Why Write Songs?

[john]

Hi Gang

 

You could write other people's songs. There are tens of thousands of songs.I thought at least asking these questions might yield some interesting and varied answers, and hopefully an enjoyable discussion!

 

To get us started, please pnonder these questions....

 

• What drives YOU to write?
• What are you looking for when you write?
• What, if anything, do you get from the process?
• What do you like about writing songs?
• What do you dislike about writing songs?
• What inspires you to write songs?
• Are you trying to achieve something with writing songs? If so, what?

 

If you were to pick one of your songs to represent you, a song that sums up who and what you are as a songwriter, it embodies it.... what song would it be? Please post the song and the lyrics.

If you haven't recorded it, can you post up the lyrics? Would you record a 1+1 to let us hear it?

 

I look forward to your answers.

 

Cheers

 

John

[TCgypsy]

I write because I have no choice; songs just come to me.

They need to be expressed, and I enjoy the process of shaping them into a complete composition.

I love everything about the process except editing. I never dislike writing songs but sometimes aspects of the production are frustrating.

The only thing I am trying to accomplish at this point is to create art for its own sake.

 

I don't think one song tells the whole story but this song is a good representation:

 

Running around with your head in the clouds
You've lost your way
Hoping to find that secret path to your golden age
Trying to follow the tracks that you found
To lead you back to hallowed ground
But they're gone
They've washed away
Gone …
Lost in yesterday
Gone …

 

Leave the past behind
Life is moving on
Tomorrow turns into yesterday
Gone, gone, gone

 

Hedging your bets and making plans
You don't know how and you don't know when
You might get a second try
To find those things you'd left behind
But they're gone
They've passed away
Gone . . .
Like a shadow's fate
Gone . . .

 

Leave the past behind
Time is moving on
Tomorrow turns into yesterday
Gone, gone, gone

 

Where do you go from here?
Where do you go from here?
Where do you go from here?

 

Leave the past behind
Life is moving on
Tomorrow turns into yesterday
Gone, gone, gone
Gone

[DonnaMarilyn]

 

Good questions, John. They got me thinking. As you know, I play no instrument, but I take the craft of writing lyrics very seriously. So I hope you won’t mind if I respond to your questions from the perspective of a lyricist who sometimes writes melodies but mainly works with musicians/composers.

 

What drives YOU to write songs (lyrics)?

 

Once upon a time, I had the silly notion that maybe I could write a lyric for a song that might be picked up by an artist. Just once would have sufficed. Apart from a couple of very minor ‘victories’ (i.e. placement in a TV series episode, a few competition wins or almost-wins), however, that didn’t happen. So now I’m happy just to ‘scratch the itch’ − that sudden and overwhelming desire to create a ‘story’, or to give voice to a visceral response to some personal or societal or global event.

 

What are you looking for when you write?

 

It depends on the story and the impetus. Sometimes it’s to get something off my chest, or to find closure (as if that’s ever possible), or to amuse/entertain/inspire/enlighten the reader/listener, or to express a strong feeling about something to which the reader/listener can relate. 

 

What, if anything, do you get from the process?

 

Mostly satisfaction if I feel I’ve done a good or at least a fairly competent job. Sometimes I ‘get’ breathing space when the act of writing – removing myself from the world, so to speak − has served as a distraction from whatever might be weighing heavily on my heart or mind at a given moment. In other words, it can be therapeutic.

Sometimes I get the truth. For instance, when I look at a completed lyric and see that I’d written something I didn’t even realise I’d believed or contemplated. I often feel – especially with stream-of-consciousness or semi-SOC – that the lyric writes me rather than the other way around.

I suppose too there's a sense of 'leaving something behind' once I've sloughed off this mortal coil. Maybe one day in the distant future someone will stumble across a lyric or a song of mine, and feel somehow touched or connected, in the same way that I often feel when I read a favourite poet or author, or listen to a favourite song. 

 

What do you like about writing lyrics for songs?

 

I like the challenge. I like the thrill of the chase when I’m scrabbling around looking for the perfect word or phrase to express a feeling or a state as simply and as elegantly as possible. I like the challenge of writing across different genres, and creating a story and structure that’s representative of that genre. I like forcing myself out of my comfort zone. Heck, I’ve even written a couple of rap and punk lyrics.

I like making up stories, creating ‘characters’ and situations, finding the words to bring them to life.

I like the sheer joy of stringing words together like pearls. They can be white or black or any of the colours in between, but always something that – I hope – the reader/listener will want to pick up and wear, or just hold in her/his hands and look  at, for whatever reason.

Though I’ve never quite fathomed why, a lot of my lyrical stories are from the POV of a male character/narrator. Apparently I like the challenge of seeing how believable I can make the character and the situation. (I’m an ex-journo, and was a writer of short stories in another life, so I imagine traces of that still linger.)

If someone asks me to work on a lyric with them (i.e. I co-wrote an album of lyrics for a rock band in Italy a couple of years ago), I try very hard to contribute something substantial and pleasing.

 

 What do you dislike about writing song (lyrics)?

 

There’s nothing I dislike. I even love the part where I need to sit down and tackle the hardest and most important aspect of writing a lyric – the revising & polishing up until I feel it’s ready to be handed over and to find a good home with a musician/composer.

 

What inspires you to write songs (lyrics)?

 

Everything. 

 

Are you trying to achieve something with writing lyrics? If so, what?

 

Probably a lot of things, including some I’m not even conscious of. Connecting with others by way of the written word. Presenting a story that might resonate with someone,  maybe in a healing capacity, and bring joy or laughter or insight, or whatever it is they might need to read/hear or to feel at a given moment.

Honing my skills as much as possible. In the craft, there’s always something to learn.

Creating a lyrical story that my collaborators/co-writers will want to wrap their wonderful music around.

 

If you were to pick one of your songs to represent you, a song that sums up who and what you are as a songwriter, it embodies it.... what song would it be? Please post the song and the lyrics.

 

Because I write across a number of genres, I think no particular lyric or song is representative of me as a whole. I suppose though that one or another lyric/song might be representative in a particular genre. I enjoy writing ‘folky’ lyrics/songs.

This ballad, written a few years ago, is still one of my favourites in the genre. I love what my collaborator, Billy Playle, did with it.

 

https://soundcloud.com/donmar-2/if-i-were-a-sailor/s-RTuoW

[Glammerocity]

Yeah, I think it's something you just have to get out. I heard Elvis Costello say he thought his songs were about somebody else but he came to realise they were about him and he said he'd heard the same thing from Dylan. So it's therapy as well, especially after a breakup. Aren't they always the best songs? My songwriting partner did gigs with a guitarist, who tried writing but he was terrible. My mate said it was because he'd only ever had dalliances and had never been in love, so had never felt the pain of a breakup. And we felt sorry for him never having been in that dark place that we mined.

[Muso Goodshot]

I find that sometimes songs come to me really easily, and other times I struggle with lyrics.

 

My approach has always been to start with a chord sequence,  and then hum over a melody, then I write the lyrics.

 

The problem I have though, is that I don't really like to write very personalised songs, so I find it easier if I can find a subject matter and form the lyrics around the story of the song.

 

Using ideas from the news, papers, friends etc.

 

I find this process works best for me.

[MikeRobinson]

I write songs because I can't stand to do anything else.

[DaveKell]

• What drives YOU to write?
• What are you looking for when you write?
• What, if anything, do you get from the process?
• What do you like about writing songs?
• What do you dislike about writing songs?
• What inspires you to write songs?
• Are you trying to achieve something with writing songs? If so, what?

Taken one by one, my drive to write is insatiable. I have to as much as I need to breathe.

What I'm looking for is a satisfying composition.

What I get from the process is great sense of accomplishment.

What I like about the process is the mental challenge to see it through.

I don't dislike anything about it.

What inspires me is whatever I'm thinking about with my first cup of coffee in the morning.

All I'm trying to achieve is to create something that never existed before.

 

Here's an example of a morning where I woke up thinking I had no ideas to begin with. I think it was day 3 of a self imposed 5 day challenge to write a song every day to completion with music included. As I sat in my shop where I write usually, realizing no ideas were coming to me, I noticed a piece of split wood on the floor. It was from the day before when I was assembling framing for a hand lettered sign I had completed. I was too lazy to set up my drill to make a pilot hole for the screws I was using to put it together. I tried to set a screw with a hammer and split the wood instead. I also for some reason remembered a line from a Waylon Jennings song that went "Newbury's train songs" and wondered if I could write a train song. Here's the result with all this in mind.

 

(Begins with chorus)

I ain't feeling it today, now what am I to do?

I'm 'bout as useless as a hammer

Trying to drive a screw

Life's passing by

But I don't seem to care

I'm riding on a train

That ain't going anywhere

 

Verse 1

Rolled out this morning, nothing on my mind

Digging in a drawer, no socks left to find

Looking in my closet, no pants on the rack

My life's like a train that's run out of track

Wife says it's over, she ain't gonna stay

Man it's really shaping up to be a fine day

 

Verse 2

Wearing dirty clothes again, and socks that stink

The pantry's empty, there's no coffee to drink

Thinking maybe I should go back to bed

This day holds nothing but a train wreck ahead

RING RING RING, I can't find the phone!

Don't give a damn, just leave me alone

 

Chorus

I ain't feeling it today, now what am I to do?

I'm 'bout as useless as a hammer

Trying to drive a screw

Life's passing by

But I don't really  care

I'm riding on a train

That ain't going anywhere

 

(maybe a bridge?)

My life is an empty boxcar

I walk in hobos shoes

My attitude won't get me far

But I got nothing to lose

 

Verse 3

Racking my brain hoping for a resolution

I'm really only reaching one conclusion

This day sucks, I need it to end

I'm like a locomotive that won't roll around a bend

 

(outro)

Life's passing by, but I don't really care

I'm getting off this train

It ain't going anywhere

I'm getting off this train

It ain't going anywhere

 

https://soundcloud.com/stream

Here is the studio rough. It's awaiting harmonica tracks fro my favorite songwriter, Mickey Newbury's friend and harmonica player, a guy name R. B. Lindsay

 

 

Edited September 30, 2018 by DaveKell