Ben Folds, playing Cosmopolitan, finds inspiration in real lives of others

In Ben Folds' new song, "Belinda," he uses his tender and charming singing voice to deliver an acidic love story. He sweetly sings:

"Belinda, I loved you. I'm sorry that I left you. I met somebody younger on a plane. She had big breasts. A nice smile. No kids, either. She gave me complimentary champagne."

Those lyrics didn't come from Folds alone. He co-wrote "Belinda" with Nick Hornby, author of the novels "High Fidelity" and "About a Boy."

Folds, you see, does something few musicians dare: He finds lyrical muses, instead of just mining his own thoughts over and over. He's now written unlikely albums with Hornby and William Shatner.

"It's interesting to work with people who haven't had the opportunity to have their talent filtered through music," Folds explains.

Folds says he and Hornby jelled, because they don't write down to people, don't overwrite, and they strive to chronicle real life snippets.

"Nick is really good at finding those little moments that resonate, and those mean so much more than the broader vocabulary that he obviously has," Folds says.

Back in 2004, Folds found his lyrical muse in Shatner for the album "Has Been." It's a purposely funny, wise and heartbreaking autobiographical record.

In the Shatner song "What Have You Done," Shatner talks about pulling his dead wife, Nerine, out of their swimming pool in 1999:

"Smaller and more vulnerable than in life; her curls wet around her ears and neck; her dear profile at peace at last," Shatner intones softly to Folds' tones. "My love was supposed to protect her. It didn't. My love was supposed to heal her. It didn't. You had said, 'Don't leave me.' And I begged you not to leave me. We did."

Folds got the most out of Shatner by interviewing him for hours "about everything under the sun" and mixing those interviews with Shatner's autobiographical poetry.

"We recorded it all. Then I used those bits sometimes when the song words he was writing were a little too poetic."

The Shatner record worked so well because Shatner had a lifetime of "thoughts, recognition, interest and experience" to boil down into one record.

"He's someone people are interested in, and he's interesting when he speaks. Yet he hadn't really told his story. So that was the opportunity there to make it powerful," Folds says.

But here's the rub of mining songs from a new lyrical muse: You can't really do it a second time.

Folds hasn't returned to Shatner for a sequel. He didn't have the time to devote to a follow-up, he says, but it also would have been very difficult to get another autobiographical album out of Shatner.

"Bill Shatner's second record will be harder because everyone's second record is harder," Folds says.

No worries. Shatner is reportedly working on a metal album with Peter Frampton and Queen's Brian May.

"It should be interesting," Folds says.

So I suggest to Folds he hire himself out to wealthy people, to record their own first-time autobiographical albums. Wouldn't he like to charge Bill Gates $20 million to pen a Gates autobio album?

"It could be a total racket!" he says. "People would love to hear that."

Last year, Folds found his most unlikely lyrical muse in the anonymous webcam site ChatRoulette.com.

During a concert in Charlotte, N.C., Folds improvised fun, catchy new songs on the fly while interacting live with people on webcam, via ChatRoulette.com.

So in front of a paid audience of 2,000 fans, Folds crooned to one ChatRoulette guy on a toilet: "I hope you've eaten your bran."

To a frowny guy, Folds sang an uplifting tune that went, "Don't be sad; 2,000 people here in Charlotte are here to cheer you up!"

You can see the results in a funny YouTube video Folds uploaded, although he edited out the anonymous ChatRoulette guys who were naked on camera.

In some ways, Folds thought it was easier to freestyle good piano melodies in front of that audience of muses than to write alone in a quiet practice room. The pressure helped him improve the dynamic of each song as it went.

"As you can see with the ChatRoulette thing, (the improvised songs) didn't start out, like, 'Oh, this is amazing.' It went somewhere because life went somewhere, and the music followed it."

But that's how lyrical muses work, whether it's Shatner, Hornby or ChatRoulette. Folds takes others' real lives and everyday tales, then weaves their life songs as joyously, or bitterly, as they come.

Doug Elfman's column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Contact him at delfman@reviewjournal.com. He blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman.