As you may recall, my brother gave me Will Hodgkinson’s previous body of work called Guitar Man which I blogged on back in May.  Well, he also gave me his second book entitled Song Man.  Having successfully learned enough about the Guitar to complete his mission of playing a gig, Will now took on the task of learning how to actually write a song.  The goal of this effort is to learn enough about composing a song to write an original work and record it.  I definitely enjoyed the guitar learning saga and was hoping his second book would be just as entertaining (although I currently do not have a thirst to develop my own songs so I did have a little bit lower expectations compared to the fact I too have been experiencing the torture of learning the six string.)  The gang was all back from Guitar Man so it flowed very nicely from the first book.  Similar to the process in that book, Song Man is constructed around Will’s journey to seek out experts in the field, gain insights into their approach to making great songs and then tried to apply those nuggets of genius into his own songs.  The disappointing aspect of these books is that it doesn’t come with a CD of the created material.  After awhile, you start wondering how the transformations in the various songs actually sound, was the advice he was getting from the experts actually improving the work or was it stifling his creativity.  Something tells me I am going to have to seek out a copy of his pressed songs and take a listen.  The nice thing about it, I will have a complete understanding of how the song came to be which has always interested me more than just hearing the actual song.  This is probably why I like VH1’s Behind the Music and their Unplugged show so much.  In those short sessions, the artist usually gives a glimpse into the creativity process, the catalyst for their particular piece of art.  Of course every once in awhile you get the heart wrenching “it was just luck” or an “accident” when questioned how a particular riff was constructed or a particular beat was established. 

From Song Man’s perspective, he must be commended for setting a goal, formulating a process to achieve that goal and ultimately delivering on his Life List entry.  In comparison to Guitar Man, I thought the first book was a little better read, but I still enjoyed this particular work and now looking forward to what journey he dreams up next.  It actually just occurred to me that I am developing a common theme for some of my favorite types of books to read.  Many of them tend to involve the subject putting himself under some type of challenge followed by a detailed account of the journey to that end.  Both Will and probably my favorite author A.J. Jacobs fit this description to a T.  I would definitely recommend Will’s (and Jacobs’) if you also like this type of theme. 

Follow the link below to read my highlights in Song Man

My recollections from Song Man

• He considers the song at the heart of humanity because it is one of the art forms that most of the planet has shared in
• Mystery Fox is back!
• Sounds like his son Otto has convictions as well – threatening to tear the school down brick by brick if they made him participate in gym class
• Apparently Lou Reed’s New York album is made entirely of 3 chords (GAD)
• Make sure you pick a band name that a 13 yr old boy is willing to display on his belongings – which doesn’t explain the success of The Ting Tings
• I had to laugh when Lawrence flat out told him “You really can’t sing” but I am guessing Dylan and Wheatus got the same response
• He eludes to the same question I continually ask myself – how do guitarists still come out with original compilations with the total workspace of 12 notes
• The FBI forced a team to decipher Louie Louie under the thought it was warping the youth – the team’s finding was that it was completely indecipherable at any speed
• We both really like Exile on Main Street by the Rolling Stones – obviously he has excellent taste in music
• Vodka and Orangeade is Keith Richards’ favorite drink
• As Tears Go By was Keith and Mick’s first original material – locked into a kitchen by their manager until they had something
• Keith actually lived in a former Nazi headquarters in the South of France (Wild Horses was created there)
• My favorite visual – turn the editor off and just vomit .. then go back and pick through the lumps [to see if there is any valuable material in it]
• On his wedding day, his wife walked into Under My Thumb instead of Lady Jane thanks to a screw up by their DJ – If I was there, I probably would have burst out laughing
• Dave Davies wrote a song called Death of a Clown (something to be celebrated if you ask me) the same year his brother Ray ran into a hospital claiming a clown was trying to kill him (severe depression)  Adding more weirdness, on their first night of their US tour in ’66, they almost stayed at the local promoter John Wayne Gacy’s house.  I’ll say it again for those not listening the last 100 times… NOTHING GOOD COMES FROM CLOWNS
• He actually met with Chip Taylor in New York.. most notably known for writing Wild Thing in 5 minutes for the Troggs (who were apparently proud of the fact they could barely play which appealed to Chip)
• Mozart wrote the music for Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (lyrics written in 1806 by Jane Taylor)
• What is it about British people that think the US invaded Iraq to steal oil – if that was true, why have I spent most of the year paying close to $4/gallon
• D Sharp Minor is the key of the Holy Spirit – D Minor is the most psychedelic key
• Phil Spector pulled a gun on the Ramones for criticizing his work on their album
• As suspected, the producer is the one that makes a lot of the bands sound good