A good lyric sings to me. And another lyricist might sing another lyrical song to me.
A guitar riff played on a piano doesn't come close to the purity of it being played on a guitar but I faked it enough to get by.
But at the same time, sometimes it is very good to write with other people because you do have that little bit of edge.
Carole (King) always said there was a small window of opportunity and we happened to come along at that period in the music business and jumped right in.
Cynthia's lyrics always expressed the feelings people felt but they couldn't express themselves.
I also used to work in the Catskill Mountains as a bus boy, and I performed in talent shows.
I get a different kind of lyric from someone else that might make me go in a different musical direction.
I had already about five or six songs written just for myself, but I never thought I'd end up being a songwriter.
I know at the beginning of our careers, my wife and I were gut wrenchingly competitive.
I looked through our catalog year by year, and I saw that there were pockets of time when we wrote some terrific songs. Then all of a sudden, we'd go for another two or three months and there weren't great songs.
I quit college. I was studying architecture for about a year.
I think if one wants to be in a continual state of insanity one should stay married to that writing partner.
I think that most writers who wait until they're inspired to write are just waiting for the fear to subside.
I was very fortunate, though, to have a writing partner that truly is brilliant with words and at the same time very soulful.
I've written songs sober and I've written songs high.
If I waited for inspiration every time I sat down to write a song I probably would be a plumber today.
If we didn't get the record, we didn't exist.
If we were the team that won out, then life was good and we felt that we were worth something.
It's amazing how a competitive nature can turn a negative into something positive.
It's very hard to teach someone how to write a song if to begin with there's no creative crop to harvest.
It's very important, at least for me and for Cynthia, to get outside input.
Once I get into it, then I'm into it.
One other thing, if it's possible, as songwriters, you should also develop yourself as record producers.
Probably most successful songwriters have an innate songwriting ability.
Right now we're writing a Broadway show.
She just wants to jump in, and I procrastinate for awhile until I really get into it.
The biggest problem is getting to work.
The real danger of writing a great song when you're on something is that it might get you thinking that the only way to repeat that is by only writing when you're high.
There's so much fear involved in trying to do something you don't know how to do that drugs and alcohol can become a big part of your life if you have an addictive personality or are very unsure, which most songwriters are.
We became the songs we wrote.
We happened to start writing pop songs in a time when the old music business was beginning to fade and a new kind of music was emerging.
We lived, ate, and breathed pop songs.
We've written something like 900 songs in all.
When the British invasion happened, I became aware that records were more guitar driven and I had always written on a piano.
Writing with other people is also beneficial, not only on the creative aspect, but also that they have a different context.
You can get stale writing with each other for a while.
You have certain writing tools but generally creating something from nothing makes one quite mad and Cynthia and I are quite mad you know.
You have to be very brave in that first writing session.
You're going to have more rejection than acceptance.
You've got to really be able to accept the rejection.
You can share a link to this page with your friend!