I’ve noticed a new trend lately in American fast food restaurants. Value Meals are creeping up everywhere! Maybe it’s the recession. Maybe it’s just time. I guess we got tired of super-sizing and now we’ve moved on to anything under a buck.

God help us.

Lately my life has been so “in the office” that I’ve actually been frequenting drive through windows at fast food joints. It’s a shameful habit, I know. But not wanting to be left out, I decided I’d try a few of these “value” items. It’s a good time to be saving money, right? But are these decoratively wrapped .99-cent gems really a value? The answer to that depends on how much you respect your body. They’re usually pure fat and well below the already low nutritional standards for fast food.

And then I got to thinkin’… junk in, junk out, right? This must apply to the songs we write too. The same laws are all over the universe. We are a product of the lives we lead. Let’s see. What have I been writing about lately? Sure enough… after a careful lyric check, I’ve been writing mostly my moods and my environment to the T. When I’m in love, I write love songs. When I’m stressed, I write songs that sound like it. If I spend too much time thinking about commercial success, my songs sound like that too. I can listen to the song, and like a little snapshot of my history, I can tell you exactly what I was going through based on the lyrics and vibe of my chord progressions.

Food for thought. What do you want to represent in your writing? The truth is, you’d better live it. You can’t write fiction in songs. Well, actually, you can… but they don’t work very well. You have to write about what you really know or you come off lookin’ like a buffoon. Like when 15 year olds sing about relationships beyond puppy love… ew. Listening to one of those give me a "post value meal" kind of nausea. Or when middle class suburban kids sing rap songs. That’s another kind of feeling all together. No, man, you have to sing what you are. You have to write what you know and live. Anything else sounds no more sincere than a Hallmark card, chosen in haste.

I can’t tell you how to live your life or what you should write about. I can only bring it to your attention that your lyrics and musical moods will reflect the love, anger, resentment or compassion you harbor. So dwell on this a little, will ya? Think about your life and where you’re going. And if you can, step outside yourself and survey your life as objectively as possible. Is the life you lead today in line with the life you want to be remembered for 15 years from now? If not, know there will be no escaping your musical history.

Take steps to get your life in order. Often, we get so bogged down with the day-to-day business of living that we fail to realize that we’re probably on a wheel. Our little feet are running like crazy. But where are we going? This economy has, unfortunately, put most of in a place where we don’t’ have a lot of expendable income to busy ourselves beyond work. So why not use some of this broke-but-free time reflecting, and doing some soul searching? Your songs, your relationships and your life will be the better for it.

Contact David Harper at:

musicbydavid@gmail.com