As listeners, we feel that, that this singer is the author of this story. It creates an existential dimension that’s not there when a singer sings someone else’s song.
Right. “I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen rain” is a perfect example of that. Real simple lyric. The writer could deliver that with a resonance that made all that simplicity more or less elegiac.
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Do you remember writing “Jack Straw”?
I had just read Of Mice And Men again. Hunter brought that lyric, and it was kind of a coincidence, if there is such a thing, that it had “we can share the women, we can share the wine.” I liked that immediately and then I started to try to work the Of Mice And Men theme into it. I’m not sure if he had that in mind to begin with, but that is where it went to.
You wrote “Hell In A Bucket” with Barlow. Was working with him different than working with Hunter?
Not mechanically. All the same stuff happened. He would bring a lyric, or we would bring a shard of music. Or sometimes it would all spring forth at the same time every now and again.
With “Hell In A Bucket,” we had that first verse which starts, “I was drinkin’ last night with a biker, and I showed him a picture of you…” He had a mind for it. A sort of ¾ waltz-time drinking tune. But looking at The Grateful Dead’s repertoire, it occurred to me that what we really needed was an up-tempo tune. So it led me to that kind of rhythm. And I think it worked out pretty well. And Barlow didn’t object. At all.
So many songwriters feel their songs come through them, from another place. How do you feel?
I’m pretty sure that songs come from the same world we go to when we’re dreaming. At any moment a song can come from there. It’s every bit as real when you’re in there, as what we call reality here. I get the feeling I meet the characters that show up in the songs when I’m sleeping. And I develop a pregnant relationship with them, and get to know them before they have to pop out into this world and tell their stories.
Do you have any routines for connecting with those stories?
I wish there was some kind of method to it, but there really isn’t. I do find that writing in the morning is the best time.
Because you’re still close to dreamtime?
That’s my interpretation, yes.
How do you best tap into that source?
Well, I take the dream seriously. That’s all I can say. They’re very real. It’s not just brain chatter. There’s chatter involved in your daily thinking, that’s all. But you know how people say it’s just a dream, it’s just a dream. There is no such thing. Dreams are every bit as real as any other part of your body. ?
Getting in touch with that, being in touch with that dream world, is a lifelong pursuit. As you’re younger, you can train yourself to get better at it as you get older. Not just for art, but for any sort of endeavor. There’s a lot that dreams can tell you.