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| C. Kevin Thompson |
Do you read books or poems, hear songs, look at pictures or
paintings, and wonder, how did the author come up with this? What does it mean?
Is there some simple elegance to this piece? Or is there a deeper meaning
hidden by my lack of knowledge about the origins?
Art is richer when you (the reader, the listener, the viewer)
know the “backstory.” That’s why doing interviews as an author is so important,
especially when you can peel back some layers and allow your audience to see
you as a real person or how you come up with your stories.
I’ve been doing blog interviews for some time now, both as a
guest and as the interviewer, but the importance of this concept was truly
“brought home” to me recently.
We were listening to Sirius/XM radio on the way to the beach
over Memorial Day weekend. They were doing a countdown of the Top 100 most
influential rock-n-roll songs of all time. I’m not sure who put the list
together, but like so many of these kinds of countdowns, I took issue with many
of the selections as well as where some were ranked.
However, one particularly interesting part of this countdown
was an interview they did with Robert Lamm, one of the members of the group Chicago. Leading into the next song in
the Top 100 (I forget which number it was), they replayed an interview from
some time back wherein Lamm explained how he came up with the name to the song,
25 or 6 to 4. Have you ever wondered
how that song got its name? Me, too.
Lamm told the story of how—at the time he wrote the song—he
was staying in an upstairs apartment with some immigrants from Europe in the
Los Angeles/Hollywood area. It was early in the morning, and he’d been up all
night, feeling the pressure of having to come up with songs that rivaled the
ones found on the band’s debut album, which released in January 1969 with
Columbia Records, and sold over one million copies. The band had just returned
from a successful European tour and needed to complete the song list for the LP
which would become Chicago II.
Lamm tells the story of how the music for the song came easy
to him. Being the keyboardist for the group, this song actually started with a
guitar riff. The rest of the notes flowed and were on paper quickly, but the
lyrics? Not so much. He scribbled lines down. Some rhymed. Some still needed a
match. He saw a bar across the street with “dancing lights against the sky.”
There were airplanes, too, flying in and out of LAX. More dancing lights.
At one point, he looked at his watch. Squinting, he couldn’t
tell exactly what time it was. At first, he thought it was twenty-five ’til
four. Then, he said no, it’s twenty-six minutes until 4:00 a.m. “Is it twenty-five or six to four?” Noticing the line “25 or 6 to 4” rhymed with a line
he’d penned earlier ending with the word “floor,” he jotted it down as well,
thinking it would serve for now as a working title.
Soon, what Robert Lamm had was, in his words, “a song about
writing a song.” So, when you click on the lyrics below and listen to the song
itself, it just may take on a whole new persona. I know it did for me. Now,
when I hear the song and think about it being “a song about writing a song,”
the lyrics not only make perfect sense, but they almost seem comical.
Sometimes, simple is better than complex when it comes to art.
Knowing the story behind the art is always useful, too. But what it does more
than anything is allow the reader/listener/viewer to realize the Robert Lamm’s
of the world are just like us. They struggle. They lie awake at night, trying
to “think of something to say.” They feel the pressure of their last success
pushing them to be better, to improve in their craft, not knowing “how much
more they can take.” Yet, these are all things we, as writers, wrestle with
every day. So, be encouraged. Who knows, maybe someday, you’ll write a book on
writing a book.
I’ll bet it will look and sound very similar to the song
below, as you sit at your computer, staring at the clock, wondering, “Is it
3:35 or 3:34 a.m.?”
Song Video (Live Version) of 25 or 6 to 4
Lyrics to 25 or 6
to 4
Something
ominous lurks under the waters.
Dr.
Evelyn Sims, a brilliant marine biologist, is being watched. Her husband's
mysterious death at sea—with the only survivor of the Greenback telling a
shocking, unbelievable tale—has thrown her personal life into chaos. Her
scientific views are being scrutinized. Her husband's office and their home are
investigated. Called in by the FBI to help solve the mystery, Evelyn is thrust
into her toughest research project ever...and forced into a maze of deception
and betrayal.
Micah
Gregson, the Coast Guard captain who rescued the Greenback, is determined to
find out why a special unit at the FBI—the one assigned to cryptozoological
cases—is involved.
Together
Evelyn and Micah will uncover a plot more deadly than anything the ocean could
ever produce. One that will either save Evelyn's life and redeem her career, or
destroy everything she—and myriad others—stand for.
C. KEVIN
THOMPSON is an ordained minister with a B.A. In Bible (Houghton
College, Houghton, NY), an M.A. in Christian Studies (Wesley Biblical Seminary,
Jackson, MS), and an M.Ed. in Educational Leadership (National-Louis
University, Wheeling, IL). He presently works as an assistant principal in a
middle school.
His Blake Meyer series is out! 30 Days Hath Revenge - A Blake Meyer Thriller: Book 1, is now
available! Book 2 of the Blake Meyer Series, Triple Time, is now available! Book 3, The Tide of Times, will be out in August 2017! Also, the second
edition of The Serpent’s Grasp will
be out in June 2017 through Hallway Publishing!
Kevin is a huge fan of the TV series 24, The Blacklist, Blue Bloods, and Criminal Minds, loves anything to do with Star Trek, and is a Sherlock Holmes fanatic, too.
To connect with Kevin and learn more, please visit:
Twitter: @CKevinThompson
Goodreads: C. Kevin
Thompson
