Songwriting Workshop

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Last night I watched a wonderful conversation on YouTube between Don Henley and Billy Joel, who obviously had deep empathy, and love, for each others music, and lives. Henley surprised me by talking of Walden and Thoreau, also by mentioning Zen, and then OnBeing which is one of my favourite podcasts.



Billy Joel asked Don Henley which came first in his songwriting, the lyrics or the music. This reminded me of a songwriting workshop which I had recently attended when the host said we had to write the music first, which for me, as a total non-musician, would have been a wrecking-ball of an instruction had we not been collaborating.

Photo by Caio Silva on Unsplash

Fortunately I was partnered with John Newby, who pretty quickly got the music flowing, and I was able to write in a way that I don't ever remember doing before, all my previous attempts at songs being words first followed by some pretty nauseous monotone sounds, which most definitely don't qualify as music.

So no poem this time instead the lyrics from our shot at songwriting, with a big thanks to John:

Is it all what you wanted
Is that all I could do
Is this where we're really going
Can I no longer count on you

Do you remember the time in Memphis
In Fred and Dino's bar
Tasting the taste of sure-fire lovers
As we reached for the single star
All those clouds that had been around us
All those mountains we could have climbed
All those letters friends wrote about us
Seems that this really is the time

Is it all what you wanted
Is that all I could do
Is this where we're really going
Can I no longer count on you

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