Hi there

I'm looking for an interview in which the interviewer asks them how they write music. I think he or she asks what comes first: the words or the tune? It would be quite useful. And if anyone has any other quotes or interviews from other writers (Dylan, Hendrix, Lennon etc) on how they wrote, I would be much obliged.

You got the Sun, You got the Moon,
and you've got
The Rolling Stones

read Keiths book LIFE

Easy : these days Mick comes in with dozens of finished songs, Keith come in with a hangover.

Here's an interesting view posted by R in another thread yesterday:-

(Thank you, R!)

QUOTE

Re: What's all the Fuss about The Stones Opening the Vaults?
Posted by: R ()
Date: July 18, 2011 16:27

This is what we all know from listening to the bootlegs:

A)The Stones "write songs" by endlessly noodling in the studio. Often just Keith, Mick and/or Charlie playing with a riff or a crude musical idea.
cool smileyOnce the concept sort of gels they'll record a 10-12 minute version of it, usually to end up with four minutes of solid performance.
C)Then, hopefully, this will inspire lyrics, a chorus and perhaps a bridge segment which will be cropped into, or overdubbed upon, the basic recording.
D) They will then add Ronnie, maybe Darryl as well as some other instruments and effects resulting in a 5-6 minute track which will then be
E)edited (often too much i.e ABB, Some Girls)to 4 minutes or so and released.

UNQUOTE

"First I find a riff and a chord sequence. And if that's any good, then I start to play it with some other guys and pump it up. If that's great, then I check the attitude and the atmosphere of the track. What the hell is this putting out? There's no point in writing songs on a sheet of paper, going verse, chorus, verse, chorus, and regarding this as a song. No, it ain't. A song is music, and I'd rather start with the music and then get into the attitude of the track and put something on top of it. What are you going to put on top of it, because you could have spent months trying? I can't divorce lyrics from the music. Songwriting is a marrying of the both. To me, the easiest way is to get the track." K. Richards

"That's how most of my songs come together. I can't walk in the studio with a song typed out on a piece of paper and say, THIS is it, THIS is how it goes, play it. If that's what I wanted, I might as well hire session men. I just go in there with a germ of an idea, the smaller the germ the better, and GIVE it to them, FEED it to them, and see what happens. Then it comes out as a Rolling Stones record instead of me telling everybody what I want them to play. The band can work it any way they want. If it works, great. If it doesn't, I know I can go in there the next night with another germ. I know I'll grab them some way, infect them somehow. If it's good, then Mick and I can finish it off." K. Richards

"Sometimes we run things down... sometimes we get an idea for a song from, say, a rhythm that Charlie and Keith have played together or something... Quite often, we go into it without the song being written - which annoys me intensely. But, that's the way we record sometimes. It like it to be rehearsed before we go in, but it never really is. The music quite often comes ahead of the words. That annoys me. It's very hard to write lyrics to the track. It's much easier to have it done before but... I always try to write the lyrics to the songs" M. Jagger

Full of quotes about this very subject here:
[www.timeisonourside.com]
[www.timeisonourside.com]

Listen to this song "Sometimes happy sometimes blue"

Give Mick a piece of paper and a pencil and you get Dandelion.





__________________________

Mick, apparently, finds the process that yielded the band's biggest hits "annoying." As opposed to the efficient, orderly, non-annoying process that yielded Goddess In the Doorway.

The question "which comes first, the words or music" is based on the false premise that it's necessarily one or the other. Songs come in all sorts of different ways. Rarely have I written song by sitting down with a guitar and blank piece of paper saying "I will now write a song". Keith's descriptions of picking songs out by being a receiver (even though it doesn't seem like he's done much of that in years) is most accurate. You'll be walking along, and then it's just there. Or you get a whiff of melody in your head, or a phrase. The hard part is getting past the first burst of inspiration and finishing it. That's where the craft comes in. I've literally dreamed whole songs (it's happened twice) and often wake up with bits of melody in my head which unfortunately are usually forgotten. There are as many different ways of writing songs as there are songwriters, but I find the cliche of finishing a set of lyrics and then creating a tune to match it is the actually the least frequent way songs are done.

>>How Mick n Keith write music<<

....nothing like they used to.

Keith said in some interviews for Guitar Player that he "sits around playing other peoples' songs and hope one of mine drips off"

ANSWER: they DON'T write songs together anymore. REASON: Keith's creativity has dried up.

just lock them up in the kitchen

ROCKMAN

Keith brings the Vodka and Mick brings the OJ.

Keith brings the Vodka ......... well yeah you got that about right



............liner notes Peter Wolf - Sleepless



ROCKMAN

I belief Keith wakes up some time in the middle of the night, picks up a guitar, records a riff and mumbles a couple of words (which are the title), goes back to sleep, wakes up, finds the spot on the cassette that he recorded the night before, meets up with mick, hands him the tape, and says "it's all there...now finish it".

Mick has always voiced is frustration with how the band writes/records saying that he can't stand the "jamming in the studio for days" waiting for a song to turn up. I would imagine the last 2 albums were much strict in its approach. ABB seemed to have been Mick and Keith bringing party-realized songs to the table for them to finish...rather than the "germ" that Keith refers to all those years ago. However they used to write songs 40 years ago...ain't the way they write songs now. Mick apparently has outgrown that method.

Quote
Mel Belli
Mick, apparently, finds the process that yielded the band's biggest hits "annoying." As opposed to the efficient, orderly, non-annoying process that yielded Goddess In the Doorway.

I really doubt Keith needs an advocate...but if he does..I'm sure he'll know where to find you.

According to Keith, it seems like every track should be evenly credited to all band members!

Quote
neptune
According to Keith, it seems like every track should be evenly credited to all band members!

I'll go out on a limb and say I doubt very much Keith thinks that.

Actually, that's unfair. He probably does think they should all be credited; as long as only he and Mick get paid.