The composing poser?

Evening strumpets,

Chris in Boro has sent me a message asking how I write my songs. That`s a tricky one. Yoko Ono tells a story of an animal with a hundred legs which had the most beautiful walk in the world. One day a young man asked it how it walked in such an exquisite manner, and the creature replied "it`s easy, first I move this leg, then I move this one, then I...erm...." and could never again walk quite as beautifully as it had before.

Now then, let`s get one thing straight, i may use writers stories or quotes in this post. I am not, repeat, NOT placing myself in any of their standards. I`m just trying to get across how it happens.

If other people have written the chords, as in Cowboy Waltz and Longlands, I`ll listen to the basic recordings of the song in the car, and see which phrases/melodies leap out at me. In the instance of Cowboy Waltz, all I could hear in my head for the opening line was "I`ve had children to various women, none of them know my name, it`s true" That pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the song. This guy is a shit, simple as that, I had to imagine a selfish awful fella, who thinks he`s great. Fun? Like you`ve never thought of!

Longlands, I got the melody pretty much straight off as it`s there already in Carls brilliant tune. I was laughing at how catchy it was, when the words "take me along to Longlands" came into me head. That made me think that Places in Boro, could just as easily fit into an old west setting, and off I went. The next thing, we`re playing it here.



With my own stuff, I generally just sit down and wait, as Stephen King describes it, for my muse to shat on my head. More often than not, though not always, the chords will come first. I remember reading an interview with Paul Draper about how Mansun had reintroduced melodies back into songs, and that really hit home. I think this is where Morrissey has really struggled over the last couple of years, as no matter how fantastic the lyrics are, to me it`s always the hook which gets you to love a song. I do try to get a personal "Old Grey Whistle Test" thing going in most of the songs I write. As in, I never record anything immediately, so if I can remember it the next day, it might be alright.

My songwriting partners over the past almost thirty years have been Carl Dalton and Mark Dent. They`re usually my measure for if somethings any good, though recently Andy from Northern Banjo Boy, and The Alice Charmers has been a pretty good judge of what`s good and what`s not. I`ve written thousands of classics over the years, propelling me, i`m certain, to a life of living off royalties, watching telly and ordering takeaway pizza
a la About a Boy, only to realise it`s already been written. Usually by whoever I happen to be listening to at that particular time.

I love clever titles for songs. One of my favourites of my own is this one.
Not my favourite version of it (Originally a nephrons song), but it gets the point across, i think.



So there you have it, hope that makes sense Chris.

Till the next one, learn something new,

Mark.