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Just Sharing--Signal Songs
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Just Sharing--Signal Songs |
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Subject: Just Sharing--Signal Songs From: Sorcha Date: 20 Oct 00 - 12:31 PM The following was written by my friend Amy as an editorial for our monthly Jam Club newsletter. I think it is wonderful and wanted to share it with you.
SIGNAL SONGS
If you have not as yet heard of the concept of signal songs, I present it to you as a means of understanding yourself and as a way to tap the power of music.
When we go headlong over our chosen path/s, we are at times haunted by a song. I say song because the words are easier to interpret in our lives' contexts, but melody can bring us powerful messages. The House of the Rising Sun was a signal song for me as I left my first husband and later, my first vocation. Its messages were:
It is possible to leave. My reputation is affected by who I love. My future is going to be difficult. I must face the consequences of who I befriend and love. The melody also delivered subtle understandings.
The significance of a Signal Song tends not to be so crystallized as the outline above. I had no idea the "House" was touching my psyche at first. A song will resonate for you as long as you are struggling/reveling with the messages it brings to you. I can still sing the "House", but I do not resonate with it now.
I tend to trust a song to be a signal song if it's not part of the music I'm playing with others. However the haunting nature of the song is the best clue. No wonder the war chant, the hymn and the lullaby are Universal. |
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Subject: RE: Just Sharing--Signal Songs From: mousethief Date: 20 Oct 00 - 12:40 PM Sorcha, I'm not quite sure I get it. Do you mean a song that has particular relevance for your life at a particular time? One that "hits home" so to speak? Or have I entirely missed the point?
Alex |
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Subject: RE: Just Sharing--Signal Songs From: Jim Dixon Date: 13 Mar 01 - 02:55 PM I don't think this question got as much attention as it deserved back in October, so I'm reviving it. I, too, think "Signal Song" is a wonderful concept - but it doesn't have to be a song. It could be any other work of art: a poem, a film, a book, or a painting. So, I'd prefer to call it a "Signal Work." As I see it, a Signal Work is something that obsesses you at a particular point in your life, because its theme is somehow relevant to an important challenge you are facing. Sometimes you are at a loss to explain how it is relevant at the time. Explaining it might require insight that doesn't come to you until years later, after you have solved the problem of how to manage that aspect of your life. Some works of art work on an unconscious or semi-conscious level, helping you express something you otherwise wouldn't know how to express - or are afraid to express. Some works that obsessed me as a youth:
Edmond Rostand's play, "Cyrano de Bergerac."
To be honest, I don't think any music has moved me half as much as those, but some songs of that period that come to mind are: |
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Subject: RE: Just Sharing--Signal Songs From: GUEST,MaFazoo Date: 13 Mar 01 - 09:40 PM at the moment the most evocative "signal work" for me is The painting Starry Night". Actually, any work by van Gogh breaks my heart at first glance, then heals it as I contemplate it. That so much beauty can come from pain is a wonder to me and sometimes makes my on personal pain easier to bear. Please don't think I'm a sad sack, that's just what the thread brought out. |
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Subject: RE: Just Sharing--Signal Songs From: Amos Date: 13 Mar 01 - 11:27 PM I concur that the almost mystical intersection of symbols, wavelengths, resonance and meaning that come to a single place in the heart when a song is played or sung can very well take on the net impact of a personal signal. and the meaning of it can come from the words, the images it conjures, or even the interacting harmonies and notes. I have a jukebox of old songs in my head, ranging from Childs to Willie and wandering all kinds of places in between, and almost every one of them has been in the honored position at the foretruck as a personal signal at one point or another. It's part of the lively internal life of a folk musician -- we aren't just walking archives, you know -- we're living more lives than the average Joe, because we've got all these mazing songs to dive into -- it makes us time travelers and multiple personalities, but it also gives us uncommon breadth in human matters. FWIW. IMNSHO. A |
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Subject: RE: Just Sharing--Signal Songs From: SINSULL Date: 13 Mar 01 - 11:36 PM Smells do it for me. Without salt air I ache and don't know why. The scent of melted yak butter (weird, I know) instantly calms me. The music I wake up with (in my head) can set the tone for my day. But I can't say I associate certain songs with memorable life moments. Books and poetry do that for me. |
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Subject: RE: Just Sharing--Signal Songs From: GUEST,Paul Date: 14 Mar 01 - 12:00 AM SINSULL I suggest karmic memory in your strong and unusual (melted yak butter?) impressions. |
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Subject: RE: Just Sharing--Signal Songs From: Amos Date: 14 Mar 01 - 01:50 AM Sinsull is yearning for the days of Free Ghee! A |
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Subject: RE: Just Sharing--Signal Songs From: bflat Date: 14 Mar 01 - 10:18 AM I've had my own share of signal songs but unfortunately for me they were smoke signals and up and away they went. I'm not ever going to allow myself to attach like that again. Call it self-preservation. I don't care if I live the rest of my life in a defensive posture, I will not allow myself to ever be overtaken by such things. That is not to say that I will not be emotional about "signal works"; the difference is in the control I will exercise. Ellen |
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Subject: RE: Just Sharing--Signal Songs From: catspaw49 Date: 14 Mar 01 - 10:25 AM ........melted yak butter..........................uh-huh............................Take two aspirin and call me in the morning. Spaw |
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Subject: RE: Just Sharing--Signal Songs From: granny Date: 14 Mar 01 - 10:44 AM This has been on my mind, too, "Signal Songs," and also the down side of it, like you mention, bflat. I think there's a 'happy medium.' Acknowledge the signal song or whatever you call it, but don't let it boss you or doom you... I see them as stepping stones, supports along the way. Of course, some people think that we're all just going in circles anyway, so what's to 'overcome.' But, I think most people agree that there's some difference between idiosy and natural repetition. Then, there's the question, do you believe in angels or other spirits, that are guiding us by using songs (or other works of art)? What actually makes these songs signals, after all? It's really intriguing, huh?
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Subject: RE: Just Sharing--Signal Songs From: Mr Red Date: 14 Mar 01 - 12:54 PM I suppose songwriting/poeticizing touches this in reverse. Pouring out ones thoughts. Some of mine are a surrogate diary. I just had to get them out, any subject, "Vomit Blues" - "Please don't try suicide - friend", "Rag & Bone men (early re-cyclers)" "Dentist Shanty" etc ad nauseum The signal is all but gone. No new songs just now. |
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Subject: RE: Just Sharing--Signal Songs From: Bert Date: 14 Mar 01 - 01:02 PM Where does one FIND Yak Butter? _ Not that I want any, Just curious. As for signal songs, Spaw, Kendal and Matt_R will join me in a rendition of "Size Doesn't Matter" Bert. |
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Subject: RE: Just Sharing--Signal Songs From: Amos Date: 14 Mar 01 - 10:06 PM You can have all the angels or guide-spirits in on the 'do that you wish; but the matrix of forces -- emotions, meanings, spiritual waves, High Consciousness and low, resonances to some sounds and patterns and not others -- these are first and last your own all-seeing design; others, and the _apparency_ of others, come into it only as you sell of the parts and pieces of your actual ownership, or authorship. So goeth my two cents' worth. Regards, A |
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Subject: RE: Just Sharing--Signal Songs From: catspaw49 Date: 14 Mar 01 - 10:21 PM That may be your 2 cents, but I bet you paid more than that for that shit you're smokin' Amos.............got any more? Spaw |
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Subject: RE: Just Sharing--Signal Songs From: Sorcha Date: 14 Mar 01 - 10:28 PM SINSULL, how do you even know what melted yak butter smells like? Do they have Himalayn/Tibeten delis in NYC tht import the stuff? Are there yaks in Central Park now? Inquiring minds want to know! Thanks, Jim for refreshing this. I thought it deserved more attention, but I thought that refreshing it myself was a little egoistic, so I didn't.
Right now, my own Signal Song seems to be "Lonesome Valley". You got to walk it by yourself......I'm getting along OK; better every day, but it's a long road back.
For some reason, the Signal Art/Painting in my life has been "Crows over a Wheatfield" by VanGogh......I have only seen prints and posters, but I wish I could see the original........such eleoquence in color. Another Signal Painting in my life is the Andrew Wyeth of the girl crawling towards a house/castle/town on a hill in a thunderstorm.......something about Toledo? I first saw a print when I was about 10; the image has stayed with me ever since. I have felt like that girl many times.........it's a scary painting. |
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Subject: RE: Just Sharing--Signal Songs From: Sorcha Date: 14 Mar 01 - 10:32 PM No, it's not Toledo, it's "Christina's World", click here |
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Subject: RE: Just Sharing--Signal Songs From: Jim the Bart Date: 14 Mar 01 - 10:34 PM The tricky part is understanding the signals at that point in time when they can be helpful, rather than after the fact. Sometime it's better never than late. Who needs yak butter, anyway. I like my yak un-buttered, with a little brie and a cracker maybe. . . |
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Subject: RE: Just Sharing--Signal Songs From: Sorcha Date: 14 Mar 01 - 10:39 PM ahhh, the other is "View of Toledo" by El Greco.....sort of the same feeling, see here. |
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Subject: RE: Just Sharing--Signal Songs From: catspaw49 Date: 14 Mar 01 - 10:58 PM Yak butter............Well, what can I say that hasn't been said somewhere: Here's an explanation and the most times I've ever seen YAK in one paragraph! why, its a work of Art!!!! (wait for it) It brings a light to the world!!!! Is there no limit to the use of the Yak in Tibet??? This explanation will make you yak!!! Spaw |
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Subject: RE: Just Sharing--Signal Songs From: SINSULL Date: 14 Mar 01 - 11:02 PM I travelled in Tibet and was allowed into a morning prayer ceremony. Hours of chanting left me calm and relaxed. Yak butter was melting everywhere on altars. The scent brings back the inner peace. I have a recording of the ceremony but it doesn't do it. One of the treasures I brought back smells of yak butter. And yes there are Tibetan stores and restaurants in Jackson Heights that carry it. Next Mudcat get together I will bring some. |
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Subject: RE: Just Sharing--Signal Songs From: Sorcha Date: 14 Mar 01 - 11:07 PM Well, thank you Sinsull, we were just curious about that. Maybe now we could talk about Lhasa Apso dogs.....? Little dogs with hairy faces that WILL bite you! |
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Subject: RE: Just Sharing--Signal Songs From: catspaw49 Date: 14 Mar 01 - 11:09 PM Good idea Sins!!! Be sure to bring some yak hair blankets to cuddle in, some glimmering yak butter candles, a yak butter sculpture to admire in our yak hair tent.......and don't forget to bring the yak dung for a nice fire! And I always thought those Everest climbers carried the O2 bottles for high altitude................. Spaw |
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