogne-sur-Mer – view from the ramparts of The Old Town’

‘The Ardennes – Gowns designed by Madame La Guillotine?’

‘Inside The French Tree of Creativity’

Here’s a piano piece from my RAINBOWS END album. The album is mainly songs with just a couple of instrumentals, of which, the number ‘Castaway’ is one.

If you’re interested in my inexpensive PROMO VIDEOS FOR AUTHORS hit the link here or aim at the one at the top of this blog.

As ever, if any poets out there are interested in having their poems turned into songs then click here to check it out: POETRY TO SONG

If you are looking for all my other music then you’ll find it to download on BANDCAMP or you can stream and/or make a playlist of it on SPOTIFY

If you’re thinking about new t-shirts and similar for the summer, you might be interested in ZOOLON’S MERCHANDISE

‘LAUGHING AT THE MOON’

WHEN A POEM BECOMES A SONG

This song, ‘Laughing At The Moon’ belongs to the acclaimed poet & writer, Kathryn Duff. A truly lovely lady. Above is Kate’s song, ‘Laughing At The Moon’. I hope you enjoy.

I had the privilege of working with her providing the melody, vocals and production for this number that is based upon her poem of the same name. I have to say that the best thing about it is that this song was created from Kate’s beautiful poem for a good reason. It was a Christmas present to her husband. How romantic is that?

If you’ve not visited and followed her blog before you can find Kate here A Thousand Bits Of Paper It’s worth the visit. If you like poetry, travel, photography and art, books and philosophy and are curious about life, enhancing your health and having a bit of a laugh now and then this is the place to be.

My thanks to you Kate for the opportunity to work with you.

kate

Should any poet out there be interested in my ‘Your Poetry to Song’ product then click on the link above.

MARILYN, THE PAPARAZZI & PLANET MARS

‘Not my lucky day’ – read on!
I tried my best but couldn’t find the photographer’s name for this, so I can’t credit it

Weeks and weeks of rain. Every now and then some hailstones; every other day early morning frost. So, totally unexpected, on Christmas morning here in South-East England, sun – zero wind, blue skies, calm sea. A decent day at last. Getting it all wrong I went out with the big coat on and no sunglasses. It should have been the other way around. I’m good at getting weather related stuff all wrong. Here’s some of the pics I took, plus the Marilyn one I never got.

‘Where it all went wrong’

Down at the harbourside, although a good distance away, outside of the posh hotel I saw a dead-ringer for Marilyn Monroe, like the ones in the posters you see everywhere – white dress and stereotypical blond-dyed hair – draped seductively over the bonnet of this old motor on some sort of photo shoot it looked like. I’m supposing ‘seductively’ is the right word although alternatively the scene did look a bit like a tragic accident what with her being flat on her back on the bonnet of a car! Anyhow, such an odd thing to see on Christmas morning. I was too far away to get the pic and it was obvious, even to me, the professional photographers hanging around, plus the regular people out for a walk all managed to get the pics they wanted. I had a jealousy moment. By the time I made it there all I got was this shot of the vintage car. I could have run flat out I suppose but that would make me look a bit over keen to get there – even though I was over keen to get there! Running would definitely be embarrassing. Passers by might think I was a weirdo. I’d never make it as a paparazzi.

‘Wrought iron versions of 007 & friends’

‘Now that’s what I call a roundabout’

‘Western Dock still being updated’

‘Colour version of same Dock – taken from Western Heights’

Having missed the Marilyn look-alike shot I had this random thought that I’d more chance of getting a pic of the surface of Mars than get lucky on Christmas Day, hence today one of my older songs, not yet on an album even though it got curated a couple of years back called ‘RED PLANET’. I hope you enjoy;

If you are looking for music then you’ll find mine to download on BANDCAMP or you can stream and/or make a playlist of it on SPOTIFY

LOOKING FOR REASONS

It was pretty cold Sunday morning. I drove over to the town of Deal to take a long walk around the place and reflect on the last few days. If I’d left it another half hour I’d of got soaked. The main thing was that the sea could see I was struggling for reasons – well that’s what I like to think – so it tried to help me out. The sea and me get on well. I took a few shots along the way.

The sea can keep its secrets
The sea can improvise
The sea lives for its reflections
A mirror in disguise

The sea is a guitarist
Plays the lute and the piano
And if you’re lucky come the new tide
Puts on a drumroll just for show

I’ll take you to the water’s edge
The sea won’t judge you or complain
The sea won’t ask you any questions
The sea says you got nothing to explain

Respect the sea, don’t fight it
Don’t ever take a liberty
You do that at your peril
You’ll find the sea won’t set you free

Here’s my number ‘One Man Band’ from the album, ‘The Forgotten Daughter of Zeus’. I’m not sure why but it fitted my mood at the time. I hope you enjoy;

If you are looking for music for Christmas then you’ll find mine to download on BANDCAMP or you can stream and/or make a playlist of it on SPOTIFY

PEOPLE

‘It Wasn’t Me’

Politicians get on my nerves. Their promises rain down like confetti at a wedding but mostly never happen. Some are great liars, others just feed on the lies.

PEOPLE

Harry lives in a cardboard box behind the Eiffel Tower
Alice sits in doorways hoping for hard currency in exchange for a wilting flower
Today she’ll sleep under the Bridge of Sighs in a gondola she nicked last night
While Jane tries to flog ‘The Big Issue’ mag in some dark place out of sight

All and any of the usual crowd were invited to the fat man’s ball
Except for Harry, Jane and Alice who never got the call

I guess we’re all just people
Some are rich and some are poor
It’s just that the rich buy all the miracles
And the poor have no saviour

Politicians smile and go shaking hands, their disciples at their side
They promise to make the poor less poor, they promised but they lied

They promise almost anything that helps them get ahead
Yet in reality don’t give a damn that Alice don’t have a bed

New topic. Putting my two backing track albums together there’s 40 pieces of music that run nearly 8 hours. Each track reveals a new mood from which you can lie back and think of creativity or build a song around them. Here’s an Emotional Grove as an example. I hope you enjoy;

As well as being out there on SPOTIFY for quality streaming, below is Bandcamp where these numbers can be downloaded;

Also, for any poets out there wanting to turn a poem into a top quality song for an affordable price – a low price (just £100 for an acoustic song) only available because I undertake the whole project from start to finish, hence no third party composers, musicians, recording engineers, studio fees etc., whose charges that can run into the thousands – I’m your man. There’s a link on the top bar of this blog reading ‘Your Poetry to Song’ if you should want to get in touch.

GUITAR JAM; VOLUME 2

‘GUITAR JAM; Vol. 2 – Zoolon Audio Backing Tracks’

My new album, ‘Guitar Jam; Volume 2’ has been released on Bandcamp. This album is not just for songwriting guitarists but also can be used for writers as background music to their projects and videos, as well as being ‘listening’ music for anyone who likes having instrumentals playing while they work.

What I’ve got here is 20 twenty tracks running 3 hrs 45 mins of electric guitar played in various styles. A download costs just £6.50 or the equivalent outside of the UK. Take you pick and try a couple out for free. The BANDCAMP link is below. I hope you like what you hear;

‘CREATIVITY ON TAP’

‘Refugee Flower Living on the Streets’

‘A Bloom of Jellyfish’

‘No Chord is Safe’

‘The Oldest Multi-Organ Animals on Earth’

Below, the full 3 hour album ‘Guitar Jam, Vol. 1 – Zoolon Audio Backing Tracks’ on sale at Bandcamp for £6.50 or whatever equivalent price in other currencies in the land where you live. These tracks stand alone and being instrumentals they’re great to play as background music. I hope you enjoy;

Here’s another guitar jam backing track from the new album I’ve tagged as ‘Creativity on Tap’ you might like. It’s called ‘Dirty Rock Groove – A Major’;

‘A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS’

I’ve taken a sidestep from composing just songs and instrumentals recently, and added ‘backing tracks’ as a new ‘Zoolon’ product. The objective with the backing track videos I’ve made is to assist guitar players and/or songwriters in creating their own songs via my posts on my YouTube Channel It would be a major help to my cause if you could see your way clear to press a ‘like’ on my video(s) and ‘subscribe’ to my YouTube Channel. It might seem like a pointless exercise but numbers (sadly) mean credibility when it comes to YouTube. Hence to increase this projects chances of finding its intended audience any and all help is truly appreciated. There is a plus in that listening to my music on YouTube in the background could be useful when you are writing, composing, or even just relaxing. In many ways backing tracks stand alone, musically.

If you ever want the favour returned, just let me know – I owe you one.

If you can subscribe don’t worry about me overwhelming your YouTube feed, I only plan to upload a video once every couple days. No problem if you can’t.