“You don’t choose your
experiences. They choose you.”
– Pat Monahan
Writers
come in many categories and one of the most interesting can be as a song lyricist,
where you’re a combination poet and short story writer. Monahan has been called “One of the best of
all time” by almost every other major songwriter.
Monahan’s
amazing success has primarily been with the band Train, but it wasn’t a
rocketship ride to success. After
initially being rejected by Columbia Records, Monahan and Train, strongly
believing that they were writing lyrics and tunes that would resonate with the
general public, decided to self-produce.
They scraped together $25,000 and made their record, and of course the
rest is history.
But,
Columbia still did not dive into supporting them, instead relegating Train to a
sub-label, Aware Records. The band’s
first single, "Free,” was a large hit on pop/mainstream rock stations. It’s second single, "Meet Virginia” was
a top 20 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 20, and its
third "I Am,” the major song on its first album, brought the band national
fame.
A
second album"Drops of Jupiter (Tell Me),” with the title song by the same
name, was a massive worldwide hit. It
won many Grammy Awards, including rock song of the year. Another immense bestseller for Train was,
“Hey, Soul Sister,” which topped every chart worldwide for a year. Nearly 20 years in, Train is still going
strong thanks primarily to the great writing of Monahan, who also is the
group’s lead singer. And, if you want to
hear him doing a “spoken word” routine, just tune in to a segment of Sprouts’
TV’s “Driver Dan’s Story Train” (where he has the lead, of course, as Driver
Dan).
For
a sample of Monahan’s terrific lyrical writing, look up the lyrics to “Hey,
Soul Sister.” Meanwhile, here’s a link to
the YouTube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVpv8-5XWOI Enjoy.
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