Songwriting - fishing or soothsaying?

When well-known songwriters are interviewed in the media, what is really surprising is not the diversity of their responses but the similarities in what they say. This is particularly true when they are asked about where the inspiration for their songs comes from. What comes up again and again is the fact that many songwriters don't know where their creations came from. In a recent interview Bob Dylan said that, when he listened to his early songs like "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall",  he could not come up with any explanation for how he wrote  them.

"Songwriting is like fishing in a stream; you put in your line and hope you catch something." Arlo Guthrie

 "I do not consciously aim to take the listener anywhere. If anything, I aim to take myself there in my music. If the listener catches the wavelength of what I am saying or singing, or gets whatever point whatever line means to them, then I guess as a writer I may have done a day's work." Van Morrison

I heard Carole King on a radio show a few days ago, talking about how she felt she was a "channel" for the songs to come through. Whenever songwriters talk about their craft this theme recurs.

Because I have been doing a lot of songwriting lately, after a long dry spell, I have been thinking about this.  One of my most recent songs is called Hope Street. It started life as an insistent phrase on the keyboard over a simple chord progression and it is still called Cities in my first draft Cubase recording (instrumental). This was because I had a picture in my mind of a city street when I played the melody. But for some reason, not a conscious one, the phrase "When we were young..." kept repeating in my head and from there the song grew and became a sort of narrative with its origins unknown to me.

Hope Street

When we were young,
Our eyes were clear.
When we were young
And had no fear,
The city streets
Were lined with hope.
The days were long
When we were young.

Then all the lights went out in Hope Street
And I had grown old on my own,
And I lay sleeping in a doorway
As you went walking past alone.

When we were young
And always dared,
When we were young
We didn't care.
The grass was soft
When we lay down.
Our love was strong
When we were young.

Then all the lights went out in Hope Street
And I had grown old on my own,
And I lay sleeping in a doorway
As you went walking past alone.

This is more of a story than I usually write in a song. On a literal level, the narrator looks back on life and love as a young man, the young couple's strength and optimism shining through. The chorus brings us back to an unhappy present  with the now old man sleeping in a doorway as his erstwhile love passes by unconscious of his presence. At a deeper level - for me at any rate - it is a vision of the death of hope for us all.  Whether you like this as a song or not (and it is certainly not the cheeriest song ever written) the striking thing is that I did not set out with any intention of telling this story. It is not (thank God) my story or that of anyone I know but I have a very strong connection with it and I did not write one word of it dishonestly or insincerely. That, for me, is the mystery of song writing.

"It's the great search, fuelled by the belief that through these musical and mental processes illumination is attainable. Or may at least be glimpsed." Lester Bangs 


Finally here is a link to my song. The video was filmed in the area around Dunfermline Abbey by David Izatt, a talented young man who writes, makes films, produces and directs - and he lives in Dunfermline!


http://vimeo.com/32620397