Brave and Crazy

While having lunch with my old friend Alan today (don't ask how old of a friend, let's just say we met when Johnson was still in the White House) I quoted from Tom Cochrane's "Brave and Crazy"...to those of you of the right creative bent, this is more than a nice lyric...this is a manifesto for the creative artist.

I quote, and trust Mr. Cochrane is not offended by my praise of his insight and his wordsmithing:

"He sat down with his guitar in a distant place
When a man walks up and tells him
"Buddy there are some things you cannot say"
I'll be damned if you'll tell me
What I can and cannot feel
I won't be no puppet here - none of your back room deals.

Modern love was invented by the minstrels in the dark ages
Where they used to hunt them down from town to town.
Man, what deck are we dealing from here
When a girl walks up and says
"You got something we've got to hear"

Brave and crazy...brave on
Brave and crazy...brave on

Along the boardwalk of this burned out tourist town
The ghosts of another day stalk the barren beaches
Where all come to hide from the rattling of the sounds
Of skeletons in the closet
Hoping nothing brings them down
She says "I have lived nearly all my life"
"I scare them to death because I say what I like"

Brave and crazy...brave on
Brave and crazy...brave on

There's a war here between freedom and the hypocrites
Who will try on all disguises just to see what fits
Truth is the one thing to live, love and die for
Raise your barbaric screams
High above the rooftops of the world
The rooftops of the world

Brave on...

He packs his car and picks a course upon a map
Maybe east of eden or maybe farther west than all of that
Writes down everything he's seen, everything that he feels
Then rips it up - it doesn't say enough - then throws it is a passing field

Brave and crazy...brave on "

If you resonate with this, you understand. If not. Ah well, maybe you're just waiting for another go round.

It resonates beyond mere creative force, as I have lived "East of Eden" in Salinas, California and I have had a merchant tell me what I can and cannot write while in his establishment.

Me, I'll bet on getting it right this time.