(Title) Follow the Sound (Sections) The Music, The Way I Play, Home Where the Highway Has No End
For background info about "Follow the Sound," see "1st Instalment, March 25, 2026 - How to Watch 'Follow the Sound'"
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In this instalment -
About song #14 from the "ALAICMI" collection, "I Would Be Surprised"
*****Scroll down to below the Transcript to find the link to the song video "I Would Be Surprised"*****
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(Transcript)
About "I Would Be Surprised"
It was 1976. I was living in an apartment in Long Beach. I still had my Docorder reel-to-reel tape recorder.
At that time I had the chords for this song but I didn't have any lyrics.
Meanwhile I was, as always, trying to figure out how to get my songs out. I didn't have a band. I wasn't a performing musician. I couldn't afford studio time to make a decent demo. I just had rough do-it-yourself recordings.
An idea occurred to me: "What I need is for a major label to pick my songs and give them to artists and have them record/perform them."
"But how do I do that?" I thought.
I decided to look into the licensing outfits, ASCAP and BMI. I contacted them for info.
I received a packet of info; I forget from which agency it was from. In it was an introductory letter apparently written by the person who was the president or something of the agency at the time. It was either Peter Yarrow or Paul Stookey (I forget which) of Peter, Paul and Mary fame.
What he wrote was something like this: He wrote, "We welcome you to join our outfit. This is the perfect place for new songwriter artists. We've hosted the big names, such as Bob Dylan, who went from total obscurity to legend, writing the songs that shaped a generation!"
And he went on: "Who knows but that you might be the next Bob Dylan!"
I thought to myself, "Well, I don't know about that! After all, Bob Dylan was an uncommonly talented songwriter, especially in regard to lyrics. Not only that, but Bob Dylan came along at just a particular time in history. These kinds of things just don't happen all the time."
And I thought, "So it's like this: Sure, I think I've got some good songs. But you say that maybe I might be the next Bob Dylan?! I would be surprised!"
Well, that got me started on the lyrics of this song. "Just think," I was essentially writing in the lyrics, "if I could come up with the solution to all the problems of the world. Sure! Wouldn't I be surprised! If I could do that, people would make me Master of the World! And if I was Master of the World I could just have an easy life. And everybody else would just be the peasant nobodies - equal, yes, just as shadows are all equal - and just as equally capable - or rather, incapable - of speaking or of expressing themselves in any way."
And so, if I had that ability and if I was the Master of the World, it would not be a good thing.
In other words, please don't tell me I could be the next Bob Dylan! Just a One-Hit-Wonder is good enough for me! I'll be perfectly fine with that, thank you!
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(To watch the song video, click the link below)
Collection number 4, "ALAICMI,"
Song number 14 "I Would Be Surprised"
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