re: Songwriters-what's your process?

Since I have trouble with songs, I dabble with the Haiku form. I find a word or a phrase, work with it, massage it, twist it around, until I have something.
Once in the grocery store, I noticed a small tub of guacamole. I thought "Guacamole...good four-syllable word..."
Eventually, I came up with this:

If the Knights Templar
Loved avocados, would they
Make Guac de Molay?

quote:

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I just love telling stories,

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Myself, I don't really try to tell in depth stories. I just try to tell enough to get by.
What I do though, is make up the stories behind the people in my head.
In a song I may not say that the guy is a millwright, or machinist, or an Indian from the reservation that can't ever go back home, or a girl that works at the local bar, I know it though and it helps me to keep them as real as possible.

Well, I don't have grandkids yet, so If I want to drink all day now and then, I can get away with it.

This has turned out to be a good thread.
I've got to go out and take care of some business today. Maybe some more folks will chime in.

When any one of y’all in this thread can write a classic on this level, come back and talk to me.

quote:

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When any one of y’all in this thread can write a classic on this level, come back and talk to me.

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I would love to write something like that.
Jamey Johnson wrote that. I think it was his first hit song.
You never really know what kind of song will do it for you, so you've got to try with them all.

I just finished "Moor on the moor"

From just a simple booger in my brain to this...I'm pleased, I had no clue where it was going at first but it finished nicely and it's a tale I don't think I've ever heard.

Moor on the moor

[verse]
Mighty Mehmet was a Moslem and a mercenary man, making money, trading scimitar for gold,
He'd forged his reputation, fighting foes in far off lands, now for coin his bloody craft was bought and sold,

Mehmet made his way to England at the behest of a count, to do battle in that bloody civil war,
He was deadly with his musket and a demon with his blade, but the soldiers only called him Blackamoor.

[chorus]
There's a Moor, on the moor,
Ruthless riding through the fray,
And what's more he's making money with each kill,
Blood and gore, his amore,
"Devil! D'jinn!" His foes would say,
Bounty promised if his lifeblood would be spilled

[verse]
He was riding out for ruin when a bullet caught him cold, where the shot came from no man has ever said,
He was bleeding from his back as he slumped forward on his horse,
at a gallop gone, as gory stain would spread,

Near the alcove of an abbey, by Lenore the Moor was found, mired with mud, and losing blood, and fading fast,
But her fervent efforts saved him, digging out the deadly round,
He recovered, she gave succor and repast.

[chorus]
Thus Lenore, and the Moor,
Both embattled in their plight,
With her mending hands his soul and body healed,
Now Lenore, his amore,
Taboo trysts within the night,
Though in light of day their love lay unrevealed

[bridge]
But then Mother Superior,
Who deemed his soul inferior,
Well luxury and lace her closet vice,
Through ways, wicked and furtive
Then the hunters she alerted,
With a promise they would share the bounty price

Lenore learned of torrid tidings,
How the hunters were a riding,
Rushed to wake the sleeping Mehmet in his room,
Then with one last cloying kiss,
He would ride into the mists,
To the sounds of steeds approaching with his doom

[chorus]
He's a Moor, on the moor,
Restless riding through the night,
And what's more he's got a price upon his skull,
But Lenore, his amore,
Waiting by the candlelight,
Fervent prayers as lidless moon is watching full

[verse]
Yes the fog was thick as rumor, when a musket shot rang out, and a hunter clutched in vain at spilling throat,
Out the mists as bullets missed, on the moor the Moor would shout, scimitar sliced bellies as his foes were smote,

They found that unholy Abbess, stiff with lace stuffed in her mouth, what got into her well none can truly say,
'Cross the moor with sweet Lenore, the Moor, he tore a journey south, and from England's shores forever sailed away,

[chorus]
Now on the shore, stands the Moor, in his arms lovely Lenore,
With the children that she bore him by their side,
Though their love, was forbade,
By her hands and by his blade,
They had made much more when Moor and Maid collide
Out onnnnnn
The
mooooooooor

Hook first or maybe the first line that captures the feeling. If the lines catchy you got to figure out where it fits in the song. I usually put the hook in the chorus but sometimes it can be the intro line to set up what the songs about. I get a phrase stuck in my head and have to figure out where its gonna go in a song. Most never get completed due to lack of enthusiasm with subject etc. When I feel it, the song usually takes about an hour to complete. If I don't feel it, it stays on notes or voice recordings as partial songs. You can always go back and sift through the garbage and sometimes you find a gold nugget you can shine up. One trick I use is to take phone guitar tuner and find what key I'm singing or humming in so I know where I am. If you don't have a guitar handy while driving your truck going 70.