Upon the reflection of my own songwriting, there's one source of inspiration who's voice continues to shine through and resonate in my own work, and that is Doug Hopkins. The man most-famously known for penning "Hey Jealousy" and "Found Out About You".
It's no secret that I highly regard Doug Hopkins to by my favorite writer, and I don't mean that from a songwriting stand point. The lyrics in Doug's poetry paint a tale of one man's thoughts, struggles, and simple beauty he saw in the world. And what makes it really stick is that he told these stories in such a palatable and clever way.
If Doug only had his chance, he would have become the most prominent songwriter of his decade. Kurt Cobain, John Lennon- these men had nothing on Doug.
Like many others, I discovered Doug through the Gin Blossoms. I remember chancing upon "Found Out About You" when I was sixteen, and there was just something about that song that just shot itself right through me. The music bed was provocative in its longing for reclamation.
I didn't have to follow the lyrics to know that I was hearing something personal about heartbreak. As soon as I could, I scurried off to Music One in Greenbelt (Back when it was still respectable) and bought Outside Looking In: The Best of The Gin Blossoms. While I personally find it to be a weak representation of their music, it gave me the opportunity to follow and discover a band that has always been around me.
The more I listened, the more interested I became in Doug Hopkins. I wanted to know more about the man who penned these amazing songs. It took a couple years, but upon the discovery of songs like "Dream With You", "Keli Richards", "Angels Tonight", "100 Summers", "Lost Horizons", "Blue Eyes Bleeding", and "My Guardian Angel" did I really start to see the beauty in Doug's work.
He was the kind of songwriter who could see the beauty of the smallest things and write about. And again, what made his lyrics so meaningful was that he was able to describe with such simplicity.
I think back to "Hold Me Down" and that lyric, "I can't remember why I liked this feeling, when it always seems to let me down.". I just think its so brilliant. It's one of those things we all feel but can never somehow seem to place; and Doug, in his genius, constructed the best flow of words to perfectly describe that.
What set Doug's work apart from other songwriters was the edge he gave each song. No matter what it was; whether it was a rocker like "Slave Dealer's Daughter", a mid-tempo burst of power pop in "Hey Jealousy", or a ballad like "Pieces of The Night" was the amount of natural power each song had.
You didn't have to distort it, you didn't have to back it up with a mesh of guitars. The power in Doug's songs came purely from the music bed it was spawned from.
Doug was meticulous with the construction of his songs. He was known take his time with songs, composing each aspect of its construction; from lyrics, to the changes in chords, and even as deep as the bass that would carry it and whatever jangle would accompany it to give it the mood and the aura it deserved.
Doug Hopkins was a songwriter's songwriter, and I don't think I can stress that enough.
Take "Found Out About You"; the best example of Doug's songwriting. This song is a considerably adolescent take on heartbreak, but it resounds in such an intense way.
The lyrics are brutally visual. There are times when I listen to it and find myself imagining Doug passing through a bus stop and the house of his ex-girlfriend, with the trace of the song just forming inside his head.
What always gets to me each time I hear it is the final verse:
"Street lights blink on through the car window,
I get the time too often on am radio.
Well, you know it's all I think about-
I write your name, drive past your house.
You're boyfriend's over I watch the lights go out...".
Who wasn't been there and felt that?
All those visuals and the emotion they carry are translated further in the music. It's stance at mid-tempo captures the listener and strikes them into something romantic and painful. You don't know what it is, but as the song progresses and builds in this subtle storm of jangled guitars, a baseline that creeps itself up the back of the song, and a beat that mimics the fury of the storm.
It builds and builds until it explodes into this guitar solo that bursts itself through until it collects the song and draws it back in it's final moments. And as Robin Wilson sings deeper into the final verse, the song explodes one final time as if it had conceded to acceptance.
Doug Hopkins was perhaps the finest songwriter the world never got to know. And if I could use this as any avenue, I just want to thank him for all the amazing songs he wrote and the inspiration he provided to myself and many others; including indie rock giants, Jimmy Eat World.
Doug Hopkins is forever immortalized with the songs he wrote. And its a strengthening notion because in every moment, there always someone new who's about to chance upon his music.
RIP Doug Hopkins
1961-1993
Photos courtesy of Lost Horizons,
http://www.losthorizons.info/index.html
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