Taylor Hicks tweeted recently: “Off to prepare for the shows next week and to do a little writing.”
Of course, we assumed that would be songwriting. I recently looked at one of Taylor’s first songs written at age 19, “The Fall.” He said in “Whomp at the Warfield,” that it just kind of “fell together.”
James Taylor said songs hit like lightning bolts. He talked about creativity recently in an entertaining interview with Charlie Rose.
Music blogger, Bob Lefsetz featured it and led in with his own look at the iconic song writer and performer and at song writing today:
“…it's no crime to get old. But in fine detail, James Taylor looked less like a star and more like a person. After all, these are just human beings, flawed like the rest of us, but they wrote those songs... How did they write those songs?
Of course, we assumed that would be songwriting. I recently looked at one of Taylor’s first songs written at age 19, “The Fall.” He said in “Whomp at the Warfield,” that it just kind of “fell together.”
James Taylor said songs hit like lightning bolts. He talked about creativity recently in an entertaining interview with Charlie Rose.
Music blogger, Bob Lefsetz featured it and led in with his own look at the iconic song writer and performer and at song writing today:
“…it's no crime to get old. But in fine detail, James Taylor looked less like a star and more like a person. After all, these are just human beings, flawed like the rest of us, but they wrote those songs... How did they write those songs?
“Not the way they do it today. Not the way those big Top Forty hits are constructed. They're built from the ground up. And even those Nashville compositions are anything but bolts of inspiration. Brick by brick you build the song today. But great songs are feats of inspiration, they enter your brain and you have to write them down fast, before you forget them.”
In Charles Rose’s interview after an introduction of classics like “Carolina in my Mind” and “Fire and Rain,” James Taylor talked about the process:
How did you write those songs?
“There’s sort of a lightning bolt moment when you are visited by a song and you have to remember it...hopefully you get as much as you can; sometimes it’s a whole song, sometimes it’s just a fragment and you have to collect those fragments and often hide away somewhere and work them, push them around in circles.”
That was then.
“The lightning strike part happens less frequently now…. I feel an expectation to express myself…you get better at the craft of it.”
There must certainly be a large part of craft to the process using knowledge and experience. But that does not explain why Taylor feels that one of his best songs is “The Fall,” and it was only the third one he had written. Is creativity an inherent ability or “gift” that comes with his obvious passion for his music?
Lefsetz has said that true artists perform because they “must.” And songwriters write because they “ must.”
Lefsetz suggests a large part of passion in the “must” equation. What part passion? Is it the driving force that ignites the artist and craft the delivery of the art?
“In the creative state a man is taken out of himself. He lets down as it were a bucket into his subconscious, and draws up something which is normally beyond his reach. He mixes this thing with his normal experiences, and out of the mixture he makes a work of art.” E. M. Forster
I’ve posed the question here before whether songwriting for Taylor is different now than it was at 19. He has gone from relative obscurity to obscuring his identity when he goes out. After all, his life has changed drastically. Do life experiences inspire creativity? He said in his autobiography, “Heart Full of Soul,” that he had written some of his best songs during his dark days in Nashville. Does unhappiness bring out the muse or nurture an emotional climate for creativity? Taylor wrote “The Fall” after a breakup.
James Taylor seemed to say that he writes now because it is expected. That seemed sad to me. I thought, “Is the fire gone?”
What sparks creativity? What nurtures its taking shape? How does it make that journey from the heart and soul to the voice and guitar of a musician passionate about his music?
It is a complex dialogue…
As elusive as the Muse—that romantic goddess of creativity…
Does one implore the Muse and hope that she will deliver the artistic?
What part of creativity is just plain hard work?
Perhaps not romantic but realistic, is it craft—knowledge, experience, toil?
Questions…
But I’m not the artistic one!
Just give me creativity on the voice and the guitar strings of Taylor Hicks!
And may the forces, spirits, Muses, or lightning bolts continue to come together and create the magic of musicians like James Taylor and Taylor Hicks!
~~
Read all of Bob Lefsetz’s blog and see James Taylor’s interview. They are way up the creativity chain here!
http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2011/02/17/creativity-2/
http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/11482
Final Reflections:
I would like very much to know if and how songwriting has changed for Taylor Hicks from age 19 when he wrote “The Fall” to now, when he seems to search for time to spend on his craft, or is it time to reconnect with his muse, or is it just a place for his big gift of creativity to do what it does?
Do songs still “fall together” like “The Fall”? Is it from lightning bolts or a creative craft of experience, love for the music, and the elusive muse?
Process or passion?
Interesting to contemplate!
Taylor said last week that he was heading back into the studio to work on an album due out in late fall.
So it begins…
Stay tuned!
Read all of Bob Lefsetz’s blog and see James Taylor’s interview. They are way up the creativity chain here!
http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2011/02/17/creativity-2/
http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/11482
Final Reflections:
I would like very much to know if and how songwriting has changed for Taylor Hicks from age 19 when he wrote “The Fall” to now, when he seems to search for time to spend on his craft, or is it time to reconnect with his muse, or is it just a place for his big gift of creativity to do what it does?
Do songs still “fall together” like “The Fall”? Is it from lightning bolts or a creative craft of experience, love for the music, and the elusive muse?
Process or passion?
Interesting to contemplate!
Taylor said last week that he was heading back into the studio to work on an album due out in late fall.
So it begins…
Stay tuned!
~~
Photo by Mike Payne: Taylor Hicks performs at Gold Strike Casino, Tunica, MS, February 25, 2011.
Photo by Mike Payne: Taylor Hicks performs at Gold Strike Casino, Tunica, MS, February 25, 2011.
~~
Taylor Hicks performs with Galactic on Jam Cruise 9; photo by Tom Zinn.
Hosting The Gong Show on Jam Cruise; photo by Paul McLaren.
Performing "Gran Torino" honoring Clint Eastwood at Museum of Tolerance International Film Festival; photo from MJSBigblog. 
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