A songwriter on songwriting

[Auburn Annie]

From a Toronto Star article on Burt Bacharach:


But after all this time, he still has no easy answer when asked the secret of a hit song.

He takes a long pause before coming up with two words.

"Durability and honesty. A song has to be able to sound good to you, even after you've heard it 20 times. And it better be honest as well, because it's out there forever, man."

Or as Bacharach and David once wrote: "There's Always Something There To Remind Me."

[Borderstone]

What I'd like to know is the secret of how he got a recording contract for himself,when he's not a very good singer. Him and Rod McKuen & Paul Williams also!

He's great songwriter,but he should have been happy with just that. Been me,later!:cool;

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Borderstone,gonna post some lines tonight!:D

[Auburn Annie]

I expect when you've written enough hits you've got clout enough to get a recording contract for yourself. At least he has songwriting skills - think of how many 'artists' have made records but can't carry a tune in a bucket.

Gord said in the songbook that it doesn't just pop up in your head while walking down the street. You have to come up with it by using your head.

[Auburn Annie]

As a longtime writer of fiction (unpublished) and non-fiction (published) I can tell you the work seldom just appears from the blue. When it does once in a blue moon, please God you have a pencil and paper at hand to scribble it down before you forget it. Sometimes, however, when you're in the moment or flow - that blessed state - the damn things seem to write themselves. But you do have to be working on it at the time. Gord has said he has little notes, bits of tunes, etc. tucked away in a kind of tickler file that he can go to when it's time to write.

I learned never to stop a story at the end of a chapter; too easy to stall out and wonder, "well, where do I go from here?" Better to leave it hanging mid-paragraph or even mid-sentence and pick it up again the next day. Only once have I stopped myself cold with a bit of dialogue - that I didn't expect the character to say, but was so dead-on and 'in character' that I laughed when he said it. Yes, these people are alive in my head, sometimes waiting in a kind of suspended animation while I go off and do other things, waiting patiently for me to get back to them and resume the story.

For the non-fiction stuff I've written (columns on solo librarianship, for example, or book reviews) I jot down ideas, phrases, key words or points to make, then arrange them in some sort of logical progression. Writing is both an art and a craft; you have to have the basic tools and know how to use them, but the artistry is that wee bit of magic that makes your work 'sing' - whether it's a song or a book.

[This message has been edited by Auburn Annie (edited April 01, 2004).]

[This message has been edited by Auburn Annie (edited April 01, 2004).]

quote:Originally posted by Auburn Annie:
As a longtime writer of fiction (unpublished) and non-fiction (published) I can tell you the work seldom just appears from the blue. When it does once in a blue moon, please God you have a pencil and paper at hand to scribble it down before you forget it. Sometimes, however, when you're in the moment or flow - that blessed state - the damn things seem to write themselves. But you do have to be working on it at the time. Gord has said he has little notes, bits of tunes, etc. tucked away in a kind of tickler file that he can go to when it's time to write.

I learned never to stop a story at the end of a chapter; too easy to stall out and wonder, "well, where do I go from here?" Better to leave it hanging mid-paragraph or even mid-sentence and pick it up again the next day. Only once have I stopped myself cold with a bit of dialogue - that I didn't expect the character to say, but was so dead-on and 'in character' that I laughed when he said it. Yes, these people are alive in my head, sometimes waiting in a kind of suspended animation while I go off and do other things, waiting patiently for me to get back to them and resume the story.

For the non-fiction stuff I've written (columns on solo librarianship, for example, or book reviews) I jot down ideas, phrases, key words or points to make, then arrange them in some sort of logical progression. Writing is both an art and a craft; you have to have the basic tools and know how to use them, but the artistry is that wee bit of magic that makes your work 'sing' - whether it's a song or a book.

[This message has been edited by Auburn Annie (edited April 01, 2004).]

[This message has been edited by Auburn Annie (edited April 01, 2004).]


Well said.