Discovery channel is running a miniseries called, Harley and the Davidsons. A movie documenting the historical trek of Harley Davidson motorcycles.
Whether you ride or not, it is an interesting story of vision, perseverance, and overcoming defeat.
Their major rival at the time was the Indian motorcycle.
Indian taunted and bullied Harley Davidson. This only gave HD more motivation to be the largest motorcycle company.
Until…
Indian organized a claims suit against Harley Davidson for patent infringements on HD’s clutch system and very possibly many parts HD used to make their bikes.
The problem is, the parts were Bill Harley’s own design.
Indian bought some Harley Davidson bikes, tore them down, applied for patents on the parts, then sued HD for infringement.
Nice huh?
No, this isn’t a bit on copyright infringement.
Point is, Harley Davidson wound up selling everything to settle the lawsuit.
As they cleaned out their factory, Walt and Art Davidson, and Bill Harley ran across the very first bike off their production line.
A twenty-year old bike with serial number 1. They fired it up, and it ran beautifully.
Right then, they decided it was not about the company or being the largest manufacturer of motorcycles. It was all about the bike that was the focus.
After they tore down their production line, after they designed all the parts to their bikes and were sued for infringement…
They decided to start all over, from scratch.
And sometimes we find ourselves in the same spot in our songs.
Starting over, from scratch, to get the best song.
Because it’s always about the song, not us as writers.
It hurts, we get hooked on our own lines, our own groove, but most times rewriting pulls out a sculpted piece of art hidden beneath the rough image.
So, even though feedback from others seems like Indian bullying you, it’s not. It’s challenging the writer to get out of the way of the song, and let it shine.
Again, nothing to do with September’s Tune Booster, unless you want to know 15-solid ways of kick starting your tune, and what to include in the first few lines to throttle it up in a listener’s mind. https://www.tunesmithtips.com/newsletter/