Out of all the backstories that go with our songs… one of my favorite memories was when an older gentleman called me one day after he saw an article written about us a few years back in the Philadelphia Inquirer Newspaper.

I answered the phone and there was a soft, older sounding, voice on the other end. He said “hello, is this the place that make the songs?” I said “yes sir! How can I help you?” He said “what?” Again, I said “How may I help you?” “What? I said “sir, can you hea…” and before I got the sentence out, he said “wait, I can’t hear you, I’m going to have my daughter call tomorrow” then hung up. Before the next day could come, he called me back, about an hour later. After yelling in to the phone for about 25 minutes, I was able to get his story… and what a story it was!

His name -- Buck Carson. He was a 95-year-old WWII veteran. He saw the article in the paper about how we write songs from the lyrics of everyday people and he wanted to know if we could produce a song, he wrote for his wife 76 years earlier. As a U.S. Serviceman, he met her while stationed in Brisbane, Australia during WWII. He said they were scheduled to deploy the next day, but before that, the army held a dance for the soldiers with the local community. He went - not thinking anything of it. But while there, something amazing happened. He saw a woman across the room and thought she was beautiful. He went over and asked her to dance. By the time the dance was over, he proposed to her and she said yes! I thought it was the coolest story. His story. So, he wrote down how he felt on paper. He told me on the phone he was trying to find someone to produce the song (affordably) for 65 years! It was awesome to be able to help him finally create her song!

The moral of the story is anyone can create a story about their life – or a moment in their life – and make it in to a song. Whether it’s about one part of your life, or a large part. You can do it. After you have written out what you want to talk about, just make it shorter. Then shorter, and shorter, until you have just what you need to say. Then start writing sentences. You can find out more about how you do this part of the writing in our blog How to Convert Your Oral History to Lyrics. It will give you bullet points to work it up in to a song format.

Cheers to you Buck Carson! Thank you for your service. Thank you for being brave enough to not only fight for your country, but also to write the perfect love song for your wife. A real man can be tough and romantic at the same time!

Listen to Forever and a Day