The lines that you write are provisional. Always. You want to see how they move. You want to see what expectations they raise. You also want them to say something, but you want them to do all of those things. So, I started writing the first verse of Hobo Wind. and I started where I started listening to the wind. And remember talking to the wind. Although, I don't know if I want right away to say, hey, wind. So, I started with this line. I hear you out there crying. I hear you out there crying. ba-da, ba-da, ba-da-da. Ba-da, ba-da, ba-da-da, I hear you out there crying. I hear you out there crying. That has essentially three strong stresses and a feminine ending. Ba-da, ba-da, ba-da-da, which really feels kind of like it's cut off short. It implies that fourth strong stress, ba-da, ba-da, ba-da-da-da. But that four strong stress isn't there. The line stops a little short. But it's a three stress line with a feminine ending. With an unstressed syllable ending the line. So, ba-da, da-da, da-da-da. [SOUND] Once you've written your first line and feel its rhythm, now you always have the same two choices. Am I now going to match that line, or am I not going to match that line? If you match the line, ba-da, ba-da, ba-da-da, ba-da, ba-da, ba-da-da. Now you've stopped. In a song about the wind that's always moving, I don't think I want you to stop. So, I think that the opportunity here that's offered is, ba-da, ba-da, ba-da-da, ba-da-da-da-da. That is to say another three stress line. But that second three stress line. Stopping on the stressed syllable so that the first line is longer. And remember back from line length, that when the second line is shorter than the first line, when it does not match, it moves us forward. And that second line now is going to say ha, ha, okay. I, I want to be rhymed sometime down there please. I want to be rhymed, come on. and so, we have a sort of expectation. But the expectation is probably stronger. If in the third line, we somehow try to match the first line, and then the second line will actually be waving its arms saying, hello, hello. Rhyme me, rhyme me. I want to be stable. And, of course, we don't want it to be stable. So, I hear you out there crying, begging let me in. Begging I kind of liked, because that might be something that a hobo would do. Crying and begging, the wind is crying. But we don't know. We don't know that it's the wind yet. But this whole notion of begging, I hear you out there crying, begging let me in. The in, let me in, really feels like something the wind might want to say. And I note, by the way, that the in sound is going to be a pretty solid rhyme with the word wind. And so maybe I'm looking down the verse to take that second line and rhyme it with the hobo wind line. Which means that if I do that, that I may not be working in verse chorus form. I might be leaning towards the verse,refrain that is the verse with the title as the last line. But let's, you know, put that aside for just a second. But that's one of the things that's going through my head. So I hear you out there crying. Begging let me in. and then over to my worksheet, and I see the word cracks. I see the word cracks. Rather than lying, or something giving me that, you know, really strong emotion with crying, you make your way between the cracks. I hear you out there crying, begging let me in. You make your way between the cracks. And now, the second line is saying okay, okay. Ba-da, da-da-da wind. and the last thing I want to do to at this point is to [SOUND] stable. Because this is a song again unstable, about longing. So, let's delay the resolution of the second line ba-da, ba-da, ba-da-da. Let's delay that. Let's stick in another line and let's match the third line with the second line, and maybe even try to rhyme it. You make your way between the cracks, ba-da-da-da, ba-da-da-da. If I rhyme it laugh, laugh, okay. You make your way between the cracks. Hobo. Crying, begging. What if I put moan in here? Putting moan in here might serve hobo later on. So, you make your way between the cracks. I hear you moan, ba-da-da-da. I hear you moan, I hear you laugh. You make your way between the cracks note is four stress syllables without any break in them, and now a little less stable, ba-da, ba-da, ba-da, ba-da. That is, pushing a little harder because now I've sub-divided into 2 phrases. Singing as you pass. Ba-da-da-da-da, singing as you pass. Note I have now matched ba-da, ba-da, ba-da of the second line, but I have not rhymed it. And so the second line in the end is still waving its arms. And so, here we have, I hear you out there crying, begging let me in. You make your way between the cracks. I hear you moan, I hear you laugh. Singing as you pass. O hobo wind, hobo wind. O hobo wind, hobo wind. It still feels unstable, but it feels a sense of longing to me. And so, I want to go with that. I want to, you know, just how's that for the first box. I hear you out there crying. Begging let me in. You make your way betwen the cracks. I hear you moan, I hear you laugh. Singing as you pass. Oh hobo wind, hobo wind. And the singing now has been introduced, and I'm hoping that that will be enough to set up the hymns later on, if I choose to use it. But I've got the wind now as a singer, and I've got a skeleton of what the verse would be. Now, let's assume for just a moment that I follow the path that I've sort of set out for myself and say yes, indeed. This is going to be one of those still-crazy-after-all-these-years kinds of songs. With the verse, with the title at the end, another verse with the title at the end, another verse with the title at the end, with a bridge of some sort separating them, that might be my song form. And so, I'm going to just say, all right, let's give that a shot and see what happens. But if that's the case, then my job in verse two, and I might add, in verse three, is to match what I've done in in verse one. The rhythm of it, ba-da, ba-da, ba-da-da, ba-da, ba-da, ba-da, ba-da, ba-da, ba-da, ba-da, ba-da, ba-da, ba-da-da-da-da, ba-da-da-da, ba-da-da-da. To match that rhythm, but also to match that rhyme scheme so that I've rhymed lines 3, 4 and 5. But note that the rhyme types cracks, laugh and pass are slightly unstable. And being unstable keep the gate open to move into the hobo wind, which then finally picks up the second line rhyme. But picks it up with oh hobo wind, one stress too early. because note that the second line is 3 stresses, begging let me in, oh hobo wind. And then, repeating oh hobo wind, it's now an extra syllable out. So that we never get that real strong match of line 2 with a rhyme. And the gate is open at the end of the first verse to move on into the next verse. Now note that I said I really want to match my second verse. Why? Why, do you have to match your second verse? Answer, of course not. You don't have to match your second verse. What would happen if you didn't match your second verse? Well then, you would have hear something and hear something completely different, or hear something a bit different. So that you instead of having statement/repetition, you would have statement/variation. Now, having statement/variation is not really a problem, but the consequences of statement variation is that I have experienced no match between the two verses. And consequently, the next place I go I still have my same choice, either to match something there or to go someplace even different. And so if I go, say from the first verse with my refrain, to another verse that doesn't match, and then go to a bridge, then I'm still out in, let's go wherever we want to go, land. And being there, when I get to the last verse, I'm just someplace else. That's if we don't match. Let's see what happens if we do match. If verse 2 matches verse 1 exactly, then I have statement repetition. Two things that are the same, two things that have the same number of lines, length of lines, rhythm of lines, rhyme scheme. And so that when I have that match, now if I write a contrasting section, say a bridge, it says, I'm someplace different. I'm someplace different. And that builds tension. So that when, in the last verse, I return to the same structure that I had in verse 1 and verse 2. Now, because there's been tension with that bridge, it feels like I'm coming home. And it gives that last section even more power because I have returned to the familiar place. I've gone on vacation with the bridge, and then I returned to my familiar territory where I have been two times and I know I have because of this of repetition. And that AABA form has been around since 1908, 1908 to 1958, the AABA form, and it's still alive and well today. And is because of the way that it moves. It gives you that sense of return when you get to that last verse which you don't have if you vary your second verse. So then, I'm going to try the best that I can in my second verse to match my first verse. Not because it's a rule, but because my big idea is happening in my third box. And I want to give that all the light that I possibly can in order to make the big idea of, I want to go with you oh wind, as strong as it can possibly be.
