Songwriting Spank Material - "The Luckiest"

I had a conversation once with my old boss, Brandon Bond, about Ben Folds.  A fellow songwriter in his own right (and a good one), Brandon and I would often discuss the craft.  That day, we were trying to figure out exactly why we liked Ben Folds.  We both agreed it wasn’t the lyrics because, frankly, his lyrics aren’t that good.  Now, before you Ben Folds fanatics (of which I am one) get out your pitchforks and come knocking on my apartment door to dispense your angry mob justice, I invite you to re-read the title of my blog.  It says, “Songwriting Spank Material,” and this episode is about Ben Folds.  Truly I’m not trying to suggest Ben Folds is a horrible lyricist.  I actually think he is a good lyricist…just not a great lyricist.  He doesn’t, and probably never will, hold court with Dylan, Cohen, Simon, or anyone else who is a master at crafting quality lyrics.  Brandon and I also agreed that, while Folds’ piano playing is among some of the best in the business, it wasn’t his musicianship alone that we liked.  We just couldn’t figure it out.  As our conversation came to an end, Brandon eventually hit the nail on the head and figured out why Ben Folds is a great songwriter, summing it up nicely if you asked me.  I’ll get to that in a minute.

You might think, after reading all these Spank Material segments, I think good lyrics are the only thing that makes for good songwriting, and you’d be partially correct.  I do think good lyrics and good songwriting are synonymous.  In my own work, lyrics are the thing I take the most pride in.  When I listen to songs, lyrics are the first thing I hear.  The songwriters I revere, for the most part, are quality lyricists.  I LOVE LYRICS…but I don’t think you necessarily need to be a great lyricist to be a great songwriter.  For example (and I’m probably going to get destroyed for this because it borders on blasphemy), in my opinion Lennon/McCartney were not great lyricists.  THEY WERE GOOD!  NOT GREAT!  GOOD NOT GREAT!  PLEASE GOD DON’T STRIKE ME DOWN!  Seriously though, while I don’t think Lennon/McCartney were great lyricists, I do think they were great songwriters.  This is because they supported their lyrics with excellent musical arrangements, stellar lead vocals and vocal harmonies, and they really knew how to utilize a hook (especially McCartney).  Ben Folds is similar to the Beatles in this respect.  His arrangements are amazing, utilizing every bit of his immense musical and production talents.  His vocals are always beautiful, and he has one of the best falsettos in the business.  And finally, he baits his fair share of hooks in so many of his songs.  After being compared to the Beatles in this way, it’s easy to see why Ben Folds is a great songwriter, but I really think there is one more level to his songwriter that makes him great, and it’s the nail that Brandon Bond hit on the head.

Back to my conversation with Brandon.  We were standing there.  We were getting ready to wrap up our discussion of Ben Folds, and we hadn’t figured out why exactly we liked him so much.  There was something we couldn’t quite put our finger on.  Then Brandon says, “You know why I like him?  He can make a bad lyric sound good.”  I stood there, thinking for a minute, and decided this was Ben Folds’ genius.  Indeed, Brandon was right.  Ben Folds has a tremendous knack for taking lyrics that really aren’t that great and selling them to us like they’re an ointment that will cure all of our ills.  Lines like, “…and check out the reflections in my eyes […],” “You were not the same after that,” and “I’m sorry, Mr. Jones, it’s time” would fail in anyone else’s hands, but when Ben Folds sings these lines you feel like you’re hearing some of the best lines ever conjured.  With him, it’s all about his delivery, his phrasing, the way he accentuates the syllables with the percussion of the piano, softens them when they need to be soften, blows us away with them when the moment is right.  He anticipates the mood of the song better than anyone, and we are taken there with him.  Ben Folds is a used car salesman, and we buy the car from him every time, and this is why he is a great songwriter.  Brandon Bond was right.

For my Spank Material tonight, I go with a pretty obvious choice, if you’re a Folds fanatic.  I could have gone with any of the following and picked a great one – “Annie Waits,” "Gone," “Still FightingIt,” “Zak and Sara,” “Not The Same,” “The Ascent of Stan,” “Army,” “Philosophy,” or “Jesusland.”  The one I went with his a sentimental favorite, as I’m sure it is for a lot of people.  Anyone who has a boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, or wife, and knows this song says the same thing – “This is our song.”  I love this song because it is painfully honest, and I respect that about songs.  I love it because Folds doesn’t try to do too much vocally.  He keeps it pure and sweet.  But mostly, like I said in the previous blog, I am a sucker for songs that feature a piano that meanders.  Here is “The Luckiest” by Ben Folds.

Songwriting Spank Material - "Home Motel"

It’s been quite some time since my last post.  A lot has been going on.  I moved to a new state, started law school, and these days studying seems to be the way of life.  I have very little time to myself to draw, do music, or even write…but I feel like I need to anyway.  Lately, I’ve been listening to a lot of music, revisiting old favorites, discovering some new things.  As such, I have decided to post some new Songwriting Spank Material segments, as I’ve always found them to be short, so they shouldn’t distract me too much from my studies.  So, here’s my first of what I hope are many to come.

It might seem like this edition of Songwriting Spank Material comes with some degree of bias on my part.  Several of my friends and family know about my connection to Willie Nelson.  In 1999, I was asked to perform with Willie at a fundraiser at The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp.  I was just learning to walk as a songwriter, and the prospect of not only meeting, but getting to perform with someone like Willie Nelson was tremendously exciting for me (on a related note, I also got to meet Carole King during this time, which was also tremendously exciting for me).  What people don’t know is that I was also excited to meet Willie Nelson because his image – red hair, beard, bandana – and music had been a fixture in my life since I was very young.  My father was an avid Willie Nelson fan and had every album, and when we still had a record player that worked, my father would listen to those LP’s all the time.  Willie’s trademark nasally tone, his distinctive guitar licks, and everything else about his music would be synonymous with the early parts of my life.  It wasn’t just that I was getting to meet someone who I respected as a songwriter…I was getting to meet the person attached to a voice from my past.

Despite meeting him, and performing with him, I still contend that Willie Nelson is one of the best songwriters of all time, and certainly near the top of songwriters in the Country genre.  What I’ve always loved about Willie is his nostalgia for the old standards.  Over the past few years, I have also developed an affinity for the standards, and the songwriters that wrote them, people like Hoagy Carmichael (who will be part of a future Spank Material segment), Harold Arlen, and Ted Koehler.  This is not only apparent in his album Stardust which is nothing but Willie doing covers of some of these old standards, but it’s also apparent in all of his songs.  They all follow the same formula that these old standards followed – a hook, simple lyrics that have complex syntax, a straight forward melody.  This is probably why Willie’s songs (more them him) have enjoyed so much commercial success.  I also admire Willie because he really took the idea of the concept album to another level with albums like Phases and Stages and the very famous (and awesome) Red Headed Stranger.

So what song did I choose to feature?  Well, with Willie Nelson there is  grocery list to choose from.  I could’ve gone with – “Crazy,” “Night Life,”“Hello, Walls,” “On The Road Again,” “You Were Always On My Mind” (which I almost went with), or a whole host of others, but the one I chose for this segment is one that a lot of you probably aren’t familiar with – “Home Motel.”

This song, I think, follows that “old standard” formula I talked about earlier.  It has an incredible (though perhaps kind of cheesy) hook, this line that ends each verse, “Home Motel on Lost Love Avenue.”  The production value of the song is outstanding (produced by Daniel Lanois who also produced The Joshua Tree – U2 and Oh Mercy and Time Out of Mind which won the Grammy in 1997 – Bob Dylan).  Willie’s voice is really great with the slight echo and reverb going on.  Above all though, it has a piano part that kind of meanders and harkens back to something from the Stephen Foster songbook, something from another time in the history of music in this country, but still familiar to me somehow.  And as you will find out from forthcoming posts, I am a sucker for songs with a meandering piano.  Enjoy.    

Songwriting Spank Material - "I Need You"

I remember about ten years ago when cable internet and DSL became available to more households the internet saw an influx in file sharing, and they did it with a service called KaZaa. Yes, KaZaa. Remember this one? This was after Napster and before Limewire and the introduction of torrents. There was a seedy underbelly to the internet where people shared all kinds of files with each other - mp3, movies, porn, document files, computer programs. If it could be ripped or sent over wires you could share it, and I was in the midst of it. It was in this seedy underbelly that I found the artist I want to talk about tonight. I was searching for Bob Dylan mp3 files. My hope was that I could find some rare bootlegs that only a few people had access too. In those days (I think it's weird that I'm using that term to describe file sharing as if I were trying to describe rotary phones to someone whose never seen one) the search parameters weren't that good. You pretty much typed in the artist and waded through the result. I remember during all my Dylan searches seeing this one file pop up over and over again - "Chelsea Hotel/Don't Think Twice It's Alright Cover." I had just discovered Leonard Cohen and thought to myself, "Did Dylan do a show where he covered "Chelsea Hotel No. 2" by Leonard Cohen?" I downloaded it only to find out it wasn't Dylan. It was someone who sounded like Dylan singing a song they'd written called "Chelsea Hotel" and then going into a cover of "Don't Think Twice It's Alright." Later I would find out the artist's name - Dan Bern.

Who the hell is Dan Bern? This is a question you're no doubt asking. Trust me. I asked myself that same question when I discovered that very first song file. The truth is he is amazing. In fact, I have been saying for the past ten years that he is the best songwriter you've probably never heard of, and I still stand by that assessment. As it turns out, has been around for awhile. His first album - Dan Bern - came out in 1997, and he currently has 16 albums and EP's to his credit. His first album and another album - Fleeting Days - are two of my favorite albums of all time, and it is a song from Fleeting Days that I wish to showcase here today. Dan Bern is a songwriter who wears the comedy and tragedy mask. He can sing a song that can make you laugh like "Lightning Jazz" and then he can turn right around and floor you with a song like "God Said No" and absolutely floor you. He has a lot of great songs to choose from, but the one I want to talk about is a simple little tune from Fleeting Days called "I Need You."

There is a term fiction writers throw around a lot called "in medias res" which means "in the middle of things." The idea for writers is that a good story should put the reader in the middle of the action from the beginning. Build up will just bore and confuse a reader. From a songwriting standpoint, this little song by Dan Bern probably does this better than any song I've ever heard. The first few lines of the song put us in the moment and mood that he is trying to convey - "Walking around the happiest place in the world, but all I do wonder is if your hair's still curled. South of Brownsville Texas, South of Miami Beach, all it means to me is that you're further out of reach. Everywhere, sand and sun, blue sky water too. I need you." Instantly we know the problem. He's somewhere away from someone he cares about and it's making him miserable, and the rest of the song builds on the theme. It's actually very clever and brilliant. I also like this song because it is a "someone song." It's a "someone song" for Dan Bern, and it's a "someone song" for me. Around the time I discovered this song I had a relationship with someone and got hurt. This is a song that definitely delivers me back to that time and stirs in me a wide array of emotions. Most people run from songs like this, but I think of it more like I'm looking through old pictures and reflecting on my journey toward today. Some lines of note include the one I quoted earlier and also: "The last plane out of Saigon did not know that it was," and the penultimate line, "Sometimes you get lost and find something new." Such a great song that I wish I'd written.

Here is Dan Bern with "I Need You."

Songwriting Spank Material - "Love Is All"

On May 24 of this year a man named Robert Zimmerman will turn 70 years old. You might know him by another name - Bob Dylan. Ten years ago when Dylan turned 60 years old the music community realized something it hadn't considered - Bob Dylan is getting older and one day he will die, and there will be a void in the world of songwriting. I heard a debate shortly after his 60th birthday. The subject was simple - Who is Bob Dylan's heir apparent? And everyone had an opinion. Some went with more mainstream choices - Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty. Others had less mainstream ideas - Sarah McLachlan and Connor Oberst. I heard people try to make a case for Billy Corgan and Elliot Smith. I, myself, thought I'd discovered the next Dylan in a little known songwriter named Dan Bern (who I still contend is the best songwriter you've never heard of). Then one day, my good friend Clint e-mailed me about a songwriter he'd come across that I needed to check out. Clint has never disappointed me with a musical suggestion. The songwriter's name is Kristian Matsson, and he performs under the name The Tallest Man On Earth, and I can tell you, without a doubt, he is the next Bob Dylan.

The Tallest Man on Earth has two albums - Shallow Graves and The Wild Hunt - and every single song on them is not just good, but brilliant. I could do a Song Writing Spank Material blog for all of them, and in particular: "The Blizzard's Never Seen The Desert Sands," "I Won't Be Found," "Pistol Dreams," "Shallow Grave," "The Wild Hunt," and "Burden of Tomorrow". However, I decided to be really disciplined about this and decided to narrow my choices down to one song. This was an incredibly hard thing for me to so because I think a lot of these songs are equally brilliant, but one I kept coming back to was "Love Is All."

Again, I don't know that "Love Is All" is necessarily the best song in The Tallest Man On Earth's arsenal, but it's a major player, and it has a lot of great songwriting elements. The first thing that strikes me about this song is the chord progression and the over all style of the guitar. It's very different from a lot of The Tallest Man On Earth's stuff. It's more subdued and plays around with more minor chord changes than in most of his other stuff. The second thing is his vocals. He plays around with a hook at the end of each verse "w-hoa-oh-oh," "si-i-i-in," and so forth. These phrases bounce with the acoustic guitar. Then as he says the word "rise" he lets us see his vocal range and the song builds from there, and it builds wonderfully. So the guitar is interesting, the vocal phrasing is diverse, and oh yes...the lyrics are amazing. That first line where he says, "I walk upon the river 'cause it's easier than land," is a line I can truly say I wish was mine. I could go on and on about how great this song is, but I'll let you listen for yourself. Here is The Tallest Man On Earth with "Love Is All."

Songwriting Spank Material - "These Days"

I could have put some heavy hitters up there to represent Jackson Browne - "The Pretender," "Barricades of Heaven." "Fountain of Sorrow," "For A Dancer," and "Doctor My Eyes" - but I chose this song instead. Jackson Browne claims he wrote this song when he was sixteen, but if he did then he was probably the wisest sixteen year old in teenage history. This seemingly simple song is about someone who has gotten older and is looking back at missed chances and failed opportunities, and it hits me very deep every time. I think we can all relate to this song. I think we all look back on our experiences and wish we had done some things differently. Apart from relating to the song, there are some choice lyrics woven into the simple chord progression:

"And I had a lover
But it's so hard to risk another these days.
These days.
Now if i seem to be afraid...to live the life I have made in song
Well it's just that I've been losing...so long"(<---that would be the line that gets me) "These days I'll set on corner stones and count the time in quarter tones to ten. Don't confront me with my failures... I had not forgotten them."(<----This gets me too) I don't want to go on and on. Just listen to it yourself.

Songwriting Spank Material - "I'm Going To Go Back There Someday"

Sometimes my influences escape the realm of popular music and dwell in areas that might surprise you. When I was eleven I got a tape for Christmas, The Beatles Greatest Hits, and it changed everything about music for me. I heard the Beatles and other Rock and Roll bands from the 50's, 60's, and 70's a lot on the ride to Kansas City when I had to go for an appointment, but before the age of eleven, and getting that tape for Christmas, I didn't listen to a lot of Rock and Roll or Pop music. There was, however, a music that did dominate my ears from the age of zero until that Christmas when I got that Beatles tape. All my life (and still to this day) I was a tremendous fan of the Muppets, and their music was my music for the first eleven years of my life. I watched the Muppet Show whenever I could. I watched the movies whenever I could. I tried not to miss Fraggle Rock. I even watched Sesame Street past the age that most kids stop watching that show (Sesame Street before Elmo began to monopolize it). I had Muppet toys, Muppet books, Muppet shirts, Muppet bed linens. I idolized Jim Henson. I grieved tremendously when he died. And during all this, I had two tapes of Muppet music that I listened to constantly (until they finally wore out, that is).

When I was a kid I thought Jim Henson wrote the music for the shows and movies. He did everything else, and was a creative genius, why wouldn't he write the songs? It wasn't until later in life that I found out that a bulk of what is considered memorable when it comes to Muppet music were written by two guys. The first was Joe Raposo, who you probably have never heard of, but if you watch Sesame Street then you know his work. The songs he wrote or co-wrote include (among many many others): "Bein' Green," "C Is For Cookie," "Sesame Street Theme Song," "Sing," and most (if not all) of the songs for the film segments (i.e. where they show how they make peanut butter, where they show different people sleeping, etc.). The other guy is Paul Williams. Williams wrote or co-wrote a bulk of the Muppet's movie songs including: "Rainbow Connection," "Moving Right Along," "When The River Meets The Sea," and the song I am going to talk about next (He also wrote a bunch of non-Muppet songs in the 70's for the Carpenters, Three Dog Night, and others, and he's also the president of ASCAP).

"I'm Going to Go Back There Someday" is a brilliant song. For those unfamiliar with it, let me give you some context. This song comes from The Muppet Movie (1979), and comes at a major plot point. The movie begins with Kermit deciding he is going to travel to Hollywood so he can become a movie star, and along the way he meets all his Muppet pals. Chasing them is a restaurant magnate named Doc Hopper who owns a chain of frog leg restaurants and wants Kermit to be his spokesfrog. Kermit doesn't want any part of Hoppers proposal, so Hopper does what any reasonable business man would do - He stalks Kermit, tries to pressure him into signing on, and after Kermit makes it clear he doesn't want to be a part of the Doc Hopper Empire, hires assassins to pursue the frog and his friends and kill them. At the point in the movie where we get to this song, a lot has happened. The gang has just escaped another Doc Hopper trap at county fair that saw Gonzo fly away by holding onto a big bundle of balloons. After they escape, Fozzie's car breaks down on the side of the road and the gang is stranded. Kermit is feels bad for endangering his friends and for bringing them on the trip in the first place. Everyone asks him what they should do, and he snaps at them. Then we get the song.

The song itself can be taken literally. Gonzo is singing it about being up in the sky, flying with his bundle of balloons and how he wants to do it again, but like all good songs it has the ability to meet people on different levels. For me, this song stirs up a lot of different emotions. I think it's because I've known this song my whole life, and it's reached me on different levels at different points. When I was a kid going through chemo, the song had a more literal meaning for me. "going back there" meant my childhood, kindergarten, and my friends. As a teenager, I remember someone playing this song at The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp. It was my last year as a camper there, and "going back there" meant camp...not just the physical location, mind you...but the metaphysical place that was like a demiplane of normal in a world that otherwise wasn't. Now as an adult, the song means even greater things to me. When I hear it I'm reminded of William Wordsworth own struggle of "going back there," yearning for his childhood at Grasmere. And as such, I am reminded of the artist's journey, of foraging ahead and reinventing but of also trying to rekindle and reconnect with creations past. True, the song is poppy, and sappy, and riddled with hooks, but none of that takes away from its brilliance, and I don't know many people who hate it.

Songwriting Spank Material - "Pale Green Things"

The Mountain Goats are a band I've only recently discovered, and really that's alright. I have their entire discography, and I think I would have been turned away from them if I would have discovered them earlier. A lot of their early recordings are lo-fi, and I pretty much hate everything that is lo-fi. My friend Clint Carroll introduced me to The Mountain Goats (Clint has yet to steer me in an ill direction musically). He told me the lead singer reminded him of me, both vocally and lyrically, and he told me I'd probably enjoy their album The Sunset Tree. He was right. Every song on it is utterly brilliant. It's one of the few albums I own that I have to listen to from start to finish. Some tracks of note include - "You and Your Memory," "Broom People," "This Year," "Dance Music," "Up The Wolves," "Song For Dennis Brown," "Love Love Love," and the song I'm going to talk about now.

"Pale Green Things" is a brilliant song, but lyrically I don't think it's the strongest on the album. That distinction would probably have to go to "Song For Dennis Brown" or "Love Love Love." But again, I'm not trying to identify the best song on the album. I'm trying to identify my favorite, and "Pale Green Things" takes the prize for me. Why? Well, there are a couple of reasons. First, I think from a vocal standpoint this song is the most emotional. It's about the death of someone who was at least somewhat close to the singer, and the strings add a tremendous amount of sorrow to it. Sometimes the feeling you put behind your vocals can help turn a mediocre song into something brilliant. Ben Folds does this a lot with passionate vocals and fiery piano playing. The other reason I like this song is because of that pesky resonance factor, it conjures some personal emotions in me, and reminds me of my grandfather. On the last day of his life, my grandfather got to see his sister who lived a long way away, got to watch his grandson (not me) run in a track meet, and finished his day with a beer and some salami and hard bread. You'll understand why I conjure this memory when you listen to the song.

Songwriting Spank Material - "Chelsea Hotel #2"

I don’t think lyrics and poetry are the same thing. Anyone who really knows me knows I think that. I ascribe to Wallace Stevens’ notion of poetry as a vivid attempt to define something vague or unknown, the linguistic equivalent to painting or sculpting. Plato had this notion that the artist is constantly trying to get a glimpse of Beauty’s pure form. Well, to me poets are just word artists trying to do the same thing, and so I’ve always considered poetry to be something divine. I regard poetry the same way people regard religion – a quest for truth and a way to understand God. Song lyrics don’t do this for me. For me, song lyrics capture surface emotions – I’m sad…I’m made…I’m lonely…I’m happy…I’m in love. I’m not saying they’re silly, or insignificant when compared to poetry. On the contrary, I think they’re vital and serve a necessary purpose. People relate to lyrics more than they relate to poetry, and this is important. When a person connects to a song it makes them feel less lonely, like there’s someone else out there that understands them, that their problems aren’t a new thing. Having this kind of common ground helps people trudge forward through their daily lives, and that’s why lyrics are so important. I don’t think they’re less important than poetry. I just think they do something different.

All that aside, I do think a songwriter can employ a level of poetic technique in his or her songs. Bob Dylan did this a lot. He used alliteration, slant rhyme, and varied meter in many of his songs. People often mistake these songs as poetry, and I think as far as lyrics go they come the closest, but I really think it’s just good songwriting rather than good poetry. Another songwriter who utilized effective poetics in his craft was Leonard Cohen. Cohen was one of the only songwriters to have success as a poet before he had success as a songwriter. In some cases, Cohen’s songs employ the same kind of mechanical poetic technique as Dylan’s (though I think Dylan was stronger at it), but where Cohen was strongest was in his imagery and use of metaphor. One need only listen to his song “Take This Waltz,” “Hallelujah,” or “Suzanne” to understand what I mean. I’m not going to talk about any of those songs today, however, because they don’t serve my purpose as well as the one I’m going to feature. The whole point of my series is to feature my favorite songs from a songwriting standpoint, not what I consider the best songs. I think the best songwriters are the ones that deliver a line that resonates with the listener on a personal level, something that connects with those surface emotions I walked about earlier. A lot of Cohen’s songs do this, but only one does it the best.

“Chelsea Hotel #2” is a Fuck You Song. I love Fuck You Songs, and you will probably come to realize this as the series goes along. They are the ultimate punishment, especially if you get famous. If someone has wronged you in some way, and broken your heart, what better way to get the back than immortalizing the pain they caused you in a song? I have tried to do this a few times in my own songwriting, but not nearly as effective as this song. It starts off with the speaker recollecting about getting a blow job at the Chelsea Hotel in New York City. Then in the second verse, the speaker recalls something this woman says, and Cohen delivers what I think the line of the song is. His lover says she usually does this with “handsome men,” but is making an exception in his case then says, “We are ugly, but we have the music.” This is the line that resonates with me because this best defines what an artist is. For the most part, artists are not pretty people. They have scars, both physically and mentally. It’s through this ugliness that they are able to create something beautiful. The song ends with the speaker addressing his old lover again, and telling her that he didn’t love her the best and doesn’t even think of her that much, as if her blow job has blended into the rich tapestry of blow jobs he has received, a splendid “Fuck You” to end the song.

Songwriting Spank Material - "Kathy's Song"

So, I’ve decided I need to have some blogs about songwriting. I do a lot of songwriting (in addition to my art and regular writing), and as such, I listen to a lot of songs. This series “Songwriting Spank Material” is my attempt to introduce you to some of my favorite songs, and give you some reasons why I like a song. I think it will be fun, and it might make you look at a song and artist differently. Who knows? You might find a whole new kind of music to like.

***

Paul Simon. Paul Simon does something in songs I only wish I could do. He meanders. His songs are deliberate meanderings. He starts at point A and takes you on this twisting maze of rich lyrics, rhythms, counter rhythms, and harmonies before delivering you to point B. I've often had to listen to his songs two or three times to understand the journey he was taking me on.

I was always a Simon and Garfunkel fan, ever since I was a little kid, but I was impressed more with the harmonies and didn't notice the songwriting. I didn't notice that until later when I started songwriting myself. I saw a documentary about Paul Simon's Graceland. He talked about how he was incorporating the traditional rhythms and harmonies into his music, and i was blown away by the complexities and overall genius that he seemed to passively shrug off in interviews. After seeing that documentary, I revisited Simon and Garfunkel, and immersed myself in the catalog of his work.

Sometimes the most unassuming songs are the ones that end up being your favorite. Simon has written some massively successful and amazing songs - "Mrs. Robinson," "Homeward Bound," "Sounds of Silence," "Graceland" just to name a few - but in this case it's a less well known song that is probably my favorite - "Kathy's Song." "Kathy's Song" is a rainy day song for me, probably because rain is such a prevalent theme in it, but also because Simon captured perfectly the kind of introspection a rainy day can conjure inside a person. It also says everything to a woman I have ever wanted to say in a song, and it says it beautifully, especially the last two verses which serve as my favorite lines of the song:

And so you see I have come to doubt
All that I once held as true
I stand alone without beliefs
The only truth I know is you

And as I watch the drops of rain
Weave their weary paths and die
I know that I am like the rain
There but for the grace of you go I

Songwriting Spank Material - "Visions of Johanna"

So, I’ve decided I need to have some blogs about songwriting. I do a lot of songwriting (in addition to my art and regular writing), and as such, I listen to a lot of songs. This series “Songwriting Spank Material” is my attempt to introduce you to some of my favorite songs, and give you some reasons why I like a song. I think it will be fun, and it might make you look at a song and artist differently. Who knows? You might find a whole new kind of music to like.

***

I could write a whole bunch of these posts about Bob Dylan. I don't think there is another songwriter in the whole of American music that has had more peaks and valleys than Dylan. I look at Bob Dylan the same way I look at Paul Newman. Newman was one of the greatest actors in Hollywood, but he did a lot of shitty movies too. When your career spans nearly fifty years you're going to see a lot of high points and low points. Dylan is no exception.

Of all the songs Dylan has written, there is one that stands out above the rest as my favorite - "Visions of Johanna." I really don't know what point Dylan was trying to convey with this song. This song came from a point in Dylan's career where all his songs seemed like cryptograms (to this day I have no idea what "Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again" is about). At this time, Dylan was defying a lot of conventions, and I think songwriting itself was a convention he was trying to defy, which might explain why the songs are so cryptic. Drugs and alcohol might explain it too.

Despite the cryptic nature of the song, I still get an impression of pure despair from the song. The singer is lamenting about someone named Johanna who has taken his place in the mind of someone else, presumably a lover. Whatever the case, or the point, might well be, the song is still chalked full of interesting tidbits. One tidbit in particular has always stuck with me, and is probably my favorite line of any song ever written - "The ghost of 'lectricity howls in the bones of her face..." I don't know exactly what it means, could be yearning, could be anger, could be both. I only know that it resonates in me on some level that I can't explain. As a songwriter, that's the kind of line you want to write.