SONGWRITING
[ SONGWRITING: A TWO PART EQUATION | Gordon Kennedy ]
On tour with Peter Frampton in 2003, we went
2. Learn how to say it in a way that
to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. There, somebody else would want to hear it (this
his works were displayed in chronological is the nebulous part).
order, including letters from his brother Theo.
The earliest works were unrecognizable to me.
I asked, “Is this a Van Gogh? This one looks
like ‘Dogs Playing Poker!’” Next, there would
be a letter from Theo encouraging Vincent to
keep going, keep painting. A few more varying,
There is no formula.
Do you want to write and be literal? More
You wouldn’t want to hear the first 50 or so
songs I wrote. I was a guitar player who would
come up with a cool riff that I wanted to play
and thought, “I can just sling a song around this
riff and tah dah…” No.
abstract? Some of the best songs to me are the
ones people debate the most over the meaning;
because it can have a different meaning to
each listener. Where there’s a communication,
there’s an interpretation. And when pressed for
the answer, some writers reveal that there was
non-descript works when suddenly… there it no meaning. Ever find yourself drawn to looking
was… a Van Gogh! My knees buckled. From at a painting and you’re not sure what it is? Are
there forward, the works were stunning and
unmistakably him.
When asked about a person, living or dead,
with whom I would like to have a meal with,
Van Gogh comes to mind. I want to ask him
what happened in that space in the museum,
between the last uninspired work, and the
one where he found it? Were the early works
examples of his trying to do what was popular
Some of the best
songs to me are the
ones people debate
the most over the
meaning; because it
at the time? More commercial? can have a different
I equate his life with that of the songwriter. He meaning to each
painted over 700 works and never, while he
was alive, sold the first one.
we still listening to and finding fascination in “I
Am The Walrus?”
A lot of the body of work I have done can’t help
but draw from the steady diet of music I grew
up on. My father would bring home reel-to-reel
tapes of what he’d done in the studio that day
with Roger Miller, who was a genius songwriter.
Dad also bought me my first Beatles album.
These are the bookends for me. I couldn’t help
but grow up knowing that the song is the thing.
It’s taken years to learn that I am always writing
songs. Whether I am sitting across the table
listener...
from Wayne, driving my car, talking to people,
trying out a guitar, dreaming… it’s like standing
My question to songwriters is this, “Do you
by a river that is moving. You can put a toe in it,
want to paint ‘Dogs Playing Poker?’ It certainly It wasn’t until I started writing with my dear hangs in many locations and has surely been a friend, Wayne Kirkpatrick, that I became a commercial success. Or, do you want to paint serious songwriter. Much in the same way There is something in the air around you too.
a “Starry Night”, even if nobody sees it in your Dann Huff pushed me to be a better guitar Don’t believe it? Turn on a radio. The writer has
lifetime?” player in our high school years, Wayne made to have the antenna listening all the time. That’s
me focus, labor, be a writer, be a re-writer… why my iPhone is full of riffs, melodies, spoken
Whichever choice you make, you still want until before I realized it, the bar was suddenly phrases. It’s there. Make sure you are paying
to be a good songwriter. “Who Let The Dogs much higher than it had ever been before. attention and have a way to capture it all.
Out” certainly works. So does “Vincent” by Don There is something innate now, that knows It’s there.
McLean. Two vastly different approaches. better when a song in the works is working or
or jump in and be carried away with it.
not. Finding that proper collaborator is a critical
Songwriting, to me, is a two-part equation:
1. Have something to say (everybody does).
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thing, even if it’s for just having an immediate
critic… one you trust.
Sep Oct 2017
GearTechRec.com
Gordon Kennedy: Multi-Grammy Award winning
songwriter, musician and producer. Co-writer of
the Grammy Award Song of the Year “Change the
World” by Eric Clapton.