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There is little doubt in my mind that the most important action we took at an early age was
to deal with the challenge of learning how to write our own unique songs.
Not that it was easy; far from it.
Can you imagine attempting to learn a language without any help?
That is how it felt in our situation as we started out by throwing ourselves in at the deep end of an
art that revolved around the building blocks of verses, choruses, bridges, hooks and middle eights.
And that was only in dealing with the music.
What about the lyrics?
How do you become an engaging lyric writer?
And how do you go about merging those lyrics with the music?
Hundreds of self written songs later, still neither Charlie or
I can tell you the answer to that.
At the heart the process is till a mystery to us, likewise Bruce Springsteen who recently stated "The
mechanics of songwriting is only understandable up to a certain point."
Most probably there is a 'gift' involved in great songwriting, one that perhaps some are born with?
But having a gift is never enough.
As someone once said: "You could be given a black stallion as a gift? But you’d still need to learn how to
ride it - without falling off and killing yourself!"
Being a successful live act has unquestionably brought so much satisfaction to us.
The adrenaline involved in coming face to face with audiences who love the music, makes it by far the most
enjoyable part of our existence.
But you can’t be a great live act, one that stands on stage and holds an audience's full attention for hours
night after night, without having a set full of great live songs.
Can you?
Jim
March 21st 2021
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