What inspires our favorite songs?

I recently read an article about the fact that most of our favorite love songs are inspired by real life events. Okay! I’d have to say that I do agree…but there’s a catch to that. I once met a guy who made plans with me to meet him and when he didn’t show up, I started to call him. Finally that night, he picked up the phone after a number of calls and answered “Stalker! I’m eating a grilled cheese sandwich.”…Of course I did what every songwriter would do: I wrote a song called “Stalker! I’m eating a grilled cheese sandwich” and emailed it to him. He didn’t seem to take it well. I mean…he didn’t get a restraining order or anything…but he was definitely put off by the fact that he stood me up, blew me off with a nasty comment about calling me a stalker, and then instead of me going away, I wrote a song about him…Okay…wait…now I’m starting to see his point a little. But…well…hmm…All I can say is if you don’t want a song written about you, don’t hang out with a songwriter. The article I read was about love inspiring songs, but you do know that it goes both ways don’t you? I have walked away from guys and written some huge hits such as “Are you really that dumb? Or were you just nervous?”, “Come on! Don’t you think you should’ve at least cleared the clothes off of the floor of your bedroom?”, or the ever popular, “Let me out at the light…no…forget it, I’ll get out here.” Love is inspiring! But can we ever live up to the fantastic spin put on one small moment then embellished into a 4-minute masterpiece? I worry that we are putting too much emphasis on fairytale love that is invented in the minds of the creative! Don’t get me wrong! I believe in it…but I’m one of the creative…so finding anyone to live up to the song I’ve already written continues to be a quest for a cartoon character out of a fairytale romance novel! Wish me luck! Can you think of any songs that you have based your mantra on? Do you really know what they were about or have you invented your own meaning behind them? One year I sang Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always love you”, for nearly every wedding first dance theme. Isn’t that song about her leaving?…oh well…Chances are those marriages broke up already anyway so no harm done! If you aren’t going to listen long enough to get to the verse in order to make sure your first dance isn’t about breaking up, I suppose you probably aren’t going to handle your first fight over who used up the toothpaste very well either!