A list of rules by Smith’s guitarist Johnny Marr.
Also, and this is not put out there lightly, his version of “How Soon is Now” is shockingly great. Not that it shouldn’t be. Rather, it’s an example of his continuing artistic strength.
Johnny *&^ing Marr! This is an official nickname by the way.
What else can be said really.
-jd
For anyone still thinking streaming is worthless, catalogs are semi-quietly being snapped up by all sorts of equity. No longer a one time purchase, if your song catches on, it keeps paying and paying, even if there are no ads associated with it.
In what seems to be an emerging fact, the long game is putting it out there to stream. Not playing live, but 9-to-5’ing it at your desk. Sat in front of the computer to get eyes and ears on it. Trade the glory of the stage for the glory of ‘likes’ and a lot of small but growing checks.
What if people, now off the road, put the effort into listens? This is happening, and I can tell you from my own experience, it works.
Bob Dylan Sells His Songwriting Catalog in Blockbuster Deal
What a great, breezy book. Jeff Tweedy emphasizes the writing-of is the thing, not necessarily the One Song itself. Love of the process, which is its own reward, is more important than the goal.
How to Write One Song reads universally enough so that anyone can ape this do-your-first ethos for whatever it is that you want (but have yet to).
Before 2016, I’d written maybe 5 or 10 songs total, but I definitely (ridiculously) considered myself a songwriter, even though I would never have told anyone. But luck intervened, I randomly joined a song writing group, and now I’m in the 100’s. It took me over 45 years to start in earnest.
I needed a push. This book is a great push.
A total delight.
Well, the release-all-the-songs project hit a bump. Turned into an album, and that’s 12 max. Focused!
More importantly, we have a cabin that’s due to go up in flames, Covid, new high schooler, work, …
There will always be other stuff. I have heard so many artists at house concerts we put on talking about not being able to write due the current climate.
Has there even been a better time to write, practically speaking? But still almost no one is writing. Almost no one. I am. Latest demo here:
But I have work and am busy. So, for me, things are a bit closer to normal. And I am also seeing, a these house concerts, full-time musicians are fragile. And a lot of them need just-right conditions to create.
Also, art is hard in a vacuum. So if you write and are used to feedback and not getting it, the adjustment is the issue.
There are infinite insecurities when trying to decide what makes the final cut. It’s hard to get past them, and more often than not, when you see good artists lose the muse, one glaring culprit is themselves; the devil on the shoulder/ monkey mind.
It’s also tough when all hope is lost. What do musicians have to look forward to? They gave it all, and any hard-won success was stripped away. All 9f this with no real way to make $$ besides live shows (with physical product now extinct). And now what of plan-b options without going waaaaay back to the beginning?
But the songs are floating there, if you can get to it. But how? That’s the big question.
MOST of you, or maybe none of you, never saw how iffy the last AJ site was. Where’s the line between kitsch and bad? Moot point, because things are much-refreshed, very purple, and generally nicer around here.
MORE later.
Austin TX 