“Sweet Song Of Love” came to me one day as I was driving down the highway. Immediately, I imagined the opening to sound similar to the one in “The Ballad Of The Sad Young Men” by Rickie Lee Jones. The opening to her song had set such a mood and made such an impact on me the first time I heard it. It reminded me of my Great Grandmother and her special ability to help tell stories. She had played piano for the silent movies, when she was young. She would watch the films and know just what to play to elicit the emotions of the audience and connect them to the characters on the screen. When I would visit her as a child, she always played the piano and took requests. One song I loved to hear her play was “Simple Melody”.
I considered putting a list of songs up on the wall behind me for the video, songs that had inspired me. Songs I had tried to rewrite in my own words because the songs had impacted me. I considered putting a list of songs I had listened to over and over again like an addict chasing that feeling… I decided instead to go with a heart of three artists, their songs that had inspired me and the songs I in turn wrote, all in the shape of a recycled heart with the chorus to “Sweet Song Of Love” inside the heart. I included Edie Brickell, “The Wheel” which inspired “Ferris Wheel”, Melanie Safka, “Steppin’” which inspired “Back To The Beginning” and Lenka’s “Like A Song” which inspired “Sweet Song Of Love”.