Flick through the new issue of Q magazine and you’ll find interviews with some of music’s most revered songwriters, including Burt Bacharach, Michael Stipe, Rufus Wainwright and Nick Cave. Here’s their wisdom condensed.
Melody comes first
Bjork: “When I write a song I start by singing the melodies live in my head. They go in circles. I guess I’m quite conservative and romantic about the power of melodies. I try not to record them on my Dictaphone when I first hear them. If I forget about all about it and it pops up later on, then I know it’s good enough. I let my subconscious do the editing for me.”
Treat it like a job
Nick Cave: “My writing environment is an office. It’s a daily routine. I’m in there about 9am and I finish about 4 or 5. Unless something’s going really well. I write in a pad, by hand, then I put it into the computer. I just sit there and write. Go back and forth on the piano and the guitar.”
Find the killer hook
Tim Rice-Oxley: “It’s always lyrical as well as musical. If you took All You Need Is Love and replaced it with something about shopping for vegetables, it wouldn’t be as good. You get those moments when a little genius phrase, musical or lyrical, comes out. Then you’ve broken the back of the song. And that can happen in five seconds. And the rest of the time that’s what you’re searching for.”
Collaborate
Burt Bacharach: “When I first met [songwriting partner] Hal David he looked like he could be an accountant, and he smoked all the time. We sat down in the room with a broken-down old piano. I got maybe more credit than I deserve, because it was a two-way thing. At the time, I wasn’t thinking what the lyrics meant. He’s an unbelievable talent.”
Steer clear of drugs
Pete Doherty: “I’d say drugs are an alternative to songwriting. It’s something else to do rather than play guitar. Sit down and have a pipe instead. It’s not conducive to concentrating and playing and singing. It’s not really a conscious thing – but I tend not to get a lot done when I’m battered.”
Not everything has to rhyme
Mchael Stipe: “I realised that for several records I’d automatically try to make everything rhyme. On our first EP [1982’s Chronic Town] none of the lyrics rhymed. Those songs worked. And I had this epiphany. Shit, I’ve been trying to rhyme things for a decade and I really don’t need to.”
Enjoy the buzz
Rufus Wainwright: “The most magnificent thing about the whole process of songwriting is the euphoria involved. Often you’ll be writing a song and you think at the time it’s going to be a Number 1 hit! It’s so far from that, but in the heat of it that’s what you feel. And that delusional belief pushes everything forward.”
6:39 PM | 06/09/2007
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The Beatles with Strawberry Fields forever, undoubtely the best song ever written.
Posted by Julian at 9:38 AM | 13/09/2007 | Report Abuse
I disagree. God Only Knows by Brian Wilson is undoubtedly the most beautiful and greatest song ever written, produced, or heard.
Posted by Kevin at 6:15 AM | 13/10/2007 | Report Abuse
There are to many great songwriters and many, many great songs to say who is the best!!! THe polls and "best of "are really an opinion and taste based decision making machine. There is not "best "just many , many greats!!! Speaing of opinion--that is my opinion!
Peace To All Beings!! Zark----Z2012
(Elext JoeyZark for President in 2012)
Posted by JoeyZark at 3:17 PM | 11/11/2007 | Report Abuse
Someone on www.songwriter101.com asked, "What are the parts of a song." People responded with about 15 possible options for parts a song might contain. Intro, verse, prechorus, chorus, tag, and about 10 more.
Posted by Gary E. Andrews at 3:40 PM | 11/11/2007 | Report Abuse
I have read the tips on how to write a perfect song and they all make sense. As for the best song ever written, I haven't wrote it yet.
I am too busy learning how to play The Shadows instrumentals. They have no lyrics but they are great songs. POSSY
Posted by possy at 10:52 PM | 12/11/2007 | Report Abuse
I don't know if there such a thing as the perfect song. There just songs that came around at the perfect time.
Posted by ryan at 3:00 AM | 21/08/2008 | Report Abuse
I like what you wrote but i dont think you should suggest smoking for kids or teens.
Posted by Leesa at 7:53 PM | 21/01/2010 | Report Abuse
A song can begin with melody or it can begin with lyric or it can begin with a beat or a guitar riff or chording. The writer, the first listener, is 'hooked' by whatever it is, and wants to hear or imagine more, more of the beat or melody or chording or what the lyric implies. Who is the singer-character? What's their situation, the rest of the story implied in that first line? Rhyme is a way of making sense of the story, enabling the listener to 'get' the ideas in the context of the storyline. Rhyme enables memorization, as in nursery rhymes. Rhyme hits the beat. The title is THE hook, the line of lyric that sums up what the song's about. Other elements have 'hook factor,' functioning to engage you, the writer as the first listener, and others. But THE hook is that vocal bit of the song that gets into your head and plays on after the song ends. Many of the classic songs you know and love were written by someone who didn't treat it as a job, didn't have musical scholarship, didn't know how to write a song. They were hooked by what they were first inspired to create and found their way on to the end, feeling when it should change melodically, finding what it should say lyrically, when it should repeat, and where it should end. Some never wrote another song, that we know of. Be prepared to receive the muse, whenever she (or he) comes to you. If you want to take your works to market, learn about the commercial aspects of it, www.copyright.gov e.g., how-to websites, www.songwriter101.com e.g., and books www.amazon.com e.g. Learn to play an instrument. You can learn a little, quickly, and be inspired to write more, and maybe better songs with an instrument. Explore. There will always be another song to be written. Someone will write it. Why not you? www.garyeandrews.com
Posted by Gary E. Andrews at 2:51 PM | 22/05/2010 | Report Abuse
i always find the topic the hardest part of a song, because i can only ever seem to get a topic for the first verse then when i carry on i seem to have said it all ready, so i find lengthening lyrics pretty hard. another thing is when i'm on my keyboard coming up with a melody whatever lyrics i have in my head never fit to any of my melodies. i have been writing songs for a solid three years and i have only ever accomplished 4-7 songs and a couple of half songs, and advice on any of my problems anyone?
Posted by Kristie at 4:18 PM | 10/07/2010 | Report Abuse
this place is fuckin stupid
Posted by jenin at 1:13 AM | 28/02/2012 | Report Abuse
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