If you can't play it on an acoustic guitar or a grand piano then it's not a song.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
If you're dealing with a musical in which you're trying to tell a story, it's got to sound like speech. At the same time it's got to be a song.
A song is the most intangible thing in the world.
But the reality is when you write a song, you should be able to strip away all the instruments and just have a song right there with an acoustic guitar and a voice, and the song should be good.
There's many, many ways to write a song. But generally, sitting down at a table and writing is not one of them.
You can say things a million times, but if you can't sing it, then it really isn't much of a song.
A song that sounds simple is just not that easy to write. One of the objectives of this record was to try and write melodies that continue to resonate.
Unfortunately, most of the songs that I write I don't write them with guitar in mind. I just write it as a song and that was probably one of the ones that left an opening for it. The song's all right, I wouldn't choose to sing it now.
Sometimes a song indicates that it wants to be about a certain thing. And then if you write it, you find that it is about something that you've done.
To me, a song is a song when you can sit in a room and just sing it from end to end.
A song is like a saddle: you ride it for a while, and if it's the right kind of song you can sing it for the rest of your life.