Misspent Ambitions – David Penny
For me, writing is a constant striving to achieve the same visceral punch I get from great music. It’s hard because writing is a different medium, but every now and again, for a brief moment, I like to think I’ve almost attained that ambition.
I use music to inspire me, to turn off my analytical mind and don a cap of imagination. While writing my first new book for over 35 years (don’t ask) I used music as inspiration, but also as a wash of sound through which my hands drifted across the keyboard.
That book, The Red Hill came to me complete in less than a second, the entire idea and thread for a multi-book series. Then it took two years to write. The protagonist, Thomas Berrington, is an Englishman a thousand miles from home, a surgeon working in the final years of the Moorish caliphate that has ruled Spain for over 700 years. For much of that period the Moors were a beacon of civilisation in a Europe shattered by invasion, war and ignorance. They were cultured, scientific, and curious about the world. While the Vikings invaded the north, the Moors were inventing flying machines (1100), algebra, the clock, and studying the stars and medicine. In the book Thomas uses the techniques and instruments invented by the Moors – many of which have developed into those now used in modern operating theatres. His life is settled, deliberately constrained, until a man he can’t refuse asks a favour that could get him killed.
Below is the music that inspired me in the writing of the book. but more importantly music that just inspired. What more is there?
The following link to YouTube videos, so my apologies for the adverts.
Tinariwen
The video I was going to post is not available.
This is how I see Thomas dressed in The Red Hill. It’s also here because I listen to Tinariwen when I need to get into the emotional world of the Moors before they came to Spain, the world they carried with them. I can hear this music – without the electric guitars, but the Moors did have lutes and some even believe they created the acoustic guitar – being performed in al-Hamra at the time the Red Hill is set – the music rhythmic, dense, ululating. And the performers – you can see their lives etched deep on their faces.
Since I first wrote this post my wife, myself and out son were fortunate enough to see Tinariwen play live in an old Church in Bristol. Th
Neil Young, Rocking in the Free World
I love everything about Neil Young when he plays electric guitar this way. His acoustic, Harvest Moon period, I can take or leave, but when he performs like this it sums up how I feel about writing. The music is on the edge, barely constrained, constantly threatening to tip over into chaos and feedback but always, somehow, pulling back from the brink. I love his uncompromising nature. I understand it’s also what turns people off his music, but the point is he doesn’t care. He does what he does, what he must do. Whether you like it, love it, or loath it, it is what it is. The struggle to write something possessing this raw power and emotion is what keeps me coming back to the keyboard over and over again. It’s an unattainable dream, but that’s all right, because it means I never need to stop. Just like Neil. And take time to listen to the words.
Also: Cortez the killer cover by Joe Satriano and Grace Potter
Written by Neil, of course, but included for a couple of reasons – the main one being the dichotomy between the slight Spanish vibe and the words. And it tells the result of the victors in the battle the Thomas Berrington series is about. I can’t help wondering how different the world would be today if the Moors hadn’t been defeated.
Counting Crows, A Long December
Another band I can’t get enough of, another singer who wears his heart on his sleeve. My wife and I – kids too – have seen this band more times than any other, and every time they’re different. Some people don’t like that, wanting things to sound just exactly as they do on the album. Us? No – we like different.
This song contains one of my favourite lines: about oysters and pearls… listen…
Also, look up Miller’s Angels – stark, haunting, and beautiful.
John Hiatt. Have a Little Faith in Me
This has nothing to do with The Red Hill, other than I listen to John Hiatt all the time. It isn’t my favourite song of his (that’s another guitar blow-out, but I’ll spare you), but it is his best known and most covered. John Hiatt it the best unknown singer-songwriter in the world. No, don’t disagree – he is. He just is. And again, listen to the words and bow down to the man…
I first saw John Hiatt at the Hammersmith Apollo in the 90’s and at the end of a 3 hour show that blew my socks off he said something that sums up exactly how I feel about writing: “Hey, thanks y’all for coming. If you weren’t here we’d still be playing this stuff, but we’d be doing it for free in our garage.”
Also: Cry Love – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=el3IygVnIqM
I’ve included this because Immy from Counting Crows is on mandolin (plus it’s brilliant).
David Penny is the author of 4 Science Fiction novels and several short stories published during the 1970’s. Near-starvation led him down the slippery slope of work, which distracted him from his true calling. He has now returned to writing and The Red Hill, a Moorish mystery thriller, is out July 13th 2014. He is currently working on two new books: the follow up to The Red Hill, and a thriller set in the world of industrial espionage.
David’s latest title, available for pre-order on July 30th, 2024, is The Beasts of the City, book 13 in the Thomas Berrington Series.
You can find out more about David and his writing at https://www.davidpenny.com and you can connect on twitter @davidpenny_
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