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STRATEGY FOR THE DAY: think about the possibilities

I was invited to contribute to a web site called Voices & Visions. This is definitely worth a visit; you'll find a few dozen songwriters and other artists answering the questions "How has music inspired you?" and "What songs or CDs are meningful for you?" and "What inspires you to write?" I, of course, wrote in my usual run-on fashion about muses. Stop if you've read this before and go visit Voices & Visions.

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* What inspires you to write?

All the songs I write for my own albums (as opposed to projects I'm hired to write for) are inspired by a muse. I write a lot about the relationship between the poet and the muse. I keep coming back to that theme over and over; it resonates for me like a magnificent, deep bell. This is my source of inspiration. I write both to and about the muse figures in my life.

A lot of people have had an encounter with a muse though they probably don't call it that. It's what you feel when you meet someone for the first time and you are speechless, you feel something fly out of you and into them; that person suddenly takes on a luminous quality in your mind's eye. Their image fills your thoughts and your heart with yearning and an ache you know you will feel forever. Sometimes it's your first experience of love, years later you still think about that person, their image still lives inside you. There is something magical and transformative about it, something that releases you from the trap of time and the greyness of everyday life. This is the face of the muse.

When you encounter a muse, you want to hold onto them, speak to them. The only words that come to you are poetry because that is the language of the muse. You enter a parallel world that is better than the everyday world; you feel as if you are floating free. Then you reach out to take hold of this person but - and here is the poet's eternal dilemma - like a mirage, the muse always eludes your grasp. There is tremendous emotional pressure to unite with the muse but the shining, ethereal quality of the image can't survive the rigors of a real relationship. I've had relationships with two muse figures in my life and, although I eventually loved both men for themselves, they did not survive as muses. The mystery fades, the light dims, and reality sets in. But if you don't unite with the muse, then you are condemned to a long, long period of yearning. The only way to deal with that is to write it out. This is what poets and artists have always done - from the ancient Greek poets to the troubadours to today's songwriters. The Unobtainable Other is only reachable through one's own art, and then only for brief moments.

It took me a long time to recognize the muse for what it is: a way in, a doorway into the deep underground of the psyche. A muse is created when you project your own shadow side onto another. It happens in an instant and it isn't something you can choose to do or not to do. Nor can you consciously choose the person who will become your muse. But on some level beneath awareness, your psyche has chosen for you. The yearning for the muse is the yearning to reunite with that part of you which you have projected outward onto another, a part of your inner being you otherwise cannot see or touch. The muse embodies the artist's soul - that's why it shines with such an unearthly and beautiful light. We are really seeing ourselves - the most beautiful and mysterious part of ourselves - and we are driven to reunite with it. Look closely at your muse's image, explore it deeply, follow it wherever it goes - this is your soul leading you. For me, as an artist, this is the highest and deepest calling, the path with heart and energy.

* Any CD's or songs which are meaningful to you?

I am drawn to visionary singer-songwriters, particularly those who create a powerful, muse-like persona. Bob Dylan wrote for a muse figure in magnificent songs like "Sad-Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands" and 'Visions Of Johanna". He also cast himself as a muse in the role of the Romantic Poet-Rebel. Like Dylan, Stevie Nicks played the muse in songs like "Rhiannon" and 'Gypsy" and wrote of the Unobtainable Other in songs like "Dreams." She came to personify a powerful female muse figure for hundreds of thousands of fans. I think she is vastly underrated as a visionary songwriter. I've written a lot about Nick Drake. He very clearly paints a portrait of a luminous Other in songs like "Northern Sky," "Cello Song" and "Fly." He also portrayed himself as a muse in the roles of Eternal Outsider and Wounded Poet. Music, lyrics, and artistic persona mesh seamlessly in all three of these artists in a way that I find deeply moving and inspiring.

Copyright 2004 Robin Frederick. All rights reserved.

Read A Brief History Of Love Songs by Robin Frederick at the Sound Experience Music web site.