The Band: Local Songwriters on “The Well Crafted Song”

Now we have arrived at the nitty gritty. We have been discussing band dynamics and the unwritten code of conduct among Portland musicians. You can have a talented band that gets everything else right, but if you don’t have good material to work with, you risk getting stuck in a Hillsboro sports bar playing “Louie Louie”. It’s a fine song, but I wouldn’t want to play it every time some drunk jams a 20 dollar bill in the tip jar.

It is not a boast to say that some of the greatest songwriters in the country live in Portland. I asked some masters the following question:

“In one paragraph or less, what separates a well crafted song from one that is poorly crafted?”

In alphabetical order, here are their (mostly) unedited answers.

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D.Rives Curtright, Power of County:

Good songwriting is like catching fish. You have to have a hook. Fishermen with dull or rusty hooks come home empty handed. A well crafted song might have several hooks in it just to make sure your prey can’t get away.

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Gabe Rozzell:

I lean on lyrics as being the most important part of a song. A well crafted song would have to include words that are honest to that person’s life and experience. I believe that you can write on any topic as long as you are not dumbing things down for the sake of rhyme or syllable. When people speak honestly, things tend to lean a bit sad and slow. I have no problem with that, but to transcend it — and to have an upbeat number with well crafted words that reflect some truth — that is more challenging. When done though, you end up with real gems that can take you much further than any sappiness ever would. I think there has been a trend in the last few years for folks to try to pose as a poet and write very wordy songs that really have nothing to do with anything, and then to whisper them when they are performed. That drives me crazy. You should be proud of what you are trying to say, and speak it with some passion. Otherwise you are just pulling peoples’ legs and trying to put yourself above the audience. People want to relate to a song long before they want to admire it.

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Ghostwriter *:

To me, a good song is one that successfully conveys emotion. I am most immediately affected by the lyrics and the conviction of the delivery. So if the singer is tapping into a raw nerve — and I think the song comes off well — then the arrangements or craft is really secondary. Not to advocate over–simplicity, but why add anything to a song just for the sake of it? (Songwriters can be just as guilty of self-gratification as lead guitar players.) Two great examples would be Roky Erikson and Dex Romweber. Both are songwriters capable of conveying intense and complex emotions with no chord changes and only one or two stanzas. Both sing with extreme conviction. Another great example would be Billy Joe Shaver. He uses simple language and structures to write flawless songs by being brutally honest with the listener and himself. So write about what you know, sing it like it’s the best thing you have going, and I’ll probably think it’s a good song.

* Ghostwriter lives just down the road in The Dalles, Oregon

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Morgan Geer, Drunken Prayer:

“A wheel inside a wheel way in the middle of the air.”

The idea of a well crafted song is subjective. Here’s my take though. “Mary Had a Little Lamb”, Hank Williams’ “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry”, “Angel of Death” by Slayer and Pachelbel’s Canon are all well crafted songs. What they have in common is repetition. What makes them great though is their use of repetition to achieve an emotional affect; either by a gradual ratcheting up of complexity and tension, a coupling of the repetition with an interesting lyrical idea or both. This is what makes the best blues, country and pop music so immediately accessible and infectious – they loop and give you a sense of aesthetic security.

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Mykle Hansen, The Golden Greats:

A song is like a story: it has to have a beautiful beginning and a beautiful ending, and nothing in between that’s not necessary. John Lennon would chop beats out of his songs when they had nothing to offer. There are entire songs that could be slimmed down to one verse and one chorus. What’s wrong with that? Unless the music’s going somewhere, it’s just wearing out its welcome.

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Nate Wallace, Hearts of Oak:

Time and ear. I know when I play a new song if it has a chance of being a good tune or not, if so I’ll keep playing it and working it into shape. I don’t care if anyone tells me it’s good, I know that if I can play it honestly for people it’s a keeper.

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Right On John:

A well crafted song is simple, catchy, focused and universal. You don’t need to explain the entire galaxy in just one song. Pick one aspect of an idea and try to explain it in detail in a way that anyone in the world would understand. If your song makes people want to stop and listen, shake their asses, smile/cry, spend money at the bar, etc…you’ve got yourself a good song.

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Sarah Gwen:

A well crafted song: I don’t know much about theory or structure, or how to calculate a melody to make it emotional. I love simple, brave, and sweet songs that are real. I think dynamic guitar strumming and words that are used economically, without bullshit can make a song magic.

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Shawn Hawkins:

I want to hear a story that provides a set up, a hook or reason to care about the subject, and resolution. I want to be intellectually and emotionally inspired, engaged and challenged, and I want it all to happen in three minutes – this is the task of a songwriter and the measure of a well crafted song. Every word counts. Metaphor often yields to simile and atmospheric details are condensed to only the most evocative syllables. A well crafted song in my opinion should leave you ruminating, relating to your own ideals or experiences and above all, wanting more.

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Tyler Cox, The Mass *:

The best songs are not crafted.  They are channeled.  A songwriter can labor over his craft for decades without ever once striking gold.  He toils over his instruments, learning how to coax the right sounds, giving them names, developing relationships, inventing his own language, working muscle memory into his hands, developing his third eye.  Suddenly, without notice, a song comes to him.  At that moment the artist is no longer a craftsman.  He is a lightning rod.  He must surrender all thought and commit to the unique will of the song in that moment.  The song will dictate its own shape and form.  It is a resonance of energy in space and time that the artist feels and translates.  A great song is never thought, it is only felt.

* Tyler currently lives in San Francisco, but called Portland home for a number of years.
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Wizard Boots:

I do not believe in the concept of songcraft…..to me it’s just the work that you either do or don’t do to get the song from inside your head or wherever it may be inside of you to the outside world. It’s the end result that’s important and that’s what I judge for myself, not really anything about how it came to be. It’s why songs by The Cramps and The Dead Milkmen will always sound infinitely better to me than supposedly more “crafted” music like the horrible new Guns N’ Roses album or anything by Eric Clapton. A perfectly honest idea allowed to exist in a pure fashion will prevail always.

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