Songtown Throwback Thursday Heres one of our posts from the past that many of you havent seen. Aint No Way Around It Every now and then people come up to me or to Clay with something like the statement I could have lots of hits too if I got to get in the room with all of those artists. It seems to be a popular belief that sitting in the room with an artist somehow automatically helps you write a great song. I would like to debunk this myth in 1000 words or less. Here are reasons that idea is NOT true. Most artists are not really songwriters. They are in the room because they have a record deal. A VAST minority of them are great writers. In a GREAT artist co-write, the artist knows exactly what they want to say, what kind of songs they need for their next record and they are really good writers. You simply help them fine tune what they want to say. I have experienced this kind of artist co-write with maybe 5 artists in 18 years of writing. Johnny Reid walked in with the idea and most of the melody to Fire It Up. As we wrote, he could tell us exactly what his audience wanted to hear and what he wanted to say. It became a #1 for him and for Joe Cocker. Thats the only time that has ever happened to me through an artist co-write. In a GOOD artist co-write, they know what they want to say and what they need for their next record, but they are not very strong writers at all. They dont get in the way of the writing of the song, but they dont help much either. This happens maybe 1/2 of the time. The writers in the room wind up drawing out of the artist what he or she wants to say and they try to make a song out of it. That is very challenging. Out of thousands of artist co-writes and 80 cuts, I have less than 20 cuts with artists. It can be very much the same as writing by yourself - on a good day. In a BAD artist co-write, the artist doesnt know what he wants to say. He also doesnt know what he needs for his record, so he just says Lets write a hit and gives you no direction at all. While you write, he is either on the phone or on the internet. Or, he may say something like You know how Toby Keith sometimes says grass and you think hes going to say ass in the next line, but he says weeeellll instead? Thats what I want!! (True story that happened to me). So all day long, we just tried to write a song that made people think we were going to cuss but we didnt. No writer of any skill level could have written a hit in that room on that day. At the end of the day, the artist is going to take the song and play it for their record label or their manager. If the song isnt a hit, they are going to throw it in a pile with the other 300 the artist has written and send them back out the door to write again until somebody, somewhere writes a hit with (or for) them. So, heres the moral of the story. No matter what kind of artist you get in the room with, YOU have to be able to write a hit song. In fact, the way you GET to be in the room with artists is by writing hit songs WITHOUT them. They bring you in because you have a proven track record and they think you can help them write better songs. So, if you ever find yourself thinking If I just got better opportunities, I would have more success. I challenge you to take a look at the idea that the truth might be the reverse. You get better opportunities the more you have success. Success breeds opportunity. So, remind yourself that you have to be able to write hits BEFORE you get opportunities. Your time is always better spend working on writing better songs instead of looking over the fence longingly at those getting better opportunities and more success than you. Just keep telling yourself, Ive got to write a hit - there aint no way around it. Write on. Marty Dodson #throwbackthursday
Posted on: Thu, 17 Jul 2014 13:00:01 +0000