[GTR] 9•10-2017 | Page 52

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). 52 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.