All I Have To Say - Week 6

I'm taking a break from the "Art of Possibility Project," to share a song I wrote, and wrote again, then wrote a third time for my wife.

My favorite rock and roll story about writer's block involves John Lennon. According to legend, he was battling a serious case of writer's block. No ideas were coming to him at all. One might ask, why didn't he turn to his writing partner, Paul McCartney, for inspiration? True Beatle fans know that the earliest Lennon/McCartney tunes were written together, but later songs were written seperately, and then the other guy would change a word or two in order to take credit for having some input.

So, John is sitting around waiting for inspiration, when finally, he decides to write ABOUT the fact that he has writer's block. He picked up his guitar (or sat at the piano, I don't know) and he started to write... "He's a real nowhere man, sitting in his nowhere land...." The result was one of my all time favorite Beatles songs.

Something similar happened to me. I wanted so badly to write a love song for my girlfriend. I fancied myself a romantic bard who could express himself beautifully and melt the lady's heart. But nothing came. I found myself locked into my own need to be "real." I could write romantic things, but the truth is what I felt went deeper than that. No words could accurately express, to my mind, my true feelings of love for this woman.

So, I pulled a Lennon, and decided to write a song about how hard it was for me to write a song. I figured that the most romantic thing I could say was, "Words cannot express how much I love you." I then played around with the sentiment and BOOM a song was born.

I dedicate this song to my beloved wife, Paula, on our 14th wedding anniversary. 14 years and we never had a fight.*

*that ended in dismemberment.

All I Have To Say - Words and Music by Carl J Ferrara (c) 1989

I've been trying to write a song for you to show how much I care,
But whenever I sit down to write, the words would not be there
I tried to be poetic, like I always wanted to be,
But the most beautiful words I know can't say what you mean to me.

If I knew the words, I'd put them in a song
But now I can see, I've been going about it all wrong.

I tried keeping it simple, nice and easy from the start,
But the words to a love song should come straight from the heart.
I tried to be dynamic in my own special way...
But why should I ramble on with words,
When "I Love You" is All I Have to Say.

I tried being ironic, trying to make you smile
But the way it turned out in the end was never quite my style.
I tried playing around with the words and the rhythms to see how that would go,
But the words, when set to music would never let my feelings show.

Oh, the music I would play would be the perfect start
But words can never say what I'm feeling in my heart.

So, I've given up on writing words, I've wasted too much time.
I've run out of clever things to say, and ways to make them sound the same.
And I finally realized as I do with every passing day...
I don't have to ramble on with words,
"I Love You" is All I Have To Say.