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I should find time to watch this. Billy’s interview years ago on Inside the Actor’s Studio was really entertaining.
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I watched this the minute it hit my feed and was blown away. What an incredible talent. I really enjoyed hearing about his background and his many musical inspirations. He’s not a guitar guy, so maybe that speaks to lack of traffic on this topic.
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Wife and I watched it last night on the tv. Realy enjoyed it. Thanks for posting it.
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Agreed, this is really good.
I used to love Billy Joel, then later, not so much. Still, this interview is very interesting with lots of insights about songwriting, session musicians v. band members, etc. I thought it very interesting that “We Didn’t Start the Fire” was the only song where he wrote the lyrics before the music. (I suppose some wish he would have written the music first for this one as well 
)
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Yeah, his approach to songwritiing is the exact opposite of mine. I almost always write the lyrics first. Maybe that’s part of why he’s a star and I’m a complete unknown
Yeah, his approach to songwriting is the exact opposite of mine. I almost always write the lyrics first. Maybe that’s part of why he’s a star and I’m a complete unknown
My first exposure to any songwriting process was that of Elton John and Bernie Taupin, which is very much lyrics-first. As they are clearly stars (not to mention 2024 recipients of the Gershwin Prize for songwriting) I wouldn’t fret that your process is somehow wrong. 
In any case, I was shocked when I learned that music first is (as best I can tell) the norm, at least for rock music. It’s hard for me to even envision how that works. Someday I may try that approach but so far I’ve only been motivated to write a song when I have something by way of lyrics to get me going. My instrumental pieces are just that, with never any intent to add lyrics to “finish” them.
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That was excellent. Thanks for posting.
I got a kick out of when asked to pick a favorite song, instead of saying the name, he just starts playing it.
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Song lyrics come to me all the time, I’m often writing them down. Melodies, not so much. Could be tied to being far more a rhythmic / chord player than a solo player. I’m working on that.
Yeah, and he seemed to jump to songs without even thinking about it.
They often put in nonsense words that suit the feel of the song and then go back and rework them later… or not. When he was writing Graceland Paul Simon sang “I’m going to Graceland” as a filler, always intending to change it. But after singing it hundreds of times he realised it was there permanently. George Harrison started off with “Something in the way she moves, attracts me a like a pomegranate”. Luckily that one got revised.
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That’s the way McCartney writes. He often starts building a chord structure while just singing nonsense syllables.
When he first played “Hey Jude” for John, he said the line “the movement you need is on your shoulder” was just a filler, and he would change it later. John said “You won’t, you know! That’s the best line in the song!”
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That’s the way McCartney writes. He often starts building a chord structure while just singing nonsense syllables.
The story goes that Yesterday’s original nonsense lyrics were Paul singing his breakfast (“scrambled eggs, …”) and that the band threatened to take away his piano if he didn’t come up with some actual lyrics.
Billy Joel talks about his drummer Liberty DeVito creating his own lyrics to keep track of where he was in a song. When Joel heard “sodomy” in his headphone he realized he really need to write lyrics for Honesty.
I guess I suffer from fixed mindset on this; I know many folks write music first but I just can’t envision doing so. To be clear: I’m not saying either approach is “right”, just that I can’t envision working music first.
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You can see this in action in the Get Back documentary. It’s incredible watching them work, as in this video documenting the creation of the song.
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I doubt that’s the reason 
Seriously, as far as I can tell, many songwriters start with the lyrics and then add the music. Many do it the other way and many do a mixture of both.
I think it’s more natural for amateurs to start with the words. I mean, most of us know how to express ourselves with words. Many people can do it reasonably well. Hardly anybody can express themselves through music. So it seems logical that most beginners would start with the words.
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