I have always been in awe of songwriters. On my radio program at KFGO I have featured many local musical artists with their singing and songwriting talents. I have had the pleasure of interviewing national acts including Grammy nominees and Dove award winners. And in one case a 3 time Academy Award winner! We’ve had so much musical talent on ‘Nighttime Live” I bet I could put together a couple dozen CD’s of their music that has been featured. But I keep asking myself “how do they do it?” One of my guests, Michael Pink, told me that he will sit down at night with his guitar and string some “riffs” and lyrics together. He doesn’t write them down. He told me that if he can’t remember it in the morning then it probably wasn’t all that good in the first place. By the way, Michael will be playing a benefit show on December 23rd and he’ll be on my radio show when that day draws near.
A number of local acts will sit down and figure out a melody and then once that’s all set they write up lyrics for it. For others, it’s the complete opposite. They will get a chorus written down, then decide on the verses, and then set the melody behind the words. It’s fascinating to hear some of their stories on how the ideas for these songs develop.
A good friend of the show is Eden Parker and on his first appearance on my program he performed his song called ‘90 miles from Winnipeg’. He told me he was on his way to Winnipeg and passed a sign the read (Winnipeg 90 miles). He had the song written in about an hour. We kidded him that when he looked up after he finished writing, the sign read (Winnipeg 30 miles).
Some of the stories I’ve heard are the complete opposite. They get an idea and write it down. Some of those ideas have sat for several years before the song was finished and “polished” to their liking.
Even though everything is down on paper, all the musical arrangements have been finalized, and then there are the rehearsals. Many of the bands that we have featured have stated that in rehearsal one of the band members may offer a suggested change and things are tweaked yet again.
I was once offered by a young lady musician, to write down some lyrics that I thought would make a good song. She would then take the lyrics and put music to it to prove everyone has a song in them. Unfortunately for me I have yet to take her up on her offer. But hopefully (if she doesn’t forget) I will take her up on that someday soon.
One of my favorite stories comes from Amanda Standalone. She’s a fabulous singer/songwriter whom you may recognize from Amanda Standalone with the Pastry Shop Girls, or maybe her old fashioned Jug band Alien Brain and the JUGular Vein among others. Amanda had written a song called A Widow’s Lament. She was in Detroit singing local clubs and part of her set included The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Remember, every November 10th they ring the bell 29 times at the Maritime Sailor’s Cathedral in Detroit. She said that it came to her driving around town to give a different perspective of Gordon Lightfoot’s classic. It’s a story of the family of the Edmund Fitzgerald’s crew, waiting on shore for the announcement if there were survivors. It’s a haunting tale, but an absolutely beautiful song sung acapella. But the last line of the song is what came first when she wrote it.
One more example of music writing came from Academy Award winner Jennifer Warnes. When I asked about her beautiful ballad Too Late Love Comes, she kind of giggled and told me she was watching a documentary on the Irish in America and an old Irish Ballad came on. She was in the kitchen and the new words just flowed to paper. It has huge meaning for those of Irish descent.
It’s looking at some of these wonderful songwriters and what joy and entertainment they’ve brought to light, that I look back in life and wonder why I didn’t take anything seriously in the musical arts as a kid. I’m kind of kicking myself now because I would love to say I’ve done some of these things.