I say this a lot as time and decades speed past me, but the overall concept and reality of time as they relate to me becomes more frustrating to understand and put my head around. Once again, I go back to the fact that everything my elders told me about life when I was young was true. Life IS short, and the older you get, the shorter it seems and the faster it goes. Furthermore, for me, something that happened a few months ago can seem like it happened 10 years ago, and something that happened 10 years ago can seem like it happened yesterday. I am unsure about others, but time travel is possible as I get older, at least in my head and my heart. And it is usually brought on by music, movies, and pictures.

Last night, and the night before, I went back to 1975 - hook, line, and sinker, and if I had my way, I never would have left. To celebrate its 50th anniversary, the movie “Tommy” by The Who was shown at select IMAX theaters for two evenings. 

I was 14 years old when Tommy came out in March of 1975, right in the middle of the 70’s, which I am forever grateful is the decade I grew up in. For those of you who may be unfamiliar, “Tommy,” the movie, was enormously successful, as was the original album by The Who, released in 1969. Both changed the landscape of music, rock musicals, and movies forever. Like the rest of my music-loving friends, I fell completely in love with the movie, its narrative, and its music. The movie affected me very deeply then; I experienced an equal amount of heightened joy, energy, happiness, sadness, and tears every time I saw it. I saw it as many times as I could when it was in the theater, and later, when it played at the local midnight movies in the 80s, I never missed it. I am sure I went through at least two to three copies of the VHS tape. For some odd reason, I have not seen the movie in well over 20 years, and probably more, until the past two nights. And I know I have not seen it in a theater since the 1980’s. To experience it again in all its glory in IMAX was almost too much for me to handle. All the emotion I felt as a 14-year-old came back immediately, and with almost an entire lifetime lived since then, everything I have experienced along the way colored it even more. I cannot recall the last time I had so much fun in a movie theater.

Experiencing “Tommy” fifty years on, it is more than obvious that the genius that it is could only have been a product of the 70s. However, oddly enough, it did not seem that dated to me. Ken Russell created a masterpiece that I feel no one else has ever matched in its genre. One of the many glorious things that stood out to me was that this is real movie-making. There is no CGI. No computers. It was all real live actors and sets, making an epic rock opera movie to the iconic music of The Who, which will forever stand alone. Yes, there is one thing I would have changed: Oliver Reed should not have sung his own vocal parts. But other than that, to me it is a masterpiece of its time. A time I wish could have lasted. A time when rock and roll and movies were real, ruled, and were allowed to create the art they wanted without worrying about offending anyone. The only way really true art can be created, in my opinion.

“Listening to you, I get the music. Gazing at you, I get the heat. Following you, I climb the mountain. I get excitement at your feet.”
        Jeff

I recently read this very interesting article about how songwriting improves your emotional intelligence, and I felt compelled to share. Enjoy, and then go write a song.

Groove on,
         Jeff

HOW SONGWRITING DEVELOPS OUR EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

​This might be a “which came first, the chicken or the egg” situation, but in my observation, songwriters seem to have an emotional awareness that goes beyond that of the average person. However, whether you are the genetic inheritor of emotional intelligence or not, there can be no doubt that writing songs enhances our EQ (as emotional intelligence is sometimes called) for a variety of reasons. So, given how much richer our lives can be when we’re in touch with our own and others’ emotions, I’m going to list a few of the ways that writing songs strengthens our all-important emotional intelligence.

1. Writing Songs Forces Us to Name, Shape, and Understand Our Emotions
Songwriting, at its best, is compelling storytelling. And to tell a good story, we need to be able to observe our emotions and then describe them not only to ourselves but also to anyone who hears our songs. I’ve read that the best way to test the strength of our ideas is to try to write about them. Writing songs gives us the opportunity to do exactly that. Instead of suppressing our emotions, we’re exploring them. By taking the time to truly understand and describe what we’re feeling - or what the characters in our songs are feeling - we’re sharpening our own emotional intelligence.

2. Writing From Different Perspectives Improves Our Empathy
As I mentioned briefly in the preceding paragraph, not all songs are from our own perspective. Some of the best songs I’ve ever heard are songs where the singer is telling us a story, not about themselves but about someone else, from that person’s point of view. By learning to write from different perspectives, we’re inhabiting the emotional worlds of others. This kind of intense observation deepens our empathy, allowing us to connect with people at a deep, emotional level. This is a skill that carries far beyond the ability to simply tell a good story from someone else’s point of view.

3. Writing Focuses Our Emotional Awareness
The more we focus on what makes us human, the more our awareness places emotions at the forefront. This is, of course, great for songwriting but also leads to a host of other benefits that stem directly from heightened emotional intelligence, such as better relationships, clearer communication, and even healthier boundaries. Imagine learning to communicate in a way that is both clear and compelling while taking our listeners’ perspectives into account. That is what a highly developed emotional intelligence allows us to do.
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Conclusion
As both the son and brother of therapists, I never had a chance to NOT be, at the very least, emotionally aware. That being said, there’s a difference between simple awareness and the ability to truly understand and leverage our emotional intelligence. This works to great effect as a songwriter, but, much more importantly, it’s a critical life skill that I’m grateful I’ve developed over my decades of songwriting. The best part is that you’ll improve your own emotional intelligence by simply writing songs. It’s a part of the package.

Bio
Cliff Goldmacher is a GRAMMY-recognized, #1 hit songwriter, music producer, and author with recording studios in Nashville, TN, and Middle River, MD. Through his studios, Cliff provides songwriters outside of Nashville with virtual, live access to Nashville’s best session musicians and studio vocalists for their songwriting demos. Find out more. You can also download Cliff’s FREE tip sheet “A Dozen Quick Fixes To Instantly Improve Your Songs.”