John's Blog
Book 'Songwriters on Songwriting' by Paul Zollo
Posted by: John | Comment (2)I have had this book for several years now, but recently, inspired by a recent burst of creativity at the behest of daughter Alice and several talented clients, I have revisited its pages. The premise is pretty straight-forward. Zollo interviews some of the most prominent songwriters of the past 50 years - Paul Simon, Brian Wilson, Randy Newman, Carole King, Sammy Cahn, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and many more (these just happen to be my favourites!) and asks them about their particular views on the subject of songwriting.
This can cover the mechanics of musical and lyrical structure, discipline (coping with the 'that's good enough for rock' attitude), spiritual empathy (am I really the conduit for a greater intelligence, or did I have too many glasses of red last night?), motivation and inspiration, words first or music? ('The phone call' - Sammy Cahn), and many other random but related angles.
As someone who has always enjoyed and flourished in the company of others, I personally find writing reveals a curious anomaly in my own psychological make-up - that is I love the totally self-absorbing process that is songwriting. where I can retreat into my imagination and find an inspiration that eventually appears in she shape of a completed song. The best of fun!
I'd be curious if any of my blog readers have any songwriting insights they would like to share. I'll be happy to post them up as they come in.