Meandering About Songwriting

 As a treat for Betsy and I, I bought Paul McCartney's two-volume collection of song lyrics--each lyric includes the story of the songs Macca has written either by himself for with John Lennon or other co-writers. It made me think about my own efforts in that area. I have written very few songs for myself in the last few years, partly I suspect because I don't play music as much as I used to and tend to be very distracted when I do. 

I have probably written songs since I was fourteen or so and like most songwriters, many of those were about girls, isolation, and occasionally political things. In other words, the same stuff that most people write about at that age. I probably have written a little under a hundred songs, but finding documentation for a few of them might take a while because I'm always sort of writing songs. Unlike, McCartney, I do not have the ability to keep most of them in my head, nor have I ever played in a world-famous band and had to keep the lyrics straight.

Between college and now, I have written the lion's share of those songs and, since I have a muse that keeps me inspired (thanks Betsy), it has been easier to shape the edges of what I write about. Lyrically, I feel I have a long way to go, but musically, I REALLY have a long way to go. I am in awe of my friend Bill Johnson, whose musicality is so rich, and how far he has come along with his lyrics. I have to admit that I enjoy writing with him because his raw material is so much above my own. I feel like I do well as an editor and actually prefer that lens these days. 

I fully expect to record all of my compositions in the next few years. There is something that I need to capture while I can. I hope to give them a life beyond my own like Tom Callicott did with "Paris Nights." Tom was a great picker, but let other people do most of the writing--he was the perfect sideman in that respect. But "Paris" was a special song and it was good that it lives on. Kind of like beer, you don't own music, you rent it.

Back to McCartney. Seeing what I have not heard of his catalog or don't remember is both a reminder of the wealth of songs that he has written, but also to the fact that not all of them are that good. McCartney benefitted from working with John Lennon and vice-versa. I think that Lennon and McCartney are the best songwriters of my lifetime (controversial--I don't think so) and I think that even their throwaway songs are better than most songs of this time. But, I guess others will say that about Ira Gershwin, Holland/Dozier, Johnny Mercer, and others--it all depends on when you grew up and who you listen to.

I doubt that I would write songs at all had I not slept with the radio on, had not lived in places where the radio was always on or the hi-fi. My Dad's love of jazz and my Mom's love of pop music probably indelibly marked me. I never wrote to be a professional, but always have had a song on my mind.