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A review by jonscott9
How to Write One Song by Jeff Tweedy
3.0
In what amounts to the 2-minute version of a song, Wilco's Jeff Tweedy weaves in many nuggets of songwriting advice, memoir, deconstructing of the creative process in general, and demythologizing of rock stars' (or all musicians') ways of doing and being.
So many things in here spoke to me on a level of getting things done professionally and personally, be it a day job or cleaning out a closet or writing lyrics, poems, etc. (or maybe even those last two at the same time). He walks through some of the ways he does exercises to get his musical and/or lyrical creativity flowing, talks at good length about how "disappearing" can be incredibly beneficial to making art, and gets candid about how he avoids "writer's block" (which he doesn't much believe in anyway).
The exercises he shares are practical for stringing meaningful and poetic words together, and details about some songs he's more or less built in 20 minutes or so (while waiting on something whilst touring) are inspiring. Still, Tweedy remains clear-eyed about how successful songwriting can be. Maybe one of every five songs he writes ever sees (or, in his mind, should see) proverbial daylight. A songwriter must be acquainted with and embrace failure, though even a stray phrase or line from an alleged useless song might be pulled into another a day or a year later. That's the beauty of putting something in the world that wasn't there before: Sometimes it's hard to tell if it's ever done breathing, if it's perhaps forever becoming something, or something else.
Here's but one of the actionable truths that Tweedy dispels: "The important element here is that you find some way to sidestep the part of your brain that wants perfection or needs to be rewarded right away with a 'creation' that it deems 'good'—something that supports an ideal vision of yourself as someone who's serious and smart and accomplished. Basically, you have to learn how to have a party and not invite any part of your psyche that feels a need to judge what you make as a reflection of you. Or more accurately, the part of you that cannot tolerate any outward expression that might be flawed." Bam. Done. Read this book.
So many things in here spoke to me on a level of getting things done professionally and personally, be it a day job or cleaning out a closet or writing lyrics, poems, etc. (or maybe even those last two at the same time). He walks through some of the ways he does exercises to get his musical and/or lyrical creativity flowing, talks at good length about how "disappearing" can be incredibly beneficial to making art, and gets candid about how he avoids "writer's block" (which he doesn't much believe in anyway).
The exercises he shares are practical for stringing meaningful and poetic words together, and details about some songs he's more or less built in 20 minutes or so (while waiting on something whilst touring) are inspiring. Still, Tweedy remains clear-eyed about how successful songwriting can be. Maybe one of every five songs he writes ever sees (or, in his mind, should see) proverbial daylight. A songwriter must be acquainted with and embrace failure, though even a stray phrase or line from an alleged useless song might be pulled into another a day or a year later. That's the beauty of putting something in the world that wasn't there before: Sometimes it's hard to tell if it's ever done breathing, if it's perhaps forever becoming something, or something else.
Here's but one of the actionable truths that Tweedy dispels: "The important element here is that you find some way to sidestep the part of your brain that wants perfection or needs to be rewarded right away with a 'creation' that it deems 'good'—something that supports an ideal vision of yourself as someone who's serious and smart and accomplished. Basically, you have to learn how to have a party and not invite any part of your psyche that feels a need to judge what you make as a reflection of you. Or more accurately, the part of you that cannot tolerate any outward expression that might be flawed." Bam. Done. Read this book.