I have just one CD in my car. It is a compilation that I've put together. There are twelve songs on it. It starts with “Country Honk” by the Stones, and ends with “Shake Your Hips” the Slim Harpo classic. In between is Howlin' Wolf, Donovan, The Kinks,  Freddy Fender, Chuck Berry, and New Riders of The Purple Sage. I've listened to this CD thousands of times. These songs are my treasures. I've been listening to them for years through a variety of mediums: vinyl, cassette tape, floppy disk,  mp3 players, Ipods, and once upon a time, eight track tape. I cannot begin to guess how many spins I've given each song.

Cool huh? So, I'm sure you're asking by now, what's the point?

The point: I really like songs.

I will not expound on the joy, grandeur and emotional elevation songs bring to my interior world.  That's private stuff.  Suffice it to say I really, really like them.  In fact I can't get enough. That's how I started writing.

When I was seventeen, I was really into music, like a lot of other seventeen year olds.  I, however, managed to go swirling over the top. I developed such an attachment to certain songs, I did not want them to end.

Does that sound odd?

Well it was.

I became one of those annoying people who played a song over and over again. When haunted by a particular melody and lyric I would glue myself to the record player, and turn the disk white with repeated plays. If you don't have experience with vinyl records you might not get this reference. Sometimes I'd sing the song while playing the guitar. I'd sing it on my way to school, and have it playing in my head during boring classes, hence the reason I finished at the bottom of my class.

At night I'd fall asleep, my Silvertone Record King on auto play grinding it out till I woke the next morning. For a while that was enough to satisfy me, but eventually, I was hungry for more.  What was I to do?  

That's when I put my super brain to work. With a little thinking I came up with a plan. It was all so simple.  I would write new verses for the songs I loved. I remember it well. The song I began with was “Dead Flowers”, and I was quite pleased with the result. After a couple times filling in extra verses for songs I already knew,  I started writing songs on my own.  

Let me point out here that I was unique, at least among my pals, in the sense that I didn't necessarily love music. I wasn't gaga over arrangements or instrumentals.   I had an appreciation for the music but I wasn’t knocked out by virtuosity, blazing riffs, or meaty tones.

I also wasn't struck by personal charisma.  Elvis moved me, as did Neal Young, Bono, and Garth Brooks, along with thousands of others but it stopped short of idolatry.

All that was good and fine, but what really knocked me out was the word/melody combo. To this day that is still what moves me beyond my own realm of emotional understanding.

That's my past. It's of little consequence, but I'm putting it out there like a beacon, calling to those who may be looking at things the same way.  For me, writing, talking, and reading about songwriting is almost as good as the act itself.

Okay enough about me, let's talk about writing.  I'm sure we can debate which elements create a song.  However, when I refer to that which is a song as a whole, I am specifically referring to lyrics, melody, key riffs and accompanying chords.  

That's it. Everything else falls into other categories.  A songwriter therefore, is someone who writes lyrics, melodies, riffs and accompanying chords.

If you are this person, you have my sympathy.

Honing the skills of a songwriter takes years of study and practice.  While writing songs is laborious and taxes an individual's creativity and determination, songwriter's are at the bottom of the arts and crafts pile.  For many people, songwriters artistically rank somewhere between interior decorators on the high end and busboys on the low end.  Though we are connected to so many well respected art forms, we are somehow an illegitimate step child.  I apologize to illegitimate step children. Sorry, but life ain’t easy as a songwriter either!

Dealing with many of the same elements as our literary cousins, one could easily assume we would be embraced by the world of high art.  Forget about it. We are not respected by poets, fiction writers, or anyone cranking out non-melodic lyrical work.

Sidebar: Have you noticed that poets tend to call songs ditties. I've put my hours in with that crowd, and I know what I'm talking about. I can hear them now.  “Diamond Dave, he writes the most curious little ditties.” Curious little ditties, I'd like to see those folks say something like that to David Allen Coe.  

Musicians are almost as bad. They tend to be obsessed with their instruments and look at lyrics as boulders in the way of their greatness.  I play guitar but guitarists are the worst. They usually say things like, “Let's take out a verse, and double my solo” or  “try and follow the guitar line, you're stepping all over my fills.” And then there are drummers.  There's not enough space on my hard drive to cover the war between drummers and songwriters.  Sorry Ringo.

While all that's bad, the worst comes right up from the masses. Audiences large and small tend to have little patience, and less respect for unknown material.  This is true not only for the songwriters, but also for those who produce it.  Even our most indulgent loved ones look at us with apprehension as we pick up the guitar and announce, “Hey I got a new one.”  If you're writing songs you know that look of apprehension.

So that brings me to a list of the Ten Things You May Hear If You Are A Songwriter.  If you are a novice, this is a little preview of what you can look forward to.  If you've been writing for a while, you've probably heard some of these.  If you've heard them all, congratulations!  You have received, or are about to receive your long awaited break.  

Ten Things You May Hear If You're A Songwriter.

10-   Play one we know.
 9-  That's very nice, but what about college?
 8-  Are you from Canada?
 7- It's not rock, or country, or rap; it's like you're just playing songs.        
 6-  Freebird!
 5-  Waiting tables is not a real job.
 4-  That sounds a little like “Piano Man”.“Piano Man” now that's a song.
 3-  My brother's band, they're “doing the do” you know, Zep, Ozzy,Scorps,  stuff you can't make up, stuff you actually have to learn.
 2-  Gotta pay your dues bro, you just can't get up there and do your own shit.

And my number one favorite:

 1-  Did you write that, or is it a real song?

 
On a more serious note, although I love writing songs, it can be frustrating. Songwriting, the way I do it, the way I believe most people do it, is an individual effort. Some writers are able to find suitable collaborators, some find groups of musicians to play their songs, or have talent enough to perform their own material.  Good for them, but not everyone is  that lucky.

I hope to create a sense of camaraderie among songwriters.  I would like to invite others to join me as part of a group, a population, that have similar interests.  I would like to encourage others, recognize and uphold common virtues in the practice of our craft.  I would also like to share similar trials as we follow that path. I would like songwriters to feel that they have a group to which they can associate and contribute, a group they can go to for insight and strength.  Please check back for more information regarding virtual songwriting workshops as they become available.

One other point I'd offer may possibly be the most important facet to this rambling.  That is, whether or not you have commercial success, what you do, what you create has value.  As a person who loves songs, there's one thing I really truly believe.  I believe every song makes the world a better place.