My Top 7 ‘Soothing Songs’ for Writer’s Block

I’m sure you all know, my fellow Bloggies, how painful the dreaded “Writer’s Block” can be. You stare for hours at an empty screen, with little to no ideas coming forth. You hopefully type out words, only to despondently delete them. You question why you even started this stupid Blog in the first place! But in the end, there’s only one thing you can do….Google the words “Writer’s Block!” of course! There’s bound to be millions of helpful suggestions to help overcome this nightmare. Well, there are, but frankly most of them don’t work. Not for me anyway. And that just makes it worse as you fear there really is no short cut around this block.

Still, one thing did stand out to me. A suggestion of soothing music to relax yourself enough to be able to write. Now personally I was skeptical, and many of my friends agreed, that music would be a distraction more than anything else. Sighing, I decided to resume my seemingly fruitless search for advice. However, I started thinking, there were a handful of musical pieces in my playlist that I would specifically characterize as “soothing.” Most of them were pretty unusual and could be interesting to analyze. Why don’t I try writing about them?!

Well I did, so here we go! My own personal Top 7 selection of “Soothing Songs.”

1. “Listen” by Tears for Fears

Now our first choice, “Listen,” is an instrumental little ditty off the 1985 Tears for Fears album, Songs From the Big Chair. Tears for Fears was of course a very popular New Wave band of the 1980′s, known for tackling thought-provoking issues, such as child neglect and nuclear war.

I always think this song’s “nebulous, dreamy sound”* would have been the ideal soundtrack for an ’80s Fantasy film, as we watch our eager young hero ascend the sleek, silver staircase of some crystalline world. Or perhaps grimly surveying the ruins of a post apocalyptic future. Tears for Fears’ primary songwriter Roland Orzabal once described “Listen” as expressing  “a sense of loss, I think….a social anxiety shared by many people [about] the whole nuclear threat.” At times the music itself seems lost, fearful, almost despairing of finding some mislaid desire. A lost sense of security perhaps, which many at the time feared would never return…

2. Big Wednesday – Morning Glass Riders

Morning Glass. Described as “the most peaceful thing you will ever experience” (Surfinghandbook.com), it refers to the time of day when the sea surface is smooth, with no wind to disturb surfers on their rides. In 1978, director John Milius paid charming tribute to this ritual in the film Big Wednesday, starring Jan Michael Vincent, William Katt (The Greatest American Hero of my previous Blog entry) and Gary Busey as three best friends whose carefree surfer lives are shattered by world events and the unforgiving passage of time.

Surfers in TV and movies are often reduced to a rather unflattering stereotype of tanned, dumb blond whose vocabulary is largely limited to “Radical, dude!”  In contrast, Big Wednesday attempted to present a more balanced glimpse into the soul of a surfer from the  1960′s. We learned about friendships and loyalty within a largely solitary sport,  and their feelings on a world racked by social change.

And of course, we learn about Morning Glass. Our heroes, and their world, are truly the envy of  land locked children everywhere. Ground breaking cinematography lets us get up close and personal with the waves, which we imagine are nice and cold and refreshing, while at the same time daunting and intimidating. We’re in awe of how human beings are able to master the ocean in this way, while still showing respect for its power. The simple, easy-going guitar accompaniment lets us know all is well and we all wish we had this kind of serenity in our lives, even if it can’t last forever.

3. Sesame Street – How Milk is Made 

If you’re a fan of Old School Sesame Street, you probably best remember this clip as the infamous “Cow Film.” Often derided  as dull, repetitive and looooooong (not to mention repetitive), the “Cow Film” occupies an uneasy place in nostalgia history.

Still, I think this film has gotten a bad rap over the years; there are many fascinating aspects to analyze. Sesame Street of course was greatly inspired by TV commercials in the early days, which is precisely the reason for the film’s seeming repetitiveness. Successful commercials are a clever blend of entertainment and manipulation. Drill the message into the audience’s heads (in this case “Milk Comes From Cows”), and they will remember (even when they’d prefer not to!). Indeed, the film’s voice over is reminiscent of the typical 70′s TV commercial narrator (You half expect him to say, “The next time you see a cow, remember, Drink Borden’s!”).

Plus the “Cow Film” is a nice reminder of a time when Television wasn’t always about the quick edit and allowed a few moments for the children in the audience (and their parents) to breeeath.  This is encapsulated by the film’s tranquil yet catchy jingle, “Hey Cow, I See You Now,” guaranteed to send your little one to sleep, dreaming of millions of milk cartons riding down the assembly line, courtesy of that “nice, warm, friendly animal, the cow.” : )

4. Flight of the Navigator – End Credits Suite

If any children’s film deserves the heralded label of cult classic, it’s Disney’s 1986 live action flick, Flight of the Navigator. By all rights it should have been dismissed as yet another obvious E.T. rip-off of the ’80s. And yet, 25 years later, there’s no denying it, Flight of the Navigator remains very much loved and beloved by its now grown up fans. But why? Why would yet another story about a boy befriending a lost alien and battling evil scientists have a chance at remaining relevant?

Certainly it’s due in part to the characters themselves. The boy, David, is natural and not spouting off obnoxious catch phrases every two minutes. The adult villains are intelligent yet vindictive and not played as laughable, easily defeatable morons. Similarly, the parents are concerned rather than clueless. The alien character, Max, strays a bit into catch phrase territory, but is also genuinely funny and develops a great rapport with David, as they go from enemies to friends. Realizing they’re about to be separated at the end, David asks, “Max, will I ever see you again?” Though the puppet itself is fairly limited (with a blank screen for a face), we are genuinely moved by Max’s simple bowing of the head and plaintive reply, “…I don’t know.” Bottom line, Flight of the Navigator didn’t condescend to its audience and we recognized that.

But another reason the film has remained so popular is its soundtrack. It truly represents the best of ’80s synthesizer music, creating an other worldly atmosphere that still has a firm grasp on reality. It easily transitions from a montage of frisbee loving dogs to a giant spaceship trying to avoid the San Fransisco Bridge’s cables. And let’s not forget the music video cameo of Blancmange’s “Lose Your Love.” Anytime that clip is on YouTube, the great majority of comments aren’t about the band, or the song, but rather some form of, “Hey, that’s from Flight of the Navigator!…I loved that movie!” If that’s not cult classic, I don’t know what is.

5. The Fabric of Our Lives – Cotton Incorporated Commercial (Clip below, saving for dramatic purposes )

I once read a very excellent book by Jonathan Price called The Best Thing on TV: Commercials, which analyzed the essence of a successful TV advertisement. Price corrects the notion that the job of a commercial is merely to provide information. Because when you think about it, if that were true, instead of TV commercials we’d have PowerPoint presentations! I can just imagine how that would go in the case of Cotton Incorporated:

But of course we don’t have that, because in fact commercials don’t merely give information. Rather, commercials set out to connect a product, in this case cotton, with an emotion. And according to Price, one emotion advertisers love to toy with is our nostalgia for the past; a simpler time in our lives when we could turn to Mom and Dad for protection and comfort. We like familiarity, people, places and things that seem to have been in our lives forever. Like visiting your old house many years later to discover how little, or how much, has changed. And it doesn’t always have to be a “happy” moment in our lives. It could be a wistful, quiet moment at dawn or dust as we remember the past or contemplate daunting choices in the present.

Anyway, put it all together…and instead of a PowerPoint slide, we get this…

I’m not sure how much we learned about cotton, the fabric, from this commercial. But, in theory, we begin to incorporate said cotton within the fabric of our wistful, nostalgia loving lives.

6. Publix – The Last Train Home Holiday Commercial

Of course nothing says soothing nostalgia like a good old-fashioned holiday commercial. The thing about yuletide advertisements is that they’re generally a pleasant practice in wishful thinking. As much as we love the holiday season, we also know it’s going to be racked with traffic jams through snow drifts and stressful dinner preparations.

But with TV commercials, we can have the holiday we’ve always wanted. Instead of a mind numbing, frustrating traffic jam, we can imagine ourselves curling up with a blanket on a quiet, mellow train ride through snow-capped hills and forests. We hear the hurried rush of the train, echoing our excitement and anticipation, coupled with a relaxed, leisurely guitar drawl to represent the ease and comfort of family together for the holidays.

Meanwhile, Grandma and Grandpa are at home waiting for you, bustling up a…..surprisingly elegant holiday dinner, complete with basted turkey, stuffed peppers, shrimp cocktail, Oyster Rockefeller and sparkling wine (What, no Yorkshire pudding?). And the only stress here is Grandma playfully pinching Grandpa’s cheek for daring to touch the ham. And of course it all culminates in a cute little twist that shows us holiday merriment can happen anywhere.

And it’s all thanks to Publix, a Florida supermarket chain (see there, that’s why all the close-ups of food, see). Now I’ve never personally been to one of their stores (nor to Florida), but I do applaud them for their effective use of advertising. Commercials like this allow us to briefly escape our seasonal blues and, for 60 seconds at least, experience the holiday we’ve always dreamed of. Btw, the song in the commercial is “Last Train Home” by The Pat Metheny Group. Check it out on iTunes and play it at your next seasonal traffic jam.

7. Ladyhawke – Main Theme 

OK, I’ve saved the most polarizing clip for last, lol. For I don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie soundtrack receive such applause  and at the same time provoke such ire. The soundtrack from the 1985 Fantasy film Ladyhawke is truly the epitome of “you either love it or hate it.”  The idea of a “middle ground” is even more fantastical than this movie’s plot!

So why does this soundtrack receive such a mixed reaction? Using the clip above as a reference, we start with the beginning of the clip up to :27. We hear a solemn violin piece which conjures up images of knights of the realm, maidens in distress and epic battles. Pretty standard fare for a Fantasy story. But now, starting at :28, things start to get weird. The sound of violins is quickly replaced by….’80s Synth? Huh? Our knights of the realm have been overrun by the guys from Journey! Still, this light and fragile melody is not unpleasant to listen to. So what could have made people so upset?

Moving to 1:00….ahhh that’s what! Now we’re going from dreamy ’80s synth to rockin ’80s…um…Rock. Complete with pounding drums and epic guitar solo. Um, this is still a Fantasy film right? Well yes. See as legend goes, director Richard Donner had the radical idea of breaking with convention and giving his medieval era flick a more “modern” soundtrack. Many vehemently object to this day, saying ’80s synthesizers don’t mix well with knights and fair maidens.

Still, other fans like myself love the soundtrack precisely because it’s so unexpected. Who says Fantasy soundtracks always have to be traditional orchestrations? Forget for a minute that that kind of music didn’t even exist in Medieval times; this is FANTASY, since when are there rules?? It’s refreshing when composers think outside the box. And hey it’s not like they’re playing “Video Killed the Radio Star” over the battle scenes (though that would have been interesting!).

Plus Ladyhawke’s soundtrack takes me back to a truly golden age of Fantasy films in the 1980s, which were more concerned with quirky characters and thoughtful moments than flashy CGI battle scenes. Those were the days.

******

So there we have it, my eclectic** list of soothing songs. I can’t say they’re a definitive cure for Writer’s Block. But they’ve definitely shown me there’s hope. And I’d recommend making a similar list next time you’re face to face with an empty screen.

*Roland Orzabal, co-author of “Listen.” http://memoriesfade.com/

**Thanks to a friend for using this word to describe my list, hehe.

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