I spent an hour and a half talking to Bruce Findlay, manager of Scottish supergroup Simple Minds. We had worked together many years ago in the same radio station and kept in touch. I asked if I could interview him about songwriting.
Bruce is incredibly knowledgeable and incredibly enthusiastic. Our conversation ranged from Motown to the Beatles, activism to creativity.
I asked him What makes a song a song?
Quite often it's just a line. Take the Beatles, they were masters. A song like Hello Goodbye, for example. If you've got a catchy line, one line can sell a song. And where the melody comes in - the marriage of the two - it's the two together that's important. Also what makes a song for me is a good story; one that touches your heart.
He also talked about the energy of songs and how they should have colour.
Bruce talked about how Jim Kerr used to write songs, just by collecting names and phrases, even street names.
Then the band would get together and they would have this kind of long track - an interesting noise - and Jim would try out these phrases to the music to see what would stick.
I decided to not be too fussy where my lyrics were coming from: they just had to sound real and work with the music. And capture the story.
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