Lee,

How do they appear in your mind? Dreams? Read 'em off the back of your eyelids? Things you wish you'd thought to say to that nasty man at the gas station, or to your mother-in-law later? Sort of waft up from the primeval mists of your reptile cortex? Come drifting down on angel's dust as heaven's own inspiration? Step out of the general swirl of thoughts, emotions, feelings and symbols and say, "Howdy-doody. Write me."

Lyricists mine their own hearts, minds and memories for their material, regardless of where they get their hooks. We all write with our own blood. That's a given. We are both our most essential resource, and our product. That's why is it impossible to become a better lyricist without also becoming a better person--and visa versa. We are the well we, and others, drink from as writers. Solomon said, "Watch over your heart with all dilligence, for out of it flow the issues of life."

Over the course of years, one learns a great deal about who they are in the process of their writing. Lyricists are some of the most thoroughly rooted in their sense of self folks you're ever likely to meet as a result. I'm always interested in the creative process, and you've begun to describe your own. It seems endlessly varied according to who we are as individuals. It is, in the end, our own unique slant on seeing the world that makes what we have to offer of any value. The most personal is the most universal.

Ritt, my dear friend from the Bronx, is an entirely unique voice as a lyricist. He never looks anywhere except into that amazing jungle of images floating around inside of him for his hooks or song ideas. He is always unique, and sometimes brilliant. I've never seen a single hook he has ever used anywhere else. Others, like myself, keep one eye looking out and the other looking in. What is your approach?

Keep writing, whatever it is.

Skip

Last edited by Skip Johnson; 04/27/07 08:03 PM.